Masterclass:
Writing place & building worlds
October 17, 2026
If you’re a writer who wants to bring your fictional worlds to life, this class is for you.
Writing place is so much more than simply creating a setting. Place affects everything – tone, atmosphere, characters, plot, even voice.
It’s the world of your imagination – the world through which your characters move. It’s not a backdrop. It’s an entire eco-system. And you have to build it, bit by bit, rich and deep and complex, to engage your readers.
So come join us. We’ll look at how to research and realistically recreate places and eras, as well as how to completely imagine new worlds, planets, moments or societies.
What you’ll learn:
- The importance of place
- How setting supports story
- Steps to create an entire universe or society
- How to research historical or distant settings
- How to include findings (or not!)
- How to put into words what you see in your mind
- Tropes and reader expectations of key genres.
We’ll also make time for:
- Exercises and tips to use in your writing
- Questions and discussion.
It will include teaching, writing exercises, conversation, bad jokes, and possibly Tim Tams.
Fiction depends for its life on place. In other words, if you could set your story anywhere else, you haven’t given your story a strong enough sense of place.
– Eudora Welty
Who’s it for?
This full-day masterclass is designed for all writers but will be particularly useful for people writing speculative fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, historical romance or crime – any genre that involves either accurately presented realist settings, or imagined places, futures or pasts.
The masterclass is for emerging writers, people in the early stages of their writing careers, or any writers who are interested in sharpening their ability to create vivid settings or imagined worlds. That includes people writing for middle-grade, young adult or adult readers.
It will work best for writers with an existing project or a concrete story idea so you can apply what you learn.
If you’d like to know more, get in touch here.
Details
Date and times:
October 17, 2026
9.30am to 4.30pm
Where: The beautiful new community centre at Balam Balam Place, 15 Phoenix St, Brunswick
Here’s a map to help you find it.
Cost: $215 or $195 concession.
This includes all tuition, morning and afternoon tea, handouts and resources. You’ll also become part of our writing community, with events, writing sessions, challenges and regular resource updates.
You’ll also receive an invitation to our private online writing community to keep in touch with each other, access a range of resources, and stay up-to-date on writing and publishing opportunities.
This class is designed for small group learning, so group size and ticket numbers are very limited. Don’t miss out.
Bookings close 7 October 2026.
Your teacher
I’m Kelly Gardiner, and I’ve published 12 books and many short stories set everywhere from the Paris Opera to London during the Blitz, the Western Front in 1917 to 1950s Melbourne, and to any number of imagined planets or fantastical worlds. How we imagine places, how we research and recreate them, and how we render them on the page so readers can see what we see – that’s one of the things that matters most in a story, and to me.
I write crime, science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction for readers of all ages. I taught writing at university level for many years, and now teach in community settings and run my own writing retreats and masterclasses.
You can read more about my writing and about my teaching here.
To find out more, get in touch.
It’s place that interests me—and the social and economic situation in a place—how people live, how they make their living, the culture—but the story comes from place.
― Annie Proulx
Leave a Reply