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One way I work around writer’s block

I find it easier to write in the first person, current tense. I can ‘inhabit’ the character; write from their perspective and in so doing, get to know them better. This is not how I want to write an entire novel, but because it’s easier, it’s a way around writer’s block for me. No pressure that the ‘scene’ I write has to be in the novel, or that the words I use are perfect … I can just write for the pleasure of being the person I’m writing about. These vignettes often do end up in the novel, rewritten in the third person, or referred to indirectly as a memory.

Here you can read my first person, current tense account of the event I imagine to be the motivating force that causes William, the protagonist in Clouds Will Break, to break away from his father’s family business to become a children’s medical specialist with an intense interest in public health. If I was writing a film script, this would probably be the first scene in the film. In the novel, I bring it out part way through, as a painful memory that William confesses, much to his own surprise, to the woman he loves.

Read William’s childhood memory

Clouds Will Break

Published December 2022, and available now as an eBook or as a paperback printed on-demand via Amazon, the Book Depository, Booktopia and a number of other online booksellers.
If you like the book please take the time to post a review on the site where you bought the book, and/or Goodreads to help other readers decide whether or not the book is suitable for them.

Clouds Will Break is the true story of my maternal great grandparents’ immigration to Australia. From writings, photos and personal memorabilia bequeathed to me by my grandmother, and from the amazing resource that is the internet, I have put together a story with factual events, and real people, most of whom go by their real names, though I have necessarily imagined their personalities and interactions.

Set in the second half of the 19^th century, the story follows William Cameron and Jeannie Robertson from the Scottish Borders to ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, and on to Mildura, the newly established irrigation settlement on the Murray River, in north-west Victoria.

Synopsis

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November 2017: Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards

Fire, by Brenda Hall, Short-Listed Open Short Story

Elyne Mitchell’s Silver Brumby series was a stand-out favourite in my family book-shelves, so when her name popped up in a newsletter from NSW Writer’s Centre, I decided to try my hand at short story writing.

The theme for 2017 was ‘Local stories, people, places and events’. I spent my secondary school years on a farm near Albury, on the NSW-Victorian border, and my sister’s family lives in the district still, raising sheep and cattle. My story, Fire is entirely fictional, but it spotlights a traumatic experience that is all too recognisable by those who make their living raising livestock in this fire-prone country.

Fire was published in a booklet with other short-listed entries, by the Corryong Neighbourhood Centre, in 2017.

Read Fire here

Character Q&A

One of the first processes I go through to get to know the characters I want to have in my novel, is to complete a character Q&A. The template I use is assembled from suggestions made by a number of writing classes and books on writing, and I add to or subtract from it as I see fit, given the story and the role. Here you can read my character Q&A for Claire, who is one of the minor, contemporary characters in Thalassa.

Read Claire’s Character Q&A

Thalassa

Published in NSW, Australia. Release date 14th September 2017.
Available as an eBook, or as a paperback printed on demand via Amazon, the Book Depository, and a number of other online book stores.
If you like the book please take the time to post a review on the site where you bought the book, and/or Goodreads to help other readers decide whether or not the book is suitable for them.

Thalassa is a contemporary story about historical family stories: some spoken, some written, and some hidden away only to come to light when the person who hid them no longer needs to keep them secret.

It’s a story about the connections that exist between us, and the fateful decisions we make, whether by coincidence, logic or by the will of a God.

Set over 200 years in the beautiful water-scapes of Milos in Greece, the Norfolk coast in England and the Hawkesbury River in Australia, Thalassa is a love-story that explores family ties, grief, loyalty, obligation and love that endures long after those who love have been torn apart.