You Write!

Have you always dreamed about being a writer? Are there ideas in your head that just need to get out? Here are some steps.

Imagine ...

Tim Bonyhady (SMH June 10, 2004) discusses the effect that a great photo like Peter Dombrovskis' Rock Island Bend can have on the public conscious. It was this photo that steeled the public to fight against the dam on the Franklin River in western Tasmania.

Peter Dombrovskis' famous 'Rock Island Bend'

The same can be said of a book, be it pictorial or a novel. The purpose of your book is to engender emotion in the reader. Imagine what you can do.

Writing Fiction

Write something with a beginning, middle and end. It doesn't have to be the 'first' chapter in the book you want to write. Sometimes, it's easier to write the ending first and then fill in the ways you get to that ending.

Read it aloud to yourself. Try to give the story a pace when you read aloud. This may help you identify areas that need to be expanded or show you where the pace slows down too much.

Then draft out the book, and start to fill in the areas that come easiest to you with a chapter's beginning, middle and end, read it aloud, and revise.

Writing your family history

There are fourteen different ways to write a family history, according to Noeline Kyle and Ron King in the FAMILY HISTORY WRITING BOOK (Allen & Unwin, Sydney):

• One generation at a time
• A collection of documents with commentary
• Biographies
• Collective biography
• Autobiography
• Chronological technique
• Themes and topics
• Chronology and topics/themes
• Local/regional focus
• Occupations and institutions
• Immigration
• Economic or political approaches
• Fiction
• Writing a life story

Author Helen Menzies' book the Survivors' Affair is a memoir which uses iconic moments and events to tell her story.

The Survivors' Affair can be ordered on line in our bookshop.

Your tasks will include research, making sense of documents, shaping the content, and publishing the resulting book.

It may be easier to begin by picking a topic that you think will interest most of your target market: is it your family's religion, sporting interests or business that can be a 'trail' through the book?

Rejected Hits!

Don't let rejection keep you from writing. Here are just a few examples of persistence.

• CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL by Jack Caufield & Mark Victor Hansen. Rejected 100 times. Sold 7 million copies.
• JONATHAN LIVINGSTONE SEAGULL by Richard Bach. His agent said, 'Look, they're not interested in a talking seagull' when it got knocked back 20 times. Sold 3 million copies.
• A TIME TO KILL by John Grisham. His first novel. Rejected 25 times.
• DAY OF THE JACKALL. Frederick Forsyth got this reject letter: 'has no reader interest.'
• Dymphna Cusack's manuscript of COME IN SPINNER won the 1947 Sydney Daily Telegraph competition for the best novel of the year. No Australian publisher made an offer to publish it. It was published in the UK and the US and sold more than 100,000 copies in hardcover.
• Bradley Trevor Greive's THE BLUE DAY BOOK was rejected by every major publisher in Australia and nine more in America until it was taken up. It was his eighth book. Seven earlier titles were unpublished. He worked 6 nights a week in a Mexican restaurant. The book's now a bestseller: over 6 million copies were sold worldwide in 2001, it's been published in more than 30 countries, in 24 languages.

• The new Hit TV series DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES was rejected six times (by CBS, Fox, HBO, Lifetime, NBS and Showtime) before the American network ABC turned it into a big earner.

Join a writers' centre, writers' group or reading club. The more you involve yourself in reading and writing, the better your book will be.

The establishment of Writers' Centres in every state in Australia has been a boon for aspiring writers. New South Wales is also blessed with seven regional Writers' Centres catering for local writers and readers.

As resource and information organisations, Writers' Centres are a one-stop shop for writers wishing to find out more about the whole enterprise of writing. All produce regular newsletters packed with useful information and conduct a range of fascinating courses and workshops, as well as holding literary events such as readings and book launches.

Aspiring writers who join Writers' Centres can avoid many of the mistakes likely to be made when they work in isolation.

• You will develop confidence to read your work in front of others.
• You will learn how to submit material to journals and newspapers.

Of course you'll meet other writers, readers, publishers, booksellers; writers' centres are great places to network with others who share your interests in writing, reading, publishing and bookselling.

Writers' Centres across Australia are at:
NSW Writers' Centre
Queensland Writers' Centre
South Australian Writers' Centre
Victorian Writers' Centre
WA Writers' Centre
ACT Writers' Centre
Northern Territory Writers' Centre
Tasmanian Writers' Centre

NSW has regional writers' centres at Wagga Wagga, Broken Hill, Orange, Hamilton, Armidale, Byron Bay, Wollongong and Katoomba.

Act like a professional writer

The major national organisations for professional writers are the Australian Society of Authors, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, and the Australian Writers Guild. They all offer contracts advice and provide assessment services.

New and established writers alike join and participate in the Fellowship of Australian Writers, International PEN, the Poets' Union, Society of Women Writers, and state-based and regional Writers' Centres. Many of these have regular newsletters, social and training functions, seminars, workshops, and festivals.

Publisher John Iremonger called 'the sacred moment that matters' to a writer:

• Not when you tap the last keystroke
• Not when the publisher says yes
• Not when the editing's done, or you see page proofs, or you have the finished book in your hand
• It's not even the launch or the book reviews
• It's when someone buys your book
• The act of faith
• When he or she chooses your voice in preference to someone else's

"The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to their dream." - Joan Didion. (From BESTSELLER by Olivia Goldsmith. This is a very funny novel all about the world of British and American publishing and writing, with plenty of insider jokes.)

Books to help you get started:

Stephen King's fabulous book ON WRITING: A MEMOIR will give you inspiration and spirit.

Robin Derricourt's guide to scholarly and non-fiction publishing is titled IDEAS INTO BOOKS. A must-read for those considering writing scholarly books. Written as humorous, lively letters from a publisher to well-meaning authors and potential authors, the book answers a multitude of common questions, including: how to write a book proposal, when to approach potential publishers, revising (or not) theses into books, keeping in touch with editors during the writing and publishing process, the significance of a contract, producing finished copy, and marketing and promoting the book. Dr Derricourt, an accomplished academic archaeologist, writes from eighteen years of experience in the publishing industry.

Carmel Bird's classic guide to writing fiction is called DEAR WRITER.

When you're feeling low and looking for a pep up, turn to THE QUOTABLE WRITER by William A. Gordon.

THE LITTLE BROWN ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS compiled by Jane Aaron will help you avoid the it's instead of its.

And to see how other writers get the words out, Kay Dick's selected a range of interviews from the Paris Review titled WRITERS AT WORK includes:

Norman Mailer: "I like a room with a view, preferably a long view. I dislike looking out on gardens. I prefer looking at the sea, or ships, or anything which has a vista to it. Oddly enough, I've never worked in the mountains." (interviewed by Steven Marcus)

Robert Frost: "I never write except with a writing board. I've never had a table in my life. And I use all sorts of things. Write on the sole of my shoe." (interviewed by Richard Poirier)

Aldous Huxley: "I work regularly. I always work in the mornings, and then a little bit before dinner. I'm not one of those who work at night. I prefer to read at night. I usually work 4 or 5 hours a day. I keep at it as long as I can, until I feel myself going stale. Sometimes, when I bog down, I start reading - fiction or psychology or history, it doesn't much matter what - not to borrow ideas or materials, but simply to get started again. Almost anything will do the trick." (interviewed by George Wickes and Ray Frazer)

And a word from the master of fiction:

Graham Green: "I am not a genius. I am a craftsman who writes books at the cost of a long and painful labour... The trickiest part, in my opinion, is creating characters, and making them real and alive. At the outset, a character is nothing but a tiny speck, a speck which I concentrate upon with such intensity that after two or three hours my eyes begin to water and I am obliged to stop." (In Search of a Beginning: my life with Graham Green, by Yvonne Cloetta, Bloomsbury, 2004.)

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