In this episode, Toni Jordan takes us through the process behind writing her novel Dinner with the Schnabels. We talked about point of view and why she decided to write the book from a male perspective, how she sits down to write a scene, her daily writing practice, how she dealt with setting a novel in pandemic times and the way she balances pathos with humour. Toni also has a fantastic exercise for writers at the end of the chat so listen out for that. You’ll find links to buy both paperback a...
May 03, 2022•58 min•Season 2Ep. 14
In this episode, Hannah Kents takes us through the process behind writing her novel Devotion. We talked about how she writes her way into the voice of her characters, her love of writing landscape, her first draft process, the editing process and her writing practice. You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Devotion here . ABOUT HANNAH Hannah Kent’s first novel, the international bestseller, Burial Rites (2013), was translated into over 30 languages and won the ABIA Literar...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 13
In this episode, Penelope Janu takes us through the process behind writing her novel Clouds on the Horizon . We talked about finding the voice of the characters, the importance of hitting certain beats when writing romance, the literary characters that inspire her, the editing process, her writing routine and the role of a writer’s group in a writer’s life. You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Clouds on the Horizon here . ABOUT PENELOPE JANU Penelope Janu lives in Sydney...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 12
collected essays. My Name is Revenge was longlisted for 2020 Davitt Awards , shortlisted for the 2019 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards , and a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award. Ashley’s writing appears in Griffith Review , Sydney Review of Books , Overland , Australian Book Review , the Sydney Morning Herald , the Australian , the Big Issue , Openbook , Westerly , Kill Your Darlings , the Canberra Times , and more. She is the co-host of James and Ashley Stay at Home , a p...
Feb 01, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 2Ep. 11
In this episode, Markus Zusak and I talk about the writing process behind his novels Bridge of Clay, The Book Thief and The Messenger. Markus talks about how he finds the voice of his characters and how he differentiates between them, the importance of rhythm, pace, word choice and punctuation in his writing in order to bring the work to life, and how he uses foreshadowing, action and specificity in his writing. You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Markus’s books here . ...
Dec 01, 2021•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In this episode, Jessica Dettmann and I talked about the writing process behind her novel This Has Been Absolutely Lovely. Jessica talks about what inspired her characters and how she uses voice to differentiate between them, how she writes a scene, her editorial process and the importance of reading your manuscript out loud, the importance of setting and how she ditched a prologue and wove the backstory into the main narrative. You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of This ...
Nov 02, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Lynette Noni is currently Australia’s number one YA fiction author of ten novels including The Medoran Chronicles, the Whisper Duology and now The Prison Healer series. Not only did we talk about writing YA and fantasy, Lynette also spoke about the process of planning and writing a series, what inspired the world of The Prison Healer, and how she goes about creating distinctive, layered characters. ABOUT LYNETTE Lynette Noni is currently Australia’s #1 YA fiction author. After studying journalis...
Oct 03, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 8
This month I had a brilliant chat with Tasmanian author Kyle Perry about his novel The Deep. I’d heard Kyle talk about his writing process before and he was so articulate and generous with his own experiences of writing, I knew he’d be perfect for the podcast. In this chat with Kyle about his latest novel The Deep, we talked about the importance of the opening image of a novel, Kyle’s trick to creating a good plot twist, how to make characters distinctive from one another and Kyle gives us a gre...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 7
This month I had a lovely long chat with Meredith Jaffe about her latest novel The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison. In this episode, Meredith takes us on the journey from first draft, through to structural and copy edits and finally to finished novel. She talked about writing multiple points of view with an ensemble cast of characters, the concept of head hopping, the unusual drafting process she used for her next novel and how she seeds backstory throughout the narrative. Remember there can ...
Aug 01, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 6
This month I was lucky enough to chat with Nikki Gemmell about her latest novel The Ripping Tree. I am a long-term fan of Nikki’s beginning when I first read The Bride Stripped Bare almost 20 years ago. I love the way she experiments with style and structure. I love her prose. I love the fact she’s not afraid of an adverb but I’m also inspired by Nikki‘s work ethic. She’s produced adult and children’s novels and a memoir and other works of non-fiction across 22 languages and still turns out a we...
Jul 01, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 5
This month I spent a delightful hour chatting with Australian novelist Jaclyn Moriarty about her book for adults Gravity Is The Thing. We talked about her inspiration for the novel, the unusual structure including what she calls fragmented storytelling, and the idea of the reader trusting you to deliver on the promise of the novel. Jaclyn also talked about some of the techniques she uses to fire her creativity, the unique partnership she embarked on with her editor and backstory. Gravity is the ...
Jun 02, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 4
I first met Candice at a writer's festival in 2019 and was struck by how generous she was with her experiences as a writer which, of course, is exactly the kind of writer I want to bring to your ears on this podcast. Candice is knowledgeable on the craft of writing, yes, but she also has the best stories. We chatted more about the craft behind her writing but after this, go and have a listen to some of the stories of her very unusual childhood and her experiences, as a writer, interviewing seria...
May 03, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Kylie and I first met on Twitter quite a few years ago (as you do) and I remember being struck by her honesty about her writing and her experience with being published. On top of that, she’s smart and funny and all the things you could want in a Twitter buddy. She’s definitely somebody I’d recommend following. She writes the kinds of books I love, full of family drama, complicated characters, and psychological or social or moral dilemmas that put her characters into all sorts of sticky situation...
Apr 01, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Natasha Lester was our very first guest on the podcast. We took a deep dive with Natasha into the writing process and craft behind her novel The Paris Secret. We covered so many elements of writing the novel including first lines, prologue, plot twists, dual narratives, her research process and so much more. (NOTE: This episode contains spoilers about the novel so if you don’t like spoilers, read the book before listening to the episode.) Show notes and transcript are available at http://writers...
Feb 27, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Writer’s Book Club is just like a regular book club but each month we’ll take a deep dive into a specific novel from a writing craft perspective. It's a podcast for people who read books with a writer’s eye and find themselves wishing they could ask the author questions like . . . “Why did you use flashbacks instead of a dual timeline?” “What was the most challenging scene to write and why?” “How did you develop the voice for that character?” “Did you outline this novel and what was your process...
Feb 01, 2021•5 min•Ep. 1
