After I finished my Bachelor’s degree I went onto do my master’s degree in Writing and Literature at Deakin University. This was such a wonderful time and I learnt so much.

With a love of journalism but also a love of stories, literature and fiction writing I thought this would be the perfect way to grow my skills and get more experience, truly become a writer. Professionally, I felt like the course gave me everything I wanted and more but it also gave me something wonderful too in a personal sense. A likeminded, visionary friend and colleague whose name was Mari Nilssen.

It was a wonderful experience – to meet someone as passionate as writing as I was. To talk about the importance of stories and how we could genuinely try to change the world together for hours at a time, Mari and I discovered that we shared a lot of visions regarding writing and stories.

We started Stories of Geelong as a way of showcasing news in our region in a “literary journalism” style of storytelling. We had read Helen Garner, Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson in journalism studies and were influenced by the idea that you could mix the convention of journalism with literary devices.

We each wrote for the blog and worked with other  contributors who published on the site. I enjoyed that experience: giving editorial feedback and guiding writers towards the Stories of Geelong style.

Time marched on and today Stories of Geelong is not something either of us write for. We are both busy and feel that season has ended but who knows, perhaps Stories of Geelong will be revitalised one day as an active blog.

For what Stories of Geelong achieved for me personally: journalism experience, editing experience and a vision bought to life I am proud. You can read my work for yourself at http://www.storiesofgeelong.wordpress.com