Swinburne Writers Festival opened yesterday with a symposium on Teaching Writing and Editing in collaboration between Swinburne University of Technology and The Wheeler Centre.  One of the Festival’s largest panels – What Makes a Good Story – brought together Dr Carolyn Beasley , Dr Jacqueline Ross and Larry Schwartz , and was moderated by Nicholas  Brasch . The panel also featured a ‘mystery guest’ volunteer from the audience (this was a nice touch). The panel was gender and genre balanced.  Nicholas led the discussion before inviting further questions from the audience.  Here are some insights I took away from the panel – arranged by the questions the panellists were asked.     What film/book would you take with you to an uninhabited island? Both Carolyn and Larry would take either a ‘How To Build A Boat’ or ‘How To Survive on a Deserted Island’ volume with them, because they do not wish to stay on this island forever. Se...