Writing Novels in Australia

May 16

How Acting Can Help Your Novel Writing, by Lia Weston

People who have met me may not be surprised that I have an acting background. It’s nothing to get excited about – university Drama and five years of Fringe shows do not make me Helen Mirren – but it has paid off writing-wise in strange ways.

Like writing, acting has taught me that humour is hugely subjective. Some people will find you hilarious even when you’re having an off day and feeling about as funny as a Cathy cartoon. Conversely, you can be putting Bill Bailey to shame and some people will still think you suck. The fickleness of an audience is not, therefore, unique to writing. I have addressed this before, so we shall move on.

In my mind, the primary thing that glues acting and writing together is dialogue. Although a great actor can deliver a clunky line convincingly, it helps tremendously if it sounds like something someone would actually say in real life. Try saying this out loud:

“Shane, I knew you were not one to be trusted, especially after you managed to overthrow the prison guards that dark and starry evening despite your shrivelled hand which was the unfortunate by-product of your ne’er-do-well experiments in Mr Casey’s secret underground laboratory.”

Even Russell Crowe would have issues with that one. A phone would be thrown. (As a side movie-related note, Inception is a very good theory lesson for writers; it’s an interesting film but has some of the most unwieldy dialogue you’ve ever heard. Even Leonardo diCaprio looks like he’s having a few ‘what the hell am I doing?’ moments. But I digress.)

You may have heard that reading your whole piece out loud is a great way to get a feel for it. This is true, and it’s especially true for dialogue. Even if you can’t bring yourself to go through all 142,459 words of your sci-fi masterpiece out loud – who has the time and the vocal chords? – just do it for the parts that are meant to be spoken. You will very quickly pick the difference between, “I just cannot believe that Steve would have committed such an audacious act,” and “I can’t believe Steve’s audacity.”

Are you ready to take it a little bit further? Act out your scene. Yes, you will feel like a tool the first time you do it, and it’s better to be at home alone rather than with company or in a cafe, but it will help you more than you’d think. Can your character have actually walked from here to there while saying this line? Can someone feasibly carry all the things you’ve described without staggering? Is it possible to actually have an intimate conversation with someone while cantering across the moors? OK, the last one may be difficult to verify unless you have a couple of horses - lucky you – but just the simple act of moving around will do two things:

1) it will determine if the action is ringing true, and

2) it can also give you a better idea of what kind of gestures or movements your characters would be doing in this situation.

There have been several moments where I’ve dithered over what to describe during a scene; acting it out immediately tells you, in the most natural way, how the character is or could be physically reacting. Actual movement will give you choices you may not have thought of initially and you choose from there.

An excellent example of how an author failed to do this is from my book club. We were discussing our tome du jour when one book clubber revealed that a pivotal love scene had confused her so much that she physically walked through the steps described, out of sheer curiosity. In addition to providing her husband with some entertainment, it also proved to her that the hero could not have seduced the heroine as the author depicted, for one simple reason: he did not have three arms. In addition, she revealed that at this point she would have abandoned this book for good – I threw mine across the room when I’d finished it; a first – had she not had to finish it for the book club.

As a writer, this is anathema. Don’t hand your reader material which makes them pause, frown, go back, re-read, frown some more, re-re-read, mutter, “That’s not actually possible,” then start Googling references to back themselves up. Don’t give them material to turn Book Club Night into Mime Night.

In short: never give your reader an excuse to stop reading. They may not pick your book up again – though they may act out scenes from it in a pub, to the bemusement of staff and patrons.

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Lia Weston’s author website: www.liaweston.com

Lia Weston’s bio page

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Writing Novels in Australia
www.writingnovelsinaustralia.com

May 14

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The Journey To Getting My First Novel Published, by Rebecca Raisin (guest article)

Three years ago I innocently penned my first novel, Mexican Kimono, over a two month period. I set myself a word target every day. While my kids were sleeping or entranced by The Wiggles, I wrote furiously. I then blithely sent my novel off to a publisher and expected a yes. Even a hell YES! I planned what I’d spend the advance on first – new pillows… (New pillows? That was the best I could come up with?) I wondered who would play the lead in the movie that would inevitably follow. Oh, I was so naïve!

It was no surprise then when I didn’t hear back from the publisher. Unsure of what to do next with Mexican Kimono, I set about writing short stories and taking creative writing classes until, much later, I signed up for the AusLit 20 week novel development course. I learned so much from Steve Rossiter, and from the other writers, about planning a novel, editing, defining the focus and managing the pacing to hold the reader’s attention.

My novel needed a lot of work. What, you ask; it wasn’t perfect after a two month flurry of writing? How little I knew about real novel writing. It was missing action and tension throughout the middle. It just rambled on, but it took me a long time to realise that. Steve told me time and time again, until finally, I understood. I rewrote it from the very first line. When I edited it again, I tried to think of it as someone else’s novel. What would a reader think? What would a fellow writer say? I cut out a lot of parts that I loved - killing my darlings, as the saying goes – and it was so much better. The novel started to take shape and had a much clearer focus. I remember Steve saying, “It’s called Mexican Kimono, yet there’s no mention of the kimono throughout the middle of the book.” Oops. Another critical error.

We wrote chapter outlines. I recommend this to anyone whose novel has stalled, or is finished but lacking something. Try to sum up each chapter with no more than two sentences. Tricky, but invaluable. It will become a quick-to-read reference for you and will help highlight missing plot points, places to add tension or suspense, and parts that are redundant and can be deleted.

After the 20 week course finished I shelved Mexican Kimono. I had reread it so many times I practically had it memorised. I went back to short story writing. Six months later I pulled it out and read it with fresh eyes. It was markedly improved. The editing I’d done with Steve made me love the story again and inspired me to try again to get it published. My main character, Samantha, is narcissistic and impetuous but she’s funny. I wanted people to read about her, so off I went again on the journey to publication.

I tried a few of the big name publishers, knowing it’s rare to be pulled out of the slush pile (urgh, I dislike that term!). Nothing. So I stopped dreaming of pillows and started thinking realistically. I had a little chat with myself, like I always do in these situations, and said, “Self, it’s time to get real, banana peel.” After kicking myself for speaking like a five year old, I decided to try digital publishers. I sent my novel to Australian e-book publisher, Really Blue Books, who describe themselves as the rogue e-publisher and e-book seller of the modern era. They’re forward thinking, and dynamic, but most of all, have a wicked sense of humour. Mexican Kimono is quirky and funny, so I deemed them perfect for me and hoped they’d feel the same. They did! I signed the contract for my first book three years after I wrote it. It will be available at the end of the year. I’m excited about the prospect of marketing, blogging and everything that comes with digital publishing these days, and about people reading my book. Well that’s better than all the pillows in the world!

Never give up on your novel. If you’re stuck, do a chapter outline, you’ll be surprised how helpful it is. Put your story aside if you’re too close to it, but just for a few months. Then pull it out, dust it off and read it like you’re an editor. Be critical. Don’t be afraid to cut your favourite parts if they don’t move the story forward.

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Rebecca Raisin lives in Perth, Western Australia.

Rebecca Raisin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaxandwillsmum

Guest Articles

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Writing Novels in Australia
www.writingnovelsinaustralia.com

May 13

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Appearing At A Writers’ Festival As A Debut Novelist, by Jenn J McLeod

If you’ve read my previous posts you may have noticed a bit of a theme. I’m not sure why I always go with water and boat analogies because, frankly, boats scare me. Water scares me too - something to do with a rogue wave knocking me down when I was a toddler. I remember it vividly, especially my sister laughing as I stood in the shallows crying an ocean of tears. Finally, there was the school swimming instructor who thought tying a rope around my waist and pushing me into the deep end of an ocean pool was a good teaching strategy!

In March this year, with House for all Seasons on the shelves only three weeks, I got another shove in the deep end when asked to take part in a writers’ festival as a ridgey-didge published author. Not only did that mean people were paying to hear what I had to say, but I found myself on panels and in the company of amazing authors including shortlisted 2013 award nominees: Jessie Cole, Druscilla Modeska, Katherine Howell, Carrie Tiffany, Romy Ash and Cate Kennedy.

I was suddenly a little dinghy amid an armada of author greatness; an insecure wannabe bobbing around on a busy sea of sleek, ocean-going schooners that I couldn’t possibly keep up with. Of course, I didn’t; they were way ahead of me. So I slipped in behind, happy to follow their lead. Riding in an author’s wake has lots of positives. It’s sort of what I’ve been doing for a while now and while chatting at the festival I advised other aspiring authors to do the same. That is: identify an author you admire and make them your mentor - officially or unofficially. Follow them, and watch what they do and how they do it (but not in a creepy, stalker kind of way).

How did my festival gig go? Well, after working myself into a stress mess in the lead up, I have to confess… I have a new addiction, and for once it’s not bad for me. It may even be good for me. (I’ve heard one author say that she makes more money from appearances and workshops than she does from her book sales!) I love that festivals help you connect with readers and inspire other writers to follow their dream, and I look forward to one day giving back by mentoring others.

Right now, my mentor is teaching me that those highest of highs can be scary places but they can also reward you with the best views. Even though I still hate the water, perhaps that teacher at school did teach me a valuable lesson. I am not so afraid to dive in the deep end, which is just as well, as the deeper you get into this publishing business the scarier things can seem. The scariest stage has to be the self promotion but self promote you must because, as debut author Lily Malone states in her recent blog post The Art of Self Promotion, “You can’t sell a secret.”

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Jenn J McLeod’s author website: www.jennjmcleod.com

Jenn J McLeod’s bio page

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Writing Novels in Australia
www.writingnovelsinaustralia.com

May 11

Researching To Write A Novel, by Phillipa Fioretti

Reading a book is like immersing yourself in another world. Researching and writing a book is as much if not more fun because you get to look closer at this imaginary world and those who inhabit it. From all this research I have a wealth of information about illegal fishing in the Mediterranean, Italy-to-Australia extradition procedures, organized crime and the construction of ghost hotels, corrupt Chinese art auctions, how best to give an audition performance, the market value of vintage couture, how to steal a mosaic, and much more.

There is a huge amount of information available for writers on the internet but sometimes you have to go to a real person and interview them if you want the inside view. I have a friend who is quite senior in the human resources department of a big multinational company. I asked him what would happen to an employee accused of planting porn on a colleague’s computer leading to that colleague’s dismissal. He said if it couldn’t be proven then nothing could be done officially, but that person would be passed over again and again in favour of others, shunned at the pub and become so isolated they would eventually leave. Hmm… that’s a tasty little nugget to store for possible future use. I have never worked in such an environment, so I don’t really know what goes on there and I need the nuances of real human interaction rather than the public face.

At a writing conference a few years ago I attended a session given by a senior police superintendent. The idea was that he would talk about police procedure for writers. He replied to a question about writers accessing information on procedure with the answer, ‘You don’t access it unless you get to know a police officer.’ At this point I felt a certain smugness, as I knew a police officer - a homicide detective, no less. His boy and mine played soccer. There is nothing like a windswept soccer field in the early morning to foster friendships.

He’s a hard looking dude. He makes you want to confess straight up or offer your DNA on spec. However, he was very kind in answering my pesky and endless questions about police procedure. In fact I’m surprised he didn’t put a block on my emails. I’m very aware of the irritation factor I could present, so I don’t harass too much. But I need to know.

Other soccer friendships include a chemistry forensics professor, an international law specialist and an academic nuclear physicist. I have doctors, lawyers, scientists of various types, artists, actors, singers, teachers and more on my private sources list. Invariably, these experts shred my imagined scenes or plots with precision and leave them lying in a heap, and I have to keep re-working and re-thinking.

For example, I wanted a character to be in a long coma but be revived unharmed, and I wanted to put him in that coma with opium. No can do, comes the advice. You can have your coma but not without brain damage and the opium won’t be detected as opium, but as morphine. A spanner in the crucial spoke of the plot. Fiction provides room for creative license but not to completely contradict reality. Besides, factual errors rarely escape the All-Seeing Editing Eye.

The big test will come when I want to research a character or scene and I don’t know anyone in the field. I like to think that with the right approach people are happy to share the facts about their occupations. I have favourite café near the law courts where barristers come to drink the excellent coffee. Some of them sweep in, briefs under the arm, hair swept back, as if the café is their courtroom and we are the awestruck jurors. They order and talk loudly and are generally very pleased with themselves. I sit like a small, alert parasite in the corner jotting down every move, every gesture. But would I approach one? Yes, I think I would if I needed to. Because I know these guys would just love it.

Always be polite when asking to delve into somebody’s professional life, and take a refusal graciously. Just because you’re a writer doesn’t mean you can access all areas. Assure them they will not be identified as a source unless they want to be and if that’s the case then full acknowledgement will be given. I like to interview then go away and think about their answers and return, if possible, for specific details. Flowers, wine, chocolate, jam, books or a combination of two or three are always good gift to have about your person when interviewing sources. And when it’s all over, a signed copy of the book as a token of appreciation.

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Phillipa Fioretti’s author website: www.phillipafioretti.com.au

Phillipa Fioretti’s bio page

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Writing Novels in Australia
www.writingnovelsinaustralia.com

May 8

2 Comments

Strategic Thinking When Writing A Novel, by Greg Barron

Strategic thinking is something I have to make an effort at to do well. Some people are natural schemers and planners. I’m not. I’m more of a wanderer. This shows when I play card games or chess. I enjoy the interaction but usually get beaten by someone who thinks more than a move or two ahead. I’ve had to learn to think ahead for my writing.

Strategic thinking and writing are not at cross-purposes. People read for many reasons. Compelling characters are probably the most important reason readers continue reading a novel that they have started. Characters are compelling partly because there is something unresolved about their life or personality. Your strategy should be to make sure this is not ‘fixed’ to the reader’s satisfaction until the end of the book.

Choosing how to begin a novel can be hard. As in a game of euchre, don’t always lead with your highest trump card. What I mean is, if you are writing a story about a murder don’t necessarily kick the book off with the killing itself. Come at it obliquely with a formative character experience: something exciting and pivotal, sure, but keeping the winning card for the best possible moment will pay dividends. The reader has read the blurb. They already have expectations. Use the opening to throw them off balance.

Twists are excellent - readers love them - but they also don’t like feeling bushwhacked. They don’t want to feel that the author has withheld something that he or she should have disclosed. Offer a few hints that they will remember later, without actually giving the game away. This is called foreshadowing and all the best books and movies do it. Remember the old wisdom – if a man cleans his gun in chapter three, it better damn well kill someone in chapter twenty two.

This leads us to a related topic – the withholding of information in general. As English novelist Charles Reade once wrote, ‘Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait!’ Will Jane and Brian stay together? What did the patriarch write into his will to so tear the family apart? Even in literary writing it’s important to reveal information at key plot moments. Remember that people read on to find out what happens. If you tell them at the start they won’t feel compelled to keep reading.

Make your storyline and characters unpredictable. Some of history’s most psychopathic villains loved animals, art or music. Some so called ‘great’ people had terrible tempers, and even abused their families psychologically and physically.

As I wrote above, I’m a wanderer by nature. I tend to write first drafts that need a lot of work. The characters are in place and the plot hums along but I generally need to add some devices and scenes that make the story more suspenseful. That’s the great thing about writing: you can add the strategic thinking in later. It’s best, of course, to keep it in mind right throughout the process.

Not every book needs the level of strategy required for a Da Vinci Code or even a PG Wodehouse novel (twists and turns galore) but novels of every genre will benefit from a touch of strategy.

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Greg Barron’s author website: www.gregbarron.com

Greg Barron’s Bio Page

Writing Novels in Australia
www.writingnovelsinaustralia.com

May 6

On The Value Of Librarians And Booksellers, by Alison Booth

Who are the unsung of the book-publishing world? The librarians and booksellers, who give advice and make recommendations to their members and customers. The people who are in their jobs because they love books.

Once you’re an author, you realise how much more you still have to learn. Reading a book becomes not only a glorious escape but also a painless way of absorbing the technical skills that will help you create your own masterpiece. For what it’s worth, my advice to writers is to read eclectically. Don’t restrict your reading only to the bestseller list or to prize winners. Take a look at other books in the bookshop and library, and see if they might be of interest to you.

Do you know the owner or librarian? If the bookshop or library is small, this will be easy. If they are large, pick out a regular employee who’s been particularly helpful to you. Once this person knows you and your tastes, they’ll have reliable recommendations for you in the future.

Sometimes they’ll even have statistics. Recently I had coffee with our librarian, who then emailed me some interesting figures. Here’s one that I particularly liked: in Australia there are more libraries than McDonalds outlets. We have 1,417 libraries (fixed locations) and 74 mobile libraries, as compared with 851 McDonalds outlets! Library loans total 182,757,656 per annum and 45 percent of Australians are library members. Now that’s a lot of loans and books, isn’t it? The happy conclusion is that we’re still well served in Australia by libraries.

What about bookstores though? Their numbers are unfortunately dwindling. It’s important to support them as well as our libraries, not only because we want to make sure they survive but also because access to a bookshop allows you to flick through the pages of new books – or books by new authors – before you buy. There’s nothing like this quick skim to help you choose.

Yet it won’t help the bookshops much if you use their stock only for skimming their titles before ordering online from someone else. The environment for the bookstores is changing rapidly. The biggest online retailers have been adopting several approaches to technological change. On the one hand, it’s often asserted that Amazon are engaging in predatory pricing, a practice much-studied in industrial economics. This involves selling books at an artificially low price. The goal is to drive out existing competitors and discourage the entry into the market of new ones, and thereby to become monopolists who can subsequently increase the price. On the other hand, in the US an antitrust case against Apple and the big publishers alleged a conspiracy to fix e-book prices. Settlements recently reached in the US against the big publishers may be viewed as a win for Amazon and a further strengthening of their position.

At the same time, other factors are affecting book sales. For example, it’s well known that newspaper books pages are shrinking, and shrinking fast. When shopping for books, you may search or click on an author’s name because you’ve read a review in a newspaper. With the contraction of newspaper book pages, you may find that the surviving reviewers’ tastes are not necessarily yours. Yet you want as much information as possible before you make a purchase. To my mind, nothing beats a thorough browse in the bookshop or in the library before making your selection - or a good chat to the staff if you know them.

How will bookshops cope with print book and e-book publishing in the future? This remains to be seen in a highly uncertain world: a world in which there is an antitrust case still to be settled in the US, as well as legal challenges by bookstores to suppliers who are trying to lock in consumers through particular electronic technologies. A world in which the relative demands for paper and electronic books are still unknown.

Some booksellers are reacting to this uncertainty in creative ways; for example, by expanding their bookshops to encompass book discussion sessions, or exhibitions, or children’s readings, or literary evenings or lunches. If we want to retain our favourite bookshops in a fast-changing industry, they need our support. Like the librarians, they’re the unsung heroes and heroines of the publishing world.

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Alison Booth’s author website: www.alisonbooth.net

Alison Booth’s bio page

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Writing Novels in Australia
www.writingnovelsinaustralia.com

May 3

1 Comment

Month In Review with Steve Rossiter (April 2013)

Writing Novels in Australia has reached the end of its fourth month of articles for 2013, from this year’s line-up of monthly contributors encompassing aspiring novelists, early-career novelists and established novelists.

You can connect with Writing Novels in Australia on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

The purpose of these Month In Review articles is to:

- provide a handy list of links to the articles for the past month, then to

- relate some of the content of these articles to my own novel writing to help novel writers and other interested people discover the month’s content and gain some insights into ways the month’s content can be engaged with in a practical context.

Articles for April 2013

Prose Cliches And Originality When Writing Novels by Greg Barron

Proofreading A Novel Manuscript by Phillipa Fioretti

What Makes A Bad Writer (And How To Avoid It) by Lia Weston

Life As A Newly Published Novelist by Jenn J McLeod

Why Have A Literary Agent? by Alison Booth

Finding Inspiration For Your Stories by Kelly Inglis

How Long Does It Take To Write A Novel? by Onil Lad

The Business Of Being A Novelist by Helene Young

Starting A Novel With A Great First Sentence by Ben Marshall

This month’s articles and writing my novel

Helene Young wrote: Has it ever been enough to simply write a unique and compelling story? I suspect not. In today’s climate with the debate raging over the longevity of books, and traditional publishing versus self-publishing, it’s even more crucial that a writer has a game plan. […]
As a writer you are both product and producer, so you have two briefs to write for your business plan. Before you can do that, however, think about defining what it is you want from your writing career.

Lia Weston wrote: What makes you a bad writer is refusing to deal with criticism.

Helene makes a good point that writing a story is not sufficient to get lots of people reading your story. If this is to happen, word has to spread somehow. Maybe you or your agent will get publishers in multiple countries to publish the book in particular countries or languages, with each publisher investing in a marketing and publicity campaign and ongoing support for your novel. Maybe your agent will find you lots of publicity opportunities. Maybe your existing family, friends and acquaintances will buy your novel or read a free copy you give them then blog about it, review it on bookseller websites and recommend it to their family, friends and acquaintances. Maybe you will do lots of interviews and guest articles. Maybe you or your publisher/s will buy some advertising. Maybe a journalist from your local newspaper will write something about you.

The bottom line is that this has to happen somehow if you’re going to find lots of readers, so it’s worth considering in advance how you can help this happen. This is important for novelists published by major publishers but crucial for self-publishing novelists, as you don’t have major publishers working behind the scenes to market and publicise your novel (not to mention major publishers’ extensive established business relationships with distributors, retailers and media outlets, and their extensive networks of contacts on social media sites and email-lists). In general, publishers want their novelists to be pro-active in connecting with readers – so the publisher can amplify your efforts and you can amplify the publisher’s efforts to publicise you and your work, creating a win-win situation.

Whatever you do for marketing and publicity, don’t irritate people with unwanted appeals for them to buy your novel. The more people you reach with this tactic, the more people who will make a mental note to avoid you, so they don’t encourage you to keep annoying them, and to not work with you in the future, because your sales tactics would be a liability. If you want people to discover your novel, do an interview, a blog post, a guest blog post, a social media update about how you’re going with your work-in-progress, put an image of your newly-confirmed cover design on a social media site, or a photo of newly-arrived proof copies of your book, or photos from your book launch, or any number of other things that people will find interesting and from which they will gain some value. Think what you’re offering other people, not just what you want from them. If your social media updates and photos, blog posts, guest blog posts, interviews, etc are valuable to other people, many of them will click through to your author site to discover what you’ve written and how they can buy it.

It’s also worth considering what your novel itself offers readers, not just what it offers you as the writer. Of course, your novel can be very meaningful to you and also offer something valuable to readers. You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.

Taking my novel-in-progress as an example, it’s meaningful to me as an exploration of human behaviour at a very significant turning point in world history – the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which brought the Great Powers of Europe into conflict and precipitated World War 2. It also personally interests me to go beyond the typical textbook and history book accounts of this setting to investigate the day-to-day human dimension of life in Poland in late 1939. However, this novel is intended for teenagers (and adults) and I know that some, or maybe most, readers will care much more about the characters and the personal conflict they are working through in the story than the historical setting and its significance in world history. Luckily, I also have an interest in storytelling which transcends time and place while still being firmly situated in a specific setting. The story’s appeal would be much more limited if it hinged on a reader having a pre-existing interest in 1939 Poland. The novel will offer readers a story of friendship, family, adolescence, adventure, loyalty, courage, suspense, historical drama, a catalyst for readers of Polish or German ancestry to learn more about their family history, and more. It’s up to each reader which aspects appeal to them more strongly or less strongly. If the historical significance of the story rates as a non-issue for a particular reader, maybe they love stories of adolescence and friendship, or maybe they love stories of loyalty and adventure. Part of the personal appeal for me is also to provide a novel that lots of readers can connect with strongly and which can be a catalyst for further independent thought.

So I’ve thought about the story but how will I find readers?

Some things I have in mind include:
- a blog with things like history articles to provide extra resources for readers interested in the historical setting and its significance in relation to World War 2, to the history of Poland and Germany, and to world history; character profiles; my research methods and resources used; my writing process; study/discussion guides for schools, writers and writing groups; and more
- social media pages/profiles for readers and writers to connect with me and the book online, so they can stay up-to-date with these additional resources and other news about me and my novel
- interviews and guest blog posts for book blogs, other authors’ blogs and group blogs for authors

These are the kinds of things any novelist can do with little or no financial investment and with little standing in the industry or public profile, regardless of who publishes your novel. If people are searching for the kinds of resources I offer, they might come across them through search engines. If people like the resources and news I offer, they might ‘Like’ or share it with others, who might also ‘Like’ or share it, or connect with me or the novel on a social media site. Of course, there are also options like arranging author profiles in national newspapers, book tours, library and bookstore events, paid advertising, literary festival and writers’ conference appearances, and so on, but these tend to require having the appropriate contacts, some level of industry standing or public profile, or financial investment.

Whether writing your novel or connecting with readers: Be creative. Assess your options and come up with a plan that works for you and your readers.

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‘Month In Review’ Updates

For more articles on writing novels you can check out Writing Historical Novels and Writing Teen Novels.

You can connect with Steve Rossiter on Facebook or on Google+.

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Writing Novels in Australia
www.writingnovelsinaustralia.com

Writers in Australia on Writing Novels

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