Ever wanted to ask questions directly to a publisher? Hachette Australia’s “Ask the publisher” initiative will give you the chance to do just that. It will take place each Friday between 3pm-4pm (Sydney time) on Twitter. Just tweet @HachetteAus and include the hashtag #askHAU. Then one of Hachette’s publishers will chat
Recently we had a chat with writer and children’s author Susanne Gervay about her new picture book curiously titled Elephants Have Wings. It turns out that it’s not an exposé of little-known mammal anatomy, but a rather more spiritual journey… Hi there Susan. Perhaps before we start, we need to
Every successful author has a first novel – the one that started it all and paved the way for what followed. Fortunes may shift up and down, but you are a first-time novelist just once. And like many other ‘first times’, there’s often a story to be told. Here’s Nick
One of the great pleasures of writing a fantasy novel is creating the secondary world in which your story will inhabit. In the contemporary fiction genre, the writer knows the religious, political, historical, and cultural background of the society already A fantasy writer must construct the society from the very
No, that headline has nothing to do with an unfortunate sun-tanning incident. It is in fact in reference to a recent interview on our top-rating So you want to be a writer podcast. Each week the podcast features a regular ‘Writer in Residence’ segment. In episode 48, Valerie Khoo spoke
When you are a writer, you meet a lot of people who want to be writing. The guy in my local cafe has a fantasy novel that he’s been researching for about seven years. A friend of mine has been working on a novel for 20 years. The beautiful girl
Our top-rating podcast So you want to be a writer features a regular ‘Writer in Residence’ segment – where an author, editor or other industry professional has a chat with either one of our awesome presenters, Allison Tait and Valerie Khoo. In episode 25, Allison spoke to Liane Moriarty, whose fifth
It’s tempting to think that to write a book you need a shiny new laptop, or to indulge your love of stationery by buying a brand new notebook or pen, or a book about the craft of writing that will reveal all of the secrets of being a writer. But
Writing is an art, which means it is mysterious. It rises from the deep bog of our subconscious and is guided by impulse and intuition and imagination. However, writing is also a craft. A writer must learn how to shape and control the artistic impulse, to bring logic and structure
Charlotte Wood has been described as one of the most intelligent and compassionate novelists in Australia. She writes fiction and non-fiction and has been short-listed and long-listed for several prestigious prizes, winning the People’s Choice Medal in the 2013 New South Wales Premiers Literary Awards for her last novel, Animal People.
A confession: I never have a plan when I sit down to write a new book. And that is the most liberating thing, once you get over the fear of not knowing where you’re headed. All you need is one idea for one scene. One idea. Simple right? How ideas fit
Saggy Middle Syndrome. We all know what it is. A novel that starts brilliantly well – vivid, intriguing and compelling – yet somehow, around the middle of the book, you find yourself beginning to yawn. You check the pages to see how many are left before the end of the
Bernadette Foley has worked as an editor and publisher in the Australian publishing industry for over 25 years. Her career had also taken her to New York to work with the Penguin Putnam publishing company. She has spoken at writers’ festivals and conducted editing and writing workshops around the country.
2015 is set to be an exciting year for Lisa Chaplin, Australian Writers’ Centre graduate and author of The Tide Watchers – to be released in June. Not that the years that have come before have been particularly dull. We asked Lisa some questions recently, and here’s what she had to say…
At the new year, there was a quote doing the rounds. It went something along the lines of “today is the first page of a 365 page book – make it a great one.” (Hang on, hasn’t that just described a diary?) Anyway, after clicking “like”, I started wondering just
One of the key concepts any writer needs to understand is “Show, don’t tell”. If you haven’t already read our explanation of this, check it out here. For many, this explanation just clicks. But let’s recap. “Telling” is like a statement of fact. Here’s a “telling” sentence: John was bored.
Dialogue can be one of the most challenging parts of the writing process. It takes skill to write dialogue that is convincing and which takes your reader on a seamless journey through your story. When you’re writing direct dialogue (the exact words spoken) here are some important factors to consider:
There’s a famous saying in the world of writing that you need to be able to “kill your darlings”. What’s that all about? And what “darlings” should you be killing? In everything you write, you have to ask yourself, “am I moving forwards, am I taking my reader closer to
American writer Kurt Vonnegut is well known for his books Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions. His musings on the writing process are well documented and shared. We love this excerpt from a lecture he gave on “The Shapes of Stories” (4:37). You’ll never look at Cinderella the same
Kylie Ladd is a novelist and freelance writer and part-time neuro-psychologist. So, the usual mix then. Her previous three books have all gone gangbusters – picking up many accolades along the way. She spoke with Allison Tait recently for our podcast “So you want to be a writer”. They discussed
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