For Writers

I come from a long line of teachers, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that I don’t just love to write, I love to teach writing as well. I’ve taught writing workshops at conferences for RWA, RWNZ, CYA, and numerous festivals and events across Australia and New Zealand, occasionally tutor in English at the University of Tasmania, and I’ve been mentoring writers for over 10 years.

Very soon, I’ll have some exciting news about online workshops, but in the meantime, here are the places you can catch me in person.

I’ll be presenting workshops and offering one-on-one mentoring at the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild annual retreat in May. MRWG is a well-established group for Melbourne-based romance writers, and is home to many fabulous published authors. You can see their website here.

CYA is an amazing conference that has content for both children/YA writers and those writing for the adult market. I’m thrilled to be presenting a writing craft workshop again in 2023. This year the conference is a hybrid model: part online and part in person. Check their website for more info.

8 July 2023

Sparking Dialogue – For all genres and ages

In this workshop, we’ll focus on how to write strong, sparkling dialogue that shows character moves your plot forward, and engages readers. Topics include character voice, rhythm, real-life speech vs written dialogue, speech tags and more.

The Romance Writers of Australia annual conference is in Sydney in 2023. If you’re a writer, there is no better conference to access writing craft, business / industry conversations, technical know-how, etc. This year I’ll be teaching two workshops: a half-day masterclass on creating characters, and a one-hour workshop on writing animals.

Anatomy of a Character: half-day masterclass
Friday 11th August

We’ll deep dive into character creation and change the way you approach writing your characters. From basics like backstory, dreams, fears, and voice, right through to advanced content, like character systems and an easy to apply reader engagement model, this workshop will take your characters to the next level. Rachel will provide a framework that will have readers cheering for your characters – and lining up for your next book.

Dogs, Cats, Horses & Chooks: Writing Animals 
Sunday 13th August

Animal characters abound in the romance and women’s fiction genres: dogs, cats, birds, horses, goats, as well as more unusual animals. When the animal character is written well, readers have a strong emotional response, leading to the rule of thumb for romance writers, “Don’t kill the dog!” Backed by Rachel’s PhD research, this workshop will break down the creation of animal characters so you can write animals who leap from the page into reader’s hearts.