Think about whether you want to write a story that’s driven by your characters or your plot. ‘Character-driven’ stories are those where the action is not predetermined, but grows out of the character’s traits – their needs, their insecurities, their desires, their fears. Most literary novels are character-driven. So are
Robert Hollingsworth is the author of The Colour of the Night. Robert, pop your coffee down for a moment and sum up the book in 105 words or fewer. “This story is a gentle rumination on the relationship – and distance – between nature and culture. In a wired world,
It’s not just new writers who find worth in an Australian Writers’ Centre course. Elizabeth Farrelly is one of Australia’s most respected journalists and columnists, but when she stepped outside her usual writing realm, she sought specific industry advice from the Australian Writers’ Centre to help her write and publish
Nick Earls is author of 13 novels, across the past two decades – known primarily for their quirky humour. In a recent episode of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, Allison Tait had a long chat with Nick about his writing process and his views on
Aha, there you are Eva Novy – sitting in your circle-shaped chair all relaxified. And wow, check out the cover of your debut book, Darling, Impossible! – great name by the way. We are certain that every writer currently glancing at the cover wishes they were sitting at that gorgeous
Why write a novel, when you can write an interactive novel? That was the challenge for author Annabel Smith in her latest venture – a digital interactive novel and app called The Ark. This is Annabel’s third book, but the experience was completely different to what had come before. So
Recently we spoke with Joanna Penn – author, speaker and entrepreneur. She writes thrillers under the name JF Penn and uses her actual name for her non-fiction blog books on writing and entrepreneurship. She’s also runs the super popular Creative Penn website and is in high demand around the globe
Allison Tait is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, magazine features, blog posts and is also a co-host on our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer. Usually she’s the one asking the questions, but today – following last month’s launch of the first book in her new series,
Judith Rossell is an uber-talented writer and illustrator of children’s books, as well as being a presenter for our Writing Picture Books course in Melbourne. Her latest book, Withering-by-Sea, is launching this month so we asked her to paint us a picture of what it’s all about. Once she’d finished
You know that feeling you get when you see an email telling you that you’ve won three million euros? That little moment between reading the subject line and realising that you don’t actually have a prince for a nephew, but you think “oh my god I’ve won three million euros!”? We get
Karen M Davis is an ex-cop who took on writing and smashed it with her first novel, Sinister Intent – released in 2013. Now her second book is out, and Karen recently spoke to us about Deadly Obsession and her approach to writing. Hi Karen, tell us about Deadly Obsession,
Last week, Fiona McFarlane’s The Night Guest was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, adding to the long list of accolades already this year for this debut novel. We thought it would be a good opportunity to share some gems from our podcast interview with
Recently we locked Deborah Rodriguez, author of The House on Carnaval Street, in a padded room and yelled questions at her through an intercom. Okay, some of that isn’t true, but the author and question bit are. And most of her adventures are usually crazier than that anyway. Here’s how
If you Google ‘CM Lance’, you’ll actually find two writers – one is a male who lives in the U.S. and writes about wizards, and the other is a female Australian author. She has been an astronomer, a Unix computer specialist and now a novelist (so, just the usual career
“There’s a story here. There’s definitely a story here.” That was Jennifer Smart’s hunch, having worked behind the screens in film and television for many years, including five years on Home and Away. And she was in a position to know – having even penned two scripts of the hit
In episode 15 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, Allison Tait spoke with two authors at the same time: Kim Wilkins and Kimberley Freeman. But rather than talk over each other, it was all very orderly. That’s because it was the same person. Dr Kim
Laura Greaves’ Facebook page name says: “Laura Greaves Writes Books”. And actually, it’s pretty appropriate because she says that’s all that she has ever wanted to do. Her latest book is Be My Baby and we thought we’d sit her down and ask her precisely nine questions about that with
A few weeks back, we spoke with established author Elizabeth Farrelly on the release of her first young fiction book, Caro Was Here. Elizabeth completed a course at Australian Writers’ Centre that provided inspiration for this one, and she chats about that and the book right here… So, tell us
Earlier this year, in episode 4 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, we spoke with internationally published author Allison Rushby.
Now, many writers begin self-publishing and end up with a traditional publishing book deal. However, Allison has done it the other way round – choosing after 14 years as an author to self-publish for the first time this year when the rights to four of her earlier books reverted to her. Then, on a roll, she chose to self-publish her new young adult novel, Being Hartley, at the same time.
Allison provided some valuable insights into the relative strengths of both of these two publishing methods, and writing in general – which we have summarised here.
If you think that manuscripts are judged solely on the merit of the story alone, we think you should be sitting down for this next paragraph.
It doesn’t matter how many on-trend zeitgeist-welding hipsters your story possesses, if a manuscript offends in some other way, it may never be read. We’re talking about things that distract a reader from delving any further.
You see, for editors, it’s hard work wading through countless manuscripts each week. And your goal as a writer is to not make that job any harder!
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