Not Quite Right features discussions that are unfiltered and uncensored,
and may include themes that are inappropriate for younger listeners.
Also, I swear a lot.
Something doesn't seem quite right.
Welcome to not quite right.
My name is Ed and this is the 12th and final of a series of interviews that
Amanda and I recorded at the Words and the Waves Writers Festival this year.
So a massive thank you to Words on the Waves for having us back again.
It was an absolute privilege being able to meet and speak with so many talented
writers and it's been wonderful seeing Words on the Waves thrive over the last
three years that we've been a part of it.
It really is a massive accomplishment.
To make it all happen takes a lot of organisation and we can see how much work
the organisers put in.
You should all be very proud and we can't wait to come back next year.
So for our final interview, we're speaking with Robert Wilcher,
who is on the board of Words on the Waves.
But Robert also runs a collaborative writing website called The Moving Pen,
which publishes new stories written by its members every month.
So we spoke to Robert about The Moving Pen,
how it started and how our listeners can find out more.
So here is our very brief chat with Robert Wilcher.
We're here at Words on the Waves with Rob Wilshire.
Hello Rob, good day.
And you're part of the organising committee here, Is that right?
Yes, I'm on the board of Words on the Waves
and I joined the board because when I saw the position vacant to look up the
festival, I thought what a fantastic festival.
Oh, so I joined the just before last year's
festival and that was a a storm.
We were just in the wet weather the whole time.
It was terrible, but it managed to to kick off as great.
And this year might have just been suburb.
So I think it's a fantastic.
I'm based in Coogee in Sydney, so I come up for board meetings and
committee meetings.
But yeah, I'm just really impressed by what they've
done in the last five years.
It's been amazing to see it grow.
We've been coming out for three years and just to see it's kind of go from strength
to strength and it's one of the only things of its kind up here on the on the
coast.
So yeah, it's a real privilege to have the
festival here.
Yeah.
So we were talking briefly yesterday as well about your other activities,
adventures.
And you're a writer yourself.
I am, yes.
So tell us a little bit about some your writing and your little community that
you have.
Sure.
Yeah.
But my own little writing history is.
I've always been loved writing stuff.
And then in 2001, when my first daughter was born,
I wrote a book called Diary of a Pregnant Dad, which I published.
And I was working with a guy who was starting a publishing company.
We saw about 4000 of those.
It was great.
Wow.
Yeah, Yeah.
And then it went quiet for a while because I've always lacked confidence.
But in 2020, I did a a writing course of Bronte
Writers Studio in Bronte and Sydney.
And at the end of that I said to people there who wants to join the writing
Collective.
So five of us are joined up together and we call ourselves the Moving Pen.
And so you were telling us yesterday as well that you've got a website that sort
of facilitates that group and you critique each other as well.
That's right.
Yeah.
So the website is the Moving pen. com dot AU and what we do is we publish a
short story each per month and on the back end of the website,
we put the draught story up and we give each other comments and critiques on what
we're writing and create spelling as well.
And then we take on board those comments and and then when we decide we've had
enough comments and we're happy to publish it,
we put it on the front end of the the website and it's open for anyone who
wants to pop in and see five stories each month at least.
And do you write in a similar vein?
Do you write to a theme or do you each have like a very different approach to
you?
We basically right whenever it comes to their head.
Do you have a word limit?
What are the constraints?
It's no constraints at all, really.
Yeah, yeah.
Whatever you want to put out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And at the end of each year, we publish a book of the stories or what
we regard the best stories of that year.
And all our readers say we love the variety.
So we do a bit of horror.
We do a romance with a comedy.
And so last year, for example, I wrote a book about.
It was a Horror Story, bloke taking his kids to a model railway
fair in the hinterland and suddenly he becomes one of the model people on the
Row airline who's subject to a shark attack every day at 12:00 to entertain
the guests.
Visiting and bringing up Troller for me because I went to Universal Studios when
I was a child and Jaws coming out of the water at you.
So I can, I can visualise that very clearly.
Yeah.
But other stories I've written and my friends have written to do with
reminiscences and difficulties of being a person in certain circumstances or
falling in love or as some historical stuff,
looking back on the past and mistakes that I make.
And so there's a whole array of stories.
We do.
And do you meet in person or is it all online?
We both, yeah.
So we do regular stuff online and about 3 or 4 * a year we come together at the
Mitchell Library and have a write in.
It's such, it's so important, isn't it, to have your little community of writers
around you.
It's great.
Share the wins and the and the struggles.
Yeah, Yeah.
So you guys have been doing that for quite some time.
You must have a good sense of each other's writing styles.
And, and it's been great watching our writing
develop over the last four years.
And the other thing we'll be doing is a couple of us are writing full books.
So Paul, Paul Nicholls, for example, has a book coming out as being launched
on the 26th of June at Clear Books called The Coping Stone.
And it's a history of the first English soccer tour in Australia.
And so there's been like, so he put a few of his chapters on the
back end for us and said, can you please help me out here?
I've got a problem with this or blah, blah, blah.
And so to get a credit in the book to get in the.
I don't know, I'll find out when I get my copy in a
club.
Fingers crossed.
Yeah.
But it's part of The thing is to help each other out and, and do it that way.
So it's great.
Yeah.
So that's what every writer's looking for, like an outlet,
a place to publish and people who will read their works.
Yeah.
Yeah, so, yeah, for our listeners, what's the website again that they can
find your worker.
It's the moving pen.com dot AU.
Fantastic.
And if you'd like to join the mail out list,
just press on the the button which says send a message to me at the at our
website and I'll put you on our list.
And if you want to buy a copy of last year's book,
press the button which says buy the book.
There's full few copies left.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Well, thanks for speaking with us, Rob.
Pleasure and fab to you guys too for what you do.
Brilliant.
Thank you.
It's great.
This has been a special presentation of the Not Quite Right Podcast in
collaboration with Words on the Ways Riders Festival.
Check the show notes For more information about Words on the Waves and the books
mentioned in this episode.
If you're new to the podcast, please join us again for our regular
episodes where we talk about media, culture, and the art of writing.
Something going to seem quite right.