He walks into the room, and nobody looks up. If it weren’t for the assistant scurrying behind him, projector in hand, you would never know that he is the man at the helm of the Travel Writing Workshop. Outside, the cool morning light filters through the trees, the water laps at the shore, and people of all ages are bustling around with notepads, eager to soak up the knowledge of authors and editors from Australia, East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore… Welcome to Wordstorm, the NT Writers’ Festival of 2008.

Wordstorm is an annual, four-day event, and this year centered around current issues in the Northern Territory – including the Prime Minister’s apology to the Stolen Generation, the Federal intervention in NT Indigenous communities, the turmoil in Timor-Leste, and the passing of Indonesia's ex-President Suharto. More than 50 writers have traveled to the Territory’s capital to participate in a number of panels, workshops and social events, including Charles Firth, Ursula Dubosarsky, William McInnes, Anita Heiss, Patti Miller, and Dorothy Porter.

Amongst them is Ian Connellan, a Sydney-based writer who is the current editor of Australian Geographic, co-author of numerous Lonely Planet cycle-touring and walking guides, occasional photographer – and at Wordstorm, the Travel Writing Workshop presenter.

With an Undergraduate degree in History and Literature, and a Post-Graduate degree in Professional Writing, Connellan is not what you would pick as a stereotypical editor.

Dressed in a black t-shirt and shorts (which in the Territory is almost a sin – think of the heat his clothes must absorb!), Ian is warm, animated, and friendly - and if truth be told, he is so passionate about writing and educating others, he could “talk under wet cement.” Readily admitting that it is “going to sound daggy” he “really likes mentoring people, and thinks it’s very important.”

The Australian Geographic editor admits his surprise at walking in to find a room full of people, eyes staring up at him, hoping to magically absorb some of his success by the process of osmosis. He discloses that he has no teaching experience, and is in fact rather nervous about speaking to the masses, but he needn’t have worried – his workshop was sold out. He captivates the entire room, engaging all in conversation, divulging secrets of the travel writing industry, seemingly thrilled to be in what he calls the “thong and sandal capital of the world.”

And what does Connellan not leave home without? His camera, iPod with microphone attachment – good to catch that “great conversation (with the locals) midway through the fifth drink” – and, something you’ve probably never considered, waterproof notepaper.

He describes the editing tool in Word as an “instrument of the devil,” advising, while wiggling his eyebrows, that “unless you have a critical partner… which fortunately I do,” it is important to have an impartial person who can read over your musings before you go about submitting them to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the industry, and to avoid using clichés.

His advice to would-be-travel-writers is to avoid “obvious destinations, such as Paris, London, Uluru, Beijing, and Tokyo, for example”, to be “low maintenance, and prepared to sleep in a tent,” and to be ready to take off at a moment’s notice. He recommends subscribing to tools such as ‘Word of the Day’ on websites like dictionary.com, and to make a genuine effort to get published. Finally – “don’t be afraid of being told ‘no’ – journalists need to have thick skin.”

Travel writing wasn’t the only workshop on offer – other workshops included ‘So You Want to be an Author’ and ‘Professional Issues for Writers,’ both with Jeremy Fisher, and ‘Writing Across Media,’ with Deepika Shetty.

Terri Janke, Jo Dutton, Alice Garner and William McInnes took the ferry across the bay to the Mandorah jetty for wine, fresh-oysters and a spot of fishing, and Gayle Kennedy, Barry Jonsberg, Terry Whitebeach and Ursula Dubosarsky discussed “sex, swearing and playground punch-ups” in their panel on writing Young Adult Fiction.

Children from the age of 3 years were catered for in ‘Kim’s Cubby’, which was named in honour of the NT children’s author, Kim Caraher, where they were read to, and guided in their own writing and illustration. 

Wordstorm went out with a bang, on Sunday 18th May, when the Territory’s Megan Spencer interviewed The Chaser’s foreign correspondent, Charles Firth.

The beer and wine flowed freely in the evening, and the amphitheatre hummed with conversation, as a mix of those barefoot in sarongs and singlets, amongst others in heels, suits and pearls, listened to Firth’s (presumably) drunken slurs of life as a “gonzo journalist.” His current mission in life is to “shake George W. Bush’s hand,” and give him a “good job, mate,” with the opinion that “Bush doesn’t understand sarcasm.”

As conversation eventually comes to a close, so too, does another year’s Wordstorm.

Image provided by Kahlee Rose