In April this year, we partnered with ABC Melbourne to offer a free online writing workshop for teen writers. Guest facilitators Kano and J.D. got our group thinking about the personal stories they have to share, why they're important, and how to share them in a powerful and honest way. It was a fun and inspiring hour, which generated dozens of ideas for each of these young writers! This writing workshop was offered in preparation for the annual ABC Takeover competition, which encourages writers aged between 12-18 from Greater Melbourne to write and submit a true story based on their life ex ..read more

We all know that reading is beneficial for children and adults alike – but did you know that reading fiction is one of the most effective ways to improve language skills? In these four separate studies of over 1000 young readers, researchers discovered that while all kinds of reading are beneficial, reading fictional stories was the stronger and more consistent predictor of language skills.  This is of course music to our story-loving ears! Coming across these findings confirmed something we, as writers and readers, have always known.   Reading for enjoyment (rather than stud ..read more

The theme for Book Week 2022 was ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open…’, which inspired us to celebrate with a writing competition! We invited young writers to use our mini-book template and write a story inspired by this theme. Our team had so much fun reading all of the fantastic entries we received, including some incredibly creative interpretations of the theme! After much deliberation (and a slight tweaking of age groups due to all entries being from writers under 10), we are thrilled to announce this year’s prize-winning stories!  Congratulations to our winners: Ariana Keong, The Stolen ..read more

This month our Meet the Writer guest is Tjalara Draper. Tjalara is a self-published author of Young Adult paranormal and urban fantasy. She’s published the first two books in her Celestial Shifters series, Shards of Venus and Flames of Mars, as well as a spin-off book, Nika. She’s currently working on the third book in the series.  When Tjalara isn’t writing her next book or tackling laundry monsters and dishwashing shenanigans, she’s bound to be, in her words, “somewhere flying on wishing chairs, swimming with the mermaids, marking [her] skin with shadow hunter runes, raising dragons, o ..read more

This week we’re starting a new theme – Fan Fiction!  Fan fiction is fictional writing by fans of original stories. These new stories are based on the original, using characters, settings, or other details. There are many published books that are inspired by originals, or adapted versions (e.g. a modern retelling of Cinderella), and which credit the original creators. Fan fiction is a great way for kids to practice their storytelling skills, to encourage them to think critically, and to challenge their creativity.     Here are 30 fun writing prompts to inspire your ..read more

Illustration: Jasmine Seymour (Copyright Children’s Book Council Australia) The theme for Book Week 2022 is ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open…’, and it has inspired us to celebrate with a writing competition! If you are: a young writer between 7 - 17 years old who lives in Australia and you would love to win one of these incredible CBCA shortlisted books, a Creative Write-it gift voucher, and be published on our website… Then keep reading! Entry Guidelines Be sure to follow these to make sure your entry counts! Open to young writers anywhere in Australia Categories: 7-9 year olds ; 10 - 12 ..read more

This week we’re beginning Term 3 with our latest theme – Secret Identities!  Secret identities are a lot of fun to explore in creative writing! They can allow extraordinary characters (such as superheroes) to live ordinary lives and make villains more difficult to capture. They can also help characters to feel more confident by giving them a chance to be someone ‘new’, or just allow them to get up to a lot of mischief because no one knows who they really are! Here are 30 fun writing prompts to inspire your kids to write about ‘Secret Identities’! These prompts can be adapted to suit th ..read more

For this month’s Meet the Writer, we’re talking to our very own Studio Coordinator & Writing Mentor, Julie! In addition to her *very* important role at Creative Write-it (we quite literally might fall apart without her organisation skills!), Julie has had a huge year of achievements in her career as a writer, and we couldn’t be happier for her. We’re super excited to feature her this month, to chat about her works-in-progress, writing fellowships, and advice to her younger self.  Hello Julie! Let’s start with an ‘easy’ one.. ? Why do you write? What do you write? How do you write? I ..read more

For this month’s Meet the Writer, we’re talking to our very own Studio Coordinator Julie!  Hello Julie! Let’s start with an ‘easy’ one.. ? Why do you write? What do you write? How do you write? I write because I have so many ideas that play out like movie scenes in my head which compete with the other important everyday information I need to retain. I need to write them down so that I can remember them and so I can explore them further when I have the time. In each of my stories, I tend to take on a first-person character with a similar persona to me as it provides me with a window to di ..read more

Editing is an important part of the writing process, but it can feel tedious and tricky – even for older writers! But once you know what to look for, editing can be very satisfying and fun, and result in much more polished and powerful stories. Here are our top tips for helping kids to learn what to look for in their own writing.  Editing - Round One! Check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation  Try reading your story aloud as it helps you identify when you need to pause to take a breath which is often where a comma or full stop needs to go.  Underline any words you’re un ..read more