Becoming A Fiction Writer
One girl, one dream … and a whole lot of procrastination
February 13, 2012 by amanda

Amanda’s 2012 reading list

Fiction writing is happening, slowly but surely. More news to come. By the end of 2012 when I add my final book to this reading list, fiction will have been written. I promise. In the meantime, here’s my 2012 reading list so I can keep track of the wonderful works of literature (and the not so wonderful, as the case may be) that I get through this year.

  1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Long, but so worthwhile. Not new. Someone recommended it on Facebook, but as usual I’ve forgotten who. Fantastic narrative about a group of university friends and their rather important secret. Beautifully written, I can’t imagine how someone writes a novel so long but still makes it seem like she has carefully considered every single word.
  2. Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood. I’m often drawn to reading Margaret Atwood’s work purely because she is an interesting and active character on Twitter! Moral Disorder is a collection of loosely-connected short stories. Atwood’s prose continually astounds me because it really is so well put together. I will never be able to write like this so I’m jealous of her.
  3. A Common Loss by Kirsten Tranter. I heard Kirsten Tranter speak last year at the Perth Writers Festival and read her first book, The Legacy, at the time. I enjoyed that one, but A Common Loss is considerably better, in my opinion! Curiously it reminded me a lot of The Secret History since I’d just read it – it also centres on a group of five college friends who have a terrible secret. Yet it’s entirely different at the same time. Excellent book. The only complaint I have is that Kirsten’s an Australian writer but she sets her books in the US. I know she lived there for some time but I feel like it’s a shame (or is it a marketing strategy?).
  4. Paper Towns by John Green. A Young Adult (but on the older side of YA!) novel recommended by someone connected to my YA-writing friend Kristan, I read this while on holidays in Melbourne and found myself contemplating the novel during the day even while I was out sightseeing and having fun! It really stuck in my head, it was a fast-moving, captivating story and the characters were so impressive. I will be reading some more John Green, despite my intention to read mostly female authors this year!
  5. Come Back to Me by Sara Foster.
  6. The Fault in our Stars by John Green.
  7. Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster.
  8. Lowcountry Bribe by C. Hope Clark.
  9. Takeshita Demons by Cristy Burne.
  10. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.

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January 10, 2012 by amanda

What Amanda read in 2011

So, it’s the beginning of 2011, my fiction writing efforts have taken a big dive, and this blog has been terribly neglected – but I will get back on the horse! I’m writing a lot more at the moment (more on that to come but look at 750words.com if you need help too) and have, of course, been reading all this time. I thought the first thing to do is gather all the virtual scraps of paper where I’ve listed my 2011 reading fun and make a definitive list – I’d hate to lose the record of all these great books I’ve read and enjoyed. You’ll have seen the first twenty-odd books listed here before but I thought I’d put them all together for you … so with no further ado …

  1. Twenty-Somewhere by Kristan Hoffman – yes, my writing friend whose blog I closely follow – someone who I know I’m going to be able to say “I knew her before she was famous”. Twenty-Somewhere was also my first ever e-book, read on my new iPad. Oh – before I forget – it’s an episodic, chick-littish read, following three college friends as their lives take different paths in their twenties – lots of fun.
  2. Dexter Is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay. A totally random read for me, I found it on a summer reading list from the local ABC radio, in connection with our upcoming writers festival. A thriller featuring cannibalism, not my normal style at all, but well-written, great story, and, well, totally different! Since I’m aiming to read some different genres this year, I’m glad I read this. Don’t think I’ll go back and read the others in the series, though.
  3. The Still Point by Amy Sackville – I read most of this last year but just finished it off – a story of an Arctic misadventure and its impact a couple of generations later, and a nice enough story but I felt like I knew nearly all about it right from the start and then the book slowly told me not much.
  4. Dancing In The Moonlight by Raeanne Thayne … oh goodness me. In the spirit of expanding my genre experience, and with the thrill of downloading books on the Kindle app on my iPad, I tried a Harlequin romance novel. The reviews said stuff like “not as corny as its title” and “I didn’t even realise it was a romance novel until the end” but … these reviews were wrong. Romance genre experiment officially over.
  5. Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor is an excellent piece of Australian literature, with the same kind of “slice of modern life” feel to it as I got from Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap. If you’re a fan of the other Aussie fiction I like, you’ll like this.
  6. In the Wake by Per Petersen, a Norwegian writer of some note. Haunting, lyrical story. Very readable and lovely.
  7. Heart Songs by Annie Proulx, since she’s coming along to the Perth Writers Festival this year. It’s a short story collection which started out all being about hunting (not really my taste) but ended up being much broader – beautifully written.
  8. The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter, a new Aussie novelist who will also be at the Perth Writers Festival. Bit of a mystery novel, bit of a typical lit fic, definitely enjoyable and nice to see a novel set partly in New York but with an Australian perspective.
  9. Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan (also coming for the Perth Writers Festival) – a novel about a Catholic priest, it had a great beginning, a great ending but for me, a bit of a so-so middle with a hefty chunk of back story that had me skipping through it to “get back to the story”.
  10. Why You Are Australian by Nikki Gemmell – a non-fiction “letter to her children” detailing her trial return to Australia for a few months, trying to decide whether she could live her again after many years as an ex-pat in London. For me, a beautiful homage to what is best about my country and why I wanted to raise a family here and not elsewhere. To the general reader who is either not Australian or hasn’t had an ex-pat life, and doesn’t have children – perhaps less of interest.
  11. Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris of Chocolat fame, though it’s best not to think about that, because the two books couldn’t be more different – yet are both excellent. Blueeyedboy is kind of a mystery/thriller told through online fan-fiction and blog-style entries. Bizarre but excellent.
  12. Wonders of a Godless Worldby Andrew McGahan, one of my favourite Aussie writers. Every book he writes seems totally different, and this was no exception; a vaguely fantasy-style story that’s hard to explain yet a beautiful read. Perhaps my favourite of his?
  13. Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta, a re-read of this YA book I read at least a decade ago, after seeing Melina Marchetta speak at the Perth Writers Festival (ooh, just Wikipedia-ed her and discovered we share the same birthday!). Excellent novel. Vivid and honest about the life of an Aussie-born teenage daughter of immigrants in Sydney, and it says a lot about Australia and our way of life here, both good and bad. With a suitable dose of teenage angst!
  14. Baby Steps: A Bloke’s-Eye View of IVF by Jason Davis – creative non-fiction, which you may recall I decided to put on this list; a fluffy account of a slightly more important subject, but interesting to see a man’s perspective.
  15. The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan is a cross between comedy and crime, lots of fun and with a few interesting plot twists. I think it’s the first in an ongoing series, although I probably didn’t enjoy it quite enough to grab the next one.
  16. The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins, another non-fiction (but well-written) addition to my list. Scary stuff about the pressure teenagers are under to succeed in high school and college life in the United States.
  17. Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta – yes, I had to keep reading her stuff after loving Looking for Alibrandi last month. This YA novel was good, but not great – nowhere near as powerful as her debut.
  18. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood; I haven’t read any of her stuff for ages but since I’ve been following her on Twitter (she’s a real addict – @MargaretAtwood) I felt the need.
  19. The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta, again. This is her newest, and involves the same characters as Saving Francesca, but five years on (and it stands alone as a novel). Heaps better than Saving Francesca in my opinion, excellent in fact, although definitely for the older end of YA or even just for fully-grown adults like me! Great Aussie slice of life.
  20. What is Left Over, After by Natasha Lester, a local writer who I met at the Perth Writers Festival. This novel won the TAG Hungerford award and I can see why it beat mine. A million times better! It’s got a great storyline about a woman suffering from a tragic loss and much of it is set in the south-west of WA.
  21. Land’s Edge by Tim Winton – it’s a memoir, rather than a novel, but is typical Winton – quite mesmerising, especially for a fellow West Aussie like me who can picture the beaches and coastlines he’s talking about. I learnt we grew up in the same Perth suburb, and am hoping that’s a Lucky Thing!
  22. Dead Line by Stella Rimington – another in her Liz Carlyle spy series, and yes the only spy author I read – but she’s authentic! And lovely! And I saw her at the Perth Writers Festival a few years ago. I’ve even got another of hers on my to-read pile right now.
  23. Fall Girl by Toni Jordan – her second, and one I was inspired to read after seeing her at the Perth Writers Festival again. Excellent book, amazing how she got me all sympathetic to this family of con-men (and con-women), so funny with many laugh-out-loud moments and some lovely twists in the plot. Something different to everything else I’ve read lately, so very refreshing!
  24. Avoiding Mr Right by Anita Heiss. I really wanted to *love* this book, because I love the idea of it – urban Aussie chick lit with a strong Aboriginal woman as the protagonist. But unfortunately I just couldn’t get past the chick lit part. It’s just not my genre. If it’s yours, however, then this is an excellent book. If I were a chick lit lover I think the only criticism I’d have is that it reads at times like a guidebook to Melbourne cafes and pubs (not necessarily a bad thing!).
  25. Present Danger by Stella Rimington – yes, another in the Liz Carlyle series, this time caught up in the leftovers of the Northern Ireland conflict. Good but I should have left a bigger gap between reading the previous one and this – it started to all sound a bit the same.
  26. When My Husband Does the Dishes by Kerri Sackville, an Aussie blogger turned published author – this is non-fiction and hilarious, easy for any wife and mother to relate to.
  27. Belly Dancing for Beginners by Liz Byrski – a local writer – and I admit when I started this novel I thought I was not going to like it, as it seemed clearly aimed at women somewhat older than me. Fortunately I read on, and it was a delight. I love books set in Perth (so exciting to know the places!) and the characters here were so lifelike yet so interesting. A great read.
  28. Mosquito Advertising by Kate Hunter – a writer I heard about on Twitter. This is YA and fantastic – a bunch of teenagers who put together an advertising campaign and beat the big-wigs! I think there’s a second one out which I must look up.
  29. Me and Mr Booker by Cory Taylor. It came on my list via the First Tuesday Book Club. And it follows a bored teenager who has an affair with, you guessed it, Mr Booker. Loved it.
  30. Lucy Springer Gets Even by Lisa Heidke. Another writer who came to my attention on Twitter (yes, writers, it’s totally worth you being there if you’re not!). This is chick-lit and not entirely my scene but would be excellent for chick lit lovers.
  31. We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka, the third of hers and both different and similar from the first two – didn’t love it as much but still worth a read.
  32. Undertow by Nicole Lobry-de Bruin, a novel I read because Nicole was about to turn up in my advanced blogging class! (I love meeting proper published novelists!). It’s, as she said, a kind of typical coming of age novel but I thought it was beautifully written and I look forward to Nicole getting back on the novel-writing wagon.
  33. Last Summer by Kylie Ladd. Kylie’s another writer I’ve “met” on Twitter and probably my favourite of all my Twitter discoveries (people or otherwise!). Last Summer is the story of a bunch of friends and what they do when one of them dies – it’s so every day but totally perceptive and beautifully-written. This is the kind of novel I would love to publish myself. One day!
  34. Under Suspicion by The Mulgray Twins. I read this little who-dunnit entirely because I was intrigued by the idea that these twin sister wrote it (and several other books, I believe). They have lived parallel lives (as English teachers) and have lived together the whole time! I’d love to see them writing – it must be a lot of fun for them and that comes across in the book.
  35. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do, a famous Australian comedian and refugee immigrant from Vietnam – it’s tragic and comic all at once, a quick read but a great read, and should be compulsory for all Australians who are concerned about “too many” refugees being allowed to enter Australia.
  36. The Children by Charlotte Wood – would you believe she’s another of my Twitter discoveries? In other words, another female Australian novelist, definitely my favourite kind of writer. The Children looks at a bunch of grown-up kids coming back to their hometown when their father ends up in hospital and it’s brilliant.
  37. The Taliban Shuffle by Kim Barker is non-fiction but well-written and a very interesting tale of Barker’s experiences as a journalist in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
  38. You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead by Marieke Hardy is non-fiction again, a memoir of sorts, a collection of essays by Hardy who is one of my personal Aussie heroes :-)
  39. My Favourite Wife by Tony Parsons is a great novel set in China, following an ex-pat family, I loved it both for the story and for the setting.
  40. Free Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy is, again I’m sorry, non-fiction, but it is on my list because I think every parent in the universe should read it so you will remember to breathe and let your children experience life without wrapping them up in sixty layers of cotton wool.
  41. The Naked Husband by Mark D’Urbanville is chilling. It’s the story of a man who has an affair but it’s told so frantically that I often had to stop reading it. But I had to keep going back to it. It’s hard to explain but it’s really something.
  42. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas was one of my favourite novels the year it came out, and this year the TV series adapted from it was screened for the first time and I just had to re-read it. It’s still great although, for probably the first time in my life, I might actually say that the TV version is even better! It has a few tweaks to the plot which makes it all the more dramatic and effective.
  43. The Submerged Cathedral by Charlotte Wood, yes I have become a big Charlotte Wood fan and am gradually gathering her novels from the library. This one was beautiful though sad and features some fascinating characters.

That’s it (in so far as I can’t find any more virtual scraps of paper in my email account). You’ll see I have an increasing emphasis on female Australian novelists, which I don’t think is a terribly bad thing considering I would like to be one! Stay tuned for some more news of my fiction writing life in the near future … and do feel free to add some reading recommendations for me, or your favourite read of 2011, in the comments below.

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June 17, 2011 by amanda

A reading slump with a writing stint on the horizon

Something happened to me this past month that has not happened to me for a very long time and perhaps even ever. I just wasn’t into reading. As you’ll know I’m usually a pretty prolific reader (considering I don’t get much free time between the small boy and work and the rest of life). At first I thought it was just that I was extra tired (but no, not really), and then that the books on my pile just weren’t really that great, or at least not what I felt like reading. That’s not usually a problem for me – I read wide and varied – but I’ve just come home from the library with a bunch of books that I’m pretty sure I really, really want to read – including a couple of “easy” reads (a YA novel I’ve heard is great, for example) that I’m hoping will get me reading “properly” again, instead of just a couple of pages in bed at night before deciding I’m “too tired”.

That’s one part of my update – and I’m very keen to hear in the comments if you’ve had your own reading slump, and how you got out of it – but the other part is much more positive. I’m starting a short Creative Writing course on Monday! Through Facebook I won a competition run by the Sydney Writers Centre – using this photo to explain how I snatched some little bits of writing time (considering I won’t let the small boy watch TV yet):

… and as a consequence I got a voucher towards the cost of a course. Too good to go to waste, I thought, so I enrolled in their five-week Creative Writing Stage 2 course (online, of course – no Sydney holiday for me!). According to the course blurb it sounds like there’s quite a bit about character development, structuring and scene development, which I’m very keen to think more about. I’m also excited to be doing just a short course (not too much commitment required!) so that I’ll be doing some more regular writing and thinking about writing – I’m sure I’ll find that very motivating, much like when I took part in Sage Cohen’s Poem A Day challenge in January. So keep your fingers crossed for both my reading and writing!

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May 24, 2011 by amanda

Do I hate the sound of my own voice?

Ah, voice. Voice is this slippery elusive weird thing that writers need to be good at. You might recall that I recently summarised my experience at this year’s Perth Writers Festival and concluded above all other points that developing a voice was so essential to fiction writing.

In yet another “the universe throws its stuff at you and you can’t help but notice” moment, voice has been all around me the past week or so. A book-loving friend pointed me in the direction of this rather distressing Christopher Hitchens piece on voice – in which (among sadder parts) he muses on the link between your speaking voice and your writing voice, and again emphasises how important it is to find your voice. A few days later, my writer friend Kristan linked up to a post by screenwriter John August on writing the way you speak which was also inspired by the Christopher Hitchens piece, and said a lot of what I’d been thinking since then, but a bit more eloquently. (So you might as well go and read all that first, then come back. Because I know all you readers have oodles and oodles of free time to go read everything I suggest …!)

So, voice. At the moment, I can’t figure out if I don’t like the fiction I’ve written because it sounds too much like me or not enough like me. How can a writer really read their fiction as if it’s not theirs, and figure out if there’s actually one of these mysterious voices there or not? Putting stuff away in the metaphorical drawer for as long as possible seems to help me a little, but even when I do that and I “enjoy” something I’ve written, I can’t tell you why it works, or what about the chapter or story seems to go together to actually make a “voice”.

Voice works well enough for me (most of the time) when I’m blogging – especially on my travel blog (Not A Ballerina; shameless plug). When I’m blogging I do actually feel like I’m speaking to people, that this is more or less my speaking voice (a bit more casual on my travel blog – like I’m chatting in a hostel, perhaps – and perhaps a touch more formal over here, because fiction writing seems a more academic subject to me). But this is not the voice I want to express in my novels. Or am I trying to be too serious when I write fiction?

… Anyway, I’ve sat on this post for a couple of days, hoping to come to some meaningful conclusions about my fiction writing voice. Alas, I have not. Basically, all I’ve done is identify (for the trillionth time) that voice is important. Whether or not I have a good one remains to be seen. Perhaps the forces of the universe that got me thinking about this topic could actually send me some stuff that resolves it? I will be waiting.

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May 22, 2011 by amanda

Rejection slips and putting your writing out there

You know how sometimes when you need to learn (or often, re-learn) something, it just pops up everywhere? In the last few days various Twitter links and blog posts and even random opening of books here at my desk have talked about rejection, and how writers who have a long list of rejections should actually be pleased – the more rejections you have, the closer you are to being published, etcetera etcetera.

Personally, I didn’t think I had a problem with being rejected. Well, at least, not with my writing being rejected. In most of my more recent work as a blogger, I tend to throw ideas in first and then, although a piece might get a few editorial tweaks, it’s fairly rare that it gets rejected in its entirety, so perhaps I’m a bit out of practice. Before blogging, I used to write articles for travel magazines (print and online) and getting rejected was more common in that process, but perhaps as I was just starting out, it didn’t bother me too much, since I also had enough successes to balance that out.

When I was a kid, I used to submit my fiction writing to a few kids’ magazines here in Australia and had a few published, too. The only rejection slip that ever bothered me was for a story I’d written at school aged about ten which had to be titled “The last bar on the cage gave way”. I wrote a piece about the last bar of the metaphorical cage of living at home with your parents, about a girl who was about to move out and live with a friend from university. (Obviously ignoring the advice of “write what you know”!) When the story was returned by the magazine, rejected, the editor had written this helpful response: “How terrible! I hope that never happens in real life!” To me, that was the worst rejection ever. To not even read it! But to pretend they had! I was mortified.

So, that’s my personal history on rejection, in a nutshell. It’s made me realise that perhaps I am a teeny-tiny bit reluctant to have my fiction writing rejected. Because I don’t put it out there. I have a bunch of semi-decent short stories that I could, if I wanted, ship around to some small-time magazines and websites. It would be good experience, to polish them a bit, to get some feedback, to possibly get some more recent fiction publication credits than the Puffin magazine, 1986. Is it really just that I don’t have time to do this, or am I actually scared of having my fiction rejected? It’s certainly a lot more personal to have your fiction rejected than your travel articles. I think I might have to take the plunge.

(Interestingly, I have no problem with putting my fiction into competitions. I understand and accept that there can only be two or three winners, and not being a winner doesn’t dent my confidence the way a rejection slip might. Hmm, double standards!)

What’s your experience with rejections? Do they bother you more than you care to admit (like me!)? Do share … I’m off to examine my folder of short stories and find something to do with them.

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May 3, 2011 by amanda

April 2011 reading list, and how I read up a storm

First up, the quick answer to how I’ve been getting so much reading done lately: I’ve been doing a lot less writing. Sad but true, perhaps. A fellow new-ish mother commented last month that she couldn’t understand how I’d had time to read four books in a month – well, this month I’ve scarily doubled that, and one of my secrets is that I cook with a book in my other hand (and not a cook book!). It also helped this month that we had a five-day weekend with the Easter and Anzac Day holidays. But anyway, without further ado, my April reading list is as follows:

  1. The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan is a cross between comedy and crime, lots of fun and with a few interesting plot twists. I think it’s the first in an ongoing series, although I probably didn’t enjoy it quite enough to grab the next one.
  2. The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins, another non-fiction (but well-written) addition to my list. Scary stuff about the pressure teenagers are under to succeed in high school and college life in the United States.
  3. Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta – yes, I had to keep reading her stuff after loving Looking for Alibrandi last month. This YA novel was good, but not great – nowhere near as powerful as her debut.
  4. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood; I haven’t read any of her stuff for ages but since I’ve been following her on Twitter (she’s a real addict – @MargaretAtwood) I felt the need. This was very well written but a little depressing, perhaps.
  5. The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta, again. This is her newest, and involves the same characters as Saving Francesca, but five years on (and it stands alone as a novel). Heaps better than Saving Francesca in my opinion, excellent in fact, although definitely for the older end of YA or even just for fully-grown adults like me! Great Aussie slice of life.
  6. What is Left Over, After by Natasha Lester, a local writer who I met at the Perth Writers Festival. This novel won the TAG Hungerford award and I can see why it beat mine. A million times better! It’s got a great storyline about a woman suffering from a tragic loss and much of it is set in the south-west of WA.
  7. Land’s Edge by Tim Winton – it’s a memoir, rather than a novel, but is typical Winton – quite mesmerising, especially for a fellow West Aussie like me who can picture the beaches and coastlines he’s talking about. I learnt we grew up in the same Perth suburb, and am hoping that’s a Lucky Thing! My only criticism is it was a little on the short side.
  8. Dead Line by Stella Rimington – another in her Liz Carlyle spy series, and yes the only spy author I read – but she’s authentic! And lovely! And I saw her at the Perth Writers Festival a few years ago. I’ve even got another of hers on my to-read pile right now.

The Piper’s Son was excellent and was looking set to make Melina Marchetta the twice-in-a-row winner of my book of the month award but then circumstances had me picking up Natasha Lester’s book from my “read-sometime” pile (all my due-back-soon library books were at the far end of the house and I didn’t want to wake up my little boy by retrieving one). What is Left Over, After then won me over – beautiful characters, a captivating and relevant storyline and a local setting, and great writing. I’m not just saying that because Natasha might read this!

And finally, let me give you my monthly writing update. I’m hoping that voracious reading is a precursor to unstoppable writing; but I actually have made some progress, getting out my third novel idea (the one I refer to as “the Trans-Siberian one”) and doing some really detailed outlining. It seems that with each novel, my planning process gets more and more detailed and I think and hope that will lead to a better quality output! I also think it’s more necessary as I’m needing to write in short, interrupted bursts (thanks to life with the small boy) rather than the long, luxurious days of my first novel manuscript where I could easily write for a few hours at a time without even shifting the position of my bottom. (Hmm, no wonder I need so many physio visits now.) It’s early days but the planning is exciting me, and the idea of writing when I actually know what to write is exciting me too, because I’m hoping that will give me more brain space to make the writing beautiful. Fingers crossed.

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April 25, 2011 by amanda

Two posts writers must read (especially Aussie or female ones!)

I’ll clear the air straight out and admit I haven’t been writing much fiction recently. But I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and a lot of paid non-fiction writing, and a heap of Facebooking and Twittering and blogging both paid and unpaid. And the latter led me to these two super-fantastic pieces of the internet which I really feel the need to share!

First up is something that you might have already seen, as it’s really been doing the rounds of the “creative types” (I try to include myself here …), but if not then go now: How to Steal Like an Artist from Austin Kleon. The subtitle is “And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me”, and basically it’s a summary of a presentation he made to college students, so it’s along the lines of things he wished he’d known back in college. My blurb does not do it justice at all. It’s inspiring and for me in particular, the big gems are:

An artist is a collector … your job is to collect ideas. The best way to collect ideas is to read. Read, read, read, read, read.

Oh, and importantly he reminds us that you should read good stuff – otherwise “garbage in, garbage out”. He also talks about “impostor syndrome” (something I discussed often with some colleagues back in my university working days) – how many educated people don’t believe they are any good at what they do, that they’re just “faking it”, and although I’d never thought of applying that to my writing, it’s 100% true.

Pretty much everything Kleon says is worth repeating but I’ll just grab two more points: “Use your hands” (don’t spend every moment typing!) and “Side hobbies are important” – so true, and something I always try to make time for. There are all kinds of other useful insights so I highly recommend it.

Secondly, Bianca at the bigwords blog put up an utterly fantastic post this week about her four new mentors – four Australian writers who I also “know” through Twitter, and who prove that becoming a published writer can be done at the same time as being friendly, interactive, busy, messy, clean, inspiring, and usually even normal. While the ultra-inspirational effect is probably best for women (and especially for Australians, as we are sometimes not so good at believing we can “make it” in the world of writing!), I think there’s something in it for everyone.

For me, some of the most salient points included the advice that Lisa Heidke got not to rush getting published – that the average time for a writer who’s not going to crash and burn to go from starting to write a manuscript to publication is ten years. That still gives me a few years’ grace! Anita Heiss (amongst excellent serious advice) mentioned that chocolate is part of her writing routine and of course, it would be remiss of me not to adopt advice from published experts. Kylie Ladd talked about starting to write fiction with two young kids at home and therefore not having the time to have writer’s block, and it reminded me of Natasha Lester saying something similar; giving me hope that I still can get more fiction writing done even with the small boy around. And Kerri Sackville compared the urge to write to the urge to eat chocolate cake, something I also have to agree with.

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April 8, 2011 by amanda

March reading list and a Becoming A Fiction Writer update

“Hisashiburi,” as they say in Japan, “long time no see!” Let’s start with my reading list for the month just gone … during March I managed to read just four books:

  1. Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris of Chocolat fame, though it’s best not to think about that, because the two books couldn’t be more different – yet are both excellent. Blueeyedboy is kind of a mystery/thriller told through online fan-fiction and blog-style entries. Bizarre but excellent.
  2. Wonders of a Godless Worldby Andrew McGahan, one of my favourite Aussie writers. Every book he writes seems totally different, and this was no exception; a vaguely fantasy-style story that’s hard to explain yet a beautiful read. Perhaps my favourite of his?
  3. Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta, a re-read of this YA book I read at least a decade ago, after seeing Melina Marchetta speak at the Perth Writers Festival (ooh, just Wikipedia-ed her and discovered we share the same birthday!). Excellent novel. Vivid and honest about the life of an Aussie-born teenage daughter of immigrants in Sydney, and it says a lot about Australia and our way of life here, both good and bad. With a suitable dose of teenage angst!
  4. Baby Steps: A Bloke’s-Eye View of IVF by Jason Davis – creative non-fiction, which you may recall I decided to put on this list; a fluffy account of a slightly more important subject, but interesting to see a man’s perspective.

It’s pretty close but I think I have to say that Looking for Alibrandi wins my book of the month title – as a piece of Young Adult fiction it’s pretty much perfect, I think, and the different (highly relevant) themes it raises about growing up in Australia are not only interesting but also pretty important. I’m going back now to read the rest of Melina Marchetta’s novels, because everything she said at the Perth Writers Festival just made me want to run out of the room to get her books to read (fortunately I stayed put and heard more interesting stuff!).

So, what about your fiction writing, Amanda, I hear you ask? After such a procrastination-free start to the year, my little tagline up there (One girl, one dream … and a whole lot of procrastination) has come true again. Hmm, probably I should change it! I haven’t even been happy with the Becoming A Fiction Writer website and if you’re reading this via RSS you should know that I’ve gone back to a really basic WordPress template while I think about how to redesign it (no need to click through to look!).

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, there are a few issues, the most significant one of which is time – although I met Natasha Lester at the Perth Writers Festival who is now a published author and wrote her novel (and the next one) with small children. She did say, though, that she was a real stickler for routine and wrote whenever the kids were asleep, something I also tend to do but I then write stuff that I “have to” write to pay the mortgage. Procrastination, minor illness, disorganisation, distraction, and so on and so forth, these are the other things that are stopping me. I’ll get there, I’m sure, I just need to work myself round to a smart routine and some super-high motivation and then I’ll be writing again. Stay tuned!

Oh, and if anyone has a fantastic idea for the kind of template that would just fit my blog perfectly, do tell me.

Permalink | Posted in Goals and Motivation, Reading Fiction | 6 Comments »

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March 15, 2011 by amanda

Meeting your writing heroes – and speaking to them!

Like many writers, I can be a bit on the shy side. Now, some of you who know me personally might think I’m telling porkies, but it’s really true. If I’m teaching or training then that’s not a problem, and I’ve certainly got a lot less shy over the years, but the one thing that had eluded me until recently was the ability to go up and talk to famous people!

I’m not talking rock stars or presidents or anyone like that, because I’m sure I still wouldn’t have the guts to talk to them, but I have finally become just a little bit better at speaking to writers – who seem more like real people than weirdo celebrities, right?!

It all began very soon after the birth of my little boy, almost a year ago. My teenage-era hero, Australian journalist Jana Wendt, was coming to Perth to launch a book and there was an event scheduled right close to me. Problem was, I would most likely still be in hospital, or be nine and a half months pregnant and waiting. But (helpfully) my little boy arrived ten days early and so when the Jana Wendt event date rolled around, I decided to go. It was my first boy-less excursion and it was rather weird, but I really wanted to make the most of it. Knowing I had to get home quick-smart after the event finished (as my little one would probably be screaming the house down by then), I raced out of the lecture hall, bought her book and was third in line at the signing table.

Not content just to get my book signed, I willed myself to be brave enough to have a conversation. I blathered about how she’d been my hero as a teenager and I’d wanted to be a journalist because of her (her answer was something like she was sorry to hear that!), and I tell you, I was immensely proud of myself. And it seems this was the beginning of a new confidence.

At the recent Perth Writers Festival, I spoke to several authors after their presentations or events (at the very tent pictured above). Carmel Bird, an Aussie writing icon, and someone whose books have been sitting on my bookshelf forever, was just a normal person who liked the name of my son. Speaking with Natasha Lester, a local first-time novelist, reinforced for me that writers are ordinary people just like me, and that means that I could actually do it too. The only hero I didn’t get to meet was Ramona Koval – you’ve heard me rave about her ABC radio programme, The Book Show, before, and I sat enthralled through her role-reversal interview, but unfortunately I had a first birthday party (for a group of babies, mine included!) to dash to – I was already an hour and a half late, since I’d decided I couldn’t bear to miss seeing Ramona LIVE! I’ll just have to keep an eye out for another opportunity there – at least I know I’m brave enough already.

So my question for you: who’s the writing hero you’d love to meet? And are you brave enough to speak to them? Let me know in the comments.

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Permalink | Posted in Headline, Inspiration for Writers, The Book Show, Writers' Festivals | 2 Comments »

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March 10, 2011 by amanda

Revisiting the idea of studying creative writing …

A few years ago I mused on studying creative writing at university. I didn’t – I have to confess, I studied mathematics! – and I’ve often wondered if I should. In recent years the main reasons I haven’t have largely been cost (post-graduate study doesn’t come too cheap in Australia these days) and time. But of late several friends of mine have taken up both postgraduate and undergraduate creative writing studies and hearing of how much they enjoy it has got me wondering about it. Again!

At the Perth Writers Festival, quite a few writers I heard speak (particularly, it would seem, women of around my age who are now published novelists) had studied creative writing at postgraduate level. And some of the publishers I heard speak, when asked how they picked up new books beyond just agents and (rarely) the slush pile, mentioned that they quite often had manuscripts referred to them from university lecturers who recommended some of their students. So, as you can imagine, I was leaning back towards the “maybe I should study …” camp.

Until agent Lyn Tranter came on the stage and said, admitting that universities hated her for saying this:

Creative writing courses are cash cows for the universities.

Apologies to Lyn for quoting her on this but it really rang true for me. Having always had an interest in university courses (I did work at universities for years, remember), I’ve certainly noticed a dramatic increase in the number of creative writing courses being offered. There must be several thousand Australians doing a Masters in Creative Writing right this minute, or perhaps even more (I know three of them without even thinking longer than a second!). Obviously, not all of these prospective writers are going to go on and get published (except my friends, of course! Their books will adorn my bookshelves any day now).

I have no doubt that I could learn heaps from a creative writing course. More than anything, it would make me write more frequently. And for me, that’s the point. I do believe that practice makes perfect, along with some input on technique (I read books and follow websites to help with this), and then do lots of reading and lots of writing. I’ve come to the conclusion that’s a better use of my time for me than studying. But – there’s still a niggling voice in my head wondering if I’m wrong. So, writing friends, to study or not to study? Please, PLEASE tell me your experiences in the comments.

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Permalink | Posted in Writing Fiction | 6 Comments »

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