IT’S TRUE THAT WRITING CAN SOMETIMES BE A SOLITARY PROFESSION. You sit by your screen and your loved one(s) leave you. While nothing can quite replace the exhilaration of composing a story, too often you need inspiration or feedback, something that will spark your writing, hone your craft and support you as you grapple and mould your work...

Write Mechanix on-line tutorial service—a series of discussions and exercises balanced to maximise anyone’s story-telling abilities.

So there can’t be any chance to ever be alone over the keyboard ever again...

DESIGNED AND EXTENSIVELY TESTED AND CONFIRMED over more than a decade of writing and teaching by senior university lecturer and professional cross-media writer David Young, the tutorials work to:

•	develop each writer’s abilities through a practical structured learning program
•	imbue confidence in being able to handle effectively any writing assignment or task
•	heighten each writer’s perception to analyse their own work
•	help each writer identify the strengths and weaknesses of their own particular style
•	offer a gateway to future publication and/or production

All tutorials were developed from a series of master-classes, seminars and lectures delivered at degree and post-graduate levels throughout a variety of major tertiary institutions across Australia.

Thousands of students seem to have benefited from the colour and scope of each module, and many progressed into full-time professional writing careers. Here are some of the subjects now being offered exclusively by Write Mechanix for discussion:

EACH COURSE is comprised of 9 modules structured to lead the participant through an evolving complexity of craft skills and analytic techniques.

They can be digested as ‘one-off’ aperitifs, springboards for future composition or as analytic filters for major works already in progress...

All participants can take as much time as they require to finish each of the modules, with each module e-mailed to them as needed.

Each course runs concurrently, but all modules in each must be attempted sequentially in order for each participant to achieve a maximum benefit of application and style...

The sequencing of the modules are designed to lead the writer into a defined method of creation, where their individual writing process is maximised so that the first draft is reasonably assured to be the right draft...

Here are a few examples: activate your pens...

(from) Creative Writing 1.5

1	•	examine an object of your choosing closely, take your impressions of it and its semiotic values then list them
2	•	devise a story-outline, working through a three-movement structure, that empresses the theme of the object in some way (it doesn't have to be literal)
3	•	define character(s) that can, through their attributes, resonate with the object in terms of their necessity for development
4	•	choose a landscape that is symbolically resonant of the theme of the object, the character imperatives and consequently the storyline
5	•	plan how to move through the narrative, what focus you intend to take at any point in it (1st, 3rd person, God, monologue, stream-of-consciousness, dialogue) and note these down on your story framework

(from) Creative Writing 2.3

1	•	100-200 words
2	•	sentences per paragraph 1-3
3	•	describe a character at a point of moral crisis, where their perception of reality threatens to make them betray their beliefs or ideals
4	•	if you wish, extend your draft of the exercise
5	•	find 1 immediately contemporary cultural icon (object or media) that projects an image of some aspect of humanity as a stereotype

(from) Scripting 1.3

1	•	Develop a theme. Choose an issue or concern about the human condition that has pertinence to you. Think about it in general, almost mythical terms. Express it in a single sentence.
2	•	Define 3 characters whose interaction can exemplify the theme. In no more than 3 paragraphs, describe how this interaction takes place, leaving it open-ended (ie. there is no resolution, only a description of their interpersonal dynamic)
3	•	In one paragraph, define a general setting (location, time, season) that resonates with both the characters and the theme.

(from) Scripting 2.2

1	•	200 words
2	•	define a story where 2 main characters have to band together to face a common threat (probably beyond their control)
3	•	define the moment when the threat seems ready to destroy them
4	•	turn this into an ‘action’ sequence
5	•	list the elements and details that occur in this sequence in hierarchical order of impact
6	•	write the scene (no dialogue, present tense)

(from) Writing and Editing for Publication 1.1

1	•	develop an imaginary concept that is applicable to the organisation you are currently working in (ie. policy/product/evaluation).
2	•	outline this concept in no more than 300 words in 3 stages
		- definition/premise
		- expansion/implication/argument
		- outcome/inference/conclusion
3	•	make a list or flow-chart of the concept's applicability to other departments or organisations in terms of your perceived evaluation of them.
4	•	re-examine your outline and alter accordingly

Phew...

But there’s no word length, there’s no pressure. No ‘pass’, ‘fail’, or ‘maybe’. Literary democracy lies in the attempt. All that’s required is a commitment to making yourself become the best writer you can possibly be, and complete as much as you can.

Hopefully, each participant can turn around and e-mail back to Write Mechanix each exercise completed within 14 days, so we can comment on it at our end efficiently...

FOLLOWING ARE THE FULL OUTLINES of the 5 courses currently being offered by Write Mechanix. Each module in each course runs to between 3-5 A4 pages, often with included diagrams, illustrations etc.

We recommend each participant print the modules, then bind their exercise responses in chronological order. In this way, the full development of the course and the participant’s response to it can be viewed as a holistic creative process by the participant at the end of it.

Choose whatever course appeals, then prepare to engage...

course A [ ] ‘Creative Writing 1: Landscapes’

1. Who'd Be A Writer? Fun, Profit And Plato's Cave...

•	why write? you and the need to say it...
•	who are you talking to and why do you want to tell someone like them anyway?
•	if you really want to tell them, what is the best way to say it?

2. The Commonality Of Language - " I thought I Understood And I Guess I'll Get Back To You...Soon".

•	your personal philosophy and how to make it make sense (in writing that is)
•	looking at it from the outside - what is its shape and why are there holes?
•	what I say is not what you understand - eyes, mouths and ears are all different...

3. The Self Versus The Non-Self (And Visa-Versa)

•	tension in description - up, down, left, right so what's implied in between?
•	if I were to describe me as someone else saw me what would it read like?

4. What Is A Landscape And Why? Do We Live In It Or Does It Live In Us And Should We Ever Give A Damn?

•	they're all made up of living and non-living things, but what do you focus on that makes them unique?
•	these are the things that I see which makes each landscape unique, so what does that mean to me?

5. Take This Object And Make Into A Living Thing (Outside)

•	love between rocks/the sadness of a discarded wrapper/the frenzied enlightenment of a microwave...

6. Take This Person And Explain What They Mean (Inside)

•	all the emotions stacked like cards/all the thoughts created for an end/all physical action defined for a purpose...

7. Time, Space, Things Happen And All That Jazz (Contrapuntal Harmony Summarised).

•	in the beginning was the beginning, in the end was the beginning of the next end.
•	in between, objects and animals and people collide, generally for a purpose, where someone or something decides to act.

8. Here It Is From Heaven, Here It Is From The Ant, So Who's Wearing The Sunglasses?

•	from the top of the mountain, you can describe the pattern as a pattern, on the ground looking up you never know what's going to happen next
•	is any one view better, different, easier, more correct?
•	can you be in both places at the same time?

9. The Grand Composition (Flowers And Mutations) - How Do You Cut And Why Isn't It More Painless?

•	no real answers here, just taste, style, aspects of all of the above and, of course the writing...

course B [ ] ‘Creative Writing 2: The Fictive Self’

1. Spirit

•	shards of meaning in the 90’s
•	personal will in immediate space/time

2. Archetypes And The Parliament Of Selves

•	how does drama internally manifest itself, as a configuration of personaes?
•	what personaes within have, and always have been, human and eternal

3. Zeitgeist (Before And After)

•	the information culture: ‘modern-speak’ and its implication to thought and feeling
•	honesty within a community in retraction

4. Synchronicity

•	internal theme and the shaping towards resolution by ‘coincidental’ resonance
•	fate, destiny and is there a quantum physics of language?

5. Time

•	the collapse of history in the post-modern world
•	does truth always exist now?

6. Dramatics

•	an unfolding impact of understanding on the Self
•	what do we learn from our agendas and dreams?

7 . God

•	as narrative device, or fundament?
•	the necessity and implications of ‘sacrifice’

8. Ecology

•	inter-dependence of meaning within and without the Self
•	landscapes revisited in all preceding contexts

9. Synthesis

•	balance within a ‘fictional’ universe
•	the scope of the Self within it

course C [ ] ‘Scriptwriting 1: Mechanics’

1. What Does A Script Do?

•	show not tell
•	the suspension of disbelief: virtual realities and why people buy tickets
•	engagement and identification - who said these were passive mediums?

2. Theme

•	is it a message is it an intent, and how does it glue the whole thing together?
•	commercial considerations - why there are trends and why they should be for accounted for

3. Characterisation

•	real people don't just talk about it: how to show character through action
•	the character who learns versus the character who's static: what do audiences expect of these personals and why?

4. Subtext

•	in "show" mode you can stack up any motives: entertainment through the planned leading of audiences expectations
•	why life rarely seems messy on the screen
•	in any dynamic scene, what creates interpersonal tension?

5. Mis-En-Scene/Action-Reaction

•	why should characters move through their world, what does it reveal about them, how does this create structure and why does this increase our level of engagement?

6. Act Structure

•	moving a story line to define plot points
•	balance and weighting of movement and character: how to determine it there is a need to shift focus
•	sequencing and their styles; exposition, interaction and ambience

7. The Scripting Process

•	the single line grab/a complete 1 page synopsis/plot point scene by scene/act structure. Why bother to go through all this and why does it protect the writer from grief.

8. The Dialogue Draft

•	interaction, subtext, inference: why do characters open their mouths in the first place.

9. Editing

•	cutting for pace, cutting for suspense, cutting for groove - the ins and outs of the ins and outs of any scene.

course D [ ] ‘Scriptwriting 2: Genre’

1. Genre: A Formalised Setup

•	what is popular narrative structure?
•	how does an audience’s expectation define genre?

2. Suspense - Sequencing (1)

•	how is suspense constructed?
•	why does it give us thrills?

3. Suspense - Sequencing (2)

•	doubt and paranoia
•	reversals and misfortunes

4. Suspense - Character (1)

•	rites of passage
•	the contagonist as mirror/foil

5. Comedy - Character (1)

•	the absurdity of the human condition
•	why we need to laugh

6. Comedy - Theme (1)

•	projection
•	how deep is the joke?

7. Transcendence - Theme (1)

•	affirmation
•	what elements shape such a narrative path?

8. Transcendence - Character (1)

•	‘ennoblement’
•	identification, character, theme

9. Genre - Conclusion

•	market scope
•	post-analysis of audience expectations