The Bijoux Magazine: Something Personal, Something Swift & Something Sydney
In which I critique a piece of my own writing to reflect on how a writer develops their voice. And I can't not mention Taylor Swift after this past week!
Hello to all my amazing subscribers! I don’t know how your February has been, but mine’s been a blur. I spent two weeks in Sydney over two separate visits, and while I was there, the developmental (or structural) edit arrived for my next book, so it’s been slightly busy! (I’m doing a video in next month’s other paid subscriber post about how I tackle the edits, so look out for that.)
The wonderful thing about being in Sydney is that I was able to catch up with quite a few of my writer friends (although I just realised I forgot to get pics with all of them). Nobody understands a writer like another writer, and it’s great to be able to talk about the state of the book market (terrible), the ups and downs of covers and edits and events and all the other things that go on in an author’s life, alongside the actual writing. The pics above are of me with Lauren Chater, another historical novelist, whose new book The Beauties is out in April. And the other pic is of me with
, also a historical novelist. I run an online bookclub with Belinda that you should definitely join if you haven’t already!A reminder that when I’m back in Sydney near the end of March, I’m running a writing workshop, sharing everything I know about writing historical fiction and dual narratives. It’s already three-quarters full (there’s a limit of fifteen places), so if you’d like more info about that, just click the button below.
For this month’s magazine, I’m doing something a bit different. I have some short recommendations, followed by a personal essay. You see, the second book I ever published (in 2012) is being re-published with a new cover in April. One of the things I was trying to explore in that book was motherhood, and how people view the mothers of children who are ill or incapacitated, or who appear different from “the norm”. And I know a lot of people subscribe to this newsletter because they enjoy my writing, but they might not know that I’ve done a bit of non-fiction/memoir writing over my time as an author. So I’ve pulled out an essay I published several years ago, which is about my experience with my daughter, an experience that informed the writing of my second book. And I’ve critiqued it, in order to reflect on my own development as a writer, which I hope you enjoy!
I hope you also enjoy seeing how I tackle something a bit different to my historical fiction. It’s quite a personal essay, but I think you’ll see some of the key themes I often explore in my fiction at play here. I’d love to know what you think in the comments!
Watching
Morning Wars on Apple TV is my new addiction. I think it’s such a great piece of television for writers interested in writing characters who do unlikeable things, but who are characters you want the reader to like, nevertheless. I spent the whole first season wanting to reach into the television and get Jennifer Aniston’s character, Alex, to see what was right in front of her, to let go of her fears and her ego, to do the right thing.
That’s exactly the kind of response I want my readers to have when they’re reading my books. If they see a character going off course, I want them to shout, No! If they see a character not doing the right thing, I want them to be sitting on the edge of their chairs, racing through the pages to see if the character ultimately changes their behaviour or not.
It’s a hard balance to strike: creating enough complexity that the characters aren’t always good and likeable and perfect, but not so much that the reader gives up on them entirely. I think Morning Wars gets that balance just right with Alex—and with Billy Crudup’s character too. Have you watched it? What did you think?
More Watching
If anyone is having a bad day this week, I recommend watching videos of planeloads and trainloads of people on their way to or from the Taylor Swift concerts in Sydney and Melbourne all singing along together to one of her songs. They’re all over Instagram, so are pretty easy to find. But if you ever feel that humanity has no collective spirit left, these videos will convince you otherwise!
While we’re on the subject of Taylor Swift, I didn’t go to the concert, but I watched Eras (Taylor’s Version) on Apple TV and it’s great. Not quite as good as the live show, I’m sure, but pretty fabulous.
I think it’s interesting how many pieces I’ve read in the media lately try to tackle the subject of why Taylor is so popular, like this one from ABC journalist Leigh Sales. The reason I find them interesting is because I don’t recall ever seeing such a flurry of articles in the media about why a male singer is so popular. Have you? Can anyone recall a slew of articles about why everyone loves Harry Styles? It’s taken as a given that because he’s good looking and has catchy songs (and maybe because he’s a man?), it’s normal that people just like him. But with Taylor, the media seems to need to analyse the reasons for her popularity. (And I’m sad that a journalist like Leigh Sales saw the need to add to the pile of articles).
It reminded me of a couple of sentences in the novel I’m working on now for publication in 2025. The sentences are written from my female main character’s point of view:
All I know is that I’ll never lead like a man, who comes to it with the innate confidence of someone for whom gender alone grants him the option of captaincy. Whereas women are born only into the possibility of being captained, ships adrift in a windless harbor.
My character is saying this in 1941. I’d like to believe it isn’t still true in 2024. But the fascination with why Taylor Swift has become such a successful leader of hearts and minds makes me wonder. Isn’t it just possible that she’s talented at singing, marketing, business, musicianship, writing, communicating and lots of other things and that’s why so many people want to come and watch her stand on a stage and sing to them?
Reading
I’ve just started reading Shankari Chandran’s Miles Franklin Award winning Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens and I’m loving it! Next on my pile is Kathy Lette’s The Revenge Club, as I’m interviewing her at a lunch event in Perth in March. The two books are wildly different!
My Essay
As I mentioned above, part of this post is a personal essay I wrote a few years ago, whose subject—mothering an incapacitated or ill child—informed the themes of my second novel. It’s really interesting to pull this out now and reread it. Obviously I wouldn’t republish it here if I didn’t think it was publishable, and given it was published in print, it obviously has some merit, but I think it’s interesting to actually critique my own work.
The first thing I notice about it is the voice of the narrator. I was obsessed with Joan Didion at the time (I still am to tell the truth!) and I wanted to write just like her, an impossible ambition, but all writers must aim for something, right?! So I was trying on a little of her voice (or what I imagined her voice to be). But Didion is a highly skilled memoirist, whereas I was just starting out. So my attempts to use a narrator who stands back and is slightly distanced comes off as a little too cool and a little too distant sometimes.
Didion is able to find the specific detail in a situation and relate it to our humanity, so her arms length narration, the cool-as-a-cucumber voice works. But I think mine, in this piece, is something I’m using because I’m holding back. I was uncomfortable writing such a personal piece, even though I really wanted to write it, so I used the narrative voice as a shield.