We want your dreams...

Stop daydreaming and pay attention! The 2018 Early Harvest editors have an announcement to make. This year, they want the writers to step through to another reality: where the unreal becomes the real, where the world bends out of shape, where things seem real but CAN’T POSSIBLY BE REAL. Ladies and Gentlemen! Theme of early harvest issue seven is... DREAMS!The editors this year want the weird and the wonderful. They want the beautiful, dark and the fantastic. They want stories where the heroes are flying, falling, getting chased or chasing a dream. There is only one condition: the story CAN’T end with ‘... and then he woke up and it was just a dream.’ Those stories with wake up in the rejection pile. Young writers across six schools in Dandenong, who are participating in the program this year, are gearing up for the challenge with just a little bit of help from children’s book authors Andrew McDonald, Davina Bell, Susannah MacFarlane and Tony Wilson. Last week, best-selling children’s book author Tony Wilson visited Wooranna Park Primary, to help Year 5 and 6 students shape their dream story. He opened up his creative process for the students discussing where his story ideas came from, how he turned an idea turns into a story, and most importantly, what makes a good story!Tony shared his secret writing mantra with the young writers: ‘Write what has not been written before.’ ‘Here’s one story that your teacher has heard over and over again,’ he told the students. ‘The story of a footy player missing or making the goal at the last horn.’So if you want to write a story about footy, avoid the cliche. Tony’s series on footy-obsessed boys ‘The Selwood Boys’ shows how it can be done!Next up in the program is children’s book author and publisher Susannah McFarlane. She will be catching up with students of St Mary’s on 14 May. Stay tuned…