Ask the Author: Rachel Hennessy
Answered Questions (6)
Rachel Hennessy
The best thing about having small children is that you don't have time for inspiration. When you get time, you write! If you don't feel inspired to write the work, you do something else related, like answering these questions :)
Rachel Hennessy
THE HEAVEN I SWALLOWED was inspired by both the stories of my maternal grandmother and my paternal great aunt. However, it was really kicked off many years ago when our former PM, John Howard, said that Aboriginal children has been taken from their homes for "their own good". This got me thinking about the notion of what it is to do good and who defines what is good for someone else. My narrator, Grace, started talking inside my head at the very beginning of the process and she stayed with me for the many years of writing the novel.
Rachel Hennessy
My third novel, KEEP ME CLOSE, which follows the year of a group of aspiring writers doing a university creative writing program. It is a darkly humorous portrayal of aspiring writers and the contradictions of the creative life, a literary thriller which asks the question: when it comes to writing fiction, is it ever a matter of life or death?
Rachel Hennessy
If the hard long slog of writing itself does not turn you on, go and do something else. The process must be just as important to you as the product or you won't make it through the dark, lonely hours.
Rachel Hennessy
Making your characters do things you do not have the courage to do in real life.
Rachel Hennessy
I'm not convinced there is such a thing as writer's block. I have never really been "blocked", as such. I have been uninspired, tired, over-worked, over-committed and creatively burnt out. But these are different from writer's block. For me, the voices are usually always whispering, I just have to decide which voice to listen to. So maybe this is more a case of writer's confusion. When I'm in this phase I usually go for walks, watch an episode of some lame kind of English crime series or pick up a book and read.
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