The Art of Narrative blog

Speech and silence in narrative

One of the things I love about my writing workshops is that all sorts of questions come up spontaneously during our discussions, and directly from the creative works underway. Using these prompts, I prepare short essays, or micro-lessons, about these questions of technique, revision and editing that the writers have raised along the way. What…

Episode 3—Position of the ‘I’ from observer to centre stage  

This next passage in my series is from the contemporary British author Deborah Levy’s memoir, The Cost of Living: a working autobiography. It’s a brilliant example of how much presence the narrator can have as an observer, on the sidelines.    ‘As Orson Welles told us, if we want a happy ending, it depends on where…

Dramatisation & reflection

Over my many years of teaching creative writing I’ve written a great deal for students about the art of narrative writing, and specific techniques. I love doing this kind of work as by reading closely and thinking a passage through, I’m also teaching myself as a writer. By working from a close reading of a…

New work, in Life Writing

As some of you know I’m writing the very last pages of my memoir-biography Raven Mother. I’m almost done, a couple of weeks away. Earlier this year I drew on the manuscript along with new research for a paper now published in Life Writing, titled ‘Suicide in Nazi Germany: transformative family history’. It’s a part…

The myth of the writer’s garret

I declare the ‘writer’s garret’ a myth. By which I mean that the image of the writer (usually male) working alone until such a point as their work is ready for publication, is less than half the story. It’s a myth that intimidates the hell out of a lot of writers though. Indeed a writer…

Coming up in 2023: workshops, mentoring, books

Here’s what I’ve got planned for 2023, along with some reflections on the year that’s been. As you read through, I hope you enjoy the three pages of images from manuscripts by Miles Franklin, Sylvia Plath and Ursula K. Le Guin. Every book begins as a draft, and these pages, with their crossings-out and crooked…

Join us, Sept 6. Spring 22 Writing Workshop.

Immerse yourself in what you love to do, and want to do more of, with me, one of Australia’s most outstanding teachers of creative writing and writing workshop leaders. Join a small group of 9 writers for this year’s Spring 22 Writing Workshop. The workshop offers 6 fortnights of online workshopping and feedback, and 7…

We Were Already Deep in the Song

This story is one I started a few years ago during a writing week at Varuna National Writer’s House. Some writer friends and I organised a week together there for focused writing and writerly conversations. The bush surroundings, the quiet of the place, and the more meditative experience of time passing really helped with the…

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