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Southern Write author-2-author • writing biography • workshops • short circuiting the synopsis • critiquing group and bootcamps • from the director • and more ... 2013 September SA Writers Centre fostering, developing and promoting Contents South Australian writers and writing Southern Write: quarterly magazine of the SA Writers Centre 3 From the Director Sarah Tooth ISSN 2200-6222 BOARD 4 Short Circuiting the Synopsis Malcolm Walker SA WRITERS CENTRE Chair Sandy Verschoor A good hard look at the difficulties and challenges of 2nd Floor, 187 Rundle Street, Deputy Chair Amy Matthews writing a synopsis. Adelaide Treasurer Fiona Smith Susan Errington PO Box 43 Rundle Mall SA 5000 Susan Fleming 6 Opportunities ABN 40 783 458 265 Just a taster of the many opportunities and Tel (08) 8223 7662 Nan Halliday E: [email protected] Ben Mylius competitions that can be found on our website. www.sawriters.org.au Michelle Prak 7 Our New Quarterly Program STAFF The October to December program has a whole Opening Hours Director 10am-5pm Tuesday to Thursday bunch of new workshops, plus the opportunity Sarah Tooth Program Manager to join a Critiquing Group or participate in two ACCESS to SAWC Vanessa Jones Bootcamps ... stuff you won’t want to miss. Wheelchair access to the SA Office Manager Writers Centre is available at the 26 York Street rear entrance. Stephanie Thomson 11 Author-2-Author Patrick Allington Alternatively, come in from Rundle Accounts A look at how the late William Gaddis has influenced Street via Caffe Brunelli, proceed Lesley Beasley this author’s writing. towards the toilets and take the Communications Officer and door to your left at the end of the Editor, Southern Write passage to reach the lift. SAWC Malcolm Walker 12 Writing Biography Lorraine McLoughlin events/workshops are free for a Disability Officer Writing memoir, life writing or biography is an art in carer or companion. Sharon Kernot itself ... find out how to tackle it. SUBMISSIONS VOLUNTEERS 14 Setting up a Writing Group Jennie Cumming For submissions, whether Newsletter and Enews A long-time groupie gives some pointers for anyone Jennie Cumming nonfiction articles, poetry or short thnking of heading in this direction. fiction, please check page 15 for Website our guidelines and deadlines. Hakim Oerton Librarians 15 Submissions Anne-Marie Smith Deadlines and guidelines for submissions of poetry, Disclaimer Dianne Osborne fiction and nonfiction. The information in this publication Workshop Assistants is presented in good faith as Panos Dionysopoulos, Sarah a service to SA Writers Centre Gates, Mel Pryor and Jillian members. While the information is Schedneck believed to be correct, the Centre Bar Assistant takes no responsibility for its Mikaela Coleman accuracy. No liability is accepted for any statements of opinion or any error or omission. Advertising WRITER in RESIDENCE Piri Eddy material is accepted for this newsletter but such acceptance does not imply endorsement by LIFE MEMBERS the Centre. The SA Writers Centre Max Fatchen (dec.) reserves the right to refuse any Gillian Rubinstein SAWC gratefully acknowledges the support of the South advertisement at any time at its Sean Williams Australian Government through Arts SA, and the Australian own discretion. Government through the Australia Council, its arts and funding RECENT DONATIONS advisory body. SOUTHERN WRITE Thank you to Dr Hank Advertising: Prunckun, Dorothy Cormack, Stanley Sim, Kevin McCann, Rates and Guidelines Dorothy Anne Shorne and For classified and display ads Arthur Giannopoulos. in Southern Write, and enews classifieds, please contact [email protected] Deadlines Deadline for Southern Write is Thanks also to our sponsors ... 5pm on the 15th of the month prior to publication. 15 February for March 15 May for June 15 August for September 15 November for December Deadlines apply to both payment and receipt of advertsing materials, artwork and copy. Cover image ‘Monorail 1’ courtesy Alexandra Gonzalez Salas. If you’re interested in viewing more of Alexandra’s images she can be contacted by email at [email protected] or on 0424 993 167. 2 Southern Write September 2013 From the Director t’s the season of literary festivals and events, so get your out and about on! Following on from the success of the Salisbury IWriters’ Festival, we now look forward to the biennial SA Writers’ We’re launching our new and Readers’ Festival and our newest literary events, the Clare Writers’ Festival and the Langhorne Creek Writers Festival. You’ll MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT find information and links on our website, so book early. SAWC is SERVICE looking at the possibility of running a literary bus trip to Clare and Langhorne Creek, so if you’re interested let us know. Before submitting to a publisher or agent, many writers find it beneficial to have their manuscript read by an Around the office we farewell Victoria Purman as Writer in independent reader. Residence, whose time here as been very productive. She will be celebrating the launch of her first novel in September. We’re also SAWC offers writers access to a professional, delighted to have Ben Brooker back in the office, who is working independent reading and assessment service. All our on a production based on the wonderfully rich SAWC archives. assessors are industry professionals, with many years experience in reading, assessing, reviewing, representing We’re very proud to be launching two new initiatives – a and publishing manuscripts. professional Manuscript Assessment Service and Connecting with Communities, a partnership with Friendly Street Poets to provide Genres include: community arts training for writers. (See our website for details.) Fiction (long and short form) – all genres In October we’ll be running a Member Survey – I’m sure you all Poetry know how important it is for us to hear from you about what you Children and YA Nonfiction (long and short form) want from us in the future. Please fill it out! It will be an online survey but if you need a hard copy we can organise one to be We also provide a Pre-submission Assessment. Once sent. We’ll be offering incentives, including workshop vouchers, your manuscript is ready for submission, you need to memberships, vintage SAWC tshirts and more … spend time perfecting your pitch. While all publishers and agents have their own submission guidelines, we can Inside Southern Write this month, you’ll notice we’ve brought back give you a general assessment of your synopsis, cover our Opportunities page, and we’re all bursting with excitement letter, biography and first chapter. over the final quarter program – including a season of intensive writing bootcamps for adults, featuring some of the very best Check our website for full details. writers and teachers in the country ... and our first immersive writing day, Twelve. sawriters.org.au/writing/manuscripts Looking forward to seeing you around the Centre. All good things come to an end and when they’ve packed up the Writers’ Week tent, and everyone has gone home, we will still be here for you. Someone has to shoulder the Dymocks Adelaide 08 8223 5380 responsibility of being here, week in, week out, to make sure you don’t go without. Think nothing of it. Southern Write September 2013 3 Short Circuiting the Synopsis Malcolm Walker investigates the difficulties of writing the dreaded synopsis. sk most writers, and many published authors, about writing Their names are What and Why and When a synopsis for a novel and you’ll most likely hear a high, And How and Where and Who. Akeening wail. If you’re not self-publishing but seeking fame and fortune through one of the traditional publishing gateways, Kipling was a short story writer, poet and novelist but he was also whether large or small, independent or transnational, then you will a journalist and he knew how to get a reader’s attention. He also at some point – often quite early in the process – be asked to had a handle on many of the practicalities of writing. Kipling’s provide a synopsis. On approaching an agent, you’ll be asked for verse encapsulates the ‘who, what, where, when, why and how’ one. Even if you’re going down the self-publishing road you’ll that is taught in most Creative Writing 101 courses. It is also the need a cover blurb, which is in itself a truncated and stylized probable cause of the headache that arrives the instant you synopsis. ‘Is there no escape?’ I hear you ask. The short answer is consider sitting down and actually writing a synopsis: how do you no, not really, not if you want your manuscript to see the light of fit all that into a one or two page document and retain any day. coherence, let alone a nod in the direction of flowing prose or all the subtleties of your magnum opus? One of the first questions you’ll need to ask is, ‘Which geographical market am I writing for?’ (Publishers call them The purpose of the synopsis is to get across just enough inform- territories.) Australian publishers and literary agents have different ation to tantalize and provoke whoever is assessing your sub- expectations from those in America, where they will look at mission, to get them to take the next step – which is to pick up synopses of varying lengths. There are different opinions as to your manuscript. This means you’ve got to tell the story succinctly length here in Australia, where for most the standard seems to be and still make that next step irresistable. about a page, certainly no more than two pages. The phrase ‘between 500-600 words’ is often bandied around. As with all aspects of writing, there’s plenty of advice out there, particularly on the web, together with numerous ploys to short Make sure you do your research.

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