writing

  • Author interviews

    “Don’t wait for the perfect conditions” – Clare Fletcher on building writing momentum

    There’s an iconic scene in Clare Fletcher’s debut novel Five Bush Weddings involving a steamy kiss and a thud as a meat pie drops to the ground, all but forgotten in the heat of the moment. 

    This hot/sweet/funny scene characterises Clare’s book, a rural rom-com that shakes off stereotypes to reveal a glimpse of modern life in the bush, with all its beauty, hardship and humour. It follows Stevie, a talented wedding photographer who captures a steady stream of rural romances through her lens but can’t seem to frame up her own happily ever after. Stevie is a hot mess and a hot item on the local gossip’s Bush Telegraph – and then her ex’s best friend, Johnno, reappears, reigniting old memories and confused feelings.

    I loved this book, not just because of Clare’s beautiful writing, but the way she threads real rural stories – the connection of country communities, the struggles farming families face trying to forge ahead in an ever-changing landscape – with the issues many women in their thirties grapple with, no matter where they’re from. It’s set between Brisbane and country Queensland, and Clare draws on her own background growing up in a regional town to fill the scenes and characters with authenticity.

    Clare is also a journalist so I was keen to hear if her day job helped her get the words for her first novel down on paper (yes and no!). Here, she shares her writing journey, her experience of being edited (not nearly as brutal as she expected), why playing team sport as an adult is a little like writing a book, and what readers can expect from her next…

    Congrats on the release of your first novel! I loved Five Bush Weddings and found it got me thinking about my own life journey, as Stevie grapples with her life decisions, a bad breakup and the pressure to settle down. What sparked the idea for the book? 

    I decided quite consciously to try to write a book, which had been a lifelong dream I’d spent three decades doing nothing about. When I decided to try writing a romance, thinking it would be quite formulaic, I wanted to explore that messy period in your early thirties when it feels like there are lots of conflicting expectations for women – have a brilliant career, get married to the perfect man, have babies, own a house, travel the world, be creatively and spiritually fulfilled. Very few people can knock all those off and if you haven’t done any of them, cue the soul-searching! And so many of those things are down to chance – I think we all have a beloved friend who just hasn’t met the right partner, through no fault of their own, but judgemental people can treat them like it’s a shortcoming or a character flaw that they’re single. Anyway, I liked the idea of a heroine who’s pretty great at her job but a bit aimless and hopeless at life, finding joy and purpose without needing a man to ‘fix’ her. A wedding photographer seemed like a great protagonist to explore different types of love as well as some fun parties!

    I love the way you portray rural Australia in the story. What was your aim in writing about the country? Were you hoping to give people a more informed glimpse?

    Growing up in a small town in regional Queensland is something I’m so proud of and grateful for, and this story is one big love letter to it. I’m a townie so I don’t have lived experience of working the land, but I’ve worked in small town pubs and restaurants and done peripheral farm jobs like cotton chipping, bug checking and grape picking! It feels like there’s a lot of rural-set crime fiction in Australia at the moment, so I wanted to try telling a more joyful story about country communities. And a lot of rural romance is understandably set in more idyllic locations – lush high country, wineries or vast stations – so I thought it would be fun to use the more prosaic settings of the places of my youth. I think there’s a real resilience and camaraderie, and a very unique sense of humour, that comes with the harsh unpredictability of living on the land. 

    How much of the story is based on your own experiences of living in the country and overseas? 

    All of Stevie’s terrible habits, many of her experiences at parties, and her memories of New York, are mine!

    Is it difficult to mine your own life experiences for art? 

    Actually, I think it can be too easy! Often I’d use a memory or an experience as a starting point to imagine a scene, and a lot of those very specific details remain in the final book. My sister told me the other day that everyone at home is speculating about who the Bush Telegraph is based on – that’s the trouble with having recognisable details, sometimes people forget the characters are fictional (I swear)!

    Tell me about your journey to becoming an author. When did you start writing fiction and why? 

    I’d always loved creative writing as a kid but it never felt like a realistic career path, so I didn’t dedicate much time to it after university. I think I had grown a bit depressed that I was ignoring this thing I’d always wanted to do, so I decided I had to give it a proper try. Weirdly, it was starting to play team sport in my mid-30s that got the ball rolling – it was a great reminder that the world won’t end if you’re bad at something, it can still be fun even if you suck, and that you can see improvement when you keep trying. Even getting into running was a great lesson in the way small, regular increments can add up to a big achievement. So I signed up to do the Year of the Novel course at Writing NSW in 2019. I don’t think anyone needs to study writing to start a book, but I knew I needed external accountability and structure. I didn’t finish the book in that year but it was exactly what I needed, and also helped me connect with fellow writers as well as a teacher who would go on to become my mentor. 

    “It was starting to play team sport in my mid-30s that got the ball rolling – it was a great reminder that the world won’t end if you’re bad at something, it can still be fun even if you suck, and that you can see improvement when you keep trying.”

    What about the nuts and bolts of writing a novel. Did your background as a journalist help? 

    It’s just chipping away over time. Journalism has made me very lazy without a pressing deadline, so it was a real mind-shift to keep working on this manuscript no one might ever read. There were weeks and months when I didn’t write, which can be something we gloss over when we’re telling the neat story of how a book gets written, but at a certain point you find you’ve invested so much in the characters that you need to finish it. Journalistic training has given me an appreciation for clarity in writing, some skills in observation, and maybe all those hours of transcribing interviews helped with writing dialogue!

    How long did it take to write Five Bush Weddings?

    It was a bit less than 18 months to finish the first draft. I was working full time, and pregnant for the last stretch! That ended up being the deadline I needed – imminent labour. While I was on parental leave, I worked with a mentor to refine the manuscript to submit to agents. Once I found my agent, it took a few months to lock in a publisher; and once the contract was signed it was less than a year to publication. So in all it was about three-and-a-half years, from starting to publication.

    How did you find the editing process? Scary, empowering, fun?

    This is where I think I was lucky to have worked in journalistic editorial, because I knew what to expect somewhat. I was absolutely packing it waiting for my structural edit, but book editors are much more gentle with you than a newspaper or magazine editor! I couldn’t believe the way my copy editor explained every suggested change, and offered lots of kind compliments to offset the constructive criticism (this is professionally known as the ‘shit sandwich’ or ‘compliment lasagne’). At the end of the day, editing is about making a piece of writing the best it can be, and making sure nothing stands in the reader’s way of enjoying the story. Suggested changes aren’t personal, you’re on the same team, and as the author you always have the right to accept or reject a change 

    “At the end of the day, editing is about making a piece of writing the best it can be, and making sure nothing stands in the reader’s way of enjoying the story.”

    Can you share any insight into lessons you learned from the experience? 

    My publisher (Nikki Christer) did my structural edit and that was a great learning experience. When she suggested my main character was a bit unlikeable, at first I freaked out, thinking it would be a huge job to rework her. But Nikki helped me see that a few simple scenes building Stevie’s relationship with her mum and her best friend could do a lot of heavy lifting to show why these people stick with Stevie even when she’s not making great decisions. Nikki also told me to go back and read Bridget Jones’ Diary and I think that can be really helpful, revisiting a touchstone book when you’re struggling with something.

    What writing/editing rules do you love to break? 

    ‘Show don’t tell’ is good advice a lot of the time, but sometimes we go too far in that direction when a bit of exposition can be much more efficient! I just bloody love words so I probably pepper in way too many adverbs (Kurt Vonnegut would never) and description… but that stuff is so pleasurable for me to write, I hope it’s enjoyable for readers, too.

    What advice would you give other aspiring authors?

    Don’t wait for the perfect conditions, the perfect idea or some arbitrary skill level to get started. Once you’re writing you’ll learn so much as you go. I think women in particular are often waiting for permission or over-qualification to start writing and sometimes you just have to ask yourself – would a mediocre white man hesitate in this situation?

    What’s next for you? What are you working on now? 

    I am getting close to my submission deadline for the second book in my contract. Obviously it’s an immense privilege to be contracted but it’s also done my head in a bit – working with very different expectations to the first time around. This new story will be in the same universe as Five Bush Weddings, with different main characters. There’s a historical timeline thread as well as the present day. Deb balls, beauty pageants, a collection of vintage dresses and women’s rugby – a weird cocktail!

    Pick up a copy of Five Bush Weddings here and find out more about Clare (and sign up for her excellent newsletter) here.

  • Editing, How-to, Writing

    No words ever wasted: Why writing to rewrite isn’t a waste of time

    Worried that all that writing you’re doing might eventually end up in the bin? Here’s why your words are never wasted, even if they don’t make the final cut.

    Tension square. 

    These two words, without fail, elicit a groan in me every time I see them at the top of a knitting pattern. 

    If you’ve ever been seduced by a silky skein of wool, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the concept of tension squares. They ask the knitter to make a small test square using the yarn and needles required for the pattern to check their tension – that is, how tight or loose they naturally knit. If you have more stitches per centimetre than the pattern indicates, you need to loosen your knitting. If you have fewer, you need to tighten up. 

    It’s a quality-control process that good crafters understand and follow, knowing that if their tension is off they won’t wind up with a well-made garment in the end. It will look shrunken and silly, or hang limp and uneven. Taking the time to check their tension at the start can insure them against a disappointing finish. 

    Unfortunately, I’m not one of those crafters. 

    To me, tension squares have always felt like a waste of time. I’m excited to start the project and I want the finished product yesterday. 

    That’s fine if I’m making something like a scarf or a beanie. But for a garment? Well, let’s just say I’ve never made a jumper I’d wear in public. 

    Patience makes perfect

    My refusal to sit with the tedium of knitting tension squares has always held me back from achieving my goal of making a beautiful jumper, cardigan or vest. I’m simply too impatient to be a great crafter.

    I think the same can apply to the craft of writing. 

    I know a lot of writers worry about the possibility that they’re putting in loads of writing time and effort only to have to abandon great swathes of copy at some distant point in the future. They think:

    • What if an editor suggests cutting a whole section of the book? 
    • What if a publisher insists on changing the point of view or adding a new character? 
    • What if I wake up one day and decide the plot is all wrong, the main character sucks and I hate the ending? 

    Writing a book is a lot like knitting in that it’s a skill that takes a lot of practice – and even more patience. 

    You’ll start off excited to work on your idea and see where it ends up, but it’s slow and painstaking work. You might drop a stitch and have to work backwards to fix the hole. And at some point in the process, you might find yourself pulling on a loose thread and unravelling the whole damn thing down to nothing. 

    So, is it a waste if you had to pull out your work and start from scratch? Well, maybe, but only if you think you have nothing to learn. 

    Yes, it hurts to cut chapters you spent hours putting down or to give up on a character you once loved. But those early drafts weren’t wasted. The process of writing them taught you about structure, narrative arcs, characterisation, dialogue, showing vs telling, deep point of view. They might even inspire new stories further down the track. 

    What about writing exercises? Like tension squares, practices such as interviewing your characters, writing a detailed backstory or testing out a different narrative tense might feel like a distraction from the main game – finishing your novel – but they’re not as pointless as they can seem. 

    Sure, they’re time consuming and they might not ever make it to the published page. But are they a waste? No. They’re an opportunity to work on your craft and expand your skills. A quality-control process to ensure that the finished product is polished, engaging, and definitely worth showing off in public. 

    Five ways to reframe your rewrite

    If you’re struggling to let go of some of your darlings or worried that you’re wasting your words, try these tips: 

    • Create a safety net: Put any cut material into a separate word file and save it. You might come back to it later, you might not. Tell yourself it’s still valued material by keeping it on file. 
    • Set a time limit for your writing practice. If you’ve been staring at your screen for 15 minutes and feel like the words aren’t flowing, don’t force it – you’re unlikely to love the work you create in this mood. Put your laptop away and come back to it later when you’re in a more creative mindset. 
    • Try writing just for fun, sometimes. Don’t pressure yourself to create something amazing or reach a certain stage in your novel every time you sit down to write. Practise writing for the joy of it – try writing some flash fiction, pen a poem or just free-journal your thoughts.  
    • Make a plan for your rewrite. Don’t just dive in – go through your manuscript with a critical eye and pinpoint what areas need work, then follow through systematically. Not sure where to start? An editor can give you sensitive, professional feedback on your story and a plan for how to strengthen its weak points. Check out my structural editing service here.
    • Accept that rewriting is part of the process, no matter how far along you are in your writing journey. Even the best, most accomplished authors write multiple drafts of their novels. As Anne Lamott says, “Almost all writing begins with terrible first efforts.”

  • Author interviews, Editing, Writing

    “I like to make people laugh, but I also want to make them feel” – Karina May on writing rom-coms, travelling for inspiration and dirty first drafts

    Debut author Karina May was born to write rom-coms. She’s the kind of funny that leaves you gasping for air, and her sharp observations have a way of injecting life into tired romance tropes.

    Karina’s first novel, Under the Influence, will be released on 1 September under the HarperCollins imprint Escape. It follows banker Louise Lane and philanthropist Blake Goldfield as they grapple with their unravelling lives, the weight of society’s expectations and their unlikely attraction as their paths cross in flashy Sydney and beautiful Peru. 

    I’m so excited for the launch of this book, not only because I got to work on it at both structural and line-editing stages, but because I know exactly how much dedication and determination has gone into this incredible achievement.

    I met Karina when we were both working as editorial assistants for a niche publisher of craft magazines. Back then, our biggest creative hurdle was coming up with headlines for articles about sewing techniques and scrapbooking tools. It was seriously tough work and whenever we were stumped, our foolproof formula was to simply add ‘-tastic’ to the topic of choice. Tassel-tastic! Cushion-tastic! Quilt-tastic! I’m happy to say our standards have lifted significantly since then. 

    While I stayed in magazines, Karina was savvy enough to opt out of the declining industry early, moving into the booming world of digital marketing. She kept her creative muscle flexed writing rom-coms for fun, and here we are! Under the Influence is out now and Karina has another two novels in the works for next year (more on that below).

    I used my considerable influence with Karina to ask her about her journey to published author, her writing routine and, of course, how she feels about the editing process. 

    Cover of Under the Influence by Karina May

    Your first book, Under The Influence, is out on 1 September. Congratulations! How long have you been dreaming of this moment? 

    Thank you! I think I’ve dreamt of this moment for as long as I’ve been writing creatively – around 10 years or so! Like so many of us do, I changed the goal posts almost as soon as I started. Initially, I was writing a book just for fun – to see if I could actually do it … but that quickly changed to wanting to get it published!

    Can you give us a rundown of your journey to becoming a published author? When and why did you start writing?

    I have a background in journalism and studied communications at uni so I’ve always loved writing. My first couple of jobs were in magazines, writing articles. When I was growing up I actually wanted to be a foreign correspondent. I did a uni placement at an English broadsheet in Bangkok and quickly realised that a foreign correspondent was not the same as a Getaway reporter (LOL), so I ditched my Catriona Rowntree fantasies and went into magazines. I wrote non-fiction stories exclusively for years until the unfortunate decline of magazines pushed me to re-skill in digital. Once I wasn’t writing as much in my day job I found myself with a bit of an itch to scratch. I’ve always enjoyed being a storyteller, so I started jotting down funny anecdotes – mainly dating stories – then tried to string them together to make a book. Note: this is not how you write a book! 

    Writing a novel around a full-time job is no easy task. How do you juggle your fiction writing with your day-to-day life? Can you share any tips for being consistent with a writing routine?

    For sure! When I first started writing I was working in a pretty demanding full-time job. I wrote in the evenings as a bit of an outlet, and on some weekends. Now, I’m lucky enough to work for myself as a freelancer so I can choose my hours (to a degree). I’m someone who can’t really write in short bursts so I typically structure my week around writing blocks – at least one or two hours. I normally write first thing – which is a big change to how I started – as I’m less likely to skip the writing this way. My client/paid work has to get done, so I know that I’ll get to it after writing and I’m normally happier once I have some words down, too. So my main tip is, writing first! Even if that is before the sun is up (vom).

    Travel is a big theme in your work. What role does travelling play in your creative process? 

    It plays a massive role. My writing ideas are mostly sparked by being in new environments. My senses and observational skills are heightened and the juices start flowing! It could be an experience, a conversation, or even a look that gets the imagination going. It’s almost like when I’m away, I give myself permission to play – I’m now doing my best to give myself the same permission slip when I’m home. It’s about harnessing that ex-pat mentality and curiosity in everyday life. 

    I know you’re a fan of writing getaways – I’m always jealous to see you writing in beautiful locations! Where, apart from Sydney, did you pen Under the Influence?

    Oh yes, I’ve lost count of the number of writing getaways I’ve done (so very lucky!) I actually started writing Under the Influence in Berlin in late 2019. I was there for six weeks and wrote the first 30,000 words in my studio apartment in Kreuzberg and in surrounding cafes. The rest of the novel was written during Covid time. Between lockdowns, I managed to escape to Patonga on NSW’s Central Coast with my amazing writing pal, JoJo Swords, for some editing. Editing can be very painful so I like having a change of scenery (and a buddy).

    “The main thing I love about the editing process is help with identifying my blind spots”

    Speaking of editing, I’m lucky to have worked with you on a few manuscripts now, and I know you’ve worked with other editors and beta readers too. What do you find most helpful about the editing process? 

    Gosh, I’m so lucky to have you edit my books. You make them exponentially better! I think the main thing I love about the editing process is help with identifying my blind spots. By the time I’m done, I’m normally so close to the story that I can’t see the wood for the trees. It’s so helpful having expert assistance to suggest which parts of the story need attention and why. I think the why is just as important, as I’m not going to make any changes unless I truly believe it’s going to better the story. 

    How important is it to you to get that outside perspective when you’re shaping your story? 

    It’s imperative. I think it’s helpful to get the advice of an expert editor to help with the technical elements, like ways to raise the stakes, and a handful of trusted beta readers to tell you in non-technical terms what they love and what might not be working as well. Once you have multiple opinions you can identify trends. If everyone is saying the same thing it’s hard to ignore! 

    What writing or editing rule do you love to break? 

    Haha, I love this. Apart from thinking punctuation is entirely optional (sorry, Penny!), maybe the rule that you should write a dirty first draft. I’m not someone who can get my thoughts down fast. I am certainly of the school of thought that you can’t edit a blank document, but I’m also cautious about making more work for myself by writing too much nonsense. I don’t make myself write every day, so if I’m writing rubbish I won’t persist. I personally like to write a pretty clean first draft. I write leanly, then add.

    What do you want Karina May books to be known for? 

    Oh, that’s a tricky one. I’ve been told that my stories are ‘lively’ – I think that means that I have big plots with big characters. I like to make people laugh with my writing, but I also want to make people feel. To make big feelings, ideas and themes more accessible by delivering them in a palatable way. Palatable? I’m not sure I would buy something marketed as palatable, so let’s go with spunky. I also want my books to just be a bit of fun! I have so much fun writing them – especially the travel aspect – so I want people to have fun reading them!

    What advice would you give aspiring writers hoping to follow in your footsteps?

    Seek out expert advice! Whether that’s a course at the Australian Writers Centre (where I did the Write Your Novel six-month course, twice!) or listening to writing podcasts (my current faves are The First Time pod, Talking Aussie Books and Writes4Women), and when the time is right, engage a professional editor like Penny! [Ed’s note: I did not pay her to say that!] Not only does being tapped into the writing community provide you with support and accountability to help you stay motivated, it will set you up with the foundations you need to create a manuscript worthy of publication. And, read lots! Everyone says this – because it’s true. Reading widely will help your writing, and it’s also useful for staying on top of trends and understanding where your manuscript fits in the market.

    And finally… when can we expect the next Karina May story?!

    Ooh, 2023 is going to be very exciting! I recently signed a two-book deal with Pan Macmillan, so I’ll have new books out in March and December next year. I’m also going to start work on my fourth book. I have an idea for the one after that too, so for the moment it’s writing, writing and more writing!

    You can pick up Karina’s delightful debut Under the Influence here or follow her on Instagram @karinamaywrite