Last week I spent five days working with the cream of the South West’s young writers, in Bunbury and Busselton. These young writers, aged between 11 and 18, were attending the Young Writers and Youth Literature Days, run by The Literature Centre. In this amazing programme, each participant comes once a term for a whole day of workshops with an author. This time round, their author was me.

What an amazing privilege it is to talk writing and the writing life with young people who love reading and writing as much as I do. When asked to write, they do. When asked to share their writing, they do. And the buzz in the room during sessions and during books is just fabulous.

The focus of my workshops was on building character through plot, using dark and light scenes. And, of course, I had them write a poem for one of the sessions – with some keen poets choosing to use poetry for every exercise.

By the end of the week I was exhausted – six hours a day, speaking and listening and sharing isn’t easy. But it was the kind of exhaustion which is deeply satisfying.

On Sunday, I headed to Narrogin where, as a part of the Spring Into Narrogin Festival, I ran a writing for children workshop for a small but enthusiastic group of local writers.

Tomorrow, I am heading off again – this time to The Literature Centre proper, where I’ll be taking part in the amazing Celebrate Reading Conference. I can’t believe I’ll be sharing the stage with some of my favourite Aussie writers and illustrators – Isobelle  Carmody, Bruce Whatley, Allison Lester, Peter Carnavas, James Foley, Anna Walker and Catherine Bateson – and hanging out with so many teachers and lovers of children’s books for two days.

I love my job.