Fiction Writing Masterclass

Teacher: Dr Kate Ryan

Q: What drew you to the profession?

A: I have always loved books and I became a writer by first being a wide reader. I was lucky to grow up in a house of books. Books were in just about every room, and the whole family – my mum and dad and four older siblings – read avidly. I remember a lot listening into discussion between my mum, her siblings and my grandmother about what they were reading too, and there was a lot of swapping of books. This gave me a sense of how vital and interesting writing could be. I wrote poems and stories as a child, but this habit fell away when I was a teenager until I came back to it in my twenties. But even during the time I stopped writing creatively, I never lost the sense that books added richness and colour to life. They might offer consolation and humour, relief from boredom and sadness, glimpses into other places and other ways to live, other ways to think, and other ways to imagine myself and the world around me.

After an arts degree, I studied writing and editing, and I loved the creative writing subjects I studied including short story writing.

I began my working life as a book editor. I was looking for a way to stay close to books and to keep up my writing practice. Eventually though, I became conscious that full-time editing was leaving me little time to write. So, when my kids were little, I stepped away from working full time in publishing and began writing picture books, and I was lucky to get some published. I still love the way picture books distil a lot of action and emotion into very few words and the way writing and illustrations worked together to make a complex world. Over time, I moved into writing for adults: short fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, a PhD, a novella and several novels.

I’m an instinctive writer and I have a strong belief in accessing the unconscious, my own memories, history and feelings in my writing. I think the most compelling narratives are based on, even if indirectly, the exploration of things that are important to you.

In writing my novel The Golden Book, I mined aspects of my own history, my own preoccupations, memories and feelings and gave them to my characters, even though when I started writing I didn’t realise I was doing so.

Q: Any standout teaching moments?

A: I have worked as a mentor to many emerging writers and it’s always wonderful to see them getting their work published and, in some cases, winning awards, especially because I know the journey to publication can be a long and tortuous one. Some of these writers’ books’ include Chasing the McCubbin (Sandi Scaunich), Diving, Falling (Kylie Mirmohamadi), The Maddest Place on Earth (Jill Giese), Nikolai the Perfect (Jim McIntyre) and The Secret Library of the Hummingbird House (Julianne Negri).

Mentoring and teaching other writers connects with my belief that writing is vital to cultural life. And even if writers are yet to be published, or may never be, I see the support and development of their writing as a recognition of them as individuals. In turn, I see mentoring emerging writers as enriching my own writing practice by broadening my knowledge of a diverse range of contemporary ideas and preoccupations.

Q: What are your career highlights outside of teaching?

A: Getting my PhD in Creative Writing nearly killed me, but I did it and was proud of the achievement! Winning the Writers Prize in the Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2015 was also a career highlight. It gave me confidence when I was feeling dispirited about ever achieving recognition as a writer and it encouraged to keep writing.

Q: What class are you teaching?

A: Fiction Writing Masterclass

In this course new and emerging writers will learn to hone a range of micro skills to enrich their fiction. In each class we will focus on a particular skill/aspect of writing and read and analyse extracts from published writing which employs it. The course will cover the following: description, characterisation, building conflict through dialogue, humour, generating ideas and manuscript submission.

Published writers whose work we will explore include Elizabeth Strout, Vivian Gornick, Jessie Cole, Myfanwy Jones, Peggy Frew, Colm Tóibín and David Sedaris.

Each class will also include practical and fun writing exercise/s in which students have the opportunity to test out new skills.

Q: What can people expect from your classes?

A: It’s important to me to create an open, informal and nurturing atmosphere in my classes so that students feel comfortable to talk freely and have fun. I’d like students to imagine their way into the published writing we share, explore the techniques writers use and, by extension, begin to do their own writing. It would be great for students to start to feel comfortable sharing their work but only if and when they’re ready. Reading and listening are just as valuable and a joy in and of themselves.