Writing Advice from a Published Author

Australian fantasy writer Kate Forsyth has thirteen published books to here credit and a string of fans around the globe. She is a guest speaker at this year’s National Science Fiction Convention, Conflux 3 being held in Canberra.

In an interview on ABC News Online (Arts and Entertainment) Kate advocates the three Ts for writing success:

Talent

“The first of these is talent, which I think you are born with and which I think manifests itself in a love of language, a love of books, the fact that you read and write a lot from a very young age, a particular love of the sound and meaning of words,” she said.

Technique

“The next T is technique, and I think technique can be taught and I think there are an awful lot of authors out there who have raw talent but haven’t learnt their technique, and I think there are quite a few writers who have very little talent but have worked hard and acquired the technique.

Tenacity

“The last of the three Ts and perhaps the greatest is tenacity, because you have have all the talent in the world but if you get discouraged at the very first rejection you get and you never send out anything again then you’ll never be published.”

She goes on to warn about sending out writing to publishers before it is ready. She often revises her writing through three drafts, with some sections being reworked up to thirty times.

She concludes by saying that fantasy is hot at the moment, but that storytelling is as old as civilisation.

“If you go right back to the dawn of civilisation the storytellers around the campfires were always telling stories of heroes and monsters and magic and God and miracles, this is the stuff of human storytelling,” she said.

Good story tellers will always be in demand.

I need to stop blogging for a while and start some story telling of my own.

Updated November 2013.