Learn how to write your own story
Whilst we are no longer accepting postcard submissions, we welcome you to check out past lessons below! Thank you to everyone who participated and supported our Wish You Were Here! Postcards from future Queensland project. You can read some of our favourite submissions here.
[Previous Lessons] Lesson 1: One week after lockdown
Lockdown has finally ended! Your town or suburb has organised a community celebration. Describe it as though you are there.
This is the day we’ve been waiting for. The celebration can be anything: a wild street party, a sober memorial for lives lost, or something else altogether that suits your locality and your interests. Put yourself in the frame and imagine what is happening around you. Remember to use all your senses! What can you see? Hear? Smell? Is it day or night? Sunny or rainy? Crowded or sparse? And most importantly, how does it make you feel?
Watch the video below for Kim’s tips on how to complete this challenge!
You can also read lesson one here.
[Previous Lessons] Lesson 2: One year after lockdown
Write a short scene about unboxing—or unwrapping!—a brilliant, new piece of technology that will change your life for the better.
In this challenge, we want you to think about all the ways technology might have an impact on your life in the coming years! A great way to get started is to think about a problem you have now. Keeping yourself busy? Keeping healthy? Playing games? Making food? Talking to your friends? Getting around? What would make your life better? Don’t worry so much about describing exactly how it works (though you can if you want!). Just work on getting across how it will absolutely change your life--or the world!
Watch the video below for Helen's tips on how to complete this challenge!
You can also read lesson two here.
[Previous Lessons] Lesson 3: Two years after lockdown
You’re on a first date and you get chatting about what positive changes you’ve seen in society since the lockdown.
This challenge gets you to think about the ways people agree or disagree about the way the world has changed. Making it happen on the first date adds a layer of caution and awkwardness: you’re both trying to make the other like you! But are you political soulmates, or destined for a life of endless debate? For this challenge, just use dialogue. No speaker attributions (he said, she said), and no description of the environment.
Watch the video below for Kim's tips on how to complete this challenge!
You can also read lesson three here.
[Previous Lessons] Lesson 4: Three years after lockdown
Write a tourist guide to your hometown, pointing out your favourite new local landmarks.
In this challenge you’re going to imagine how things have changed where you live! You may want to do a little research to help you get started. So look up your town on Google maps or maybe dig into some local history. Pay particular attention to geography. What makes your home special? Are there local beauty spots? Could there be new ones? What about shops, bridges, statues, monuments, and churches? What kind of Taj Mahal could you dream up for Townsville or Toowoomba? Now write it up using lush and vivid language!
Watch the video below for Helen's tips on how to complete this challenge!
You can also read lesson four here.
[Previous Lessons] Lesson 5: The Last Assignment
Write a postcard to your present self from your future self! Include three pieces of advice and one warning.
In this challenge you’re going to focus on character—and that character is you, in the future! Time travel is a thing now and you’ve got the opportunity to write a letter back to yourself in lockdown. Think about your hopes and your dreams and your fears now--and how they might have changed in five years time. Think about all the strange and wonderful and sometimes sad or dangerous things that may have you happened to you along the way to shape who you will become. And then think about what you’d want to tell yourself now to help you become that person.
Watch the video below for Kim's tips on how to complete our final challenge!