What’s your writing process like?

The short answer is that my writing process is still evolving as I am new to this game and it often looks a mess to an outsider looking in. I find that I start writing without much planning and then get stuck between 10-20 000 words on first draft and need to stop and take stock and start a planning process of what my plot looks like. I only worry about plot in first draft, then worry about world building and research details and consistent characters in second draft.

How do you come up with characters?

I often start a story with a couple of burning scenes in my mind and characters just happen. For my first fantasy novel, I had four protagonists, which was too many. I did a course with author, Kate Forsyth, and she got me to stick with one, my favourite, who is now the Claire character. In my second fantasy novel, which is half written in first draft now, I started with a revisionist take on Snow White and Rose Red and the two Princes they marry so in a sense had some vague character traits already laid out for me. I then scratched the idea and went with telling the story of Prince Charming’s brother without the framework of the fairy story. It gave me more freedom. In my crime novel, about fame and fandom, I based the two main actress characters off actual actors on the screen, but obviously as I write, I imbue them with what I need for the story so that now, they aren’t anything like those two actresses at all. On the whole, I often write the characters to match the plots in my head, so even when my characters start out as being one thing, they morph to meet the needs of the story.

Do you use character sheets, like with characteristics and backstories and quirks and friends and looks and favorite things and family stuff? Do you write backstory things, and little stories about everyday things and stuff they get up to, just to get to know them better?

No, I don’t. I should. It would save me so much time in second draft on getting characterizations and motivations right. I do plan the basics in my story notebook eg character motivations and desires and fears.

How are you inspired; do you use music, do you go for walks, do you watch movies/shows/read?

I am inspired by the entire world. Sometimes it’s the lyrics to a song, sometimes it’s to history, sometimes it’s to minor characters in books and movies, or to the way actors portray some form of human emotion. Stories always start from the place of, ‘what if?’ ‘What if Prince Charming was horrid?’ ‘What if the murderer in Wire in the Blood hadn’t given himself away to Tony and Carol had been strangled?’ ‘What if a character could travel back in time?’ I never have a shortage of ideas.

Do you have someplace where you like to go to write/think?

I like to write at night in bed in my notebook. Otherwise I set time aside and just type away at the computer. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t any good. That’s the main thing. Just keep typing. Especially on first draft. You can fix inconsistencies and bad writing later. The main thing is to start. A writer writes. That’s it.

Have you read books on writing?

Yes, and I really recommend doing it. The best one I’ve read is ‘On Writing’ by Stephan King. Go read it. Now. I’ve also got some books on english grammar and puncutation because I’m rubbish at it, a thesaurus handy and a great little book by Australian author, John Marsden, with writing exercises for students. I should read more. I hear Carmel Bird is good.

How do you work out plots and subplots and twists; and do you do something to keep track of everything, like a mind map or diagrams or have a book full of scribblings of things?

I have a notebook now for each story I tell. It is too hard to keep track otherwise. I am getting better at planning. I used to just smash out word and worry about logic later, which was incredibly time consuming and impractical. For my current fantasy ms, Thashidion, I have been plotting and planning in an A4 notebook late at night. The best tool for figuring out plot/sub plot and twists has been advice from Joanne Anderton. Particularly in genre fiction, start with the ‘what if?’ and follow up with the ‘so what?’ question. So if the what if part is ‘what if Prince Charming was emotionally abusive?’ the ‘so what?’ might be ‘and that makes Snow White have to learn her step mother’s magic to free herself. Too bad she let the step mother die.’A twist might be that the step mother was never actually all that evil and now Snow White must deal with that emotional realisation.

You can read The Kelnarium Prophecy here and a mentor’s critique here. You can purchase my book of poetry on Amazon and Smashwords

On Writing…

1. You have written a number of popular series for both adults and children. How do you feel when you finish a series and do you ever think about writing new stories set in those worlds?

Oh, yes, I always have ideas for new books set in that world when I finish- I often know who my characters are going to marry and all sorts of other things that never make it into the book. However, sequels are not always the best idea I’ve got- I have so many ideas all the time and so I always try and choose the one which will make the best story.

As for how I feel- I’m both very happy and very relieved, but also sad. There’s always a period of grieving after each book is finished, and a time when I feel anxious for the book and how it will be received.

2. How visual are you when writing your books? How much do you plan out a novel? (Submitted by Ben)

I have a strong visual imagination and so I have to ‘see’ a scene before I can write it. It feels a little like watching a film and writing down what happens as I see it. This means I have to fully imagine the scene before I can write, and so I spent a lot of time daydreaming about the story, imagine it, wondering about my characters and what they look like and so on.

I plan my stories but not comprehensively. Normally I need my title, my opening scene, my opening line and quite a few key scenes along the way before I begin to write.

3. Do you workshop your writing with other people in the early drafting stages? If so, with who? (submitted by Rhiannon)

No, I have never workshopped my novels and I never shall. I don’t show my work to anyone until I have the novel as perfect as I can make it. I do talk over my novels with my sister, though, and we each have helped each other solve problems or overcome obstacles as a result. My sister is a writer too- her name is Belinda Murrell and she has written numerous wonderful books for children.

4. Does living in the Manly area inspire your work? Are there any scenes from your books that you can point us to that are inspired by where you live?

I love walking along the ocean front a few times a week, I find that very calming and inspiring. There are some scenes set in my novel, Full Fathom Five, which was published under my maiden name, Kate Humphrey, but strangely enough I wasn’t living near Manly when I wrote that book.

5. Would you ever consider writing a fantasy script after the success of Game of Thrones? Would you say yes to a film or tv option of your books? (Submitted by Ben)

I’d love one of my books to be turned into a film or tv show and so, yes, if the offer was amenable I would agree to selling an option. I would have to trust the director and producer however, and I’d like some imput into the project. I may even be interested in working on the script depending on what deadlines I have looming over me!

On Research…

6. As an ex History Honours student I am always intrigued by the so called ‘Is History Fiction?’ debate, in particular the reactions of some historians to authors of historical fiction. For example, Kate Grenville was criticised by Inga Clendinning and Mark McKenna for her comments on her historical novel, The Secret River. Do you have an opinion on the whole thing? Are you a historian and a story teller when working on books like Bitter Greens and The Wild Girl?

I am first and foremost a novelist, which means I create fictional worlds. Nonetheless, I try as much as possible to stick to the facts as I understand them. I believe it is my job to bring the world of the story so fully to life so that my readers feel as though they had been there themselves, feeling all the joy and suffering that my characters feel. I believe historical novels do more to illuminate the past than dry history books because the readers experience the events of the book as if they were inhabiting the skin of the characters- this means they feel as if they were actually there. I rely heavily on the works of other historians for my research, but I am always searching for the emotional truth hidden behind the facts.

7. Even in your fantasy books, it is evident that you put a lot of research into your novels. Why do you see research as so important to your stories?

Research helps me to fully immerse myself in the time and place of my story. It helps me discover the voice of the novel, gives me plot ideas, and helps me find that telling detail that brings a story to life. I love researching- as I always say, it is simply reading with a purpose.

On Being a Reader…

8. What is your opinion of books like 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight? Do you read them? (Submitted by J.C.)

I haven’t read 50 Shades of Grey because its simply not my kind of book. I have nothing against romance novels- in fact, I read a lot of them, though usually historical romances. I have nothing against novels with a high level of sensuality either. In fact, I enjoy a good boddice ripper and many of my books have a few saucy scenes. I was a little concerned about the sexual politics of the book, however, after reading a number of reviews and listening to what people had to say about it. I probably would have read it for curiosity’s sake if I was not so unbelievably busy at the moment and if most of my reading time wasn’t taken up with research for my doctorate.

I have read Twilight and I enjoyed it. I thought it was very cleverly structured for maximum suspense, and I think I’d have loved it if I’d been a teenage girl with romantic yearnings when I read it. I didn’t go on and read the rest of the books in the series, probably because I don’t much like vampire novels, but I certainly defend it when I hear people deriding it.

And a final challenge…

9. What’s a question about your writing or your books that you’ve never been asked before but you’ve always wanted to answer?

Have any of your books ever been inspired by a dream?

10. Now answer it!

Yes, many of them, in fact. Sometimes the dream provides the first flash of an idea, somtimes a dream offers up the solution to a problem in a novel I am writing, and sometimes what I am writing about invades my sleeping hours and give me dreams, some of which are truly horrible nightmares. The door between my subconscious and conscious mind seems to swing open more easily than most people, perhaps because I have always remembered my dreams and listened to them.

Thanks so much for your time, Kate!

Kate Forsyth is the author of over 20 books for both adults and children, including Bitter Greens, The Puzzle Ring, The Gypsy Crown, and The Witches of Eileanan. Kate is currently at a number of events promoting her new novel, The Wild Girl. You can find her at;

Her website: http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/Appearances

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/kateforsythauthor?fref=ts

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/KateForsyth

You can check out my book reviews of The Wild Girl and Bitter Greens Here and Here

I don’t quite know how I missed the festival last year as I have been recieving NSW Writers Centre newsletters for an age but I assume it must have been the time it was placed in the year- right when I was starting my final year of university. Anyway, no use crying over spilt milk and all that, because I am so, so glad I managed to make it this year. I will endeavor to be charitable about the hard chairs that seem to always plague these kind of events. I took notes on all of the panels that I attended but will just pick the eyes out of my notebook pages and provide the highlights.

NSW Writers Centre

Panel 1: The International Speculative Fiction Scene featured Ian Irvine and Juliet Marillier, and was chaired by Dirk Strasser. Highlights included the Garth Nix quote:

“It only took me 17 years to become an overnight success,”

some discussion of percentages of book sales (who knew that Australians read so much fantasy despite our relatively small population?), discussion of Australia’s expensive book prices and the reduction of sales of sci fi especially (drop by 40%!) after Angus and Robertson went under and with some balm to all of the doom and gloom, words about emerging writer hopefuls. Juliet ended by saying that if a book is good, it will succeed but it is the writers job to ensure that they write what they are passionate about, take their craft seriously and stay original. Ian added that people who are committed to, and stick to, learning the writing craft will get published.

Next was a panel on The Future of Publishing with Joel Naoum (Momentum Books), Zoe Walton (Random House) and Dionne Lister (Editor and author) and chaired by Russell Farr (Ticonderoga Press). The short answer to the panel was that no one knew the future of publishing. Of course, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that one out with all of the confusion and knee jerk reactions littered about the interweb to ebooks and digital media and book selling giants like Amazon. In regards to self publishing, the (also kind of predictable) advice was to do it properly or not at all. Dionne, as the self published author on the panel offered some more concrete advice- ensure a pleasant and professional online persona, use social media, and use the fact that you are self published to be pro-active about sales. Joel Naoum also had a funny quote about how Choose Your Own Interactive Stories were like masturbation. It is probably on the twittersphere somewhere. Look it up.

Panel 3 I decided to go somewhere a bit out of my comfort zone with the Gothic Tales for Teens session. I do enjoy Victoriana settings and the supernatural and the so called ‘dark’ in my fiction. Besides, I already know all about allure of epic fantasy or I wouldn’t be slaving over writing it. Richard Harland chaired the goth panel with Sophie Masson and Alison Croggon in what turned out to be quite an informal and interesting conversation. I loved Alison’s comment that the Young Adult market provides the author with a lot of freedom because younger people are often less close minded about trying new genres or accepting weird and wonderful imaginings. Richard pointed out that the heroes journey mirrors quite closely a teen’s journey to adulthood; full of transformation and revelation. Having said that, YA speculative fiction doesn’t really have an age barrier. Educators and parents are often gatekeepers to YA books. So why do readers love the gothic, including fairy stories? The gothic allows for heightened emotion in a safe way- a form of expression. It’s about secrets and tension and fear and discovery; about mystery, darkness and isolation. It’s about sexuality and desire. These are all things that touch on the basic human experience.

Panel 4 dealt with Writing Speculative Fiction for Kids and was chaired by Ben Chandler. Garth Nix, Belinda Murrell and John Flanagan all were wonderful speakers so I also enjoyed this particular panel a lot. Belinda made me smile when she mentioned that she would never have continued to write if she had been offered too much advice- that much advice is paralysing. This is the same for me. I am a bit of a perfectionist and hate showing things to people till I know it is up to a certain standard. Garth made a nifty point about appropriation and the ways that certain authors (old guard American fantasy writers I am so NOT looking at you *cough*) bizarrely refuse to acknowledge the way that all authors draw from what they know. This does not mean that you are a hack. It means that you exist in a culture. This is a touchy subject for me and I am so glad that Garth “gets” it. Garth also made some great comments about ‘reading entry points’ when discussing categorising a work. For Garth, entry points refer to the age when a person will most connect to that story, but an entry point age does not negate people younger or older from also reading and enjoying. John (who is very funny) added that the biggest problem comes from bookstores categorising books and prejudicing readers against a book in that sense. Belinda made an interesting point about characters in the younger end of YA saying that because speculative fiction is a great escape, you need very real characters. Qualities like goodness and kindess and bravery need to be rewarded because otherwise what on earth are we teaching our children? Indeed, Belinda. That’s humanism. Glad we’re both on the same page.

I then had to dash away to do a ten minute mentorship session with Melina Marchetta (most famous for Looking for Alibrandi). Her two pieces of advice to me (aside from pay an editor to look at my ms structurally) was to always strive for my own writing voice without worrying about what others will think and to give strong consonants a work out, especially in titles. Great advice and I’m so glad that Melina is as lovely as my 13 year old self wanted her to be!

Panel 6 was a session on short stories because you know, I should probably get onto the whole short story submission thing. Dirk Strasser, Cat Sparks (who also took some lovely photographs of the day), Angela Slatter and Lisa Hannett all had great advice. All seemed to agree that there was a boom in novellas and short stories thanks to ebooks and a busy modern age. The list of professional paying magazines is growing but so are the amounts of submissions. The Science Fiction Association of Australia has a growing list of professional magazines which accept submissions. Dirk said that the key to a good short story is FOCUS. Angela and Lisa said have something to say, have a strong idea with fewer characters and get straight into action with crisis, choice and consequence key. Possibly my favourite piece of advice came from Cat: a short story is like a commando raid; get in quick with an explosive bang and then get the hell back out.

The last panel event of the day was a Q and A session with Garth Nix, Juliet Marillier, Ian Irvine, Kate Forsyth, Melina Marchetta and John Flanagan. I have to admit that I was pretty knackered by this point and stopped taking notes. Then it was time for Juliet’s book launch of Prickle Moon which turned out to be very atmostpheric amongst the cawing of ravens and a fading sun. Somehow I hadn’t quite realised that the NSW Writers Centre was on the old Callan Park Asylum until that moment. There was something touching about a book launch marked by a collective joy and love of reading taking place on a site of so much oft forgotten misery and sadness. At least to my mind.

That could have been the thesis talking.

NSW Writers Centre 2013 Speculative Fiction Festival was held Saturday 16th March. The Festival Director was Australian genre fiction great, Kate Forsyth. Congratulations to everyone involved for such a wonderful day!

The Wild Girl is Kate’s second foray into the adult historical fiction and romance genre and, much like Bitter Greens, her experimentation does not disappoint. A romance story which should appeal to readers of Paullina Simons and Juliet Marillier, a historical fiction that gives Philippa Gregory a run for her money and an example of exemplary fairy story scholarship, The Wild Girl is in turns beautiful, deeply disturbing, evocative and of course, like any good fairy story romance, features a signature happy ending.

The Wild Girl tells the story of Dortchen Wild, the girl who grew up next door to the Grimm brothers. Set in the nineteenth century in the German kingdom of Hessen-Cassel, Kate retells the story of Dortchen’s love for Wilhelm Grimm, exploring the poverty, tyranny and terror of Napoleonic Europe as well as a darkness found closer to home which continued to make marriage between the two an impossible dream. This darkness at the centre of the novel is kept at bay by the telling and reshaping of fairy stories, with the remoulding of the incestuous fairy story, ‘All-Kinds-Of-Fur’ a reoccuring motif in the novel. Each part of the novel is bookended by Grimm fairy story excerpts, cleverly reflecting and refracting elements of Dortchen’s own tale.

I very rarely read and enjoy romance fiction but this novel is also historical fiction, involves fairy stories, the brothers Grimm, and Germany, all of which are things that I like quite a bit. In recent years, both fairy story revisionism and the Grimm brothers have been flogged to death. In popular culture, the recent police procedural tv show Grimm has riffed off the brothers stories for a modern audience and The Brothers Grimm (2005) starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger played fast and loose with history and used fantasy to speculate on how the Grimm brothers sourced their stories. A number of Grimm fairy stories have been appropriated again and again for modern audiences, including Six Swans, Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. In one of the more interesting fairy story appropriations, there has even been a Tony award winning Broadway musical featuring the memorable rapping witch, Bernadette Peters, in a post modern opretta. With songs like Children Should Listen, Last Midnight and No One is Alone, Sondheim further cemented himself as a musical composer and lyricist of considerable skill with Into The Woods. So where does that leave The Wild Girl? With so much fairy story retelling and post modern twisting and interest in origin stories, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Kate had boxed herself into a corner writing about the Grimm’s.

Happily she doesn’t. This is because, as she did with Bitter Greens, Kate spends an inordinate amount of time researching to give voice to the forgotten women in European history. Her emphasis on quality research ensures an equally valid account of Dortchen Wild’s relation to the Grimm brothers as any other historians guess. The story is strong, sensitive and well written. I whirled through the many pages. The story is not anachronistic and conversations feel real. I can only imagine how many hours Kate spent slaving over this manuscript to get the tone, the dialogue and the characters so right. A stunning achievement, and a book that I would reccomend to anyone interested in romance, historical fiction or fairy story interpretations.

The Wild Girl: 4/5 inky stars
Am advance copy of this book was supplied by the author. The Wild Girl comes out 18/03/13.

RRP: $32.95 Aus. 

Bitter Greens is Australian fantasy author, Kate Forsyth’s newest offering; adult, historical and a little bit magical. Before I go on to review this book, I have to admit something pretty embarassing to admit for an avid Australian fantasy reader; until reading Bitter Greens, I had never read an entire book by Kate before. When I was twelve, mum’s teacher friend who I was rather scared of, gave me The Starthorn Tree to shut me up during a Girl Guide Christmas Tree Sale Fundraiser at her house. I *think* I made it halfway through before her kids came home and I gave up reading.

To this day I can’t remember a single thing about that book. I know it disturbed me. No idea why. I never picked up a book by Kate again because a teacher had once reccomended her books, and as any kid knows, this is A Very Bad Thing (if you are scared of/dislike the teacher). The point is I came into Bitter Greens with no idea of what to expect; on the one hand I love fairy story revisionism, on the other, there was that teacher to contend with. Kids have long memories, that’s all I’m saying.

Bitter Greens is an interesting hybrid. Both a retelling of the Rapunzel “Little Parsley” fairy story, and a historical fiction that gives Phillipa Greggory a run for her money; Kate manages to weave a complex braid of smaller stories into one story. After Charlotte-Rose de la Force is banished by the Sun King to a nunnery, a nun tries to comfort her by telling the story of Margherita, a girl sold by her parents to the courtesan witch, La Strega, for a handful of bitter greens. The stories of Charlotte-Rose, Margherita and Selena Leonelli (La Strega) create Bitter Greens; forming both a treastise on the importance and power of storytelling, and the ways in which women find power, happiness and fufillment in a predominantly male world.

To my surprise, most of the book actually deals with the life of 16th century Charlotte-Rose de la Force, cousin to King Louis XiV and original creator of the Rapunzel story as we know and love it today. Serving both as a celebration of a woman’s very interesting and passionate life and as a kind of parable about the healing nature of stories- the ways in which they shape us and give our lives meaning – Kate weaves the Rapunzel story throughout Charlotte-Rose’s confinement in the nunnery; the story unravelling as Charlotte-Rose remembers, and comes to terms with, her own chequered life; the things that are worth fighting for, the things that aren’t.

I admit that there was a point in the middle of the book where I wondered where all of the Charlotte-Rose recollections were going and started to get a bit worried about the story as a whole. Luckily, the vivid descriptions of France and Italy (in particular Venice) kept me page turning and the ending was such that if I reread Bitter Greens now, I would probably appreciate the middle a whole lot more. Ending on a message of hope, acceptance, and peace; the message that one can do anything they wish if they just close their eyes and leap spoke to me. There are certain themes that I love to come back to and that theme is one of them, the other is the storytelling theme also present in Bitter Greens.

As I was reading, I was reminded of the Emilie Autumn song, Rapunzel:

If you sing loud and clear

someone passing by will surely hear you

no- you can’t be afraid

if you ever want somebody near you.

Metaphorically speaking, all three of the women in Bitter Greens learn this through hardship and growth. There is sex (Good. Bad. Indifferent.) There is violence. There is pain, but ultimately there is always hope of redemption, forgiveness and the possibility of a brighter future. Bitter Greens is a complex, meticulously researched adult tale that takes you evocatively back to another time period. Rich characterisations, interesting themes and the reclaiming of female voice in history (including courtesans), make this book well worth its $33 dollars.

Bitter Greens: 4/5 inky stars.

Oh- and for the record, my irrational fear is cured. I am now reading The Starthorn Tree.

(IA Note: You can also read Kate’s Rapunzel poem at Enchanted Conversations here: http://www.fairytalemagazine.com/2012/05/in-tower-by-kate-forsyth.html)