‘To be “convincing” and “engaging” are two sides of the same coin. To write convincingly is one of the best methods to engage your reader: if your reader believes you and the crime story you’re telling, then they will follow you to the last page.’

‘All that’s sacred is the ambition. The writing can always, always, always be improved.’

‘It’s exciting to encounter, through a memoir, a life lived in a way completely different to our own. It’s also reassuring to see our own experiences shared and reflected by others.’

‘I think survival – in fiction and reality – will depend, not on technology, but our relationship with the landscapes and other beings around us. The beauty of fiction is that we can reimagine a future other than the one we seem to be rushing towards.’

‘A good opening sentence is simple, raises questions or is surprising in some way. It is an invitation to the reader to enter the story; how you present that invitation is important.’

“We writers need to be near-virtuosic in our language because it’s a matter of how a story is told as much as what the story is.”

‘Interior Australia is awash with fragmented perspectives and competing narratives that could only exist there. The best rural Australian novels embrace this by making the landscape more than just setting – they make it as vital to the book as character or plot.’

In our first What We’re Reading feature of 2024, check out what the Writing NSW team has been enjoying and why! Read our thoughts on poetry collections, anthologies, fiction, short story and more.

See what the Writing NSW staff have enjoyed the most in 2023, and what we’ll be reading over the holidays to end the year!