Writers, editors, agents, publishers and more share their thoughts, experiences and stories.
Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but it doesn’t follow that being a writer means resigning yourself to loneliness and isolation. Writing communities, large and small, exist in all kinds of forms, catering to all kinds of writers. Some communities develop organically.
I have always been fascinated with how cinema depicts writers and the craft of writing. Much of what appears on the big screen, the huge publicity tours and massive advances, is pretty far from the mark in terms of reality for all but the most successful authors. That said much a lot that cinema gets right: the hard grind of getting the words on a page to make the deadline, dealing with rejection, struggling with envy in relation to more successful colleagues, the constant effort of staying relevant, etc.
Writing is not a career for the faint-hearted or the impatient. To start a career as a freelance writer, you have to be both resilient and prepared to play the long game.
CC: The move away from commercial to network television has allowed TV writing to break out of some of its traditional boundaries in terms of format and audience. What are the results of this for aspiring TV writers?
CC: How long have you been involved with running literary events?
Plotting and Structure for Beginners
CC: Which comes first for you, plot or character?
CC: You studied Criminology and now work for Victoria Police. What came first, your interest in crime and policing or a desire to write crime fiction?
CC: Your novel, 'Storm and Grace', was praised for its urgency and its poetry. How do you maintain these two, perhaps somewhat opposed, qualities in your work?
