Category: workshops

Book review — If I Were You, by Peter Quarry

Title: If I Were You: A psychologist puts himself on the couch

Author: Peter Quarry

Publisher: Hardie Grant Books, February 2022; RRP: $35.00

As a fundamentally nosy person, I enjoy a good memoir. I like hearing about a person’s life, I like being included in secrets previously unsaid and I like the reflection that recounting the past often prompts. Peter Quarry’s If I Were You: A psychologist puts himself on the couch well and truly delivers this voyeuristic pleasure, but it takes it further. Quarry isn’t just interested in what his life means to himself, he’s interested in what it means for you.

If I Were You has an unusual format: throughout the book, Quarry writes letters about his life as “Pete” to his psychologist persona, “PQ”, and then responds to them. Going in, I wasn’t sure how well this would work as a mechanism. Would it feel contrived? Would PQ’s letters feel like they were tailored to prompt exactly the responses that Quarry wanted to write about as Pete? Would the psychoanalysis PQ offered on those responses really achieve anything other than to say “I agree”?

It turns out that Quarry is a complex person, full of contradictions. He is wild and hedonistic, while also being industrious and showing a deep need for security. Once I finished reading the book, I could no longer be surprised by how well the format worked.

Because it does work well. It works superbly. Pete is almost always willing to follow the path that PQ guides him on, but not always. I found myself taking notes—“Laura, this is how you tell a therapist that you’d rather explore something else”—because it was genuinely easy to get lost in the narrative that said these were two distinct characters. When Pete says that something PQ said resonates with him, I don’t hear a person patting himself on the back for crafting an insightful sentence, I hear a man genuinely struck by a perspective he hadn’t considered. By putting himself on the couch, Quarry gains a distance from his life that allows new ideas to surface.

Quarry isn’t just here for the catharsis, though. His main motivation with this book is to inspire reflection in others. Through the mechanism of PQ, he is able to outline exactly how anyone could go about examining their own life as he has done, and I have to say it was very effective for me. Though on the surface Quarry and I have very little in common, I noted several times how much I related to what he was saying and daydreamed about what my session with a PQ would uncover.

Quarry writes very early on that he’s not interested in the recounting of a life that doesn’t delve deeper. He doesn’t want “mere description”, he wants “examination”. This is both addressed to himself, as a way to cement a purpose that would remain in sight for the entire book, and also to anyone who would like to follow his example. It’s like he’s saying, “Here. Take these questions and do it yourself. But think when you do!”

When reviewing a book, I think the most important question is not “was this good?” (and it was), but “did this do what it set out to do?”. Quarry makes this easy to figure out by stating his objectives clearly in his introduction. He wants to explore his life, inspire similar explorations in his readers and trigger empathy, admiration and shock at his exploits.

I greatly enjoyed reading If I Were You. It felt honest and I did indeed empathise with and admire Pete (and PQ for that matter). More than that, I closed the book raring to put my own life under the microscope.

Ballarat Writers Incorporated is delighted to announce that Peter Quarry, author of If I Were You: A psychologist puts himself on the couch, will be coming to Ballarat in April 2023 to deliver a workshop, based on his book, on how to write a memoir that goes deeper than a recounting of events.

Reviewed by: Laura Wilson

Review copy provided by the publisher

Memoir workshop with Jenny Valentish

Memoir writing – be it book, blog, essay, or legacy for the family – can be daunting. That might be because you’re stumped as to how to start (your life has been EPIC … and spans ‘several’ decades). Or perhaps you don’t know where would be a fitting point to end. Maybe the thing that’s always stopped you from writing your story, or a part of it, is you’re afraid of exposing yourself – or of upsetting other people. That can be paralysing, but there are ways around all of this.

In this workshop, journalist Jenny Valentish, journalist and author of Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment, trouble-shoots the concerns you may have. We’ll go deep into structure – prologues, ways of ordering things, themes as motifs, and weaving in research (if that’s your thing). There are methods of jogging your memory and reinhabiting your younger self. We’ll find ways to describe different people without you getting cast out of your family, and look at some of the disclaimers that famous memoirists have put on their work. There’s a section on nailing tone, humour and finding your voice, and we’ll look at how to avoid sounding self-conscious.

Workshop details

When: Saturday 20 March 2021, noon-3pm

Where: Training Room 1, Eastwood Leisure Centre, 20 Eastwood St, Ballarat Central, VIC 3350

Cost: Ballarat Writers Members $80, non-members $90. Please note: the workshop is limited to 12 participants.

Bookings: At Trybooking

Other details: Due to the venue’s COVIDSafe procedures, we are unable to serve drinks or share food at this event. Please BYO water bottle and snacks. The centre is directly across the road from Ballarat Central’s Ferguson’s and Baker’s Delight bakeries. Hand sanitising will be available. Social distancing will be in place and participants will not be required to wear masks under current protocols.

Sign up to become a Ballarat Writers member. 

writer Jenny Valentish

About Jenny Valentish

Journalist Jenny Valentish’s third book is Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment, which blends research and memoir. It was long-listed for a Walkley Book Award and is now on the recommended reading list for several university courses. Jenny is the former editor of Triple J’s Jmag and Time Out (Melbourne edition) and regularly contributes to The GuardianABCThe Age and more. She is working on her fourth book, to be published by Black Inc in 2021. She has held a memoir writing workshop for The Monthly, delivered a course to Writers Victoria members three times and has taught first-person writing at Monash, Collarts, and to Catherine Deveny’s Gunnas. A version of the workshop has also been developed for drug and alcohol professionals and their clients. Find out more at Jenny’s website

Maurilia Meehan Short Story Workshop

Are you prepared to begin a great story, or take your story to the next level?

Ballarat Writers, in conjunction with Writers Victoria and the Grace Marion Wilson Trust, are please to announce our short story workshop with award-winning story teller, Maurilia Meehan. The workshop will be held on Saturday July 8th from 1–4 pm at MADE (the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka) in Ballarat.

We’ve just noticed that the portal for the Maurilia Meehan Short Story Workshop doesn’t seem to be working, but there are still some spots available! If you want to attend, please contact Irene at chairperson@ballaratwriters.com or on 53320092 before 11.00am on Saturday. Don’t miss out!

 

 

Print

WV 5 - Grace Marion Wilson Trust logo

Minerva Speaks opportunity for writers

minerva copyright www.jasonnahrung.com

Ballarat Writers is supporting Minerva Speaks, a project to put words into the mouth of the Minerva statue atop the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute.

Minerva’s announcements will be broadcast over Sturt Street weekly throughout March 2017 where the audience, in the Titanic Bandstand opposite the institute, can listen to her words of wisdom and learning. The words for her announcements will be drawn from the writers of Ballarat who will be inspired to craft her words through a workshop and writing phase.

The workshop is on Sunday  September 25, 2–4pm, in the Hooper Room, Ballaarat Mechanics Institute, 117 Sturt St, Ballarat. Bring writing materials. RSVP by email to Lynden Nicholls  or phone 0431 349747 by September 23. Writers will be paid commensurate with the Australian Society of Authors rates.
More details: click here for a PDF.

ballarat mechanics institute

regional arts victoria logo

minerva-speaks-workshop

Sofie Laguna Ballarat workshop on writing for children

Sofie Laguna

Writing For Children with Sofie Laguna

Only five places remain for this workshop by Sofie Laguna, author of more than 20 books for children. Focus on technical aspects of writing, including voice, character, plot, structure and content, as well as the publishing side of the business. Learn how to discover and use an authentic child’s voice in various forms of children’s writing: picture books, junior novels and novels. Find out how knowing your characters well will solve problems related to plot, rhythm and structure.

Presented in association with Writers Victoria. Supported by the Grace Marion Wilson Trust.

Please note: The Melbourne Writers Festival is having its regional day at M.A.D.E. on August 27, so the site will be busier than usual – that means a likely queue at the coffee shop, but who knows who you’ll meet!

When: 27 August, 10am–4pm
Venue: Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, 102 Stawell St South,
Ballarat
Cost: Member of Writers Victoria or Ballarat Writers: $80; Concession Member of Writers Victoria or Ballarat Writers: $70; Non-Member: $120.
Bookings: Writers Victoria

Bookings closing: Poetry workshop with Emilie Zoey Baker

BW_EZB_smallIn this four-hour workshop with slam champion and widely published poet Emilie Zoey Baker, we will be exploring what makes a great poem, how to perform your poetry and what judges look for in a competition. It will be a fun, immersive day with lots of words, writing and participation.

In addition to running this workshop, Emilie Zoey Baker will be judging the Martha Richardson Memorial Poetry Prize for 2016.

Please note: Places are limited to 15 attendees only. Bookings are essential!

When: 10am–2pm, Saturday, 9 July
Where: Museum of Democracy at Eureka (MADE), 102 Stawell St South, Ballarat
What to Bring: An unfinished poem and your favourite writing materials. A cafe is available on site or BYO snacks.

Cost:
Full: BW members $70 ( $85 non-members)
Concession: BW members $60 ($75 non-members)

Book your place via TryBooking now!

© 2024 Ballarat Writers

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑