Nigel Featherstone chatted about the writing of his latest novel My Heart is a Little Wild Thing. We talked about setting, being ambitious with your writing, structure, point of view, voice and the concept of duende.

Toni Jordan takes us through the process behind writing her novel Dinner with the Schnabels. We talked about point of view and why she decided to write the book from a male perspective, how she sits down to write a scene, her daily writing practice, how she dealt with setting a novel in pandemic times and the way she balances pathos with humour.

In this episode, Hannah Kents takes us through the process behind writing her novel Devotion. We talked about how she writers her way into the voice of her characters, her love of writing landscape, her first draft process, the editing process and her writing practice.

Penelope Janu takes us through the process behind writing her novel Clouds on the Horizon. We talked about finding the voice of the characters, the importance of hitting certain beats when writing romance, the literary characters that inspire her and her writing routine.

Ashley Kalagian Blunt takes us through the process behind writing her memoir How to be Australian. We discuss the importance of both a narrative and character arc, how to write your own voice, scene plotting and structure.

Markus Zusak takes us through the process behind writing his bestselling novels Bridge of Clay, The Book Thief and The Messenger, including a discussion about character development, voice, structure, foreshadowing and specificity.

Jessica Dettmann takes us through the process behind writing her bestselling novel This Has Been Absolutely Lovely, including a discussion about character voice, scenes, editing and backstory.

Lynette Noni is currently Australia’s number one YA fiction author of ten novels including The Prison Healer series. Not only did we talk about writing YA and fantasy, Lynette also spoke about the process of planning and writing a series, what inspired the world of The Prison Healer, and how she goes about creating distinctive, layered characters.

This month I had a brilliant chat with Tasmanian author Kyle Perry about his second novel The Deep. I’d heard Kyle talk about his writing process before and he was so articulate and generous with his own experiences of writing, I knew he’d be perfect for the podcast.

In this episode, Meredith Jaffe takes us on the journey from first draft, through to structural and copy edits and finally to finished novel. She talked about writing multiple points of view with an ensemble cast of characters, the concept of head hopping, the unusual drafting process she used for her next novel and how she seeds backstory throughout the narrative.

In this episode, Nikki spoke about her work process in detail and how she works her writing around family life. We also talked about how she developed the characters in The Ripping Tree, how she structured the novel for pacing and how important pacing it, why she doesn’t read fiction while she’s writing and what inspired her to write what she calls a love letter to Australia, a hymn to the land.

This month I chat with Jaclyn Moriarty about her novel Gravity is the Thing. We talked about a structure she calls ‘fragmented storytelling’, the editing process, techniques for firing creativity and the idea of trust between the author and reader.

In this episode, Candice talks about her drafting and editing processes, how she pitched the idea to her publisher, how she structured the novel with an A and B plot and multiple vignettes, the techniques she uses to make the reader care about the characters, how she goes about creating and maintaining tension, and so much more.

Kylie and I took a deep dive into her gripping family drama The Way Back. We spoke about her process, scene structure, dialogue, pacing, and the importance of reading your novel out loud.

Natasha Lester was our very first guest on the podcast and she was fabulous. We covered so many elements of writing The Paris Secret including first lines, prologue, plot twists, dual narratives and so much more.

Welcome to Writer’s Book Club. A deep dive with authors into the writing craft and process behind their novels.