One-hit fashion wonders, lady dubstep, breakdancing in Paris, and a film dollar doozy
The giveaway: ‘The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece’ by Tom Hanks.
On rainy Sunday, I went to a Writers SA workshop on grant and application writing taught by Karen Wyld. I’ve ‘known’ Karen on Twitter for many years (she’s @1KarenWyld there, go follow her!), but had never actually met her in person. She’s lovely! The course was better than I’d dared hope for – the theory of navigating the intimidatingly complicated grants websites in Australia was broken down in a nicely understandable way. But Karen also shared her insights into the odds of getting a ‘yes’, what the selectors are looking for, and common mistakes to avoid.
If you’re not on Twitter, you can find Karen on her website (hint: if you’ve often wondered what a writer CV should look like, hers is on there and will give you a good idea). I’d unreservedly sign up for a workshop taught by Karen again – she’s so nice, knowledgeable, and helpful.
We also saw a local production of a musical I’ve dreamed of seeing since I was a kid – A Chorus Line (revel in the trailer to the 1985 movie version starring Michael Douglas here and Sarah Jessica Parker singing one of the musical’s songs, ‘At the Ballet’, in Glee here). The cast performed top-notch renditions of my favourite tunes, plus made me fall in love all over again with the ones I’d forgotten were in it.
Feeling energised from refilling my creative well with these weekend activities – hopefully it’ll help me push through the week in an enjoyable way.
What’s fuelling your curiosity and enthusiasm this week?
News
1. The Facebook comments on this announcement were a tad disheartening (when will I learn not to read them???): Aussie breakdancers are training hard to earn a spot in our Paris 2024 Olympic team and raise money for the sport. I’ve always admired the athleticism of breakdancing and wouldn’t mind trying my hand at it myself (although I’m sure I’d stack it a thousand times per training session). It would take incredible strength, flexibility, cardio capacity, and agility – so why do people scoff at it being a legit sport? I just don’t get it. Not everyone wants to watch track and field ad nauseum in every Olympics until they die. Hooray for something different.
2. I’m generally not much of a history buff, but I found this ABC article on what we’ve recently learned from unearthing ancient Egyptian bracelets fascinating stuff. Using some advanced geekery worthy of NCIS’s Abby Sciuto, scientists have analysed the composition of the metals in the bangles to work out that Egypt was quite possibly sourcing silver from Greece in those times.
Reviews
1. Conserving Beauty ‘Conserve You’ face oil gets killer reviews on MECCA (currently 4.9 out of 5 stars from 37 reviews), yet I’ve gotta say I didn’t care for it at all. It probably didn’t help that I had a few pimples on my face at the time, but I felt like I’d smeared this horrible oil slick all over. It didn’t abate after I applied my usual tinted sunscreen, so I ended up dusting a setting powder over the top to calm down the grease. My skin’s not usually very oily either. Not a fan.
2. This SMH article: ‘The curse of the one-hit-wonder: How brands move on from a viral item’ makes a worthwhile point reflected in many creative endeavours – fashion, music, writing etc. Namely, having a breakout success with a piece of work is wonderful early on in your career, but it comes with huge pressure if you can’t back it up with anything close on your second attempt. Also, you want to evolve and grow, not just recreate variations on your early success, but if you move on too far too quickly, you’ll alienate your early fans. I’ve seen this happen with a jewellery brand I follow online – they had fantastic, innovative designs to begin with, but everything they’ve produced since has been kinda meh. I reckon they’ll have a hit again soon, but it goes to show how hard it is to navigate creative spaces.
3. Luring Hollywood blockbusters to film on Aussie shores – sound investment or stabbing our local industry in the back? It’s an intriguing question. Lord knows it’s a hard enough scrabble for local creative industries to secure funding. I’m sure there are benefits, including building skills in local workers, but perhaps we would create longer-lasting jobs, tell more of our country’s stories, and enrich our culture by redirecting that money towards Aussie filmmakers? Surely these multinationals don’t need our dollars? Thanks very much to writer Kelly Burke for bringing this in-depth story to light.
Raves and Faves
The best snippets of writing advice I’ve ever received
I’ve attended quite a collection of workshops, conferences, and online feedback groups in my time to improve my writing. Some advice has been brilliant and some has been… not so much. Here are the pieces that got the little lightbulb in my head flashing and glowing.
1. You don’t have to write a novel in order
In other words, there’s no rule that says you must write chapter one first, then chapter two, and so on, until you finally plonk your last word down on the page at the end of the tale. You could write the ending first, then the first chapter, then bits and pieces throughout, and then go back and fill in the blanks. This makes a lot of sense, and should have been obvious in hindsight, but wasn’t. And it’s hella comforting somehow.
2. Stop over-explaining
I tend to do this. I’ve been told a couple of times now after writing mentors have read my work that I seem to like over-explaining my jokes or saying the same thing three times. I don’t do it heaps, but I do it more than I should. While you want to make your story clear, sometimes a little ambiguity is good. It creates suspense and means the reader is engaged enough to keep going. But saying the same thing three different ways doesn’t make it clearer, it just bogs down your story and should be avoided. Fair enough.
3. There are exceptions
This makes the rebel in me happy. Pretty much every writing rule is open to exception, but if you’re going against conventional wisdom, you’d better have a good reason and make darn sure you’ve convinced your audience they’re still in safe hands. Essentially, you have to learn the rules before you can break them.
4. Who’s where now?
Pay careful attention to which character is where at all times, even down to who is looking at who and which direction they’re facing. You might need to draw a little map. These details might seem inconsequential, but can really confuse a reader if a character who was seemingly facing away suddenly has eyes in the back of their head.
5. Pacing matters
My preference is for a plot that goes galloping along, which is great for keeping the reader engaged. Big tick there. HOWEVER. There is such a thing as being too pacy, which I’d never really thought about until I started writing short stories in earnest. Sometimes, at pains to wrap a story up quickly and meet the word limit, I veered into melodrama by including too many plot twists too quickly.
Giveaway
The winner of last week’s giveaway, Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age, is Allen Broomhead. Allen, I’ve emailed you.
This week the giveaway is new release The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. You know the drill – type your name and email address in here to enter.
Playlist of the Week
Lady dubstep that I lovestep: