Well, it was a massive week last week with E-Festival - fantastic participation from our panelists and readers made the week a wonderful success. More on that in the wrap up. Of course, we are welcoming your feedback, so if you have something to say, you know what to do.

So how does this week measure up? First things first ...

COMPETITIONS

If you want to submit an entry to the Emerging Writer's Festival Reading Room competition, entries close TODAY. Go to www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au If you're panicking and thinking 'I can't possibly get something done by midnight tonight', have faith. Entries must fit on a single A-4 page and can be anything from poetry to a (super) short story to a visual response (but it must include text). Furthermore, to make things a little bit easier, they provide a stimulus to respond to. So get over there, put pen to paper, and submit it by midnight tonight. Just think of it as a uni essay, then the deadline seems completely doable.

On the subject of competitions, there is another one happening at Red Bubble, www.redbubble.com Entries close for this one on April 16th. For more information, head to the website. You've got a little more time for this one.

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Want to get inspired, then look no further ... join a host of nationally and internationally renowned writers at the

SYDNEY WRITER'S FESTIVAL

The program was in last weekend's Spectrum, but it's just as easy to go online (and infinitely more hygenic than fossicking through the garbage for a week old paper). The festival doesn't kick off till next month, but tickets to some sessions sell exceedingly fast, and the free sessions fill up quickly. It's worth your while to plan ahead and know what days you have to be where (and if you have to be early).

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On the topic of getting inspired and learning from the best,

CONTINUING EDUCATION AT SYDNEY UNIVERSITY

has some fantastic courses running through May. Need to refresh your grammar and punctuation knowledge? Learn how to write better for the web? Polish your copywriting skills? Head to www.cce.usyd.edu.au

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Just because E-Festival has come to a close, doesn't mean our discussions do ...

FORUMS

Our online Creative Writing group continues to happen in the forums. A new topic will go up this week to provoke discussion amongst our readers and writers. If you want to start your own discussion thread, feel free. This forum is an open platform for informative, non-judgemental discussion. If you have topic ideas or questions, then contact the Create Team, otherwise get in there and start talking.

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As usual, we have received some hilarious and innovative responses to the Word of the Week - you guys are getting more and more inventive. A new

WORD OF THE WEEK

has been posted, but things are a little bit different this time. This week, it's not just a word. We've set a couple of guidelines to help you develop your skills. So get to it - respond and submit. Easy as pie.

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And rounding out This Week at Creative, time for a

WRITING TIP

This week's tip comes from David Lodge's The Art of Fiction. When it comes to naming your characters, Lodge has very firm ideas ...

The invention of the word processor has made it easy to change the name of a character at a late stage of composition, just by touching a few keys, but I would have a strong resistance to doing that to any but the most minor character in my fiction. One may hesitate and agonise about the choice of a name, but once made, it becomes inseparable from the character, and to question it seems to throw the whole project en abime, as the deconstructionists say.

Copyright David Lodge, The Art of Fiction, 1993

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As usual, any questions, comments and ideas are to be directed our way, create@vibewire.net

Until next week, much love and luck in writing,

The Create Team