autobiography

Write

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I take immense pride in writing as a craft, so it annoys me when people trivialise it, consider it a shtick, or don’t take it as seriously as they should. Let me break down some of the things I’ve heard, the outlook some employ, and how they should actually be looking at it …   … Continued

Breaking Down Content: Part II

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In the last blog, we looked at breaking down content so that whatever message the content as a whole was intended to deliver – be that the plot of a novel, the biography of a subject, the information of a topic, or the guide of a self-help book – it did so logically, causally, and … Continued

Breaking Down Content: Part I

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Lots of writers look for a formula in writing, e.g. a novel should be 80,000 words each chapter should be 2,000 words 80,000/2,000 = 40 chapters. And then they’ll try write to that template. The problem is that in any given chapter, you might wrap up what needs to be said in 700 words. What … Continued

The Story YOU Want to Tell

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Lots of people are interested in writing memoir. And, because it’s memoir, they think it’s going to be easy. The whole story’s there, isn’t it? You just have to now put it down on the page. But memoir doesn’t work like that – and this applies if you’re writing autobiography, a biography of somebody else, … Continued

Karma Kinglake Writing Retreat

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After driving through winding roads and wondering if you’re going the right way, you see it emerge from the gum trees: Karma Kinglake, a rustic house rebuilt from the ashes of Black Saturday. There’s an old-style charm about it, a character that welcomes you and tells you that you’re going to be in for something … Continued

Chronology

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Writing memoir presents us with different challenges to writing fiction. Even though the story’s there in its entirety – after all, we’ve lived it – a lot of people ask, Where should I begin? A common format of biographies is they open at a pivotal point in the subject’s life – either a great success … Continued

The Launch of Joffa: Isn’t That Life?

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Tomorrow night, we’re launching our newest book, the autobiography Joffa: Isn’t That Life? When we first had Joffa into Busybird last year and pitched to him that he should write an autobiography, he expressed several concerns. Firstly, he was worried people would think he was grandstanding. One thing you discover when you talk to Joffa, … Continued