‘It’s important to remember not everything you find fascinating will be the same for a reader. The key is to consider whether a ‘fact’ will drive the narrative, deepen characterisation, add to the theme, advance a plot, or instil a sense of place.’
‘New ideas flow in a variety of ways but one great avenue comes from walking the streets! Observing people on trains. Looking out the window.’
‘There’s any number of reasons why someone gives up on a first draft but I think the most common is probably a loss of confidence in the project. To this I say: no one writes clean, publishable first drafts. Everyone’s first draft is terrible but the most important thing is persevering and getting it down on the page.’
‘We are all used to sitting down at our own desks and fighting the urge to do other things, but in a classroom with ten other people writing beside you there is another energy that can deliver the seeds of new ideas.’
‘Writing fiction means imagining yourself into the shoes of your characters. In those deep places you find very personal stuff, confronting and meaningful and enlightening.’
We interviewed award-winning science fiction writer and critic James Bradley ahead of his one-day course at Writing NSW, After the End: Writing Speculative Futures.
“The book details the Exclusive Brethren’s strong hold. Fear used to stop her doing anything the Exclusive Brethren deemed forbidden; even reading a novel or seeing a movie wasn’t allowed and could evoke dire consequences.”
