Ask the Author: Janie Conway-Herron
Answered Questions (8)
Janie Conway-Herron
I always have ideas but the best way I've found to get those ideas out of my head and into the written word is simply to sit down at my computer and let those words fly. Once that happens I'm usually in the flow of inspiration.
Janie Conway-Herron
Being at the end of a very big project of novel and associated collection of 15 songs I'm kind of between projects at the moment. I do have quite a few ideas though.
I'm thinking about a book of short stories and an historical fiction that follows on from my first novel Beneath The Grace of Clouds which was published in 2010 and which I hope to re-release in 2021. I'm not sure where to start right now as I'm so busy promoting Another Song About Love.
At these in between times poetry or songwriting is often a good place to focus my creativity until the inspiration for something longer takes over.
I'm thinking about a book of short stories and an historical fiction that follows on from my first novel Beneath The Grace of Clouds which was published in 2010 and which I hope to re-release in 2021. I'm not sure where to start right now as I'm so busy promoting Another Song About Love.
At these in between times poetry or songwriting is often a good place to focus my creativity until the inspiration for something longer takes over.
Janie Conway-Herron
Keep writing and don't lose heart.
Janie Conway-Herron
Being able to create worlds and characters for others to relate to. Communicating ideas to your readers.
Janie Conway-Herron
I have one really great exercise that I have given to many of my students over two decades of teaching creative writing both in Australia and overseas. I also use it myself when I'm feeling blocked. It has to do with making space around you and not listening to that awful critic that sits on your shoulder negatively judging every word you write. The editor/critic is useful when you're refining your writing but not when you're just starting out.
1. Give yourself at least an hour where you make sure you can be by yourself in a quiet place uninterrupted.
2. Make sure you have a pen or something to write with by hand (handwriting works better than typing into your computer I think).
3. For around twenty minutes write as fast as you can anything that comes into your head no matter how nonsensical or ridiculous it might seem. Don't think about it just write. Don't edit as you go just write anything that comes into your head. Your hand will probably hurt but try to keep going without stopping.
4. At the end of fifteen - twenty minutes have a look at what you've written. I'd be surprised if there aren't a few choice sentences and/or phrases and words there to provide a starting block for a story or to use in a story you already have.
5.Keep the work. File it away. You never know when it might provide some inspiration for the start of something new.
1. Give yourself at least an hour where you make sure you can be by yourself in a quiet place uninterrupted.
2. Make sure you have a pen or something to write with by hand (handwriting works better than typing into your computer I think).
3. For around twenty minutes write as fast as you can anything that comes into your head no matter how nonsensical or ridiculous it might seem. Don't think about it just write. Don't edit as you go just write anything that comes into your head. Your hand will probably hurt but try to keep going without stopping.
4. At the end of fifteen - twenty minutes have a look at what you've written. I'd be surprised if there aren't a few choice sentences and/or phrases and words there to provide a starting block for a story or to use in a story you already have.
5.Keep the work. File it away. You never know when it might provide some inspiration for the start of something new.
Janie Conway-Herron
Gosh. This is a hard question to answer. I love historical fiction and while I might like to experience the worlds I read there I think they would have been hard worlds to actually live in. One of my favourite books as a young girl was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. As a coming of age story that I read when I was coming of age myself I just loved the family particularly Jo. So yes I wouldn't mind spending some time in that world.
Janie Conway-Herron
It's spring here in Australia so Summer is just about to start. It's already hot so I'm a bit nervous about what might happen.
I've just finished reading Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernadine Evaristo the 2019 Booker Prize winning novel. It's fantastic and I really recommend it to people who like reading woman centred novels. Bernadine teaches creative writing and is poet (like me). The language in the book is beautiful and the portraits of the various women in the book wonderful.
Another book I've read recently is Afropean by Johnny Pitts. It's a travel story with a difference and shares ideas of identity and the UK with Girl, Women Other. It's not the reason why I read it but I'm glad I read the two novels back to back. I now have a real insight into modern UK culture.
I've also enjoyed reading Australia's very own Tara June Winch's Miles Franklin Award winning book Yield. It is another wonderful fiction written bu an Indigenous Australian writer and sits alongside Melissa Lucashenko's Too Much Lip and Tony Birch's, The White Girl.
I've just finished reading Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernadine Evaristo the 2019 Booker Prize winning novel. It's fantastic and I really recommend it to people who like reading woman centred novels. Bernadine teaches creative writing and is poet (like me). The language in the book is beautiful and the portraits of the various women in the book wonderful.
Another book I've read recently is Afropean by Johnny Pitts. It's a travel story with a difference and shares ideas of identity and the UK with Girl, Women Other. It's not the reason why I read it but I'm glad I read the two novels back to back. I now have a real insight into modern UK culture.
I've also enjoyed reading Australia's very own Tara June Winch's Miles Franklin Award winning book Yield. It is another wonderful fiction written bu an Indigenous Australian writer and sits alongside Melissa Lucashenko's Too Much Lip and Tony Birch's, The White Girl.
Janie Conway-Herron
I had this story in mind for some time before I turned it into a novel. I wanted to write a fictional account of what life was like for a young woman musician trying to make it in the 1980s when women were usually singers and not necessarily players, particularly in rock bands and particularly players of electric guitars. I took inspiration from things I experienced as a musician in the burgeoning rock music scene in Carlton, an inner city suburb of Melbourne Australia, and the social context of the times.
I also wanted to write about the psychological make up of a performer. In particular women performers. And explore what makes them want to perform and what can bring them undone at the same time. I didn't want to write another star is torn story but rather explore and describe the life and times of the main character Lillie Bloom. Hence the title Another Song About Love which is also the title of one of 15 songs in a collection that goes with the novel. The songs share their titles with the chapters in the novel. The music will be available on Amazon by the end of September but you can also listen to them on my website.
I also wanted to write about the psychological make up of a performer. In particular women performers. And explore what makes them want to perform and what can bring them undone at the same time. I didn't want to write another star is torn story but rather explore and describe the life and times of the main character Lillie Bloom. Hence the title Another Song About Love which is also the title of one of 15 songs in a collection that goes with the novel. The songs share their titles with the chapters in the novel. The music will be available on Amazon by the end of September but you can also listen to them on my website.
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