Newswrite
i s s u e 1 9 5 | F E B RUA RY / M A R C H 2 0 1 1 |
ISBN 1039-7531
Angela Meyer contacts an old pen-pal in a bid to bring back the art of letter-writing
Writer on writer: Melissa Lucashenko falls hook, line and sinker for Helen Garner
Sam Twyford-Moore on the fragile connections between writing, identity and depression
Kim Powell does news with nipples: blogging on the media-saturated world
You’ve finished drafting and polishing your
manuscript. So what happens next?
A DECENT PROPOSAL
How to sell your book to an Australian
publisher or literary agent
fully revised third edition
By Rhonda Whitton and Sheila Hollingworth
Based on an industry-wide survey and using successful book
proposals as examples, A Decent Proposal introduces the
techniques required to develop a proposal that will satisfy
(yes, and even excite) an Australian publisher or literary agent.
A DECENT
PROPOSAL
How to sell your book to an Australian
publisher or literary agent
Paperback $29.95 - isbn 9780975208328
Digital (PDF or epub) $19.95 - isbn 9780975208335
available february 2011
Rhonda Whitton
Sheila Hollingworth
Third edition
www.asauthors.org
Newswrite
Editorial BY KIRSTEN KRAUTH
hysical and mental illness can have profound
effects on being a writer: the weary body, the
incessant thoughts, the sleepless nights, the
procrastination. Many writers first learn their craft
early on while in bed as children, sick, reading voraciously,
penning their first short stories or poems. Sitting behind a
desk all day can have its drawbacks too: RSI, a sore back,
headaches from staring at a screen all day. It’s no wonder that
many writers swear by the daily walk, swim or yoga as a way
of heading off writer’s block, of reinvigorating their ideas, of
giving the connections the space to come. So often creativity
arrives when the brain seems switched off, teasing us, when
we’re relaxed and not tackling things head-on.
P
The impact of mental illness on writing is a topic that’s
generating much discussion. James Bradley started it off with
an eloquently personal piece in Griffith Review about his own
experience of depression and how it’s affected his writing
(and life in general); and Sam Twyford-Moore’s article for this
issue continues with the theme. As so many writers (especially
poets) experience depression (and mania) in their lives, he
asks whether it’s the writing itself that causes the illness or
whether the nature of the illness draws people to forms of
creative expression like writing. He outlines his own strategies
for coping and battles his own relentlessly high expectations
of what it means to be a writer.
Beth Sometimes, author and illustrator, FROM SOMETIMES LOVE BETH, features in Angela
Meyer’s article ‘Bringing the Letter Back’. See page 4.
IN THIS ISSUE
News from the Centre Writer on Writer 2
3
Melissa Lucashenko falls hook, line and sinker
for Helen Garner
Bringing Back the Art of Letter-Writing 4
Angela Meyer contacts an old pen-pal
Don’t Get Me Down
6
Sam Twyford-Moore on the fragile connections between
writing, identity and depression
Writing for Kids and Young Adults
Centre Information and Services
Courses at the Centre: February–June 2011
News with Nipples: Kim Powell
What is a Vook?: Linda Carroli
Around the State
First-timer: Van Badham on her novel Burnt Snow
8
9
10
18
19
20
22
While dealing with depression can be isolating, it’s the
communication aspects of writing, of reaching out to others
with similar ideas and interests, that can help people recover,
even if it’s a slow road of twists and turns. Angela Meyer
argues for a return to the snail mail form of communication,
where people take pleasure in doing things that take time.
She remembers writing to pen-pals and visits Women of
Letters, an organisation celebrating the return of letter-writing,
currently holding sold-out events in Melbourne and interstate
where women (and sometimes men) read out letters to an
eager audience. It’s made me want to pick up a pen, dust off
the various notepads I’ve collected over the years, and get
cracking.
And in that spirit, if you’d like to write me a letter or postcard,
about writing and its pleasures or challenges, please send to:
Kirsten Krauth, Newswrite editor, NSW Writers’ Centre, PO Box
1056, Rozelle NSW 2039, and we can take it from there.
Cover and designer: Marc Martin | www.smallandquiet.com
NSWWC Management Committee
HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS
Maire Sheehan (Chair), John Dale (Deputy Chair), David Le Page (Treasurer), Susanne Gervay,
Karin Puels, Sandra Graham (Secretary), Katrina Curll, Virginia Harrison, Diane Murray.
Hazel Forbes, Angelo Loukakis, Norm Neil, Andrew Feitelson, Les Murray, Brenda Saunders,
Gayle Kennedy, Ruby Langforrd Ginibi, Michael Wilding, Irina Dunn, Alwyn Owens, Terry Hanly.
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
1
NEWS FROM THE CENTRE
class at the Centre was limited to ten
participants, with the proviso that each
had to be working on a substantial nonfiction project. Most were at a similar
stage — roughly half way, 30,000 words
into an 80,000-word book, for example
— but the genres ranged between
biography, memoir and cultural history.
Charlotte Wood at the First
Friday Club
Established in October 2010, the
First Friday Club is a free members
only event. Originally envisaged as an
interview session between facilitator
Jacqui Dent and a new guest every
month, the FFC has become a
conversation between the aspiring
and emerging writers amongst our
membership, and our guest authors
and publishers.
On Friday 4 March the conversation
continues with acclaimed author
Charlotte Wood. Charlotte is the author
of three novels including the Miles
Franklin shortlisted The Submerged
Cathedral and the Jim Hamilton prizewinning Pieces of a Girl.
As the nature of a conversation is
intimate, places are limited so RSVP to
Jacqui at <[email protected]>
if you would like to be part of it! Or, if
you can’t make it this time, email Jacqui
to receive reminders and updates about
future club meetings.
2011 Aboriginal Writers’
Festival features a great
line-up including Kim Scott
Guwanyi, meaning ‘to tell’, is the name
of the 2011 Aboriginal Writers’ Festival
on Saturday 19 March — a day of
discussion, panels, networking and
insights into Indigenous writing from
an exceptional line-up of Aboriginal
Kim Scott, author of Benang, will be a guest at this
year’s Aboriginal Writers’ Festival in March
and Torres Strait Islander writers from
across Australia.
Guests include Ali Cobby Eckermann,
Cathy Cragie, Jim Everett, Lionel Fogarty,
Anita Heiss, Melissa Lucaschenko (read
her article on Helen Garner on the next
page), Philip McLaren, Peter Minter,
Bruce Pascoe, Kerry Reed Gilbert, Kim
Scott, Leanne Tobin, Marcus Waters and
Goie Wymarra. Visit our website <www.
nswwriterscentre.org.au> for more
information and to register.
Robin Hemley, creative
non-fiction masterclass
Robin Hemley, US author of Do Over
and Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art and
Madness, was straight off the plane
when he arrived at the NSW Writers’
Centre and powered ahead with a
masterclass on creative non-fiction.
Hemley is director of the non-fiction
program at the prestigious University
of Iowa, best known for its Writers’
Workshop, one of the first creative
writing programs in the world. The
Hemley listened to students give brief
descriptions of their work and, having
only heard the very basics, was able
to recommend direction for a project
intuitively. He suggested that students
should try to write a prologue to their
works, that the beginning of a nonfiction work is the best place to hint at
ambiguities and introduce the “I”. He
gave examples and read from his own
work, and then he was off again, leaving
the students with much to think about. NSW Writers’ Centre
Christmas party
After a hectic year of festivals, courses
and workshops, the Christmas Party
BBQ offered a great chance to unwind
(and rewind) and catch up with all our
members and volunteers. The Kris
Kringle (bring a book to exchange)
was a hit with many people picking
up unexpected delights and the
event offered a great opportunity for
many to finally put names to faces,
and familiarise themselves with the
Centre and its library. We look forward
to seeing you all again at the many
member events held throughout the
year and hope you have an inspiring
2011 in which you realise your writing
dreams...
The NSW Writers’ Centre
acknowledges the assistance of the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through
the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
The NSW Writers’ Centre acknowledges the assistance of Leichhardt
Municipal Council through its community arts funding program.
STAFF
Director: David Ryding
E: [email protected]
Business Manager: Steve Wimmer
E: [email protected]
Program Manager: Julia Tsalis
E: [email protected]
Program Officer: Jacqui Dent
E: [email protected]
2
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
Membership Officer: Nicole Tregret
E: [email protected]
Project Officer: Stephen Asher
E: [email protected]
Project Officer: Sam Twyford-Moore
E: [email protected]
Support Staff: Terry Hanly
Caretakers: Annette van Roden and
Rickard Roach
Newswrite Editor: Kirsten Krauth
E: [email protected]
CONTACT DETAILS:
NSW WRITERS’ CENTRE
PO Box 1056,
Rozelle NSW 2039
P: 61 2 9555 9757
F: 61 2 9818 1327
www.nswwriterscentre.org.au
WRITER ON WRITER
Melissa
Lucashenko falls
hook, line and
sinker for Helen
Garner
987. I am living in Eagleby, a
scraggly bush-edged suburb
held fast in a curve of the
Logan River, 40 minutes
south of Brisbane. Anybody with a job
here goes to it in work boots and a
Jackie Howe, thinking themselves lucky.
1
I’m nineteen, and by some small
miracle am studying public policy and
economics at university, among the very
last dribble of the Whitlam beneficiaries
who won’t have to pay hard cash for
our degrees. I do the work and do
it well, but have also discovered the
tall stacks which beckon at the top of
the library stairs. I pass two huge fat
columns of literature — Australian,
British, American — before I reach the
dry journals of public administration.
Looking back, I can’t believe I even
once got past these stories — the plays,
the essays, the poems — fascinating
missives from other lives. A few weeks
into first semester, reaching the political
section feels like forcing my way past
the breakers. I get hurled back to the
top of the stairwell time and again by
Waugh, by Mudrooroo, by Piercy.
One marvellous day I happen upon
Monkey Grip, Helen Garner’s debut
novel of bohemian life in inner
Melbourne. I read it in a sitting,
vacuuming up the story of Nora and her
community of misfits. I read it a second
time, a third, a fourth. I buy my own
secondhand copy. I become a single
mother in Melbourne, not a stepmum
to three in Eagleby at all. I visit the
Fitzroy Baths, cycle the flat city streets
to parties. I am in despair, not just with
my real occasionally violent alcoholic
boyfriend, but with the junkie Javo,
nodding and being useless on the page.
Of the many many lines I soon have
off by heart, one in particular strikes
home. A stroppy woman friend of the
protagonist, Nora, confronts her on
wasting her life: ‘Does this action meet
your needs?’
The idea that women in crappy
relationships might be conscious
of their needs, and might even
assert them, floors me. I take this
revolutionary concept and hold it up
to the light. As Lytton Strachey would
have said, I find it sovereign and am,
overnight, a feminist. It only remains to
ditch the alcoholic, escape Eagleby and
finish my degree. Who is Helen Garner
... I wonder in odd moments. I have
never met a fiction writer face-to-face. I
would love to meet her — she’s the one
with the answers, isn’t she?
Years later, I finally leave the alcoholic,
meet someone else, fall pregnant. We
call our daughter Grace, the name of
the Monkey Grip daughter. But Garner’s
next novel, Cosmo Cosmolino, moves
me little. When the political cyclone of
The First Stone breaks in the early 90s, I
lack any shred of sympathy for men who
harass and drift unfaithfully towards
other writers. I travel downriver in a
crystal church; go and live next door to
the Lambs. Then, Peter Carey illywhacks
me into thinking I might write a novel
myself; Keri Hulme’s stunning The Bone
People confirms it. Hulme is Maori,
I’m Aboriginal, it really can happen. I
launch, pregnant again, into Steam Pigs.
It is published, reviewed, a success! I
go to festivals, meet other writers, learn
what it means to be read, to scrawl for
a living. Garner’s sensibility remains
an anchor beneath me as an Australian
woman writer, just as Hulme is a rock of
Indigenous thought that I rest against
weekly.
Nursing my young son in 1998, I open
Garner’s True Stories and fall instantly
back in love, hook, line and sinker.
Here is the crisp, tough, hilarious
voice I marvelled at as a student. The
no-bullshit compassion mixed with
an unerringly steady eye for all our
funny little ways. I take as my blueprint
for essay writing the pieces in this
collection, which I read again and again.
And I buy Joe Cinque’s Consolation, too,
and like the rest of the country I love it,
and will remember his name forever,
poor tragic Joe Cinque in Canberra,
doomed because of the moral turpitude
Melissa Lucashenko, author of Steam Pigs, will be a
guest at this year’s Aboriginal Writers’ Festival
of one young woman and the failings of
her evil friends.
My Hard Heart, The Feel of Steel, The
Spare Room. Reading any of these
astonishingly fine Garner books
reminds me that being a writer is a
privilege. That to be read is something
we must never take for granted but
always earn with excruciating hard and
constant work at the keyboard. How
rare it is to read somebody from cover
to cover, recognising yourself on every
page, and to not think, ‘Oh, I would
have said this there, not that, put x
and not y as the verb in that sentence.’
Every writer (I assume) reads the
work of others with this editing self
hovering unwanted over her shoulder,
metaphorical red pen in hand. With
Garner’s work there is no red pen, and
no need of one. I still haven’t met her,
likely never will. She walked past me
once at Griffith Uni a few years back. It
was about 5.30 in the winter afternoon.
Nobody else was around. By the time
I’d worked out who the vaguely familiar
face was, the moment was gone, and so
was she, steadily treading the concrete
path up into the heart of the institution.
I sighed, went in the other direction,
got in my car, and drove away. It was
probably for the best, I told myself. They
say you shouldn’t meet your heroes.
Melissa Lucashenko < www.
melissalucashenko.com> is an awardwinning novelist who lives between
Brisbane and the Bundjalung nation. She
is currently working on Mullumbimby, a
contemporary novel of romantic love
and cultural warfare set in a remote
NSW valley. Melissa will be a guest at the
Aboriginal Writers’ Festival, NSW Writers’
Centre, 19 March.
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
3
Beth Sometimes, From Sometimes Love Beth, postcard, 26 March 2008 & 25 June 2008
BRINGING THE LETTER
BACK
Dear Kristal,
You may not remember me but we used
to correspond about thirteen years
ago after becoming pen-pals through
the Dolly magazine connection pages.
I think I was the one who eventually
stopped writing because your spelling
was so terrible and it annoyed me. I
know, what a snob, right? Well, I’m
writing now, because I’ve decided the
art of letter-writing shouldn’t be lost and
I wanted to apologise for never writing
back to you. Hope your pony pulled
through in the end ... Oh, and I am sorry
for the terrible handwriting — I am much
more used to typing now. Aren’t we all?
I was originally inspired to write letters
again by this event called Women of
Letters (held mainly in Melbourne)
organised by Marieke Hardy and
Michaela McGuire. Each month,
Marieke and Michaela invite women
from different fields to read aloud letters
on a certain theme. The event also
raises money for Edgar’s Mission. At the
4
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
one I went to see, writers, musicians
and comedians read the letters they
‘wish they’d written’. For example,
singer Georgia Fields read a letter to
Mariah Carey, who helped her go from
‘social misfit to social neutral’ in 1993.
Helen Garner read a wonderful letter
written to various personal ‘gazombies’
(her grandson’s word for the undead)
— people who have died, walked away
or were not quite known.
Women of Letters is a popular event.
I wondered, after attending, if letterwriting was making a comeback. I asked
co-organiser Michaela why she thought
Women of Letters had taken off: ‘Letterwriting is an inherently personal act
... For many of our guests, this is their
first real foray into public speaking, and
I think the audience really responds to
hearing somebody like Angie Hart or
Claudia Karvan share such personal
stories. These are women with public
profiles, of course, but they’re also very
private individuals ... it’s become the
norm for each event to prompt tears
as well as a great many laughs.’ There
was certainly a bit of both at the one I
attended.
So letters can be personal, sure, but
they also take time. Composing a letter,
putting it in an envelope and walking
down to the post office takes more
time than, say, shooting off an email or
text message. Michaela said: ‘It takes
time to sit down and pen a letter, and
this naturally means that the writing is
going to be purposeful and heartfelt.’
I’ve always loved the idea of making a
connection with someone over snail
mail: waiting for their letters, the
smell of them, the lipstick marks (eh
hem). Do you remember how I used to
write on different coloured paper and
sometimes sprinkle it with glitter (and
gently waft it through Impulse body
spray)? How I made my own envelopes
out of magazine pages? Those things
took time.
There’s a part in the Women of Letters’
shows where the audience is told to
take up their pens and write a letter
to someone using postcards laid out
on the tables. Michaela said it’d been
wonderfully successful. ‘We’ve got a
big, beautiful, wooden postbox that
everybody places their letters in, and
it’s Marieke’s favourite day of the
month when she gets to empty it into
an Australia Post box the following day.
I’ve received a few letters from audience
members or friends who have come
along, and it’s such a thrill to find a
piece of real mail in amongst all the
bills and catalogues.’
I was talking to Beth Sometimes —
you may have heard of her book From
Sometimes Love Beth, a collection of
daily postcards sent out from her home
in Central Australia — and she agrees
that it’s lovely to receive something
in the mail other than bills: ‘ ... the
postcard is associated with pleasure
... things that are stated in a postcard
are intended to have longevity and
resonance. The very nature of postcards
makes them almost certainly vibrate at
a different frequency to bills ... Opening
a letterbox or postbox is a much more
pleasurable experience when greeted
by the excited hum of a handwritten
object.’ What a nice way to put it.
I’m very excited about the collection of
Vladimir Nabokov’s love letters to his
wife, Vera, scheduled to be published
this year. Apparently, in their 52-year
marriage, they rarely spent time apart
but there are hundreds of letters. It’s
wonderful to be able to peer into the
private life of a writer — or at least
into the way they constructed their
private life to that specific audience
of one. My first boyfriend, when I was
fourteen, lived a few towns over and
we didn’t see each other often, so we
used to write letters with rude pictures
and quizzes embedded in them. Now
my correspondences are more mature
(most of the time) and I even share a
few emails with some famous writers —
but what will happen to all of that when
I’m gone? No-one is going to be sorting
through the thousands of emails, texts,
blog posts, iPhone notes, tweets and
so on, will they? In an era of ephemeral
correspondence and broadcasting,
maybe we need to bring the letter back
(for the sake of our egos, if anything).
My emails certainly won’t be collected
in the PEN Anthology of Australian
Literature, like the letters between
Miles Franklin and Katharine Susannah
Prichard. And while these letters from
1947 are letters of important writers,
trust me, they’re mainly gossip. Miles
writes about a book she’s just read:
‘How did such a thing get into print?
... It’s just as if a greedy pig wrote a
book as long as a novel, on one night’s
swilling in an overfull trough with his
mates and equals.’ She also uses textspeak before text-speak, shortening
‘should’ to ‘shd’ and ‘though’ to ‘tho’.
I’ve always loved the idea
of making a connection
with someone over snail
mail: waiting for their
letters, the smell of them,
the lipstick marks (eh
hem). Do you remember
how I used to write on
different coloured paper
and sometimes sprinkle
it with glitter (and gently
waft it through Impulse
body spray)?
Susannah writes back with ‘wd’ and ‘cd’.
Show that to the worried educators!
Maybe it’s shorthand — I’m too young
to know. Susannah replies in delight,
bagging and teasing as Miles does,
in relation to books and politics and
beer, calling one Liberal Party member
a ‘futile wind-bag’. It’s great fun and
actually not all too dissimilar to the
kind of conversations that float around
the Twittersphere between bookish,
politically aware, types. But again, the
letter lives on while those conversations
vanish.
I’m interested in the way zine culture
engages with the post, too. Part of
zine-making is the deliberate use of
obsolete or fading technologies. So:
typewriters, paper, photocopying,
pictures from old books, and yes,
sending zines via snail mail. Zinemaking, swapping and buying is a pretty
huge underground thing with fairs all
around Oz and the world. It’s perhaps
even more popular lately, tied into other
trends like buying vintage clothes and
homewares, and recycling materials.
On online stores like Etsy you can buy
and sell handmade, sustainable and
vintage goods. You can buy letterwriting sets, too. I see all these things
as being connected: members of our
generation trying to slow things down
a little bit, maintain hold and control in
an oversaturated world (of products, of
information). I feel like it’s an important
thing too, in terms of maintaining a
diverse creativity and avoiding a kind
of homogenous blandness that would
come with everything just ‘progressing’
forward, becoming quicker and easier.
We don’t want to lose the notion of time
for personal expression and personal
connection, and the possibility of its
lasting existence.
Letters don’t necessarily have to be
sent, either. When was the last time you
left a love-note in your lover’s book, or
an appreciative few words on the back
of your mum’s shopping list? Michaela
liked to leave notes for her Nan:
‘Whenever I visited her house, before I
moved away from Brisbane, I used to
sneak little notes for her to find later.
I’d write little notes in her guestbook,
or tuck them into a book, or even pop
one in the biscuit tin. I loved the idea of
surprising her with a small story, or just
a note to say that I loved her. As I can’t
pop round very easily anymore, I try to
make a point of surprising her with a
letter whenever I think of it.’ How lovely.
So, Kristal, I hope this letter finds you
well and that it has inspired you to
brush the dust off that old floral writing
set you had. You could start by writing
and telling me what you’ve been reading
lately. Books are my “thing” these days,
so I’d love to hear about that.
Warm wishes,
Angela
Women of Letters
<www.womenofletters.com.au>
events are held on the last Sunday of
every month in Melbourne but also tour
interstate.
Angela Meyer <http://blogs.crikey.com.
au/literaryminded> is a Melbourne-based
writer, reviewer, blogger and doctoral
candidate with the Writing and Society
Research Group at the University of
Western Sydney. You can write to her at: PO
Box 6266, St Kilda Road Central VIC 8008.
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
5
DON’T GET ME DOWN
Sam TwyfordMoore on the
fragile connections
between writing,
identity and
depression
n September 2008, David
Foster Wallace stepped out
onto his patio and did what
most of us occasionally
imagine doing, but hopefully never go
through with. The world media brought
his suicide to our attention soon after
and, within a few months, two last days
of accounts appeared in major American
magazines; I would later obsess over
DT Max’s ‘The Unfinished’ in The New
Yorker, and David Lipsky’s ‘The Lost
Years and Last Days of David Foster
Wallace’ in Rolling Stone.
I
Condensing his life into ten-thousandword mini-biographies made Wallace’s
struggle with depression and eventual
suicide seem like a smooth transition.
But depression is anything but smooth.
It is flat. It’s as close to catatonic as you
can get without being in a coma. So if
the writing here is flat, that’s probably
a good thing, or at least somewhat
honest. To write about depression
in electric, page-turner prose is
disingenuous, untrue to the experience,
and is a persisting problem with writing
and depression.
In November 2008, two months after
Wallace’s death, but before I’d read
the Max and Lipsky pieces, I was due
to give my first academic paper. It was
on novels and short fiction that dealt
with the events of September 11, 2001,
for the aptly themed Creativity and
Uncertainty Conference at the University
of Technology, Sydney. I was depressed,
not with the theme — although it
certainly could not have helped — but
with the pressure I was putting on
myself to be a writer.
6
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
US ILLUSTRATOR JASON NOVAK BEGAN DRAWING PICTURES AFTER A DECADE OF WRITER’S BLOCK
In the 48 hours before my presentation,
I wandered the cramped streets of
Sydney, trying to figure out how I
could edit the essay to the level that I
imagined was expected of me. I stayed
up until 4am without changing a single
word, scared. I was using my girlfriend
as a sounding board — between sobs
— going from I’ll do it to I’ve probably
got to pull out to I’m never writing
another word ever again and I’m never
coming back here again and I’m going to
go out of my way to never see any of these
people again. I was desperate to pull
myself together for the session before
mine, in which novelist James Bradley
was to give a paper on the links between
creativity and depression.
The anxiety on that particular day
stemmed partly from the public
speaking side of the conference
and partly from being programmed
alongside PhD students and professors,
myself having only just finished my
undergrad degree. In any case, it wasn’t
the first time I’d experienced feelings of
that intensity. I had suffered the same
steeply depreciating sense of self when
writing for publication. The writing of
prose – essay, fiction and memoir, in
particular – can be an incubator for
depressive moods more than other
forms, in that it invites long periods of
seeming inactivity, obsessiveness and
over-analysis (analysis paralysis, as my
mother so succinctly puts it).
Poet Les Murray made this incubator
idea clear in his regularly reprinted
Killing the Black Dog (again just last
year by Black Inc.) — the title of which
referred to Winston Churchill’s pet
name for his major depressive episodes.
Murray wrote, ‘I cut down on writing
prose pieces because they were more
liable than poetry to be infiltrated with
the colours of confusion and obsession.’
When I wrote prose, the same thing
always tripped me up: trying to succeed
in writing beyond realistic expectations.
The desire to be above the level that I
was could stop me from progressing on
a draft entirely. I would be halted midsentence, with little else to do but stew
on why I’d stopped. In the slowed-down
process of revising work with editors,
depressive moods prevailed. I couldn’t
bring myself to email them on some
days and would get up each morning
frightened that the deadline —with the
hard finality of the word pressing down
on me — was one day closer, or worse,
one day behind me, unmet. I would
finish multiple drafts, but the piece could
never be good enough, never live up to
the exacting standards that I, like many
young writers, had invented for myself.
Bradley’s essay was eventually
published in the Griffith Review, under
the title ‘Never Real and Always True’,
a quote from Antonin Artaud used
in Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday
Demon. I read its black details on
a particularly sunny, clear-headed
afternoon. I read it again out loud to
my parents, and we hummed with the
collective recognition at certain details.
packets of cigarettes, so that every time
writers buy a Moleskine notebook or a
Uni-ball pen, they’re emblazoned with:
Writing May Cause Harm?
I struggled with these issues as I
published my first pieces. But the
all-important question I should have
considered was: if this is going to get
me down — like so gloomed out I can’t
operate on a normal level — is it really
worth doing? It’s something others
asked along the way for me, but which I
never asked myself.
And we weren’t the only ones. Bradley’s
piece had been cathartic for many, some
leaving comments on his website to
thank him for his honesty and insight.
Most writing on depression, however,
doesn’t achieve this. It fails to move
beyond Churchill’s ubiquitous black dog
personification and a listing of the usual
casualties: Woolf, Hemingway, Plath,
et al.
Bradley’s essay is important, not just
because it skips these clichés of writing
about depression, but because it
engages with the realities of the illness
while relating a personal take on it.
And it was Bradley who inspired me to
describe my own depressive episodes. I
know I’m not alone — in the experience
and the writing of it — and that makes
it both easier and harder. The statistics,
like most statistics, are scary.
Alice W. Flaherty states in The Midnight
Disease that writers are ten times more
likely to be manic-depressive than the
rest of the population, and poets are
a staggering 40 times more likely. The
overriding concern then becomes a
variation on the classic chicken-orthe-egg: does the act of writing invite
mental illness, or does writing come
from some need to cope with it? It’s not
as clear-cut as one or the other, but if
it were solely the former, who would go
into it willingly? And if so, what can we
do to make writers more aware of the
realities of these statistics? Do you put
up a white warning sticker, like on the
The reality of writing at a professional
level is that the process isn’t exactly
cheery. It can, in fact, mimic manicdepressive cycles: the inspiration that
comes with an idea takes hold for
weeks, bringing with it sleeplessness
and excited energy, before slowly
succumbing to the turgidity of rewriting
and overworking.
Something about Wallace’s suicide
shocked me out of all that. Part of it
was because I was beginning to see
the effects of my depression on those
around me; and also seeking out real
treatment. The accounts of Wallace’s
depression made what I’d felt seem real
Do you put up a white
warning sticker, like on
the packets of cigarettes,
so that every time writers
buy a Moleskine notebook
or a Uni-ball pen, they’re
emblazoned with: Writing
May Cause Harm?
in a way that most other writing had
not. There was a surprisingly common
description of altered gustatory
sensations in what I read. James Bradley
described food as changing taste
when he was depressed — he became
disgusted by shellfish, mushrooms
and Chinese food. Les Murray was
pleased that depression had made the
taste of cigars repellent to him — it
was a very easy way to quit smoking.
And Wallace, when being eased
onto the anti-depressant Nardil, was
warned off eating a menu of everyday
foods — cured meats, certain cheeses
and pickles. It was this small detail
— pickles — hidden within Lipsky’s
account, that stunned my parents and
me. During my most intense hypomanic
swings, I would stand at the fridge
and eat simultaneously from a jar of
anchovies and a jar of gherkins. It didn’t
and doesn’t mean anything to me
scientifically — I don’t have a degree in
neuropsychology — but it resonated at
a deep level when I read details like this.
It meant that these weird and out-there
experiences were more common than
you’d think.
Unlike some writing, it wouldn’t have
been very fun if this essay had turned
metatextual on me — if drafting ‘Don’t
Get Me Down’ did, in fact, get me
down. But it didn’t. I haven’t fallen into
a depressive funk because I’ve learnt
how to avoid those pitfalls:
•Don’t spend too much time on a
single draft.
•Communicate with an editor if
there’s a problem.
•Don’t compare your writing to that
of others.
• Stick to your medication like glue.
I believe I’ve been able to gain these
insights by separating the writing and
depression. I don’t deny that they’re
likely linked in very complex ways, but
they need to be approached on their
own. The depression is the serious
thing that I will always prioritise over
the writing. So yes, it’s nice having you
read this, but if I’d had to lie in bed
for three months for it to happen, it
wouldn’t have been worth it. Because
as the late Roberto Bolaño put it in
an essay, while dying of liver disease,
‘Illness + Literature = Illness’.
A longer version of this article originally
appeared in the Emerging Writers’
Festival publication, The Reader <www.
emergingwritersfestival.org.au/reader>.
James Bradley’s essay ‘Never Real
and Always True: On Depression and
Creativity’ is available at his blog, City of
Tongues <cityoftongues.com>.
Sam Twyford-Moore is the editor of
Cutwater. His writing has appeared in
Meanjin, Overland and various anthologies.
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
7
WRITING FOR KIDS
AND YOUNG ADULTS
Angie Schiavone
interviews
Margaret Hamilton
about Pinerolo,
the children’s
book cottage at
Blackheath
here’s no stopping
Margaret Hamilton. In
a brilliant decades-long
career, Margaret has been
a children’s librarian, a bookseller, a
publisher, a president of the Children’s
Book Council of Australia, and has had
a hand in numerous bestselling and
award-winning Aussie children’s books
(including the recently reprinted Grug
series by Ted Prior, and the classic
There’s a Hippopotamus on Our
Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards).
Her latest project is Pinerolo, the
children’s book cottage at Blackheath
<pinerolo.com.au>, which aims to
promote Australian children’s picture
books and support their creators. So,
as the New Year becomes a little less
“new” and our resolutions start to
waver, who better to speak to than a
true doyenne of Australian children’s
literature? With any luck, a little of
Margaret’s resolve will rub off on us.
T
Children’s publishing in Australia must
have changed over the years you were
involved in it. Can you tell us how it’s
changed for the better and worse?
I feel like a dinosaur when I think of
how many years I’ve been in children’s
publishing! I’ve been involved in
most of the changes over the last few
decades. I’ve seen Australian picture
books grow from a small enterprise
into a force to be reckoned with on
the world market — they’re now world
class and second to none. Our authors
and illustrators are so creative and
innovative, constantly pushing the
boundaries. That’s been a change
8
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
for the better. A change for the worse
is perhaps that publishers are being
more cautious about what they publish
and decisions are being ruled by the
accountants, not by the creative side
of companies. There are many people
working in children’s books today who are
so committed and dedicated to authors
and illustrators, and particularly to young
readers, that they should be given more
opportunities to develop their lists.
In your time as a publisher, you’ve
discovered several wonderful Australian
children’s authors. Was it the ideas
behind their work or the writing itself
that you first saw potential in?
Firstly, it was because their stories
grabbed me and I had to read from the
beginning to the end. When I found
John Heffernan’s Spud in our pile of
unsolicited manuscripts (Margaret
Hamilton Books) I was hooked from the
beginning; so was my husband Max and
our daughter Melissa. When we had
all finished I rang John to tell him we
wanted to publish his book. We loved the
first manuscript that Glenda Millard sent
to us and we have loved everything she
has written since. She has a wonderful
knack with language and story, and
just about everything we’ve seen from
her has been publishable. Both these
authors have gone on to become awardwinners of bestselling books.
What do you see as the biggest
challenge for children’s writers today?
Publishers are always on the look out
for original stories written with rhythm,
style and language that is suitable for
the readership. Also, writers should
be aware of what is being published,
what stories have been successful,
what children are reading and what is
selling in the bookshops. The children’s
publishing industry in Australia is still
quite successful, but it is facing the
challenge of the digital age, and the
future is uncertain. It’s important to
know what publishers are doing to
meet these challenges, to be familiar
with different publishers’ lists and their
policies on unsolicited manuscripts. In
spite of the current challenges, I believe
that picture books will survive. They
may change in highly innovative ways,
as they have done over the last 40 years,
but in my opinion nothing, no screen
or digital image, will replace the tactile
Margaret Hamilton, children’s publisher and coordinator
of the Pinerolo children’s cottage in Blackheath
nature of a well-produced and printed
picture book which is a joy to hold, to
smell and to read.
How will Pinerolo, your new children’s
book cottage, help creators of children’s
books overcome these challenges? What
services will the centre provide?
Pinerolo will promote Australian picture
books and their creators, educate
children and adults about picture books,
provide a venue for the exhibition
of original artwork and bring people
interested in picture books together
in an inspiring environment. There’ll
also be programs of workshops and
talks for school groups and teachers,
and a research library with a collection
of children’s books and books about
children’s literature. The house will also
be available as a self-contained peaceful
retreat for writers and artists.
I hope that I’ll be able to assist visitors
by giving them an insight into how
picture books are published, how
writers and illustrators can develop their
work and how they can compete in the
market.
What’s the driving force behind your
work?
I’ve loved everything I’ve done and have
found working with children and their
books extremely satisfying and fulfilling.
I guess the driving force could have been
to do something worthwhile, to feel like I
was meeting new challenges and making
a contribution. I am supposed to be
retired now, but am beginning a whole
new career in children’s books: running
my children’s book cottage.
NSW Writers’ Centre
Information
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2011 Issue
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MaNUSCriPt aSSeSSMeNt
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manuscript? Not sure your story is all it can
be? Need advice on character, story, dialogue,
tone, pacing or style? In a one-hour session,
one of our industry-experienced manuscript
assessors will work with you to help your
manuscript reach its potential.
Dates: Saturday 26 February
(Sharon Rundle) - sold out
Saturday 30 April (Nicola O’Shea)
Cost: Members $150, Non-Members $190
PiCtUre BooK aNd YoUNg adUlt
PUBliSHiNg CoNSUltatioNS
A rare opportunity to discuss your writing
ADVERTISING
Display advertising available in mono
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INSERTS
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The views expressed in Newswrite do not
necessarily reflect the official policy of the NSW
Writers’ Centre. All care is taken to check details
reproduced in these pages but no responsibility
can be accepted if they are inaccurate. Please
let us know if we have inadvertently published
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project with one of our award-winning
children’s and YA industry experts. You can
seek advice on your writing style, your subject
matter and how to improve the publishing
prospects of your manuscript in these halfhour sessions. Mark MacLeod will consult
on picture books and young adult books.
Margaret Hamilton will consult on children’s
picture books.
Dates: Saturday 26 March (Margaret Hamilton)
Saturday 28 May (Mark MacLeod)
Cost: Members $60, Non-Members $95
MeNtorSHiP
The NSW Writers’ Centre offers a mentorship
program for members who would like
professional assistance with their writing. The
program offers face-to- face meetings held at
times and places suitable to both mentor and
mentoree. You can select your preferred mentor
from the register <www.nswwriterscentre.org.au>
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Word document format and images as jpg
files. Please email to
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and the Patrick White Room up to 100,
while the upstairs Henry Lawson Room
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GETTING TO THE CENTRE
The NSW Writers’ Centre is located in
the grounds of the old Rozelle Hospital,
Callan Park. To get to the Centre, use
the entrance on Balmain Road, at the
lights opposite Cecily Street, and follow
the green signs to the Centre from this
entrance.
For more information on advertising
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Writers’ Centre or maps and details on
how to get to the Centre, phone (02) 9555
9757, visit our website at
<www.nswwriterscentre.org,au> or
email <[email protected]>
or nominate one of your choice and we will
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How it works:
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written report will be provided).
After you select your mentor and pay the fee,
you will be put in touch with your mentor
to make your own working arrangements.
It is possible to discuss your project with a
prospective mentor before payment. You can
apply online or by phone.
Cost: The cost to the mentoree/applicant is
$1,400 for 20 hours’ supervision, $1,075 for 15
hours, $745 for 10 hours, or $425 for a 5 hour
Mentor’s Assessment, inclusive of GST.
Cost includes the mentor’s reading time.
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
9
C O U R S E S AT T H E C E N TR E
IT’S SO EASY TO ENROL
ONLINE: www.nswwriterscentre.org.au
PHONE: (02) 9555 9757 Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm,
Saturday 9am – 1pm
FAX: (02) 9818 1327
IN PERSON: NSW Writers’ Centre office is open Monday to Friday
9am–5pm, Saturday, 9am – 1pm. EFTPOS is available.
Concessions are available only to members who hold a valid
Seniors, Pension or Student card.
All courses: The Centre provides tea and coffee-making facilities.
Course participants are advised to bring pen, paper and lunch as
there are no cafes within easy walking distance.
All participants must book and pay in advance to secure their place in
the course. Students who have not enrolled and made payment prior
to the course commencement date will not be permitted to attend.
FEBRUARY
A YEAR OF NOVEL WRITING
With Alan Mills
Do you have ambitions to write a novel?
Have you ever dreamed of seeing your
name on the cover of a book? Make
2011 the year you finally make it happen.
Internationally published author and
teacher Alan Mills condenses his
decades of writing experience into a
three-phase course designed to teach
you the secrets of writing bestselling
fiction. In company with other likeminded and enthusiastic writers you’ll
learn exactly what it takes to write a
successful novel and how you can do
it. Whether you are a raw beginner or
an experienced writer, this course offers
a step-by-step guide to writing — and
completing! — the best novel you can.
PHASE ONE: THE
NOVELIST’S BOOT CAMP
(11MILL2)
10 x Saturday mornings:
5, 12, 19, 26 February;
5, 12 & 26 March; 2, 9 & Sunday 17 April, 9.30am–12.30pm
Please note, students under 18 wishing to participate in any course
(excepting HSC English Extension 2: A Year of Writing) must
provide the Centre with three weeks’ notice.
REFUND POLICY
Please choose your course carefully. Once your enrolment has been processed we
cannot refund (either in full or part of) your course fee. We cannot accept responsibility
for changes in your work or personal commitments that prevent your attendance. In
the event that you should wish to withdraw from a course, you must inform the Centre
at least fourteen days in advance of course commencement to receive a full credit.
Withdrawals at least seven days prior to course commencement will be eligible for a
50% credit. If the Centre cancels or withdraws a course for whatever reason, you can
choose to either receive a credit or be refunded in full.
ADVERTISED DATES AND TIMES
Advertised dates and times of courses may change or be cancelled without warning.
If this is the case, all reasonable attempts will be made to contact you via email and
telephone. However, confirmation of starting time remains the responsibility of the
student.
underdeveloped or they are structurally
or dramatically weak. In The Novelist’s
Boot Camp, Alan will take students
from creating an original and powerful
idea that will grab readers to having a
well-structured, solidly plotted novel
with vivid characters, strong emotional
action and an effective theme. Whether
you are a beginning novelist or have
several drafts under your belt, this
foundation phase will ensure you have
all the necessary ingredients in place for
creating a successful novel.
Student Requirements: Students should
bring copies of the one or two books in
their genre that most inspire them or
which they would most like to emulate
in their own writing.
This course builds on skills learned in
The Novelist’s Boot Camp.
Student Requirements: Students will be
asked to provide short samples of work
during the course.
PHASE THREE: FINAL
DRAFT (11MILL10)
5 x Saturdays: 22 & 29 October;
12, 19 & 26 November,
10am–4pm
Full Price: $900
Member (30% disc): $640
Conc Member (40% disc): $545
Monday–Friday: 11, 12, 13, 14
& 15 April, 10am–4pm
This phase is a workshop-centred
course designed to troubleshoot
students’ novels-in-progress.
Full Price: $900
Member (30% disc): $640
Conc Member (40% disc): $545
This five-day Intensive acts as an
alternative for those who can’t fit the tenweek Boot Camp into their schedule.
PHASE TWO: ADVANCED
NOVEL WRITING (11MILL7)
The majority of novels fail to find a
publisher because their ideas are
10 x Saturday mornings: 2, 9,
16, 23 & 30 July; 6, 13, 20 & 27
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
Full Price: $900
Member (30% disc): $640
Conc Member (40% disc): $545
PHASE ONE: THE
NOVELIST’S BOOT CAMP
(INTENSIVE) (11MILL4)
Full Price: $900
Member (30% disc): $640
Conc Member (40% disc): $545
10
August; 3 September,
9.30am–12.30pm
Student Requirements: Students
should provide two to three chapters
of their manuscript for workshopping
two weeks prior to Phase Three
commencing.
ALAN MILLS is the author of The Raft
and City of Animals (HarperCollins). He
is currently working on his third novel
set in Hollywood.
F e b r u a r y – J u n e 2 0 1 1 | For full details of courses please go to www.nswwriterscentre.org.au
THE SATURDAY
PLAYWRIGHTS’ COURSE
With Timothy Daly
TIMOTHY DALY is one of Australia’s
most internationally successful
playwrights, with a string of national and
international awards and productions.
In 2011, Timothy returns with his highly
successful, 30-session intensive course
that will take you from the start to the
finish of writing your play.
29 October; 12 & 19 November,
1pm–4pm
Full Price: $900
Member (30% disc): $640
Conc Member (40% disc): $545
In Phase Three, you will gain a
knowledge of the Australian theatre
marketplace, to assist you with the
creative development and professional
marketing of your theatre writing.
This course has been designed to be the
most comprehensive and content-rich
in the country. It combines an in-depth
analytical approach to writing with a
hands-on, intuitive, practical method of
working. During the year-long course,
you will write a full-length play, guided
every step of the way.
WHOLE BODY
SMILING:
WRITING
POETRY
FROM THE
SENSES
With Deb
Westbury (11WEST2)
PHASE ONE: SKILLS
ACQUISTION (11DALY2)
Saturday 5 February, 10am–4pm
10 x Saturday afternoons:
5, 12, 19 & 26 February;
5, 12 & 26 March; 2, 9 & 16
April, 1pm–4pm
Full Price: $900
Member (30% disc): $640
Conc Member (40% disc): $545
Phase One covers the fundamentals of
writing for theatre and performance.
PHASE TWO: SKILLS
UTILISATION (11DALY4)
10 x Saturday afternoons: 7, 14,
21 & 28 May; 2 & 30 July; 6, 13
& 20 August, 1pm–4pm
Full Price: $900
Member (30% disc): $640
Conc Member (40% disc): $545
In Phase Two you will study advanced
concepts of dramatic structure, and
gain the skills to complete a larger
dramatic work.
PHASE THREE: MAJOR
WORK FOCUS (11DALY9)
10 x Saturday afternoons: 10, 17
& 24 September; 1, 8, 15, 22 &
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
DEB WESTBURY is the acclaimed author
of five poetry collections and has been a
familiar and respected voice in Australian
poetry for thirty-five years. Whether you
are an experienced poet looking for a
refresher or a first-timer just starting out,
this practical one-day workshop will get
you thinking, get you writing, get you to
immerse yourself in the verse.
Deb will guide students through a series
of gently paced, carefully structured
exercises towards writing that is alive,
vivid and authentic. Generate material
for new writing projects. Let yourself
be reminded of what you already know
– writing comes from the whole body,
not just the head. Learn skills and
approaches to writing poetry that will
sustain your work well beyond the life of
the workshop.
FREELANCE JOURNALISM
With Dan Kaufman
(11KAUF2)
Saturday 12 February, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Do you want to work as a freelance
journalist but don’t know where
to start? Have you started on your
freelance path but need some pointers
from an industry professional? Join
seasoned Sydney Morning Herald
journalist and editor DAN KAUFMAN
for a practical workshop that shows you
what freelance journalists need to know
to succeed.
Being a freelancer has its rewards – the
freedom to work from home and write
features you’re passionate about. But
it’s also highly competitive. We’ll talk
about the types of stories editors are
looking for, how to approach them,
put a brief together and pitch. Learn
the nuts and bolts of putting together
news stories and features. Look at
different kinds of introductions, how to
make stories snappy, how to structure
features and edit your own work.
IMAGINING
HISTORY
With Tom
Gilling
(11GILL2)
Saturday 19
February,
10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Want to write a historical novel but
unsure how to get started?
Tom Gilling is the author of New York
Times Notable Books of the Year The
Sooterkin and Miles McGinty. Through
a mixture of discussion and practical
exercises, Tom will explore how to
research a historical period for the
purpose of writing a novel; how to turn
historical research into fiction; the pitfalls
of using real characters; how to write
dialogue; what is “authenticity”, how can
we achieve it–and does it matter? BETTER BUSINESS
WRITING With Tony
Spencer-Smith
Saturday 19 February, 10am–4pm
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
11
C O U R S E S AT T H E C E N TR E
Full Price $150
Member (30% disc) $105
Conc Member (40% disc) $90
A one-day course for people who
want to use words more effectively
at work. Being able to write clearly
and concisely, and structure your
material for maximum effect, is a key
communication skill.
The course covers: getting the grammar,
punctuation and spelling right; focusing
on the audience and the purpose
of what you are writing; selecting
an appropriate tone; gathering and
organising your material; developing key
messages: what do you really want to
say?; building an appropriate structure;
constructing clear sentences that
effortlessly convey your meaning; and
editing your first draft.
HSC ENGLISH EXTENSION
2: A YEAR OF WRITING
With Anna Maria Dell’Oso
It can be daunting to organise and
produce a major original literary work
in your HSC year while faced with
demands from other subjects. Whether
you’re working on long or short fiction
or drama-based scripts, students
cannot afford to miss this guide to the
Extension 2 Major Work. Please note
this course is not suitable for students
writing a Critical Essay.
PHASE TWO: WORK IN
PROGRESS (11DELL2)
2 x Sundays: 20 & 27 February
2011, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $325
Conc Member (40% disc): $195
Students will learn how craft, technique
and ways to stimulate the imagination
can apply to their own Major Work.
Anna will explore writing the first draft,
researching sources and using your
process journal to scaffold further drafts.
PHASE THREE: FINAL
DRAFT (11DELL5)
2 x Sundays: 22 & 29 May,
10am–4pm
12
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
Full Price: $325
Conc Member (40% disc): $195
In this final phase students will look more
deeply at storytelling skills, character,
dialogue, point of view and gain tools they
need for revising and editing their Major
Works ready to hand in for assessment.
ANNA MARIA DELL’OSO is a well-known
Australian writer, journalist and critic.
Her acclaimed book Songs of the Suitcase
(HarperCollins) won the Steele Rudd
Award.
INTRODUCTION TO LIFE
WRITING With Patti Miller
(11MILP2)
8 x Friday mornings: 25 February; 4, 11, 18 & 25 March; 1, 8 &
15 April, 10am–1pm
Full Price: $720
Member (30% disc): $510
Conc Member (40% disc): $435
PATTI MILLER is the author of Australia’s
best-selling autobiographical writing texts,
Writing Your Life, and The Memoir Book
as well as The Last One Who Remembers,
Child and Whatever The Gods Do.
In this course Patti will set you on the
journey of writing your life. In a creative
and supportive environment, Patti will
offer ways of accessing memories and
recognising their inherent shape, of
finding your writing voice, of bringing the
details to life, of creating the lived reality
of your experience on the page and
finding its structure. There will be some
readings’ discussions and lots of writing,
both exercises and longer pieces, with
individual comment on your work.
Student Requirements: The set text is
Writing Your Life by Patti Miller (Allen &
Unwin). Available at good bookshops
and the Centre.
SHOW ME THE STORY!
With Deonie Fiford
(11FIFO2)
Saturday 26 February, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Many of us have heard the criticism
that you’re “telling” the reader the
story rather than “showing” them. In
publishing, this is one of the main
criticisms of rejected manuscripts. But
what does this really mean and how do
you ‘show’ your story to best effect? This
workshop will help developing writers
gain the skills and confidence to not only
show their story but make it shine.
DEONIE FIFORD has over ten years’
experience as a senior editor, working
for some of Australia’s leading
publishing houses including Hachette,
HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.
Together with Deonie we’ll examine
the difference between ‘telling’ and
‘showing’ with real examples.
MARCH
FICTION
WRITING
ESSENTIALS
With Camilla
Nelson
(11NELS3)
8 x Wednesday evenings: 2, 9,
16, 23 & 30 March; 6, 13 & 20
April, 6.30pm–9.30pm
Full Price: $720
Member (30% disc): $510
Conc Member (40% disc): $435
You’ve got a drawer full of manuscripts
– a novella, short stories, the first draft
of a novel – or a notebook full of ideas,
observations and themes, but you just
can’t seem to finish anything. You’ve
learnt and practiced some writing skills,
but there are many techniques and
styles you’d like to experiment with.
You’ve got the flesh and bones of your
work down, but how do you find the
spirit, the resonating soul of your story?
CAMILLA NELSON is the author of
two acclaimed novels and a Sydney
Morning Herald Best Young Novelist.
If you recognise some, or all of these
problems, Camilla can help you resolve
them. Each week we will explore a
particular technique or aspect of fiction
writing, looking at examples from
contemporary and classic literature.
F e b r u a r y – J u n e 2 0 1 1 | For full details of courses please go to www.nswwriterscentre.org.au
Student Requirements: Students should be
prepared to bring in some writing for class
workshopping during the course. However,
there will be no workshops on day one.
WRITING ABOUT FOOD
(UTS Accredited) With
John Newton (11NEWT3)
6 x Thursday evenings: 3, 10,
17, 24 & 31 March; 7 April,
6.30pm–9.30pm
Full Price: $540
Member (30% disc): $380
Conc Member (40% disc): $325
JOHN NEWTON is a World Food
Media Award-winning writer and food
journalist. In 2011, he returns to the
Centre by popular demand with his new
and improved course for lovers of food.
Whether you write reviews, recipes or
just want to celebrate the delights of the
palate, this course has got something
for everyone – with or without food
writing experience.
In this UTS accredited course John
will explore and discuss a range of
Australian and international texts –
history, journalism, recipes and writing
by chefs on all aspects of food in society
(taste, social implications of food and
food policy and agriculture in society).
Including a component of critical writing,
especially as it relates to restaurant
criticism, this course will cover the
politics of food, the science of flavour,
restaurant reviewing, writing recipes and
cookbooks and where to go next. There
will even be some tastings along the way!
Student Requirements: See the Centre
website for a list of recommended and
required reading.
SEMINAR: THE BUSINESS
OF BEING A WRITER
With Judith Ridge, Angelo
Loukakis, Steven Miller &
Other Guests (11RIDG3)
Saturday 5 March, 10am–5pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
You decided to become a writer because
you’re good at expressing yourself
creatively. What you weren’t expecting
was all those other aspects you have
to deal with – contracts, copyright,
finances and how to promote yourself.
This seminar will provide you with an
introduction to the business side of
being a writer: those legal and financial
aspects you may not be familiar with or
don’t have the expertise to deal with.
This seminar is appropriate both for
those writers beginning the journey of
getting published and those who may
already have work published.
Over the course of a day Judith and
special invited guests will cover:
working with editors, publishers and
the various stages of getting a book to
print; your rights as a writer and how
to protect them; the potential markets
for your work and how to access them;
promoting your work independently
and with a publisher; other sources of
income for writers such as speaking
gigs, grants, Educational and Public
Lending Rights; the basic financial
aspects that you need to be aware of and
how to manage them.
JUDITH RIDGE has worked in and
around the children’s publishing
industry for nearly 20 years.
CRIMINAL
INTENT
With
Marele Day
(11DAY3)
Saturday 5
& Sunday
6 March,
10am–4pm
Full Price: $290
Member (30% disc): $205
Conc Member (40% disc): $175
MARELE DAY is the author of the
Australian classics Claudia Valentine
series. A recipient of the Ned Kelly
Lifetime Achievement Award, she is a
highly experienced teacher and mentor.
In this weekend workshop, Marele will
address the who, what, when, where
and why of crime writing, whether
your passion is the private eye novel,
police procedural, clue puzzle, tart noir,
forensic investigation, psychological
or literary thriller. She will explore the
dark side and find out how to transform
the seed of an idea into a compelling
intriguing narrative that keeps the
reader hooked. Student Requirements: Visit the Centre
website for recommended reading.
YEAR OF
THE YA
NOVEL
With James
Roy
Complete course
– three phases
Full Price: $970
Member (30% disc): $675
Conc Member (40% disc): $580
JAMES ROY is the award-winning
author of twenty books for children and
young adults. For the first time in 2011,
James will present this special year-long
course, running over three phases,
which will guide students through the
process of writing a YA novel. With
that in mind, participants will need to
not only have a strong desire to write
for teens, but will ideally have begun a
project, although some may come with
little more than the germ of an idea. While young adult readers can be tough
critics, they respond very positively to
sincerity, authenticity, and quality stories
featuring strong, well-constructed
characters. During each three-hour day
James will lead detailed discussion of the
defining characteristics of young adult
fiction – voice, character, theme, issues –
as well as including time for participants
to share their work, gain feedback and
actively workshop and troubleshoot their
works-in-progress. Participants will also
benefit from special guest presentations
by several other successful writers for
young people. PHASE ONE (11ROY3)
4 x Sunday mornings: 6, 13, 20
& 27 March, 10am–1pm
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
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C O U R S E S AT T H E C E N TR E
Full Price: $360
Member (30% disc): $250
Conc Member (40% disc): $215
In Phase One James will introduce
students to the essential concepts of
writing fiction for young adults.
PHASE TWO (11ROY6)
4 x Sunday mornings: 12, 19 &
26 June; 3 July, 10am–1pm
Full Price: $360
Member (30% disc): $250
Conc Member (40% disc): $215
At the beginning of Phase Two students
will be able to troubleshoot and remedy
issues they might have faced in writing
their first draft.
PHASE THREE (11ROY9)
4 x Sundays: 11, 18 & 25
September; 2 October, 10am–
1pm
Full Price: $360
Member (30% disc): $250
Conc Member (40% disc): $215
In Phase Three, James will address any
concerns to come out of the students’
intervening writing time, as well as
looking at what is required to finalise
a draft, and to successfully submit a
manuscript to an agent or publisher.
Student Requirements: Visit the Centre
website for required and recommended
reading.
THE ESSENTIALS OF
EDITING With Tony
Spencer-Smith (11SPEN3)
4 x Tuesday evenings: 8, 15, 22
& 29 March, 6.30pm–9.30pm
Full Price: $360
Member (30% disc): $250
Conc Member (40% disc): $215
Editing and proofreading are a vital part
of the writing journey. A first draft is
only the start of a process that turns raw
copy into polished gems ready for the
reader. This course, for people who need
to edit their own work or documents in
the workplace, will show participants
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N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
how to carry out the three layers of
editing: substantive editing, which
looks at the big picture; copy-editing,
which ensures that each sentence is
well-constructed; and proofreading,
which eliminates the errors that slipped
through the first two stages.
Each session will combine a discussion
of the principles of good writing
with editing exercises that give the
participants a hands-on feel for the
editing process. Participants will
learn how to: structure documents
in a coherent and logical way; spot
grammar, punctuation and spelling
errors; edit copy so that it is clear and
concise; stop errors from slipping
through with a rigorous proofreading
process; edit for consistency with style
guides and style sheets.
BLOGGING FOR
BEGINNERS With William
Kostakis (11KOST3)
2 x Saturdays: 26 March & 2
April, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $290
Member (30% disc): $205
Conc Member (40% disc): $175
Blogs – to some, a gateway to the world;
to others, a funny sounding word. Short
for web log, a blog is an online journal
that allows you to share your writing –
be it creative, journalistic, or a personal
account of your day-to-day life. Writing
for blogs requires a specific skills set.
The best blogs aren’t just thoughts on a
webpage, they have style, they have flair,
they have a clear voice – William will help
you find and express your voice.
A beginner-intermediate course, this
workshop will translate the jargon (‘Web
2.0’ anybody?) into English you can
understand, and demonstrate just how
easy it is to set up and maintain a blog.
But it isn’t just theoretical – William will
guide you through practical exercises in
constructing posts that will attract and
engage an audience.
Student Requirements: Home or local
internet access. Visit the Centre website
for details of homework assignments.
WILLIAM KOSTAKIS is a blogger and
the award-winning author of Loathing
Lola (Pan Macmillan). In 2005 he won
the Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer
of the Year.
WRITING
FROM
REALITY
With
Kathryn
Heyman
(11HEYM3)
Saturday 26 March, 10.30am–
4.30pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Are you working on a story inspired by
the truth? Or perhaps you know you
want to write but don’t know how to
find an idea? Memoir, historical novels,
autobiographical fiction, fiction inspired
by news stories or family anecdotes,
biographies – all require the skills of
the researcher and the storyteller. Using
a combination of writing exercises,
carefully chosen readings and seminar
discussion, Kathryn will help you
discover the heart of the story you want
to tell, and how to tell it. She’ll look at
research skills (and when to abandon
them), ethical questions, and the nuts
and bolts of writing true.
KATHRYN HEYMAN is the
internationally published author of
four novels including the historical
and critically acclaimed novel Captain
Starlight’s Apprentice.
WRITING THE
FANTASTICAL With Kate
Forsyth (11FORS3)
Sunday 27 March, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
KATE FORSYTH is the author of the
bestselling fantasy series “The Witches
of Eileanan” and Rhiannon’s Ride. In this
course, Kate will take you through the
many sub-genres of fantasy fiction, such
F e b r u a r y – J u n e 2 0 1 1 | For full details of courses please go to www.nswwriterscentre.org.au
as heroic fantasy, paranormal romance,
magic-realism, children’s fantasy.
Students will gain practical techniques
that will allow them to: turn ideas and
images into a complete work; realise
the importance of plot, dialogue and
character; create an ‘Otherworld’ with its
own inherent logic and cohesion; learn
how to approach agents and publishers.
APRIL
CREATIVITY AND CRAFT:
JOURNEY AND LIFE
WRITING With Beth Yahp
(11YAHP4)
6 x Friday mornings: 1, 8, 15 &
29 April; 6 & 13 May, 10am–1pm
Full Price: $540
Member (30% disc): $380
Conc Member (40% disc): $325
Journeys permeate our lives and writing.
In fiction, the journey of a character
can be physical, emotional, spiritual. A
memoir is an account of the journey of
one’s life. Travel narratives document
the physical and experiential journey of
the traveller.
WRITING FOR THE
SCREEN: FILM AND
TELEVISION ESSENTIALS
With Nick Parsons
(11PARS4)
8 x Thursdays: 7, 14, 21 &
28 April; 5, 12, 19 & 26 May,
6.30pm–9.30pm
Full Price: $720
Member (30% disc): $510
Conc Member (40% disc): $435
Writing for performance, be it stage
or screen, big or small, is the most
technically demanding literary form.
Your story is experienced in real time.
There is no pause for reflection, no
opportunity to dwell on a complex
passage. Everything must be
understood completely at the first
viewing, the audience must never be
allowed to lose track of the essential
dramatic question, ‘What will happen
next?’ – and yet good drama is as
complex and nuanced as poetry, and
stays with us for days afterwards.
SPILLING
SECRETS:
WRITING
FAMILY
HISTORY
AND
MEMOIR
With Jacqueline Kent
(11KENT4)
Saturday 9 April, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
JACQUELINE KENT’s books include A
Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary
Life; An Exacting Heart: The story of
Hephzibah Menuhin and The Making of
Julia Gillard. In this practical workshop,
Jacqueline will share the knowledge you
need to develop skills in writing memoir,
autobiography and family history.
ADVANCED PICTURE
BOOK WRITING With Libby
Gleeson (11GLEE4)
Saturday 9 April, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Get ready to re-imagine your story!
Libby Gleeson has published 35 books
for children and young adults and has
been awarded the CBCA Picture Book of
the Year and the Bologna Ragazzi prize.
Through exercises and discussion Libby
will work through your original idea and
intention. She will discuss character
development and ways to make your
characters different from the thousands
of others in children’s literature.]
FREEING THE FLOW:
REVITALISE YOUR WRITING
With Sally Swain (11SWAI4)
2 x Sundays: 10 & 17 April,
10am–4pm
Full Price: $290
Member (30% disc): $205
Conc Member (40% disc): $175
Would you like to free up, energise and
revitalise yourself and your writing?
Are you stuck? Blocked? Not sure how
to get started? In this course, we engage
in simple, enjoyable exercises that you
can take away and use at any time –
even when you’re not feeling inspired.
WRITING FOR KIDS With
Deborah Abela (11ABEL4)
Sunday 17 April, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Have you always wanted to write for
kids? Do you have that winning kids’
book but aren’t sure how to make it just
right or where to go next? Join author of
novels for kids, DEBORAH ABELA, on
an enjoyable exploration into the world
of writing for children.
PLOTTING, PLANNING
AND AVOIDING SOGGY
BITS With Laurine
Croasdale (11CROA4)
Saturday 30 April, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Plotting is the backbone of your
story – no matter what your genre.
In this workshop Laurine will explore
the different methods of plotting, the
problems that can arise during this
process, and help uncover the most
effective technique for you. She will look
at creating character, point of view and
structure with writing exercises, group
work, discussion and constructive
critiques.
SEMINAR:
EVERYTHING YOU
NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT PUBLISHING
With Mark MacLeod
and Special Guests
(11MACL4)
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
15
C O U R S E S AT T H E C E N TR E
Saturday 30 April & Sunday 1
May, 10am–4pm
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Full Price: $290
Member (30% disc): $205
Conc Member (40% disc): $175
Good humour, like good ballet, or
good golf, looks easy – until you try
it. Join the multi-award-winning writer
of Mother and Son and Grass Roots,
GEOFFREY ATHERDEN, for a serious
look at hilarity.
Full Price: $290
Member (30% disc): $205
Conc Member (40% disc): $175
Whether you’re writing for newspapers,
magazines, guidebooks or composing a
full-length travel memoir, don’t miss this
practical travel writing course. MARGO
DALY is a travel author and editor whose
work includes writing for the renowned
Rough Guides series of travel books.
Students have often had their first
publication as a result of Margo’s class.
Publishing: it’s the holy grail of the
writing world. Many try, few succeed.
This two-day seminar will take you
beyond the iron gate and inside the
world of modern publishing with
experts from the industry. Whether
you’re looking at commercial or selfpublishing, mainstream or digital or
can’t decide, this seminar is one you
can’t afford to miss.
WRITING CREATIVE NONFICTION With Barbara
Brooks (11BROO5)
6 x Sunday mornings: 8, 15, 22 &
29 May; 5 & 12 June, 10am–1pm
WRITING HISTORY With
Chris Cheng (11CHEN5)
MAY
Full Price: $540
Member (30% disc): $380
Conc Member (40% disc): $325
Sunday 15 May, 10am–4pm
FOR THE BEAUTY OF
THE EDGE: A SIX-WEEK
POETRY WORKSHOP
With Martin Langford
(11LANG5)
6 x Tuesday evenings: 3, 10, 17,
24 & 31 May; 7 June, 6.30pm–
9.30pm
Full Price: $540
Member (30% disc): $380
Conc Member (40% disc): $325
MARTIN LANGFORD has published
six books of poetry, has directed the
Australian Poetry Festival and is a
keen advocate of new and emerging
poets in Australia. In this workshop
Martin will focus on both aspects of
writing: on producing the raw material
(where do ideas come from?; How can
one discover what one wants to write
about?) and on shaping it (sharpening
and clarifying images; tensioning ideas;
making decisions about the nature of
one’s work).
BUT IS IT
FUNNY?
With
Geoffrey
Atherden
(11ATHE5)
Saturday 7 May, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
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N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
Creative non-fiction is as broad a genre
as the lives, the journeys, the reflections
and knowledge that shape it. From
Helen Garner to Hunter S Thompson,
George Orwell to Joan Didion, the
style embraces memoir, the essay,
biography, history, travel and a myriad
other variations. Whatever your subject,
whatever the true story you want to
tell, this practical introductory course
will set you on the way to writing with
imagination, confidence and clarity.
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Historians are storytellers. They take
a pile of raw data, old newspapers,
shipping lists, or ephemera like theatre
programs and ticket stubs, and they
turn it into a tale. This workshop will
investigate Australian history (although
we will look at other international
avenues as well) and is suitable for
anybody who is interested in researching
and writing historical narratives
GETTING TO GRIPS WITH
GRAMMAR With Mark
Tredinnick (11TRED5)
CRITIQUE GROUP: HANDSON FICTION With Nicola
O’Shea (11OSHE5)
Saturday 14 May, 10am–4pm
8 x Saturday afternoons: 21
May; 4 & 18 June; 2, 16 & 30
July; 13 & 27 August, 1pm–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
To write well you need to get to know
how the language works, where to put
the commas, and what the rules of
grammar and the conventions of style
demand. Grammar is the logic of the
language; it is the bones that support
the body of the writing. When you know
grammar, you know the part that each
word plays in a sentence.
WRITE YOUR WAY
AROUND THE WORLD
With Margo Daly (11DALM5)
2 x Saturdays: 14 & 21 May,
10am–4pm
Full Price: $865
Member (30% disc): $605
Conc Member (40% disc): $520
Do you need professional feedback on
your fiction? Want to share your work and
experiences with other writers? Develop
your craft and learn the art of critique from
former HarperCollins book editor and
manuscript assessor NICOLA O’SHEA.
WRITERS’
TOOLKIT: THE
ELEMENTS OF
FICTION With
Emily Maguire
(11MAGU5)
F e b r u a r y – J u n e 2 0 1 1 | For full details of courses please go to www.nswwriterscentre.org.au
Sunday 29 May, 10am–4pm
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Much of the most enduring and exciting
writing of our time is happening in
essays, memoirs, biographies and
other non-fiction forms. This workshop
is about writing about what is true and
writing from lived experience. It’s a
workshop in the literature of fact. If
fiction is the art of telling beautiful lies,
non-fiction is the art of telling beautiful
truths.
EMILY MAGUIRE is the internationally
bestselling author of five books
including the acclaimed Taming the
Beast and Smoke in the Room. In this
one-day intensive, Emily will provide an
introduction to the elements of fiction
including character, point of view, voice,
setting and plot.
ADVANCED FOOD
WRITING With John
Newton (11NEWT6)
4 x Thursday evenings: 2, 9, 16,
23 June 6.30pm–9.30pm
LOVE WRITING: AN
INTRODUCTION TO
WRITING ROMANTIC
FICTION With Bronwyn
Parry (11PARR6)
Saturday 4 June, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $360
Member (30% disc): $250
Conc Member (40% disc): $215
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
After five years the UTS-accredited
course Writing About Food has a proven
success rate in helping students find
employment and start their food writing
projects. Now we’re introducing the
advanced course, a workshop based
course designed to help students plan,
finish and find outlets for their projects.
Contrary to the myths, writing romance
isn’t easy. There’s no formula, and no
easy path to success in what is now a
large, diverse, and highly competitive
industry. BRONWYN PARRY is the RITAshortlisted, RWA Romance Book of the
Year award winning author of two novels.
In this one-day workshop Bronwyn
will introduce you to writing romantic
fiction, whether for Mills and Boon or
for the mainstream, single-title market.
PERFECT CRIME With P. M.
Newton (11NEWP6)
Saturday 4 June, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
PAM (P.M.) NEWTON is the critically
acclaimed author of The Old School.
Author, teacher, ex-cop and Matthew
Reilly’s ‘writer to watch’ in 2010, Pam
will pass on her practical knowledge and
insight into the genre of crime fiction.
NOTHING BUT THE
TRUTH: THE CRAFT OF
WRITING NON-FICTION
With Mark Tredinnick
(11TRED6)
Saturday 4 June, 10am–4pm
START WRITING FOR
THE STAGE With Verity
Laughton (11LAUG6)
2 x Saturdays: 11 & 18 June,
10am–4pm
Full Price: $290
Member (30% disc): $205
Conc Member (40% disc): $175
VERITY LAUGHTON is the
internationally produced author of more
than ten plays including Carrying Light
and The Ice Season. She has numerous
AWGIE awards and a Griffin Prize to
her name. In this two-day course Verity
will take you through the essentials of
theatre writing and help you write a
30-minute play.
KICK-START YOUR
WRITING With Melissa
Bruce (11BRUC6)
Saturday 11 June, 10am–4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Finding ideas – and sticking with them
– can be tough even for experienced
writers. How do you get started? Which
idea should you choose to commit to?
How do you overcome your blocks?
In this one-day kick-starter, Melissa
Bruce will provide participants with
inspirational techniques to get started
with a new work.
SENSING THE MEMOIR
With Jan Cornall (11CORN6)
Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 June,
10am - 4pm
Full Price: $290
Member (30% disc): $205
Conc Member (40% disc): $175
Evoking the senses is one of the keys to
creating a successful memoir. Bringing
your story alive with descriptive detail
is what’s needed, but is not so easy to
accomplish. Using guided meditation,
visualization and creative mapping
techniques, writer and mentor Jan
Cornall will take you deep into sense
memory.
MARVELOUS JOURNEYS:
WRITING SCIENCE
FICTION AND FANTASY
With Terry Dowling
(11DOWL6)
Saturday 18 June, 10am - 4pm
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
Conc Member (40% disc): $90
Want to write out of this world? Do
you dream of the impossible? Then
get ready to immerse your imagination
in the genres of science fiction and
fantasy with one of Australia’s most
awarded and internationally acclaimed
speculative writers, Terry Dowling.
Full Price: $150
Member (30% disc): $105
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
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NEWS WITH NIPPLES
Kim Powell
pursues a career
in the mainstream
media, while
blogging on its
limitations
ant to know a great careerlimiting move? Get a job with
a major news organisation
that is particularly sensitive
to criticism and then start a blog about
how the mainstream media should be
better. You can imagine how well this
works for me.
W
I am a blogger and a journalist.
My blog — The News with Nipples at
<www.newswithnipples.com> — began
after a few days as the newsroom’s
Miss Universe “correspondent”. It
sounds glamorous, all those white
teeth and spray tans and identical
regulation bikinis, but the reality is
more mundane: each morning I created
a photo gallery for the company’s
news websites, using images from
an international wire service. Hence
the inverted commas that mock the
years I’ve been a journalist. I also have
a degree in psychology, a masters in
journalism and I’m doing my doctorate,
so bikini galleries might not be the best
use of my education. Mind you, when
you measure the galleries’ popularity
against my HECS debt, I’m probably
getting a lot of boob for my buck.
The blog was also a response to those
“studies” that online editors love,
about how women are all something or
other, sponsored by a company selling
a product that cures that something or
other. And it gave me a space to rant
about the way journalists continue to
write about the hairstyles and clothes
worn by female politicians.
But more than anything, The News
with Nipples means I write every day. I
write about how journalism should be
better, about the words that journalists
18
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
use, and also about my life and the
things that make me laugh. And on my
blog, I break the rules: I swear; I start
sentences with “and”; I write “I” — all
the things a journalist can’t do, but a
writer, self-publishing on a free blog
and answerable only to herself and her
readers, can.
Then one day, as I was happily going
about my blogging like some late-90s
feminist fairytale, my editor found out
about The News with Nipples. Apparently
criticising from inside the fortress isn’t
good for your career. Who knew? My
job was waved in front of me, and I
did what any Sydney renter would do:
I caved. I took down the blog posts
about one of the company’s other
newspapers, and told myself that it
didn’t matter because they were old
posts that only a few dozen people had
read. But it does matter. Editors make
decisions every day and every hour
about what news their audience gets
Journalists stay out of
the public discussion
about journalism, and
the conversation goes on
without us. It makes us
look arrogant and out of
touch at a time when we
need people to want us.
We’re haemorrhaging
audiences, so it won’t hurt
to listen to the critics.
to know about. But when it comes to
criticism about those decisions, the
industry responds like a five-year-old.
Popular blogger Grog’s Gamut <www.
grogsgamut.blogspot.com> found this
out the hard way when he wrote about
the media’s woeful coverage of the
2010 federal election. In response, The
Australian published his real name and
where he worked, and suggested that
a public servant blogging a political
opinion might be a sackable offence.
Many journalists disagreed with The
Australian’s actions, but all kept quiet.
Apart from the few who work for Media
Watch, journalists stay out of the public
discussion about journalism, and the
Kim Powell, daily blogger on News with Nipples
conversation goes on without us. It
makes us look arrogant and out of
touch at a time when we need people
to want us. We’re haemorrhaging
audiences, so it won’t hurt to listen
to the critics. After all, it’s just about
words, right? We’re not being picked on
because we’re funny looking and have a
BO problem.
The thing is, news bloggers are the
industry’s biggest critics and also its
biggest consumers. You need to follow
the news in order to write about it. I
still read the newspaper every morning,
listen to the news during the day,
and watch the news every night. I am
helping to keep in business the very
company I blog about the most — a
company I can only blog about because
I don’t work there. (And, no doubt, will
never work there because of my blog.)
And that is the darker, more controlling,
side to this silence: journalists are not
allowed to comment publicly about
their colleagues’ news decisions, even if
it’s a different newspaper in a different
state. Some social media policies also
prevent journalists from commenting
on their competitors’ decisions. The
very news organisations that rely on
people wanting to talk about their
employers have strict policies to prevent
the same thing happening to them. The
irony would be delicious if it wasn’t so
damaging.
Kim Powell is a journalist, blogger and
PhD student. She blogs daily at <www.
newswithnipples.com> and you can find
her on Twitter as <@newswithnipples>.
VIDEO + BOOK = VOOK
Linda Carroli
looks at the
emerging world of
blended media
s electronic reading devices
multiply and change to meet
and feed our expanding
digital literacy, opportunities
to introduce adapted formats and media
abound. Blended media is a significant
feature of this changing territory. Our
reading habits have been hard to disrupt
and slow to change; blending media
presents an opportunity to use desirable
devices like iPad and Galaxy. The vook
is one such example of both blended
name (video + book = vook) and blended
form with its mix of text, video and other
interactive elements.
A
While the death of the book
proclamations have diminished and
books have proven their resilience,
‘mashing’ seems inevitable. In The
New York Times, Motoko Rich refers to
this mashing as ‘book-bending’ while
Jolie O’Dell in ReadWriteWeb offers a
description with more contemporary
cultural references: ‘it combines the
(relatively) old skool readability of a
Kindle with the engagement of a YouTube
series, all wrapped in the delicious flavor
of a usable, interactive UI (user interface)
for web users and iFanboys alike.’
In 2009, Simon & Schuster partnered
with multimedia producer/publisher
Vook <http://vook.com/> to develop
a series of vooks that combined
videos, electronic text and social
networking. These are viewable online
using a browser <http://promo.
simonandschuster.com/vook/> or on
an iPhone or iPod Touch. With its first
four vook titles released in 2010, Simon
& Schuster is doing what corporations
do — seizing opportunities availed by
devices with staying power to introduce
new products and content into the
marketplace. The first two Simon &
Schuster literary releases were Promises,
a romantic novella by Jude Deveraux,
and Embassy, a short thriller by Richard
Doetsch. After experiencing Promises,
The Institute for the Future of the
Book’s Bob Stein concluded that this
vook release was a failure, banal and
too fragmented with the video and text
lacking integration. Like O’Dell, Stein
identifies non-fiction publishing as more
convincing in its inclusion of video. The
device-driven nature of vooks means that
a fitness or skateboarding title can include
instructional, even motivational, videos.
The emergence of commercially viable
electronic literary forms has not been easy
or comfortable. The uptake of e-books
has embarrassingly faltered over the past
few decades or so. The first e-books were
created in 1971 with Project Gutenberg as
digital reproductions of existing works.
While the idea of book-like works native
to digital environments met with ridicule
and reticence, there has been consistent
interest. As an enterprise that spotted
an opportunity, Vook was established to
push the boundaries of book publishing
Vook didn’t invent this
type of blended media and,
since the 1990s at least,
a plethora of non-linear
narrative experiments were
launched onto websites,
CD-ROMs and other
technologies, often couched
in hyperbole about the
radical potential of new
media and hypermedia.
in the digital age and is publishing
its own broad spectrum of titles; its
bestsellers seem to be predominantly
instructional. Notably, Vook didn’t
invent this type of blended media and,
since the 1990s at least, a plethora of
non-linear narrative experiments were
launched onto websites, CD-ROMs and
other technologies, often couched in
hyperbole about the radical potential
of new media and hypermedia. Often
these experiments didn’t stack up
in a commercial sense due to price,
reader experience and limitations of the
technology. No-one particularly wants
to read from their desktop or laptop
computers. Handheld devices make the
A SELECTION OF VOOKS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT
SCHUSTER & SCHUSTER
reading experience feel more authentic,
mobile and personal.
With some critics making “never
the twain” type commentaries and
lauding the aesthetic necessity of
literary prose and the novel, the fiction
market might prove particularly inured.
Vooks don’t pretend to be books and
aren’t positioned to replace books. At
best, a vook offers a different kind of
engagement with text within a dynamic
environment. Designed to replicate
printed pages, other narrative elements
seem secondary to the writing. While
the components of video, design,
hyperlinks and narrative are all familiar
to us, sharing the same screen space,
they do so without convergence.
Consequently, for as long as vooks are
treated as a type of electronic book, for
which a written text is adapted for video,
the form won’t convincingly blend text
and video as a coherent and immersive
narrative. As a device-driven experience,
vooks can only be a small part of the
ongoing negotiation of storytelling. As
this negotiation gathers momentum,
the questions for publishers, mediamakers and production teams may
be less about pushing mashed and
adapted content onto devices and
more about coordinating pathways for
audiences to engage with collaboratively
developed storyworlds across platforms.
Linda Carroli is a Brisbane-based writer
and consultant. She is published nationally
and internationally as a cultural writer and
undertakes a range of online writing projects.
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
19
Mick Dark at Varuna with Eleanor’s studio in the background, Spring 2010. Photo: Bette Mifsud.
AROUND THE STATE
A celebration, and Marele
Day does crime, at Varuna
Varuna, the Writers’ House is Australia’s
only national writers’ centre. The
home of novelist Eleanor Dark and her
husband Eric Dark from 1923, Varuna
is situated in Katoomba, the Blue
Mountains (NSW). Gifted to Australian
writers by Eleanor’s son, Michael Dark,
Varuna continues to be a vibrant home
for developing writers across Australia.
Varuna offers a much celebrated mix
of space, solitude and community for
the creative process. In 2011, Varuna
celebrates its 20th anniversary.
A week in crime
Spend a week in residence with
acclaimed crime writer Marele Day.
Marele will be in residence for two
separate weeks with eight selected
20
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
writers. She will provide individual
consultations and group sessions to
assist crime writers in developing their
manuscript to the next stage. Marele
will also provide a masterclass on
Saturday 22 October, an optional extra
for those in residence, at a cost of $100;
this class will also be made available to
a larger group.
Marele is the author of: four crime
novels, The Life and Crimes of Harry
Lavender, The Case of the Chinese Boxes,
The Last Tango of Dolores Delgado
and The Disappearances of Madalena
Grimaldi; a collection of crime-comedy
stories, Mavis Levack, PI; and editor
of How to Write Crime. Other novels
include the acclaimed Lambs of God and
Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of
the Captain’s Wife. A highly experienced
teacher, Marele is known as a generous
mentor of emerging writers, and
skilled facilitator of writing courses and
masterclasses throughout Australia.
She has won several awards including
the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement,
2008. Her latest novel, released in
2009, is The Sea Bed.
Who should apply: Crime writers with a
work in progress. The residential week
will work best for those who have a
crime project well underway. Marele will
meet with you twice during the week
and will facilitate one group session
while in residence.
Important dates: Applications sought
1–28 February. Residencies to take
place Monday 29 August – Sunday 4
September and Monday 17 October –
Sunday 23 October.
Costs to applicant: Application fee is $55.
Residency fee for successful applicants
is $300. Masterclass is $100.
For more information about this and
other 2011 Varuna programs, see
<www.varuna.com.au>.
Tessa Hockley, Executive Director, Varuna –
The Writers’ House
PoetryLab perched on
a cliff
At the time of writing, the South
Coast Writers’ Centre is in the midst
of PoetryLab: the Wollongong Poetry
Workshop, an eight-day workshop
presented in partnership with Australian
Poetry Ltd (formerly the Australian
Poetry Centre and the Poets Union).
This workshop is being held at Clifton
School of Arts, built in 1911, and
perched on a cliff alongside a few
houses, two parks and a bus stop,
about half an hour north of Wollongong
and an hour south of Sydney. Ocean
views provide an outlook that can be
dramatic, subtle, or brilliant, as the light
and the weather change.
There’s no better example of the value
of writers’ centres than stepping into
the atmosphere of PoetryLab — 30
people working with extraordinary focus
and dedication, interspersed with lots
of laughter and eager talk at morning
tea and lunch time. Many writers will
know that it can be hard to be taken
seriously as a writer in everyday life,
and this experience is arguably even
more common for poets. At PoetryLab,
nothing matters more than the creation
and appreciation of poetry, and a
conversation about Ashbery or Keats is
as normal as a chat about the weather
or the cricket.
Poetry tutors Susan Hampton, Bronwyn
Lea and Michael Sharkey, are working
with participants to hone their craft
or explore new ways of working. The
workshop also includes sessions on
zine-making and online poetry, with
guest presenters like Vanessa Berry,
Tamryn Bennett, Arcadia Lyons, Brook
Emery and Ron Pretty.
BookCrossing (leaving books for others to read), October 2010, Sydney. Photo: Debbie Robson
be a part of this workshop the next time
around.
Of course, it will soon to be time to
come back down to earth, but it will be
a soft landing, as we plan a program
of readings in Wollongong and Nowra,
more workshops on the Far South
Coast, the second National Indigenous
Writers’ and Educators’ Conference, and
lots of other treats for the year ahead.
Ali Smith, South Coast Writers’ Centre
The joys of BookCrossing
The staff and volunteers from the
SCWC are doing an extraordinary job
making it all happen, with special
acknowledgement due to Operations
Manager, Cassie Charlton, and the
tutors and guest speakers are proving
to be thoughtful and generous with
their knowledge, and their time.
BookCrossers are as mad as hatters
and I’m madder than most! I joined the
online bookclub back at the end of 2003
and almost immediately began to write
a novel using <www.bookcrossing.com>
as a backdrop and link between eight
characters. At BookCrossing, normal,
everyday people actually give away
books. We spend time labelling the
books with individual tracking numbers,
with labels often designed by ourselves;
put post-it notes on the front cover
and release them. We decide where we
will leave a book and sometimes make
a special trip to put a book on a park
bench or on a cafe table and walk away.
Odd right?
Later in the week, we’ll talk about how
best to do it all again in 2012, so do
stay in touch to find out how you can
Sometimes when we leave a book
somewhere you hear the dreaded
words: ‘Excuse me, you’ve left your
book behind.’ My answer is generally:
‘It’s not my book.’ And usually they pick
it up to investigate further.
On the second last weekend of October
over 30 BookCrossers got together for
the Sydney Unconvention and on the
Saturday walked around Sydney for two
hours releasing books. Books were left
on benches in Hyde Park, on statues
along Macquarie Street, on the steps of
the Opera House and in the Botanical
Gardens where we had lunch.
I’m madder than most because for
this convention I was able to release
19 of the 52 books that appear in my
novel Crossing Paths: the BookCrossing
novel. I carefully labelled the 19 books
(bought on a shopping spree at four
secondhand bookshops in Newcastle)
and instead of writing a new journal
entry saying something about the
book, I copied the journal entry from
Crossing Paths instead. Most newbies
that discover any of the 19 books won’t
notice anything strange but for one
or two of these books, the ‘jes’ (as we
call the journal entries) will come as a
surprise.
Debbie Robson
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
21
FIRST-TIMER: FROM
MANUSCRIPT TO
THREE-BOOK DEAL
bestest couple of pals. I didn’t even
tell my parents until the contract was
signed. Once the contract was signed, I
threw a massive party and told everyone
I knew. I was elated. Then I had to finish
the actual book — which took the edge
off the celebrations. The process is:
Jacqui Dent
interviews Van
Badham about
her debut novel
Burnt Snow
eminars, classes, books,
blogs. You don’t have to
look far these days to find
someone offering advice
on how to get published. But what
happens after that golden moment
of acceptance? Van Badham is an
internationally produced, award-winning
playwright and author whose first novel,
Burnt Snow, was published by Pan
Macmillan in September 2010.
S
At what stage of completion was your
manuscript when you first contacted
Pan Macmillan?
My agent had been reading the Burnt
Snow manuscript in 5,000-word chunks
since I began writing it. At 50,000
words she told me to stop writing
while she approached publishers. She
contacted five, of whom Pan Macmillan
were but one.
What role did your agent play in the
approach and negotiations?
Nellie did all of the groundwork and early
negotiations. I got very lucky and received
an offer on a three-book deal from a
publisher on the Monday after the Friday
the manuscript went out. That meant that
my agent was in a position to negotiate
with other publishers with a deal already
on the table. My agent was very explicit
that money wasn’t to be an issue and that
I should meet all the publishers who were
offering and go with the team I felt were
the best match for my book artistically,
editorially, philosophically — she would
take care of the rest.
The NSW Writers’ Centre is often asked
whether it’s better to look for an agent
or a publisher first. Which would you
recommend?
22
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
Hmm. It’s different for everyone.
Gaining representation in Australia is
very tricky. I had been a working writer
for 10 years before I was signed — and
signings in Australia are really all based
on referral. I would recommend you
hone your craft as a writer, enter all
competitions, grants and opportunities,
win a lot of awards, and then WAIT.
When you’ve got a CV that says, ‘look,
I’m really good, other people think so
and will pay’, that’s usually when you’re
working at a level where the people
around you have agents and they will
recommend you to one — and it will be
the best one for you.
What did you include in your book
pitch?
All I included was the 50,000 word
Burnt Snow manuscript. Nellie probably
wrote something like ‘sexy, witchy
paranormal stuff’ in the introductory
email. That’s all they really needed to
know — Nellie is a very well-known
agent so they would have known from
her reputation that I had the goods.
From that point, it was just going to
be a question of whether the story had
commercial appeal, was suitable to
what genres they were publishing and
whether what I was doing accorded to
their taste.
Once Pan Macmillan decided they
would publish Burnt Snow, what
happened next?
I didn’t tell anyone about the deal apart
from my boyfriend at the time and my
•finish draft
• receive structural revisions in the
editorial report
• (re)write second draft
• receive more structural revisions
• (re)write third draft
• receive copy corrections
• incorporate copy corrections and
(re)write fourth draft
• receive more copy corrections
• incorporate more copy corrections
• receive even more copy corrections
• incorporate even more corrections
• consult on cover art, book trailer,
publicity strategy
• panic wildly about everything
• get taken to lunch by publishers to
calm down
• do months of promotional events,
including appearances at writers’
festivals, media interviews, signings,
readings, schools visits
• launch book with a big party
• promote the book everywhere
• write next book.
What types of things did your author
contract cover?
Oh, man — everything. It covered film
rights and TV rights and territorial
rights and merchandising and e-books
and digital downloads and god knows
what else. Just looking at the size of
the contracts made my eyes hurt.
These days, due to digital rights and
adaptation rights and everything else,
a book contract is the thickness of a
telephone book.
You mention on your blog that the
editing process was very detailed. Could
you give us some examples of that?
It’s crazy — there’s nothing like it.
The attention to detail is why I would
never, ever, personally go down the
self-publishing route. I blogged about
one example of the discussions — I had
described a character as having ‘necklength hair’. The editor wrote back ‘but
you haven’t described the length of her
neck — do you mean closer to chinlength or shoulder length?’
Did your editor focus on the nitty-gritty
grammar and sentence structure, or
broad aspects like plot and character?
These are all part of the editorial
process, which is the reason why it
takes place in stages. [First there’s] the
structural stuff — like working out story
and plot clarity, developing elements of
characterisation. Once the structure’s
sorted, then all the nitty-gritty
corrections and suggestions are made.
It was in the grammar and correction
phase that I truly appreciated the
specialised skills of my editors. I flatter
myself I have excellent written English,
but I stared at the pencilled-corrections
to the hard copy of my novel with my
mouth open. There were at least 20 a
page!
What was the timeline from first
acceptance of your manuscript to
publication?
The contract was signed in May. The
first draft of Burnt Snow was finished in
October. I got the big editorial report in
December (10,000 words of structural
suggestions — I almost had a heart
attack), and then I finished the re-write
The attention to detail is
why I would never, ever,
personally go down the
self-publishing route. I
blogged about one example
of the discussions — I had
described a character as
having ‘neck-length hair’.
The editor wrote back ‘but
you haven’t described the
length of her neck — do
you mean closer to chinlength or shoulder length?’
in January. Then the boxes of written
proofs appeared with couriers at my
doorstep — this time, move over heart
attack: I almost dropped dead. Then
there were electronic proofs that came
through after typesetting, and they
were mailed to me as PDFs in May/
June. Then more weeks of back-and-
• tour down South Coast of New South
Wales, where the book is set, going to
schools, doing local press interviews
• back to Sydney for more press
• up to Newcastle for This is Not Art
Festival
• back to London, work on next book.
When do the royalties come in?
Ahahaha! The royalties come in when
everybody buys a copy of Burnt Snow!
I got a very healthy advance, and the
tradeoff with that, of course, is that
you have to sell more books in order
to meet your advance-against-royalties
threshold.
Van Badham, author of Burnt Snow, published by
Pan Macmillan in 2010
forth corrections over email, and then
the book was off to the printers in July/
August. It was printed for 1 September,
and the launch date was 8 September.
So, it took 18 months all told.
How much involvement did you have
in other aspects of the publication
process? Cover art? Marketing and
publicity?
Usually, you are given a ‘right of veto’
over elements of the publicity — like the
book cover and the book trailer. Image
is SO important to get right — we live
in a visual culture and publishers know
the importance of getting the right look
for all the visual merchandising of the
book.
In September 2010 Burnt Snow hit the
shelves. What happened next?
You don’t get a lot of time to rest on a
three-book deal. Burnt Snow actually hit
the shelves while I was on book tour,
which was pretty crazy. My timetable
was as crazy as:
What stage are you at with White Rain,
the sequel?
Ooh, I am almost finished writing it. It’s
SO much harder to write your second
book than your first. I think with your
first you just write out of sheer devilmay-care chutzpah ... but with the
second there’s so many expectations
[it] puts you under a lot of pressure. So,
this has been tough — but it’s worth it.
Can’t wait to finish and get cracking on
Volume 3 … Stay tuned!
Van Badham loves to twitter <@
vanbadham>, and also runs an
infrequent but idiosyncratic blog at
<www.vanbadham.blogspot.com>.
Burnt Snow has its own Facebook page.
This is an edited version of the original
interview transcript.
Jacqui Dent has had fiction published in
Voiceworks, as well as broadcast on ABC
Radio National. She is program officer at
the NSW Writers’ Centre.
• land in Sydney from London.
• meetings with publishers, publicists, etc
• four days and then fly down to Melbourne for Melbourne Writers’
Festival
• four days and then fly to Brisbane for
Brisbane Writers’ Festival
• 36 hours (!) and then back to Sydney
for book launch
• book launch (yay!) and then a million
press interviews
N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
23
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N e w s w r i t e | Issue 195
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