How to write, right now?
Kate and Katherine take two different approaches at this moment, which may of course change! Katherine is taking solace from a delightful listener email and an anecdote about Eleanor Dark, who apparently didn’t write for the entire duration of WWII. So give yourself permission NOT to write at this time. She’s found this article about stoicism by Brigid Delaney the most useful thing right now.
Kate, on the other hand, has got out some tentative new words for the new book. She’s taking solace from things like Elizabeth Gilbert’s instagram feed, encouraging artists to creative as a response to the chaos around us.
They also give an update on the new Conversations with Friends series, which will be coming your way very soon!
Other bits you might want to check out:
- Keep Going & the newsletter from Austin Kleon
- Kate has been reading Jenny Offill’s Weather
- Virtual events – check out the Wheeler Centre, Avid Reader, Newcastle Writers Festival or your fave bookstore as they might be moving to online events you can support!
- Katherine is reading The Lace Weaver& Gulliver’s Wife by Lauren Chater, and The Body by Bill Bryson
- Kate is reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, The Fragments by Toni Jordan & The Safe Place by Anna Downes.
Then Kate speaks with Melbourne writer, Alice Robinson.
Alice Robinson’s debut novel, Anchor Point, was long listed for the 2016 Stella Prize, the 2016 Indie Book Awards (debut fiction), and named one of 25 best Bookclub books in The Herald Sun. Her second novel, The Glad Shout, was published by Affirm Press in March 2019. Alice has a PhD in Creative Writing at Victoria University, where she was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research. Her fiction, essays and reviews have been published widely in literary journals such as Kill Your Darlings, The Lifted Brow, Arena, TEXT, Fireflies, Meanjin and The Australian Humanities Review among others.
Their conversation covers:
- making ‘whatever you want’
- owning ‘I am a good writer’
- difference in process between first and second books
- finding joy in the writing process
- Alice’s discussion of building character in a Q & A with Potts Point Bookshop
- writing in the anthropocene which Alice muses on wonderfully here
- Alice’s review of Helen Garner’s Yellow Notebook for The Lifted Brow
- The photograph that Alice used as a touchstone while writing The Glad Shout
Alice’s advice for writers:
‘Done is better than good.’
And her fave debut novel:
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
Purchase Alice Robinson’s books via your favourite indie book store if you are in a position to do so and find out more about Alice Robinson on her website or follow her on Instagram or Twitter.
The First Time podcast 