On 09 November, I'm doing a Book Discussion about Lost Artistry, Lost Humanity and a Collision of Cultures in 18th Century India with author and renowned journalist Mick Brown at the Nehru Centre in London from 6.30 - 7.30pm. The event is FREE admission so please RSVP by sending me an email at claire@wordstruck.com.au so I can get an idea of...
I stopped this Chinese tourist the other day at Bondi to take a photo of his t-shirt. He and his girlfriend thought it hilarious, proudly telling me the t-shirt was made in China. 'Other people have laughed. You're the first to take photo,' he said. It...
How believable is the world of your characters? How can you make it feel more real? © paulbriden This week I’ve been thinking about world building in preparation for my new two-day workshop, The Screenwriter’s Toolbox with a Novelist’s Craft at the Sydney Writers' Festival. I’m doing...
In a recent video interview with the Australian Writers’ Centre I was asked how I write about other cultures. The pitfalls, the pleasures. And how writing about my Indian characters in The Pagoda Tree differed from writing about Ani, the Tibetan nun, in Last Seen...
The first question a journalist asked me last week was why I made the decision to write my new book as fiction. Why I made the leap. Although Last Seen in Lhasa is a travel memoir, I used fictional techniques — creating character, plenty of dialogue...