visible ink
Today I saw a Visible Ink reading- the compilation put together by RMIT writing students. I was at RMIT in 1996 and from my classes a handful have had novels published. Margaret Bearman and Maria Hyland were in my classes with excellent novels with second ones to come.
Today it was poetry and I saw Angela Costi and Tom Cho read. Angela Costi was lyrical, with arresting images, and Tom was his usual sardonic humourous self.
Today I'd thought I'd write a little about writing process. Ursula Le Guin says that stories have to come to you, that she has moments or little whiles of silences before they come- which other writers might call writers block. She has a fantastic inspirational book out called The wave of the mind which contains some essays about writing and reading.
I have had writers block. Robert McKee says the answer is research. Julia Cameron calls it creative U turns. Nathalie Goldman suggests writing your way out of such spaces.
I think I have had to gain insight into what I write about. Why am I writing? Why am I writing such a story? What is it that I can give that is new and revealing?
I'm working on two projects at the moment. Dream Mapping about a survivor of a shooting who has a psychotic episode for the Australia Council Grant I have, and Digging up the bones for my Phd. Both have moments of silence in them, and I wonder how to express this in a novel.
Critical self reflection periods for all my characters occur when they are alone.
I worry sometimes that these books are too much internal monologue, not enough external world. But that is what the novel you could argue is all about.
Today it was poetry and I saw Angela Costi and Tom Cho read. Angela Costi was lyrical, with arresting images, and Tom was his usual sardonic humourous self.
Today I'd thought I'd write a little about writing process. Ursula Le Guin says that stories have to come to you, that she has moments or little whiles of silences before they come- which other writers might call writers block. She has a fantastic inspirational book out called The wave of the mind which contains some essays about writing and reading.
I have had writers block. Robert McKee says the answer is research. Julia Cameron calls it creative U turns. Nathalie Goldman suggests writing your way out of such spaces.
I think I have had to gain insight into what I write about. Why am I writing? Why am I writing such a story? What is it that I can give that is new and revealing?
I'm working on two projects at the moment. Dream Mapping about a survivor of a shooting who has a psychotic episode for the Australia Council Grant I have, and Digging up the bones for my Phd. Both have moments of silence in them, and I wonder how to express this in a novel.
Critical self reflection periods for all my characters occur when they are alone.
I worry sometimes that these books are too much internal monologue, not enough external world. But that is what the novel you could argue is all about.
posted by Hoa at
8:45 PM
2 Comments:
hi hoa
i am honoured to be the first person to comment upon your blog...
i have always had admiration for writers who can work on multiple manuscripts... and you are one such writer. (and you have skills in multiple writing forms too - theatre, film, novel, short story...)
some writers produce work that is more internal monologue than others. given that you have written theatre and film scripts, perhaps you enjoy the contrast of having a narrator's voice in the novel form?
tom
By
Tom, at 8:15 AM
hi tom
yes out of sheer laziness my natural form is prose. i try not to make my work too much inner monologue but am aware that a lot of my writing is what's going on inside people's minds- fascinating I think!
hoa
By
Hoa, at 6:55 PM
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