I am honoured to be the subject of this month’s “author spotlight” in the newsletter of the NT Writers’ Centre, March 2023. Since arriving in Darwin in the late nineties I’ve been involved with its writers’ centre, and was elected to its Board five years ago. As the current Vice-President I am working to increase First Nations representation both on […]
https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-morning-thalassa-the-calm-salt-therapy-of-sydneys-womens-pool-171386 This beautifully written article by Jane Messer encapsulates the liberation and delight felt by a woman in immersing her body in the women’s pool at Coogee. I love Jane’s use of humour, and the poetic language in this piece of creative non-fiction. Jane is a fellow Varuna alumni who I keep in touch with. We are part of a […]
Sharing Writing Skills: a collaborative work by Randwick Writers’ Group, published by Ginninderra Press, March 2020. I am proud to introduce you to our new publication, Sharing Writing Skills. As the title implies, this book is the result of six members of the Randwick Writers Group sharing their thoughts, ideas, feedback and above all, their Writing, from early drafts to the finished product. Read how working with the group has changed each author’s work, polishing and revising draft after draft. Share with us the strategies, methods and skills that have brought our writing to publishable standards. Buy now from the publisher (see below) or as an e-book from most online bookshops. Endorsement by Thomas Keneally: ‘ We are social animals, but our creativity sometimes demands we withdraw into loneliness to write the work that only as individuals we can do. This tension between necessary solitude and our social and communal creative needs is the trigger for a Writers’ Group, like this one, one in which we confront our common problems and share our work so that we can go into the cockpit of writing with greater courage and greater certainty. Book info Title: Sharing Writing Skills ISBN: Paperback 978 1 76041 891 5 Authors: Dina Davis, Garth Alperstein, Susan Beinart, Helene Grover, Anne Skyvington, Geraldine Star Editors: Dina Davis, Susan Beinart Publisher: Ginninderra Press Publish Date: 03/26/2020 Switch to E-Book
Is it only our greatest writers who are allowed to break the rules of writing? And what exactly are these rules? Mantras such as ‘Show not Tell’ ‘Point of View’ ‘Omniscient Narrator’ or ‘Close Third Person’ seem to abound in 21st century writing guides. I doubt whether the great Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, Jane Austen, or Ernest Hemingway had ever heard […]
Did you know that Darwin is a Mecca for writers, artists, and all souls creative? In my three months in the Top End, I have been published in the NT Writers Anthology, been shortlisted for a literary prize, participated in a left-of-centre Writers’ Group called ‘Write Now’, been invited to Government House for […]
The Joys and Perils of the Writing Life So here I am, as Abraham said to the Lord when offering up his son for sacrifice. “Here I Am” is the title of a wonderful new book by Jonathan Safran Foer, a monumental work close to 1000 pages, exploring themes of cultural identity, fidelity and betrayal, the ephemeral nature of love, families functional and dysfunctional, and what makes them so. As for me myself and I, this post is in the nature of an apology to you, my readers, for my untoward absence. SInce I last posted back in April, life has overtaken me. There’s been illness, convalescence, slow recovery, as well as the joys of grandchildrens’ birthdays. and celebrations of their achievements, some sojourns in beautiful Darwin, home of my daughters and grandsons, and the minutiae of everyday life. On the writing side, I’ve been hard at work on my new novel, ‘A Difficult Daughter’, and preparing my first novel. ‘Capriccio’, for publication. This entailed a major rewrite, mostly in appeasement to Faber and Faber, publishers of the works of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and the Hughes Estate. Like Jonathan Bate, I fell foul of the Estate when requesting permission to quote thirteen lines of Hughes’s poetry, fully expecting dispensation for such a small amount of material. The lines I quoted were used to introduce chapters, each of which was given the title of one of the ‘Capriccio’ poems […]
These tips from a New York based writer could equally apply to my Randwick Writers’ Group. Reblogged from Lee Kofman at leekofman.com.au Guest post by Tracy Sayre Over the years I’ve learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in writers’ groups. Here’s a list of my top ten tips. 1.Find the group. Facebook is a great place to start. Post a message that you want to begin a writers’ group and you’ll be amazed by how many of your friends harbor a desire to write. Alternatively, you can contact bookstores, colleges, and libraries to ask if they know of a group you can join. There are also websites like Meetup.com that have information on local writers’ groups. 2.Keep it small. I think the best size for a group is 4 people. If it’s smaller, you won’t get varied feedback, if it’s larger, you spend too much time reading other people’s work. I’ve also found with larger groups people tend to cancel last minute because they don’t feel like their attendance matters that much. 3.Plan ahead. One of the worst things you can do is leave the schedule vague. We all dread that never-ending email chain where everyone’s rescheduling. From the beginning, decide when you’re going to meet, for instance every other Tuesday at 7 pm, and stick to it. youa 4.Set the format. Determine if you want to read the pieces out loud at the meeting, or if everyone […]
No wonder I’m having trouble putting pen to paper, or bum on seat. Here in tropical Darwin a strange soporific haze hangs over me, and what seemed once imperative now gets relegated to the ‘maybe later’ pile. Somehow the joyful and terrifying task of writing recedes into dreamland. You might think this is a good thing, drifting around in Lotus Land, […]
PROCRASTINATION Disclaimer: All persons in this story are the product of my imagination. Today’s my writing day, I say to myself: Wednesday, my only day with no work and almost no commitments. By the late afternoon I should have a thousand words, at least, to show for myself. As advised in my latest self-help for writers book, I start with a […]
The secret of creativity, Natalie Goldberg makes clear in her “Writing Down the Bones”, is to substract rules for writing, not to add them. It’s a process of “undereducation” rather than education. – Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Is it only our greatest writers who are allowed to break the rules of writing? And […]
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Dina Davis Author 