Trevor's Writing

Review “The Turning” by Tim Winton

1 Comment »16th February, 2010; Category: Authors, Books, Fiction, Novels, Reviews

The Turning - Tim Winton

Tim Winton is arguably Australia’s leading writer at the moment. Four times winner of our most prestigious Miles Franklin Award, Winton stands alone at the top of Australian literature. His most recent award was for his highly acclaimed novel Breath. I read this last year and made comments on my blog here.

It was with great anticipation then that I took his collection of short stories The Turning away with me on a beach holiday just before Christmas last year. This book is a collection of twenty short stories set largely in rural Western Australia. The rural settings evoked by these stories spoke strongly to me as I grew up in a similar setting here in South Australia. Much of what he wrote about was familiar and comfortable territory.

What makes this an interesting book is the interconnectedness between many of the stories. While each story stands alone, each also has connections with other stories. Sometimes the setting is the same. The same characters keep appearing in different stories. Different characters relate the same incidents from their perspective. It is clever and intriguing writing.

While the settings are most definitely a strong point of the collection, the characters are also strongly drawn. You could walk into any country pub anywhere in Australia and find one or two people just like Winton’s characters. He certainly has a strong grasp of the Australian character.

Very enjoyable reading.

Highly recommended.

Further reading:

What I am reading: “Breath”

Reference:

Winton, T 2006 The Turning. Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney

Some thoughts about weeds and words

No Comments »10th February, 2010; Category: Blogs, Writing Hints

I needed to do some weeding in the garden recently. Our rose bed was in danger of disappearing into a jungle of tangled weeds.

Weeding in the garden is so satisfying; in a very short space of time you can see the results of your labours. The garden bed looks much better very quickly. The plants you leave behind – presumably those you want to keep – give a huge sigh of relief. ‘There is a sun after all,’ they say. Weeding improves the garden.

Too often we allow words to grow like weeds in our writing. Many words creep in unannounced and unwanted. There is the danger that they can choke out the good words. At their worst they can rob the desirable words of all the necessary moisture and nutrients for growth. Your story can wilt and die.

Be ruthless. Pull out all unnecessary words. Edit relentlessly.

And your writing will be allowed to bloom into its full potential.

Good weeding – and good writing.

Getting back into writing again

No Comments »9th February, 2010; Category: Master of Arts course, Novels, The Writer's Life, Writing a novel

It is time to get back into my writing again.

Over the last two months my writing has taken something of a back seat in my life. I worked really hard over many long hours over an extended period of time in an attempt to get my novel finished before the end of November.

It didn’t happen.

As it turns out, my six weeks of illness in the middle of the year put me behind on my schedule and I never really recovered. The hard push to get it finished took its toll, and by the end of November I was well and truly cooked. So I decided to have a break from my novel writing.

I had actually finished the first draft well before the end of October. I then spent quite a few weeks editing and rewriting. The novel is now in its 6th draft, with at least two more drafts to go, perhaps more.

It has taken me fully two months to get back to the stage where I want to get back into the novel. I hope that the long, enforced break has distanced me enough from the earlier writing to give me fresh eyes for the novel as it now exists.

Many writers will agree with what I have done. Putting aside a story or poem or novel for a few weeks or even months can have a beneficial effect. Of course, sometimes writers do not have the luxury of giving their stories this kind of space, particularly if they are on a submission deadline.

Over the next week I will see how I go.

In the meantime – good writing.

Writing success

2 Comments »29th January, 2010; Category: Events, Master of Arts course, Poetry, Short Stories

Last night we had the first meeting for 2010 of our writers’ groups at Tabor Adelaide, the university where I am doing my Master of Arts in Creative Writing.

This was a combined meeting of the various writers’ groups. With about 30 in attendance interest is high which is very encouraging. The shared pizza was nice too.

As part of the proceedings one of the lecturers had a long list of recent writing successes from various students, past and present. This must be encouraging to the staff as people are having success with their writing.

The main purpose for this meeting was to launch the annual anthology of writing from students and staff. Tales from the Upper Room has now seen its fifth edition and is going from strength to strength. The standard of writing is very high and competition to be included is intensifying as each new raft of students progresses through the various courses available.

Personal publishing success

I was pleased to see that four of my poems and two of my stories were chosen for the anthology this year. I also contributed parts of a baton poem, an exercise where we all took it in turns to contribute to a major poem.

Writing courses:

Lectures in the creative writing courses start in a few weeks time, but I’m sure you can still enroll. Most courses are available externally. Click here to go to the website – just follow the links to the Humanities department. I can thoroughly recommend the courses as being very useful. Staff support is also great.

Good writing.

Australia Day 2010 honours our writers

1 Comment »26th January, 2010; Category: Authors, Awards, Events, Opinion, Writers

Laughing Kookaburra

January 26th is Australia Day, a special day celebrating the first landing of European settlers in Sydney Cove, 1788.

The day is celebrated in many ways: family gatherings, picnics, barbecues, going to the beach, attending sporting events or just having a lazy day in the middle of the Australian summer.

Every year for the last few years Australia Post has celebrated the event by issuing a special set of postage stamps called Australian Legends. This series of stamps features people who have made a major contribution to Australian life and culture.

This year the stamps are called Australian Legends of the written word. They highlight the works of six of our most prominent writers. The writers honoured in this way are Peter Carey, David Malouf, Colleen McCullough, Bryce Courtenay, Thomas Keneally and Tim Winton.

I think it is wonderful that our leading novelists have been honoured in this way. Writers in Australia are often overlooked for the massive contribution they have made to our culture. Each of the writers featured are truly deserving of the honour.

Where are they?

Of course, by featuring these six writers, many other well deserved writers have been overlooked. In the field of novelists another 15 to 20 worthy recipients could have been listed, including Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee. Admittedly, he was born in South Africa but now resides here in my home state of South Australia. Bryce Courtenay was also born in South Africa, so here is an inconsistency in the choice of recipients. And what of Patrick White, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, Peter Goldsworthy, Robert Dessaix and Elizabeth Jolley? The list could go on and on. Then you have the great writers who are no longer contemporary, such as Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson.

My major gripe however is that no poets or children’s authors are represented. Judith Wright, Les Murray, Bruce Dawe and Gwen Harwood have all had significant influences in the field of poetry. That’s just four I could name from dozens of worthy recipents.

Australian children’s authors lead the world in their field. Writers like Colin Thiele, Mem Fox, Sonya Harnett, Ivan Southall and dozens more have had or continue to have a significant impact on young readers around the world.

I guess that Australia Post had a difficult job narrowing the choice down to just six writers, but a little balance in the final six would have been nice.

Links:

Australian Legends of the written word
Peter Carey
David Malouf
Colleen McCullough
Bryce Courtenay
Thomas Keneally
Tim Winton