The Ten Penners at Gold Coast Writers Meeting notes...

Four members of The Ten Penners attended the Gold Coast Writers meeting last Saturday, 15th August. Our newest member, Andrea, kindly put the speaker's talk on our page to recap the day. We were right at the back and had trouble hearing, but Andrea captured the event perfectly.

As some people could not hear everything that was being said and others were not there, I offered to send notes. Jill suggested I post these to the group.

August 2026

Joanne Anderton

On Saturday, Joanne Anderton took us through 'how to c

arve' a story from lived experience. 

Joanne described a scene from her work trip in Japan that gave her a momentary spark, and how that helped her to create a short story. 

The method she described as moment/structure (spine)/detail had the attendees think of moments that triggered feelings in them, helped to expand these moments into a workable structure, and then to fill in the detail. 

After the workshop, which had everybody busily writing, two members of the audience shared their moments and what shape their story structure would look like and listed some of the detail that may be in their stories. 

​Thanks to Joanne for her guidance through the workshop and the attendees for participating. Please find below the summary of notes from the recent Gold Coast Writers' Association (GCWA) presentation by 'Joanne Anderton' on writing from lived experience and transforming it into fiction.

Writing from Lived Experience- The Moment: Find a real-life "sliver of life" and identify its emotional core. Explore what is extraordinary underneath the surface, demonstrating internal or external conflict where routine is unsettled. Joanne shared an example of an old man she saw dancing alone in Japan, which inspired her to imagine his story (she turned this into a speculative fiction story).-

The Structure: Structure acts as the hidden spine of your story. Speculative fiction requires a strong core with evolving characters, intentional narrative order and deep world-building to show how elements interact.- 

The Detail: This is where you begin developing character, setting, voice, and style, as these elements impact the choices we make to show the story. Avoid vague descriptions; specific, precise, and consistent sensory details make a speculative world feel real. Joanne shared that you should be able to visualise and smell a setting before writing.

Joanne's Story Structure Example Joanne utilised two distinct narrative threads in her own work:- Thread 1 (The Protagonist): Based on herself, written in the third person, past tense. This created a slight distance and reflection (e.g., "if only our protagonist had paid attention").- 

Thread 2 (The Imagined Women): Written in the third person, present tense. This focused on the stories of the women she imagined dancing with the old man, making these invented characters feel more immediate and real.

Structure, Detail, and Plot- Structure Frameworks: Joanne touched upon the Three-Act Structure, the Hero's Journey, and the Snowflake method, and recommended the book Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison. Science fiction heavily relies on the Three-Act Structure (Act 1: Setup/Conflict; Act 2: Rising Tension; Act 3: Climax/Resolution). To develop structure, she advises reading both inside and outside your chosen genre.

- Character and Point of View: Consider your character count. How many can you include and why are they there? Determine whose point of view you are using (1st, 2nd, or 3rd person). Pick one character and identify what they want and why they can't get it.

- Voice and Style: Consider the character's specific voice. What is it like? What kind of vocabulary, specific words, and metaphors would they uniquely use?

- Setting: Use the "iceberg approach"; the reader only sees the tip, but as writers, we must know every inch of the world (whether made up or real) including specific sensory details. When imagining a setting, ask "wouldn't it be cool if...?" Think of three relevant things in your world and consider how your character would uniquely describe them, what they would notice, and what they would take for granted.

- Story and Plot: Place a driven character into a fully developed world and stop them from getting what they want. You can tell a story about something small and realistic, but you must establish how far the character is willing to go to get what they want.

- Testing Ideas: To know if an idea or "spark" is worth writing, listen to your gut. Isolate the foundational emotional core and stay true to the feeling that makes you want to write about it. Ask yourself: How did that original moment make you feel?

Group Exercise1. Reflect: Think of a moment from the past week that stuck with you. Identify why it resonated, its emotional core, and how it might adapt into a realistic or speculative genre piece.

2. Drafting Structure: Sketch a rough three-act spine for this story concept. Map out an inciting incident for Act 1, a turning point for Act 2, and a climax/denouement for Act 3.

3. Include: Characters, point of view, voice and style e.g. How many characters? Why are they there? What's their voice like? What kinds of words or metaphors do they use?

Writing Time: Spend 5 minutes writing based on these parameters.

The Ten Penners will be flexing our writing muscles and brain using these Group Exercises at our monthly meeting. We are a sub-group of Gold Coast Writers and enjoy the networking at these meetings. It's a wonderful group to belong to.

More tomorrow on writing, books, The Ten Penners, Gold Coast Writers and creating entertaining stories. - Jill