• Blog
  • The Power Age
  • All books
  • Events
  • Media
  • Contact
  • About

Kelly Doust

Kelly Doust

Category Archives: theatre & culture

Feeding the book

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by kellydoust in Art, Inspirations, theatre & culture, Writing

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Carrie Tiffany, Kazuo Ishiguro, Nathalie Lete, Neil Gaiman

Wise owl by Nathalie Lete

Owl by Nathalie Lete

Neil Gaiman calls it his ‘staring at the wall’ phase. Carrie Tiffany hosted a workshop at Faber Academy and described it as being like ‘a car without gas’. Kazuo Ishiguro writes like a madman before experiencing an almighty crash. I call it brain freeze; that time when you’re feeling all dense yet scooped-out inside, and the thaw seems like it could be months or even years away. When I’m like that, it’s probably more precise to say I don’t feel anything – at least, I couldn’t tell you what’s going on inside my head because there’s nothing much going on at all.

I think all writers must go through this process. That time after any period of intense writing where one feels totally and utterly spent. And not just writers; almost anyone after a huge project ends and before a new one begins.

That was a lot of last year for me and I was beginning to wonder whether I’d ever see my way through it. But I’ve realised they were all right; it does end, and all you can do when the car’s empty is fill up – totally gorge yourself on information and circle around, letting the ideas sift and settle, waiting to see which ones stick.

Will you look at this gorgeous woman? Artist Nathalie Lete, looking every bit like one of her paintings.

Will you look at this gorgeous woman? Nathalie Lete, looking every bit as lovely as her paintings.

I’m not quite ready to write yet, not properly. I have a new notebook (a very pretty one from French artist Nathalie Lete, almost half-full already) with a new plot and many more discarded ones and various ideas which will never see the light of day, as well as some that will. Some may feed into the following book, or the one after that.

There’s almost a fated process at work now. Ideas germinate from even the smallest daily encounters and a conversation, news story or non-fiction read comes at just the right time. Sometimes it feels like such a perfect fit for my next book, it’s hard to believe it’s only a coincidence. This can seem like pure magic, if you believe in such things.

Raining ideasWhen I was writing the last book I visited the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Francis Bacon exhibition. I knew I wanted to feature an artist in the book but had all these stale ideas about who the character would be, and how they would fit in. Seeing the works and reading about Bacon’s life, I started to picture her more clearly; where she might have come from, what drove her and how her story was different from anyone else’s. Similarly, I’m now reading a non-fiction book called The Last Curtsey, about the end of the debutantes, and I’m starting to get a clearer idea of who my next character will be. I know her lifestyle and the times that shaped her, so she’ll be more than just a composite of someone I want to write about. This is making her feel real to me, almost as real as people I actually know.

Other seeds of ideas come in conversations with friends or new acquaintances, snippets overheard in cafés, or a look between two people that I witnessed. And they all feed into some of the broader ideas I’ve been mulling over for decades, mostly on a subconscious level. About how to behave, how to treat people, how families work or don’t work and knotty issues such as narcissism, sibling rivalry and infidelity.

Because what is a novel if not a manifesto of sorts? A moral code by which the book is governed? Authors tell you how they think things should be, not necessarily how they are, but there’s a lot of real emotion being poured into their work. Readers can only read between the lines.

I used to have an old boyfriend who wouldn’t touch fiction, saying he didn’t want to read about things that weren’t real (no, it wasn’t a perfect match). The novel might be an amalgamation of clever ideas and gimmicks sometimes – outrageous characters and scenes amped up for dramatic effect – but the book’s soul is a real thing. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t connect with it at all. It’s also hard to see why the writer would bother with such an undertaking in the first place, given the effect on our poor brains following a novel’s completion (please refer to first paragraph)!

Riding the changes

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by kellydoust in Art, Books & films, Inspirations, theatre & culture, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

De-cluttering, Meditation, Sydney Dance Company

Lucy Culliton still life, currently showing at the Mosman Art Gallery

Lucy Culliton still life, currently showing at the Mosman Art Gallery

I was talking to a neighbour the other day whose close friend is a novelist. She was saying that her friend’s now given up writing because she feels so demoralised by all the rejection. I understand this. I have the same feeling sometimes, too. Until I remember – five minutes or a few weeks later – that when I’m not writing, I don’t feel like myself. It’s so strong that when I consider doing something else or try going against my nature, a voice in my head whispers: wrong, wrong, wrong.

What are some ways to alleviate the fear? I’ve found that meditation really helps. I usually do twenty minutes a day but sometimes manage to squeeze in a bit more. If nothing else, it’s a great time for reminding myself to breathe deeply and simply enjoy that brief time on my own before the world crowds in and I get caught up in the day. But at its best, it’s a time to focus on gratitude and trust, and finding peace with the unknown. I’ve only been doing it for about a year now – since the September before last – but I do feel in that time it’s helped me deal with things more calmly and helped in other areas of my life as well.

Get out of the house, and surround yourself in beauty: taken on a recent run from Bronte to Bondi beaches and back

Bondi Icebergs on my run from Bronte to Bondi earlier this week

Another idea – and this isn’t original either, I think it’s one of the major principles of The Artist’s Way – is to go for walks. Similar to meditation, it helps me think about things in a new way and gets me out of my head (and home… very important when I work here and achieve most things through self-motivation). Even ten minutes seems to help when I’m feeling flat or low. That’s just a walk around the block. Twenty minutes is better, and an hour seems best to really improve my outlook. Lots of ideas seem to flow when I’m doing a circular bay walk, and I usually take a pen and notebook so I can write them down. I felt silly the time I tried doing dictation on my smartphone, so settle on sending myself texts at a pinch.

I’m reading Gretchen Rubin’s 2009 book The Happiness Project at the moment and one thing she mentions from her research is that writers tend to focus on more wordy mediums for inspiration or entertainment (reading, theatre, films, TV). She suggests finding more ‘wordless’ mediums to indulge in eg dance, painting, music, and probably certain sports. I really relate to this.

And there's always Work Avoidance Behaviour (WAB): de-cluttering Gretchen Rubin-style in The Happiness Project

Typical Work Avoidance Behaviour: de-cluttering Gretchen Rubin-style. Space outside, space within?

The one performance style I always seem to come back to and adore is contemporary dance; there’s something about it that just exhilarates me and seems to spark creativity. I particularly love anything choreographed or chosen by Rafael Bonachela (the Creative Director of the Sydney Dance Company). I’ve been an SDC season ticket holder for the last couple of years now and recently bought tickets for all the performances coming up in 2015. Just knowing they’re set in the calendar reassures me… something to look forward to is always good.

I guess the point is, it’s all about finding those things which work best work for you and at keeping you creative rather than worrying about outcomes. A new art exhibition – especially portraits – always starts me thinking what’s your story? and before I know it, I’m off.

That’s all you need. How do you stay firm and positive through all the ups and downs?

Kelly Doust

IT’S COMING!

Next book publishedNovember 5, 2019
The Power Age, Published by Murdoch Book

Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Facebook

Facebook

Category Cloud

Art Art, theatre & culture Books & films Design Fashion Fashion, markets & shopping Food Inspirations markets & shopping Music Other Publicity & events theatre & culture Travel Writing

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×