Draft Busters Online. 2024.
Draft Busters is for published or unpublished memoir writers, novelists, script writers, non fiction writers, scribblers and doodlers in all genres, who want to seriously progress their long term writing project.
A four week course to keep you motivated and working on your drafts. It includes twice weekly sessions — Motivation Mondays and Feedback Fridays.
Motivation Mondays, 10am -11.30 pmAEST ( 1.5 hrs)
Check in with the group, set goals and timetables for the week, discuss any questions or issues coming up for you in your writing process, plus a meditative writing exercise on a specific area of writing craft: setting, voice, characters, dramatic action, resolution, impact etc.
Feedback Fridays, 3.30pm – 5.30 pm AEST (2 hours )
Read an excerpt from your week’s writing, receive feedback from the group, discuss any issues arising.
Sessions are conducted on Zoom.
When: ongoing, contact Jan for dates and workshop times
Cost: $320AUD (185 Euros, 160 GBP, $200USD) for eight workshops. BOOK HERE
Personal debrief sessions available at any time throughout the month.
Note: the price is already discounted but some sponsored positions will be available. Contact Jan for more info.
What participants say:
Draft Busters has been a lifesaver. We have had Motivation Mondays, which include a meditation guided by Jan that takes one to a dimension not reached alone. Jan has a unique gift that allows latent scenarios to surface.Writing is known to be therapeutic and these sessions have been healing. Feedback Fridays have us producing our weeks writing, when we read to each other in this supportive environment, it is greatly satisfying and constructive.In short, Life saving. We have all improved under Jan’s tutelage, her guidance is exceptional. Lisa Sharkey, memoir writer, Sydney.
Jan has such a natural flair for being an intuitive and motivating guide in the writing and creative process. Her ‘live’ guided meditations are gateways to tap into one’s stream of consciousness and it becomes a literary adventure as she helps you access innermost thoughts and memories that launch fresh paths in your writing. She inspires and leads like a maestro, orchestrating inspiring sessions of deep sharing and learning. Having done 3 months of Draft Buster Sessions during the COVID19 lockdown, I have grown and learned so much under her continued tutelage and the feedback from the other writers she has gathered in the group. With her, I have not only learned how to write better and more consistently but have found the guided writing process an immense healing tool as I forge on with my memoir. Thank you so much, Jan! Sabrina Renee Chong, memoir writer, Singapore.
Draftbusters has been instrumental in giving me the confidence to start a new novel. I need to research various aspects of it but didn’t want that to stifle the development of character. Jan’s guidance in the craft of writing combined with meditations that help the writing flow have prompted a regular word count each week which is encouraging. The writers in the group are not only talented but generous with their ideas and support, and provide a nurturing environment in which to read those first tentative drafts. Jennifer Moore, novelist, Adelaide.
DraftBusters Monthly (not currently meeting).
Draft Busters is for published or unpublished memoir writers, novelists, script writers, non fiction writers, scribblers and doodlers in all genres, who want to seriously progress their long term writing project.
Whether you are at the beginning or end of a first, second or umpteenth draft of an idea, a story, a book, a script, a collection of poems, Draft Busters helps keep you and your writing, motivated and on track. It provides valuable feedback and support for your work and your writing process, while revising the essential elements of writing craft. Each month we so a meditative writing exercise and each author has a designated feedback session where they can read, discuss, or present any part of their writing for constructive criticism.
For over fifteen years we met monthly in person in Sydney, but now you can join us weekly online
Draft Buster Regulars & Alumni include: Jennifer Moore (memoir and short story writer), Margo Lanagan ( multi award winning internationally published, novelist, short story writer and four time winner of the World Fantasy Prize), Sunny Grace (novelist, script writer, film producer), Peter Bishop (multi award winning short story writer), Sonia Bible (script writer, director, ABC’s Recipe For Murder),Lyn Macready (novelist), Peter Bishop ( award winning short stories, Black Soil), Jennifer Smart ( novelist, blogger), Margaret Gerada (winner Paperback In Your Hand memoir comp 2011), Kat Clay (award winning novelist), Kinga Bisits (playwright), Jill Waters (puppeteer and playwright), Marianne Hamilton (screen writer),Therese Spruhan (journalist, nonfiction writer, blogger, The Memory Pool),Therese Waters (novelist), Richard Macready (non fiction writer), Fabia Claridge (novelist),Lyn McGettigan (Behind the Bar Room Door, Tales of a Publican’s Wife), Dorathea Gallagher (short story writer), Peter Catts (memoirist), Diana Plater ( Whale Rock) , and many more talented folks.
