Below are useful links for writers
Bunbury Writing Events
Writing Festivals
Metropolitan Festivals
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Perth Festival Writers Weekend: 6 February – 1 March 2026. Part of the broader Perth Festival, featuring literary events under the theme "Truth Telling and Mischief Making".
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Melbourne Writers Festival: 7 May – 10 May 2026. A major annual event held across Melbourne's CBD.
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Sydney Writers' Festival: 17 May – 24 May 2026. Based primarily at Carriageworks and Sydney Town Hall, this is Australia's largest celebration of literature.
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Brisbane Writers Festival: 8 October – 11 October 2026. An annual event showcasing local and international literary talent.
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Canberra Writers Festival: 15 October – 18 October 2026. Held at various iconic venues across the national capital.
Sydney Writers' Festival +7
Regional & Thematic Festivals
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Clunes Booktown Festival (VIC): 21 March – 22 March 2026. A dedicated celebration of books in the historic township of Clunes.
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Newcastle Writers Festival (NSW): 27 March – 29 March 2026. One of Australia's largest regional literary festivals.
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Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival (WA): 15 May – 17 May 2026. Held at Margaret River HEART, it is the largest regional literary event in Western Australia.
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NT Writers Festival (Darwin, NT): 28 May – 31 May 2026. A unique festival celebrating Northern Territory and across-border voices.
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Words on the Waves (Central Coast, NSW): 27 May – 31 May 2026. Features author talks and literary cruises at Umina Beach.
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Byron Writers Festival (NSW): 14 August – 16 August 2026. Celebrating 30 years, the festival moves into the Byron Bay township with hubs at the foreshore and Jonson St.
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Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival (Melbourne): 3 September – 6 September 2026. A showcase of Indigenous Australian storytelling and literature.
Writing Aids
Essentially functions like the spell checker tool from Microsoft Word or Google Docs, but here’s the great part: it’s a plug-in that will work wherever you happen to writing. That means Twitter, Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook — anywhere. Plus it offers vocabulary or alternate word suggestions — for instance, it might suggest you replace “walking aimlessly,” with the word “wandering.”
Creating and Using Master and Sub Documents in Microsoft Word
Theres a few reasons why you should know how to do this:
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Organization and Management:
Master documents act as a container for multiple sub-documents (chapters, sections, etc.), making it easier to organize and manage long documents that would otherwise be unwieldy.
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Collaboration:
Different team members can work on separate sub-documents simultaneously, streamlining the collaboration process and ensuring consistency across the entire document.
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Performance:
Word processes smaller sub-documents faster than a single, large document, leading to improved performance, especially when working with very long documents.
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Consistency:
The master document can control the formatting, layout, and styles of its sub-documents, ensuring a consistent look and feel throughout the entire document.
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Modularity:
Sub-documents can be reused in other master documents, promoting efficiency and reducing redundancy.
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Easy Updates:
Changes made to a sub-document are automatically reflected in the master document, simplifying the updating process.
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Smaller File Sizes:
Breaking down a large document into smaller chunks can reduce file size, leading to faster loading and processing times.
Formatting your book and using Templates in Microsoft Word.
Knowing how to set up templates will save you a lot of time and ensure consistency.
Rated by several sites as the best writing software.
Pros
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The cleanest interface of all the writing apps with the most user-friendly (modern) UI UX design
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Easy free trial and sign up process. There’s no downloading a program, you just sign in and start
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Feature dense for writing books with smart text, outline templates, story elements, etc.
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Cloud-based and autosave every keystroke
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Easy live collaboration with anyone you share your story with
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Companion apps for iOS and Android
Cost: 14 day free trial and thence US$12/month
Dabble
An alternative to Scrivener. Dablle is:
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Cloud based allowing access from any computer.
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Simple and more intuitive to use.
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Is subscription based starting at USD 9/mth
Critiquing Sites
Aimed at writers of all skill levels, Scribophile encourages members to share their experiences and give respectful feedback in their friendly community forums.
HyperWrite's Writing Critique AI is a comprehensive tool that provides detailed feedback on your writing.
This is China's version of AI built around quantum computers. If you are choosing not to buy US products, this is your alternative
Writing Courses
The coursera programs offer a diversity of study programs across numerous universities. Their delivery is only, normally with peer feedback, but unfortunately no direct reviews from university staff. That said their material is quite effective. The structure is usually FREE to commence for a stated period of time. Some continue to be free while for others is variable from one week to one month, after which there is a payment structure that is still quite affordable. Below is listed two such programs.
This Specialization covers elements of three major creative writing genres: short story, narrative essay, and memoir. You will master the techniques that good writers use to compose a bracing story, populated with memorable characters in an interesting setting, written in a fresh descriptive style. You will analyze and constructively evaluate peer writing. In the Capstone, you will draft, rewrite, and complete a substantial original story in the genre of your choosing.
Perhaps the most important thing students and professionals of all kinds can do to improve their effectiveness is embrace the following advice: become good with words.
This series of courses targets the writing side of that recommendation. The skills it focuses on include everything from how to arrange a complex set of information in a reader-friendly way, to how to give and receive high-quality feedback, to how to consistently hit deadlines.
If you’ve ever had the dream, the desire or even just a vague notion that you would like to write a novel, this course is for you. Whether you are a full-time student, have a full-time job, a family to take care of or all of the above, you can do it. Really! And I will help you get there.
There is an absolute plethora of short programs in all styles of writing. A few free but most require payments under $80.