Making stories: How ten Australian novels were written

by Kate Grenville, Sue Woolfe

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference

Paperback

Published January 1, 1993

About the author

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-known authors. She's published eight books of fiction and four books about the writing process. Her best-known works are the international best-seller The Secret River, The Idea of Perfection, The Lieutenant and Lilian's Story (details about all Kate Grenville's books are elsewhere on this site). Her novels have won many awards both in Australia and the UK, several have been made into major feature films, and all have been translated into European and Asian languages.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 1997 and made the following notes at the time:
Grenville and Woolfe are two Australian writers who interviewed each other and a batch of other Aussie writers for this book, and tried to gauge how the different writers had come to produce their work. An interesting variety of methods, but all boil down to a gradual approach that discovers rather than plots, that imagines and invents rather than outlines.
One author, David Ireland, writes his novels by working from huge bundles of tiny cards with all sorts of notes on them that don’t necessarily have any relevance to the book in hand. He selects those that relate in some way to his idea and then spends a great deal of time spreading these out on the floor in order, working at it over and over until he feels it’s right; inventing more notes where he thinks he needs them and scrubbing others that don’t fit. Only when he’s satisfied that the whole bones of the book is there spread out like a map does he bundle them up again and begin work, taking each note at a time and writing it up, as it were. If something isn’t going well, he jumps a note or three and writes from there, and then comes back again. He writes books that consist of expanded notes, in a sense; he’s at odds with the narrative style and the example from his book that’s included consists of long anecdotal passages all seemingly unrelated, except that obviously the main character who’s telling the story is consistent.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten Australian writers share some part of their process (I have questions about White but it seems I am meant to). Not all were writers I particularly like. I read Garner's novel (discussed in this) simultaneously with this and perhaps it gave me some insight into a book I otherwise would have liked even less. I loved the final chapter by Sue Wolfe and I was intrigued by Finola Moorhead. Kate Grenville might be worth another look too.

This is worth reading if you are a writer- not as a "how to" but to validate many aspects of a writer's messy processes. In a way I need it less these days because I have friends who are writers but some of this I wish I had known earlier. It shows that writing is both real work and a privileged thing to be doing.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before you read this book, make sure you have read all or a couple of these books, Jessica Anderson - The Commandant, Peter Carey - Oscar and Lucinda, Helen Garner - The Children's Bach, Kate Grenville - Lilian's Story, David Ireland - A Woman of the Future, Elizabeth Jolley - Mr Scobie's Riddle, Thomas Keneally - The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Finola Moorhead - Remember the Tarantella, Patrick White - Memoirs of Many in One, and Sue Woolfe - Painted Woman. The reason being that each of these novelists is either interviewed about the book, a look at their original manuscript and how the stories evolved.
It is helpful to have read the books as it provides greater context.

If you want to explore a writers mind and look back at how their work came about then this book is revealing. I really enjoyed looking at the process of the writing, development, doubts and the end result.

Really recommend this for any one who wants to know how a story comes about.

[Ruth Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting, but not to my taste.