Blog

Today I thought I was Ella

Today I thought I was Ella. I thought I was a young, naive girl in love. But I’m not. I’m not Ella, I’m her author. I created her.

Yet she is me.

Ella is me but so is Anna and Harry and Robert and Jed and George – all of them are me. They are facets of me. They are also facets of others. How can I write them without embodying them? Without seeing the world through their eyes? My head is a muddle of me and the past, present and future of characters that are not me. Not only their lives, but also their emotions, desires, needs, wants.

Yet how to find me among it all? How to find Koraly. Where is she? Who is she? Oh, the novel will be grand, and powerful, and explore themes unexplored in Australian literature, but where does that leave me? Not Ella – Koraly. Someone told me it’s the experiences that pain us most, the ones that drain our souls and refill us changed; it is those experiences that create the best stories, the stories that affect people, the stories that resonate. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 19-02-2010, 2 user comments

Ten confessions of an aspiring writer

Since I'm redrafting my novel Misplaced again in anticipation of finding an agent, or a publisher, or some good news, I thought I'd share some things I've learnt along the way that might help other writers. You can read a short synopsis of Misplaced here and a new extract I've posted here. The extract is a controversial scene that takes place in the Orthodox church.

Lessons during my eighth draft:

1. The internet is evil. Don't justify it by saying it's great for research. If you're like me and you can't control checking twitter and facebook every five minutes, unplug the internet cord and give it to your partner to take to work. I did that today and instead of editing half a chapter, I edited one, but above all, I felt liberated and immersed in the world of my novel. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 3-02-2010, 17 user comments

‘Who cares about gender at a time like this?’

According to a post on the SPUNC blog last week, independent Australian publishing does.

Laurie Steed wrote that there aren’t enough women submitting to journals and publishers in Australia:

Of the 200 submissions received by Affirm Press, around 80 percent have been from male writers.

This year also sees the release of the next Sleepers almanac, a collection which often features the best women writers in the country, and yet, according to Sleepers Editorial Director Louise Swinn, the majority of their submissions are also from male writers, be they brilliant, brooding, or mildly unhinged.

Which begs the question: where are all the broken-hearted women today? Where are the open-soul, pen scratching into the page of the first-draft, thesaurus-scouring, story-shaping women when we need them?

... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 20-01-2010, 15 user comments

Overland, Judith Wright, Fiona Capp and emerging writers

This is the third year that, with the help of the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, Overland has hosted the Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets, a competition that is closing very, very soonphoto copyright heide smith. Like many poets, Wright had a long and fruitful association with Overland, the journal in which her last published poem, 'To Younger Poets', appeared. It seems fitting, then, in the last days before the prize closes, to feature Fiona Capp's remarkable piece from the new edition of Overland, an essay that begins with Capp's acknowledgment of Wright as a mentor and guide. It begins like this: ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 3-12-2009, No comments