Catherine,

I wanted to send you this email, with no expectation or want for a reply, just to tell you how grateful I am that one week ago I came to your Gunna’s Masterclass.

When I came to class I was on my second-last day of 5 weeks of annual leave.  I didn’t have a lot planned for that 5 week period, but “a shitload of writing” was high on the list (I had started my novel 6 months prior and had squeezed out just shy of 2000 words at that time and never gone back to it).

On the day of the Gunna’s I had been on annual leave for 4 weeks and 5 days and I had not written a single word in that time.

Since last Saturday at Gunnas…..

1) I submitted my piece that Saturday night which has since appeared on your site (the first thing I have written and let someone read in about 17 years since I finished school);

2) I have accepted the Gunnas Challenge and sat down on 4 occasions this week with the intention of writing for 1 hour.  On every single occasion I have written for in excess of 1 hour (on one occasion it was closer to 3);

3) I have read “Bird By Bird” by Anne Lamont in a single siting;

4) My novel now has in excess of 10,000 words and is growing everyday…

5) I worked a 40 hour week at my full time job and functioned as a human being whilst completing all of the above.

One final thought.  I sat down this afternoon and started to write a scene which is set in the conservatory of the Botanical Gardens. I was going from childhood memory and then thought “fuck this” and packed up my laptop and headed into the actual Gardens.  In my scene the conservatory is closed to the public but my characters are still able to go inside, and when I got to the Gardens this arvo the conservatory WAS closed to the public due to a wedding!! I was ready to go home and call it a day but instead I had a chuckle to myself about the irony of the situation (crazy writing gods fucking with my head!!), had a wander around the place and ended up with SO much more material which I will can use for either this piece or something in the future.  So it wasn’t a wasted trip at all!

So thank you, thank you, thank you for making me see the light, inspiring me to pull my thumb out of my arse, and bestowing on me the knowledge that to get something written you just have to sit down and damn well write it!

I feel that in terms of my writing, my life will forever be divided into “pre-Gunnas” and “post-Gunnas”!

Cheers!

Loz

I wrote this piece yesterday after a wonderful day spent in a Gunnas Writing Masterclass with the incomparable Catherine Deveny. The task was to send her a piece written between 10am and 10pm on the day. ‘But how? I’m going straight out to dinner and to see a show. I won’t be able to do it’. But no excuses would do. So I texted my husband the simple words…’Bring your laptop’. Later, parked in our car on a city street, I sat with the laptop on my knee and frantically tapped out this piece from the notes I’d scrawled in the masterclass. I had to do it – would never forgive myself if I didn’t – and so I did. I emailed it to Catherine, typos and all, and felt a great sense of satisfaction. The feedback and support from Catherine the next day was absolutely thrilling and so that mad writing session in my car felt even more worthwhile. It was such a great experience that I’m sure any aspiring writer would enjoy. Plus, Catherine wears amazing shoes with little musical notes engraved on the soles. So there’s that too.

Melinda Hildebrant

Hey Catherine,
Wanted to thank you for yesterday, your sharing of your life experiences both as a writer, a woman and all round fabulous human being. I loved the pearls of wisdom, your wicked sense of humour and fabulous frock and expensive shoes. The space you create and the connections you make with each and very one of your gunna’s is special, also the space you create for your gunna’s to connect to each other is a great gift. La Luna is the perfect space long table with white cloths a space full of potential. The food was fabulously glorious and coffee perfect for this Greek coffee/food loving vegetarian lezo single mum (wif a daughter) Christos Tsiolkas wanna be! The timing was perfect and it’s the self care I needed!!! To be around creative nurturing folk like yourself. I loved that I didn’t even have to make a decision about what food to order!
Well done for creating a space for people to come and get whatever they want out of it!
I came home and read. I didn’t feel guilt about not writing and handing something to you 10pm, I’ve always got dead lines!! I’ll be taking up the gunna’s challenge though. Shit scared and excited at the same time.
Just wanted to share.
A million thanks.

Maria xx

Six months ago, a fellow student in my Masters program at Melbourne University took advantage of my offer of my spare bedroom for interstate students needing accommodation for our two day intensive sessions on campus.

When on Day 1 he asked me if I was a writer, I knew what he was talking about. I have at least three books on writing on the shelves in the spare bedroom, and possibly others elsewhere. Despite having bought them at various times in the past, I have never read them. From time to time I’d dabbled in writing and then given up when it got too hard, or I didn’t have enough time. I’d also journalled frantically in times of crisis, but I’d never made any sort of commitment to serious, ongoing writing.

Catherine Deveny describes her classes as “creative enemas”. It’s a great description. Dev forces you to write for one minute, for five, ten or fifteen minutes, using totally disconnected prompts. There are no excuses.

I learned so much over two days of classes (Masterclass + Advanced): my writing doesn’t have to be perfect, and yes, the writing process is hard. You don’t have to commit to sitting down and writing for hours at a time. You don’t have to confine yourself to one writing project or even one genre at a time. If you’re writing a story, you don’t have to know the ending before you begin.

I came home from La Luna today (incidentally, totally amazing food!) and read the first fifty pages of Stephen King’s “On Writing”. I can’t wait to read Kate Grenville’s “The Writing Book” and Pamela Lloyd’s “How Writers Write”. I am no longer fearful of putting words on paper.

According to Dev, there is no such thing as inspiration. I think she is wrong. She is an amazing, generous, and, dare I say it, inspirational teacher. Thank you, Catherine, for two days of warmth, fun, encouragement and guidance. And thanks to my fellow class members, who over two days have shared their writing, their fears and their experiences with the rest of us.

Kath Kenny

You’re shit hot at what you do. I’m sure you hear a lot of great feedback and so you should. Your grasp of your ‘subject’ is amazing but more importantly, how you deliver from the depths of where you’ve been; the good, bad and ugly places, gives such depth of meaning.

I’ve been to a lot of presentations and workshops and yours blew me away. You made a bunch of random people with various sizes of ego, fear and nerves be themselves. That’s a gift.

Clare Dallat

I’ve attended a few writing courses over the years, but I wanted to go to Gunnas for one reason only: Catherine Deveny. I knew that what I’d learn (the actual content) would be good, but not as good as spending the day in the company of this woman. Catherine is a true original – fearless, outspoken, articulate, unselfconscious, generous, funny and possibly the least vain woman I’ve ever met. Just being around Dev makes you braver. Makes you wonder why you’ve let yourself get in your own way for so long. Makes you want to be better, and to try harder.

Jill Chivers

The Devs passion and energy is simply inspiring and she makes you believe you can achieve anything. I have been gunna write for sometime but since doing the Masterclass I am more disciplined and I want to write!

Do yourself a favour and sign up, you know you want to!

Danni Smith

Last week I attended Catherine Deveny’s Gunnas Writing Masterclass and it was the best time and money I have ever spent. I thought I’d feel intimidated and out of my depth. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Catherine was like an old friend who knows how to give you the kick up the arse you need. I was so enthralled my poor kidneys were nearly drowned while I held on for hours not wanting to miss a single second. Not only was Catherine her sharp, witty and hilarious self, but she was generous and attentive to each individual in the class and with sharing her experiences and knowledge to debunk myths, discredit our self-doubt. She kicked procrastination to the kerb with her tips and tools for getting us all to “just write” and to have the courage to “fail while daring greatly”. I don’t know what the hell I’m writing each day, it seems like a journal, but I’m writing, thanks to Devs.

Go ahead and spend an invaluable day in great company with fellow budding writers from every imaginable background, great food and coffee and of course, the fabulous Catherine Deveny. I could happily bask in her brilliance every day of the week. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Love, love, loved it!

Lisa Rachele

I had completed the mission – I had written a book – but what now. I knew I needed to do it to feel better about myself and indeed I did, I felt brilliant, but was that it. Friends assured me that if I had gone to that much trouble to put it on paper to get it out there, it genuinely needed to be out there, but I was still scared. Then I met Catherine via an exhilarating experience at a “Gunnas” Workshop. ‘Gunna’ is the operative word for me, I’m always gunna do something but something has always held me back. From the second I walked in, I was greeted and asked about myself and almost immediately asked to take charge of my identity and given ways for me to ask the world to stop and pay attention to the fact that I have take time out to write a book. I am now proud that I have written my first book and feel inspired by Catherine to market it in every way that I can think.

Catherine inspired me to take ownership of my space in the world.

Fiona Kerr

If I could lather a Catherine Deveny Gunnas class all over me I would – everyday. It’s sparked something inside me and it makes my heart sing. I’m inspired, I’m confident, I’m being true and I’ve got clarity. Rad Town. Plus she’s way babin’.

Eva Pattison