The purpose of the writer.

Objectively, the writer's duty is to ensnare the (often willing) stranger within their grip and suffocate them with a tale, until this metaphorical lack of air leaves them submissive and deliriously agreeable. This is in subconscious of every writer, perhaps unaware, but still craving the triumphant moment when the reader is undoubtedly moved, and utterly in love with their creation. If the reader is correctly snuffed, they will obediently serve the author by endeavouring to purchase their following works and produce the most accomplishable propaganda of this modern time; spreading praise within 'word of mouth' assisted by social media.
The writer is then viral. Another triumph.

The difficult position of the reader is maintain dominance in this situation. In any sense, to read and disagree, or to read and analyse literature has become the ideal form hosted by academic notions and the media. You are demanded to question. You are commanded to revolt against those words that flow from the authors hand. You are rewarded for escaping the verbal assault, with outstanding gratification  as a student in university results or as a journalist by the employer.
This is the progression of the reader. This is the death of the Author.
The reader be comes the one who is accomplished.
The writer's triumph becomes a failure, or their original failure is revisited and re-evaluated as success.
There is no stability or consistency.

In attendance of the Bendigo Writers Festival and meeting the accomplished who have successfully wandered within the two roles, I have been stuck on this same question,
Can the progressive reader ever omit to being a writer if they know that their duty and efforts are possibly futile?

The composition of a Writers Festival

A Writers Festival is a combination of people and place. It is both simple and complex. The place isn't as important (as long as it has the ability to accommodate the necessary numbers in a building) as the people who participate in the festivals activities.The composition of people however does rely on the place's ability to maintain diversity.

At the Bendigo Writer's festival, the attendance of people floated from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. What bound them together was an interest in writing, or perhaps an interest in what Writers achieve and how. The tourism created from the event was beneficial to the city of Bendigo, but I can not help but believe that those who travelled were the majority of people in attendance.

I reflect back on the travel I endeavoured, and the countless times I spoke to taxi drivers, bus drivers and neighbouring café and bar employees who knew little, if anything about the event that was running in the heart of the city centre even though the advertisements were scattered everywhere.

Could it be that the common denominator of those who attend Writer's Festivals are not just due to an interest in writing, but an interest in the experience of a festival. With those I spoke with, they all seemed intrigued by the notion of the festival and it's activities, but showed minimal intent of buying a pass.
Is it the select few who desire the crowd of new people, the sounds and scenarios that come along with events such as this who take the plunge of purchasing a pass. Are we more alike then just an interest in literature, and share something a little more magnificent that we just are not consciously aware of?

And so I ponder whether the composition of the Bendigo Writer's Festival holds the key to something about human nature that we are yet to understand.

Sue Woofle, 'Unlocking Creativity Workshop'.

Creativity or success is progressive. 
There is no set way to writing. 
Do not expect to know what your story will be.
Just find the thing you dare not say. 
- Sue Woofle.

Sue discussed neuroscientists, the left-brain and right-brain theory, IQ tests and creative tests. This lead her to the results of the Colin Martindale, who studied the brainwaves of creative and non-creative types in the 1970's. There is this calm state produced by creative people, defocusing the attention in order to access more of the memory and mind, and then peaking in brain activity.

Sue's workshop followed with suggestions of how to enter this state, and she was quite successful. About a third of the room who started with difficulty reflected that they had reached that point before the end of the workshop. I'm not sure if they were fibbing in order to protect themselves, or hoist some sort of creative reputation- as people tend to do when they are competing for acknowledgement. This is not a suggestion that they were, just an observation that it's a natural occurrence when in a room full of people with similar aspirations and talents.
Regardless, everyone seemed to believe that they could reach this level of the loose construing mind.

She followed with how to connect fragments, colour coding and other reoccurrence when writing.
At that point, I was heavily distracted by the first half of the workshop.

Whilst everyone had 'successfully' reached the state, I had found a complication.
At first I was embarrassed by it, but after some reflection I was certain that others had probably sensed the same implication when attempting to write in past.

When writing, I alway draw back on experience. I have seen, heard, felt and thought. There is an abundance of inspiration within, and I often call on it to assist me when explaining and detailing situations on paper.
The complication I felt when Sue began, was that as I felt myself entering it, and there were memories opened within me that I did not want to resurface. There is a large vault that a person keeps to silence those thoughts that haven't quite been worked through yet. Things, I wasn't ready to deal with. I spent the rest of the day attempting to regain a little control of myself, and kept largely to my own company.

On reflection, I'd like to suggest that perhaps linear thinking is not the sign of the non-creative, but the barrier used in order to battle another day.

There is a choice to write linearly as the lull is Pandora's box of memories,
to write without difficulty, 
one must relinquish those fears. 

5 x 5 x 5

5x5x5 was hosted within the Library on the Friday afternoon of the Festival.  It consisted of Sarah Lawrence, a journalist for WIN, Penny Holloway, a blogger for Country Racing, Christine McGinn, a journalist for Bendigo Weekly, Kathie Bolitho, director of Tough Cookie Marketing and Danielle Wheeldon, author of The Nerdy Birdy. In summary, it was a group of successful woman in different literary areas of various ages.The ladies sat in a panel and discussed the variety of mediums available to express their writing in the modern and less textually literate world.

At first, I only attended this sitting for a way to kill time, however it did present a lot of insight into world I knew very little about. The most helpful was the affirmation I received from Penny Holloway about blogging. The internet is a harsh, vast universe and in order to succeed, one has to be interesting and able to tolerate the negatives that may come from posting a blog. She expressed that writing in the way one would speak and spacing things out for simplicity, will be more effective then long, block paragraphs.

I suppose I never considered there was an art to a blog. Now it seems to me less like a diary, whining and searching for some kind of solace, and more like an avenue of creativity.

'A Woman's Place'- Leslie Cannold, Jane McCredie and Jeff Sparrow.

'A Woman's Place' was a brilliant discussion on gender equality. Although immediately one would consider it a feminist debate, it was more a discussion on how gender equality has evolved into so much more.

The beginning of the discussion touched on how there is an entrenched gender inequality in power. This was in relation to the treatment of Julia Gillard, Australia's late Prime Minister. Her mistreatment was described as 'to an extent of no other', and this was due to her femininity. Leslie and Jane expressed how her capacity to lead was questioned, rather then her style of leading. She was asked whether she could lead, rather then how she would. However, her value as a visible example of women ascending to a power position has had a motivational and ever-lasting affect on the Australian public.

Australian women have become more aware of what barriers lay in the corporate and public world. The discussion returned to the evolving feminist perspectives. The 1990's feature as the end of the feminist revolution, of perhaps better phrased as a pause. The nineties became a phase of feigned equality. Women were disillusioned by the past success of the revolution, and considered the period of 'equal advantages.'
However, feminism has resurged due to the visible inequalities that still remain, but it has altered and evolved. It has transformed from only female oppression, partially because women don't want to identify themselves as oppressed, and also because society is more aware of the power-positions held by women that are not shared equally with men.

Different forms of disempowerment exist in the public and private sector. As a woman is unable to reach certain levels of equality in the public world, the private sector is her domain. As men maintain control in the public sector, they are oppressed in the private sector. Not only has this gender inequality awareness revolutionised, the masculine/ feminine stereotypes have revealed more of the oppressive nature.
Young boys who identify as more feminine are not given the opportunity to explore it, or comparatively to the extent that a young girl is given to explore masculinity, as an example: The Tom Boy. This has been associated with the use of social media also. There are apps and programs designed to play on those stereotypes in order to dominate and victimise the users. Rather then being able to escape those stereotypes, the users are pressured to ascribe to them. An adolescent girl is given the opportunity to receive more education  about these programs, such as Snapchat or dating sites, then perhaps an adolescent boy would receive. In a world of instantaneous communication, the education about these programs is necessary and should be equally provided.

Jeff, within the discussion highlighted that even our vocabulary has altered due to these entrenched gender roles. Words such as Liberation and Freedom have been inherited different meanings and are associated to different ideals. In order to battle these inequalities, the genders must join in battle.

A very interesting discussion.

'Write a Song' with Charles Jenkins

It's simply refreshing to see someone so enthusiastic and charismatic.
Charles took the stage, demanded our attention and animated all. He was the catalyst for surprising amount of involvement from the students. It was truly motivational, and I hope in my future I can conduct the same when teaching.

He discussed the progression of  song by using an activity called
 'The departure, the journey and the arrival.'

Within this, we were shown how to dissect a song and find the story within the song. By using his own hit, "Trees of Brisbane" as an example, he described how its inspiration came from an elderly cab driver on the trip to the airport.
He furthermore provided a detailed list (with the students help) of what a song was composed of, and how even with all those elements, a great song must appear to not need any of them,"It takes a lot of effort to appear effortless."

His passion for music, for writing or perhaps his ability to evoke the passion in others was deliriously inspirational.

'Writing The Other' with Wang, Masson and White.

'Writing the Other', hosted by Sarah Mayor Cox was the interview of  Gabrielle Wang, Sophie Masson and Lyn White. They discussed the education and views of children in regards to controversial topics such as multiculturalism, bullying and refugees, and how (through their novels) they are hoping to provide background information and insight into these areas that perhaps cannot be provided to them in their daily surroundings. Within this, they attempt to highlight the position of the 'outsider' and evoke the child's sense of humanity.
This is very important in society today as a child's perspective is moulded by the opinions cast around them, and in such controversial areas it becomes difficult to approach. Lyn discussed the hurdles that can be found when attempting to publish a series, how to decide on the authors involved (as she chose them specifically for their life experience) and how her connection with her past career teaching assisted her in the development.

The discussion further lead to creative writing and how Sophie and Gabrielle have in past sourced the inspiration and characters for their novels. It was interesting to hear that simply objects, faces and names in their daily life have become resources in their writing and ideas.