Ask the Author: Kevin Price
Answered Questions (6)
Kevin Price
It depends entirely on what you aspire to write, so the first thing is to be clear about what it is that turns you on.
Then you must write. And then write some more.
And then, above all else, learn to read your own writing.
And then, you must learn to read other people's writing, but not as a critic, as a writer. Read both writing that makes you feel good and, in equal proportions, writing that makes you want to throw up. This is the only way to learn where your place as a writer might be.
Be thick skinned. If your writing is any good, most people will not like it because they have not discovered writing of that nature before. Anything that's genuinely new to readers - especially critical readers - will frighten them until such time as a reader with some influence takes it under their wing and champions it. Critics who are used to writing they like are easily threatened. This includes commissioning editors who work in publishing houses. They want more of what they already have.
Then you must write. And then write some more.
And then, above all else, learn to read your own writing.
And then, you must learn to read other people's writing, but not as a critic, as a writer. Read both writing that makes you feel good and, in equal proportions, writing that makes you want to throw up. This is the only way to learn where your place as a writer might be.
Be thick skinned. If your writing is any good, most people will not like it because they have not discovered writing of that nature before. Anything that's genuinely new to readers - especially critical readers - will frighten them until such time as a reader with some influence takes it under their wing and champions it. Critics who are used to writing they like are easily threatened. This includes commissioning editors who work in publishing houses. They want more of what they already have.
Kevin Price
Dream. And then dream some more. Asking questions of myself about every little observation. Capturing moments as they pass, or as I pass them. Hooking onto a word or phrase.
Kevin Price
The idea for Kumakana didn't really get 'got' - rather it seemed to materialise and become, and in many ways, even after publishing, it is still becoming. Two things seemed to cross paths. First, the notion that Australian fairy tales were either dependent upon European ideas of the fantastic. And secondly, such tales were told only from some aspect of Indigenous lore.
Neither of these positions really suited me.
I wanted to tell an Australian fairy tale, a tale of myths and legends, an adventure in magical realism, that did not rely on the imported notion of European myth and legend. Because I am not an indigenous person, I had no cultural access to an Indigenous fable, nor did I know of one that would satisfy my needs to use the story as a way of inventing a background for exploring our relationship to country and all it contains.
Neither of these positions really suited me.
I wanted to tell an Australian fairy tale, a tale of myths and legends, an adventure in magical realism, that did not rely on the imported notion of European myth and legend. Because I am not an indigenous person, I had no cultural access to an Indigenous fable, nor did I know of one that would satisfy my needs to use the story as a way of inventing a background for exploring our relationship to country and all it contains.
Kevin Price
For me, the best thing about being a writer is that you get to live -- at least for some of the time -- in worlds that you make up yourself.
Kevin Price
A political thriller, leading up to the 2013 Australian federal election, which turns on the question: 'Who profits from boats on the water?' The protagonist, Art Lazaar, while negotiating the politically challenging situation of working as an academic teaching creative writing in a local university, gets drawn into a murder investigation nobody is particularly interested in. He learns is that there are reasons for the lack of interest and that the forces behind power are often unreachable.
Kevin Price
I'm not certain that 'writer's block' is a real thing. Writing is something writers do, and a great deal of that practice is behind the mental scenes as it were; it's an iceberg kind of thing where much of it is buried beneath the surface In order for writing to produce something, a writer needs to have an idea on which to work, followed by a great deal of research and learning about the circumstances that surround the idea. If you can't put pen to paper, it usually means you don't know enough, the idea has not yet had sufficient time to fester, or perhaps there is no conflict from which you have find a way out or beyond.
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