Karen Comer

Collecting Stories

A publishing contract!

by 9 Comments

Dear blog readers, I have some news! I’m thrilled to share with you that I’ve been offered a publishing contract with Allen & Unwin for my middle-grade verse novel, Y is a crooked letter!

This book began life 11 years ago as a picture book, then turned into a middle-grade novel, then metamorphosed into a verse novel.

That’s 11 years of words – cutting, rewriting, adding, deleting, rearranging, polishing, choosing, discarding, speaking, scribbling – until I finally had something that sung.

I’m so excited to be working with Allen & Unwin! I have attended a few of their courses through the Faber and Faber Institute, met their wonderfully talented editors and read so many, so many of their beautiful books. It is an honour to be connected with Allen and Unwin, and I’m looking forward to a creative collaboration with their lovely publisher, Anna McFarlane. Dream come true!

So grateful to my agent, Danielle Binks, for signing me, giving me such wise counsel in her writerly feedback and in navigating me through the process of pitching to publishers and negotiating deals. She is a gem!

Y is a crooked letter will be published in June 2023, and I look forward to sharing more of the publishing and writing process with you next year.

And stay tuned – I may have more exciting news early next year!

Wild scribes

by 2 Comments

I’m excited to share with you that I’m facilitating an online writing course through the Springfield retreat centre! Springfield conjures up creativity and magic for me, and I hope to do the same with the Wild Scribes.

I stayed at Springfield in the beautiful Southern Highlands in February 2020 for a writing retreat with Canadian writer Sarah Selecky. Thanks to Covid and the lockdowns that started at the end of March, I formed an online writing group with the wonderful writers who attended that retreat. I have since led that online group, and have now been invited to start another online writing group.

Springfield’s new online offering, Wild Scribes, will give you the motivation, accountability and support you need to add another 5,000 words to your writing project. Regardless of whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, adult or children’s literature, a novel or short story, this six-week program will help you clarify your ideas, hone your craft, and most importantly, offer support and encouragement. I’ll share tailored feedback each week, based on twenty years of editing experience as well as my own writing practice.

Join me for six weeks, every Tuesday evening 7.00-8.30pm, from 26th October to 30th November. We’ll be a supportive, encouraging class of six to ten writers, submitting 1,000 words on our writing platform Wet Ink and reviewing two writers’ work.

Equal parts motivation and momentum, you’ll have an extra 5,000 words towards your writing project. Something to celebrate at Christmas…

You can find out more on the Springfield website or you can send me an email here.

Late ideas

by 8 Comments

When I’m in the flow of my writing, I feel like a magnet drawn to exactly what I need – a dictionary word, a Netflix episode, a twitter post, a conversation with a friend, anything. Connected to anything that will serve my story.

I’m not even consciously seeking ideas – they come to me.

Does this happen all the time? Absolutely not!

But when it does happen, it’s magic.

Last month, I deleted 5,000 words of my 25,000 word middle-grade verse novel, pulling out chunks of text – sometimes a line, sometimes a paragraph, sometimes a few pages. I had found an inconsistent element in my novel and drastic work was needed.

I knew I had to cut it out – and I’d known it for a while. I had tried to smooth it over, hide it with lyrical words, an exciting scene or two, a few magician’s tricks. Didn’t work.

I needed something else to fill the gaps – a little bit more than painter’s spackle. It had to look flawless, not tacked on.

I thought about my grade six protagonist, I thought about my grade six son. Nope, nothing.

One night, I made a quick leap from my desk to the kitchen to cook dinner in a hurry. Dinner never needs to be cooked early during lockdown – none of us are going anywhere. But my grade six son had an online talk with parental involvement on sex education.

I had left cooking too late – we ended up, the whole family, eating in silence, a laptop sitting on the kitchen bench, camera off, microphone off while my grade six son cringed as the educator talked about body parts and conception. His older siblings grinned, nudged him, made faces.

Body parts. Conception.

Goosebumps.

I could feel it on my skin. My grade six protagonist who has started her final year of primary school in a new school, now has to sit through sex education classes in her second week – with kids she doesn’t even know.

Goosebumps.

A leap from the kitchen after dinner back to my desk.

My words were enough not only to fill the gaps but hopefully make them so seamless that readers will never ever know they weren’t there originally.

A late dinner, a late idea. Connections.

Equal parts creativity and logic

by 4 Comments

Dear blog readers, it’s been a little while. My family has faced a couple of obstacles in the last month which have taken up my time, attention and energy. And then there’s lockdown #6…

However, I am pleased to report that I am almost ready to send off my second book to my agent for her thoughts in a few days. Working on this third draft has been a mix of strategies – equal parts creativity and logic. One of my characters is a violinist, the other is a street artist – both creative teenagers.

I have used the talented writer Asphyxia’s art book methods for brainstorming and planning this book. It has been so incredibly helpful to have a visual place to keep all my ideas and nut out all my questions. I have deliberately kept it messy – sometimes the neatness of a journal can be intimidating – and there is nothing neat about writing a book!

I have also used a table as a different way to visualise my story. This helps me with the practical side of things – dates, tension, character arc. I can see instantly whether my stakes are a little light in a particular scene. When you can’t see the wood for the trees, it helps to have a way to separate out the different elements. It might not be as pretty as an art journal but it’s just as useful!

And part logic, part creative, the third thing which has really helped me write this book is the walks and talks I’ve had with my husband and one of my brothers. When they ask me about my book, and I tell them I’m stuck with one particular thread, their questions have helped me pinpoint where the problem is as well as possible solutions. Walking along the Darebin Creek has been a huge source of creativity for me during lockdown!

I hope that this month has been kind to you. Let me know in the comments whether you’re a creative or practical person for solving problems, or a combination of both.

Some news… a literary agent

by 14 Comments

I have some news to share – I have a literary agent! Danielle Binks from Jacinta di Mase Management offered to represent me. Dream come true!

I signed up through the CYA conference for a few manuscript assessments, and sent in the first 2,500 words of my middle-grade verse novel.

Even before our meeting, Danielle asked to see the full manuscript. Our online meeting last weekend was a quick exchange of pitches and questions – and then an offer for representation with the contract emailed within an hour!

I am beyond thrilled Danielle is my agent – her passion and knowledge for the middle-grade and young adult Australian market is exceptional.

Danielle will now pitch my middle-grade and young adult verse novels to publishers later in the year.

Danielle is also an author – her middle-grade book, The years the maps changed came out last year and her young adult novel, The monster of her age, will be published next month by Hachette.

You can see my profile on the JDM website here!

Kind eyes

by 8 Comments

I’ve been working at different levels through my three books – revisiting my first book in preparation for a couple of online conferences this month, polishing the second draft of my second book and gathering ideas for my third book, at this stage a fragile bubble of an idea.

Looking at these three separate ideas, I’m observing both the influences from other writers as well as the experiences in my life which, although separate, have grown into connections, plots, characters, books.

A constant thread is my need for kind eyes – in writing and in life. Look at these characters, I want to say, look at what they’re going through. See how they suffer through their own unknowing or the circumstances they find themselves in.

It’s the same way I look at my friends, my family, my community. Look at these people, I want to say, look at what they’re going through. See how they suffer – she is worried about her widowed mother in another state, he is not happy in his job, she is lonely after her divorce, he is at a loss as to how to parent his child, she weeps at being separated from her children.

And there are always the smaller moments, my favourite ones to write and observe. Look at my character, see his joy at playing basketball with his daughter – this moment is everything he thought parenthood would be.

Observe my friend – she is tired, her work is overwhelming, she doesn’t have the energy to go grocery shopping for her family, her hair is greying at the roots (that hair I once braided for her in Year 8) but see how she lights up when her child sidles up to her for a cuddle and see how he smiles when she whispers she has a bolognaise sauce to defrost from the freezer.

See my fifteen-year-old girl character, see how she banters with her bestie on the way home from school and steals a chip from the greasy box from the fish and chip shop.

Look at my friends, this couple – watch how she beckons him in a crowded room with her eyes, see how he smiles, walks towards her, places his hand on her hip, see for a moment their younger selves.

Look at them with kind eyes – see them all.

Second drafts

by 3 Comments

Second drafts are wonderful to work on because there is so much that is wrong with them and therefore, they are infinitely improvable! At least, that’s the case for me.

I’m editing the second draft of my young adult verse novel. It’s still very loose at this stage, so I’m focusing on the big picture rather than the smaller details. I’m thinking about:

  • would my characters really do this?
  • is the pace too fast or too slow?
  • is there tension in every scene?
  • what is the balance between my two protagonists?
  • how are my characters working to achieve their goals?
  • is the antagonist believable, with a strong enough motivation to stop the protagonists from reaching their goals?
  • and always, always, always going to back to the theme of my book – how do my characters belong in their worlds, yet still express themselves to honour their authenticity?

I’m using Alan Watt’s The 90 day rewrite as my guide. He outlines the main plot points, with lots of key ideas to discover what your story is really about in this draft.

My second draft is full of predictable mistakes. I’ve changed a couple of the characters’ names. I’ve wandered down a rabbit hole, and need to delete that hole entirely. I’ve moved scenes around because they were in the wrong order. I’ve merged two characters together.

I love working on a second draft because it’s so satisfying to fix. The mistakes are so glaring and the solutions so obvious, that the manuscript improves every time I breathe on it.

I’m trying to finish this draft in an impossibly short self-imposed deadline of a month, so I can send it to a friend who is equal parts critic and cheer squad. This means she will rip it to shreds but will tell me I can fix it.

So the third draft will be equally satisfying because I’ll have her notes to help me.

It’s the fourth draft, when I need to focus on developing the emotions of the characters, the nuances of the plot and the subtleties of language, that it becomes hard. It’s not quite singing yet, but it’s not so obvious as to how to elevate my writing so that it does sing.

But that’s at least three months away… nothing to worry about now!

A writing retreat with Eliza Henry Jones

by 6 Comments

Eliza Henry Jones is one of my favourite Australian authors – so prolific, so talented! She opened up her flower farm to a bunch of writers last weekend, and I drove away well-fed, with a bunch of beautiful flowers and several exercises to boost my writing. I interviewed her a few years ago about her novel Ache here.

Eliza talked with us about her own writing journey, her four books (two adult fiction, two young adult fiction) and her tips and tricks for developing characters, understanding the difference between plot and structure and persisting when writing becomes challenging.

One of her exercises involved a tour of her farm in the Yarra Valley, with an invitation to collect something that caught our eye – perhaps a flower, a stick, a stone.

After meeting Ferdy the duck and looking at the laden avocado and lemon trees and the sprawling sweet peas, we headed back into the barn to write about our object. My leaf sparked a poem for my current verse novel, set during Autumn and Winter last year.

Our afternoon tea was delicious – muffins, cookies, brownies! – and at the end of the retreat we were invited to gather flowers from the buckets lining the back wall of the barn to create our own bouquet to take home!

I have been to many writing retreats and workshops but I’ve never gone home with flowers before! Nor have I done a writing exercise which involved cliches and a Shetland pony!

Dear readers, it’s been a while

by 11 Comments

Dear readers, it’s been a while since I last posted. My website updated itself in December and there were problems that seemed insurmountable because it was December and there were work deadlines and Christmas deadlines and general December busyness.

Thank you to the lovely Nic from Planning with Kids who helped me with the technical side of my blog as well as giving me a big pep talk for continuing on!

There is news to catch up on!

Reading

I’ve been reading a lovely pile of books – my usual mix of fiction, non-fiction, children, young adult and poetry. Standout books include Seth Godin’s The practice (non-fiction), Cate Kennedy’s The taste of river water (poetry), The forty rules of love by Elif Shafak (novel) and The girl who became a tree by Joseph Coelho (young adult). Reviews for some of these books coming!

Editing

I have a mix of projects at the moment which makes my editing life varied and exciting. I’ve almost finished editing a fabulously detailed family history of six generations dating back to Scotland in the 1850s, I’ve proofread a book about wills which has prompted me to have conversations with family members, I’m about to start reading an exciting crime novel for a general reader’s report and I edited a wonderfully lyrical essay on nature.

Writing

My first middle-grade verse novel is under submission so I’ve been researching for my young adult verse novel. I’ve almost finished this now, so I’m ready to look at the structure of the first draft. Are my key scenes in the right places? Do they match up with my research? Do my two main characters meet up at the right moment?

Facilitating

I’m now the facilitator for the online Springfield writers’ group. This is a talented, oh so talented group of women who are writing poems, essays, novels, short stories, memoirs, non-fiction. We meet once a week to discuss two writers’ work and the creative collaboration in this group is a tangible thing.

Creating

Apart from creating a weekly menu of lunches and dinners and snacks which lately have NOT been as creative as my other pursuits, I’ve been teaching myself to weave. Last year during the lockdowns, I found quilting and sewing to be an antidote to the news cycle. I have a beautiful weaving kit and I am making a random, unplanned small weaving in soft dusky pinks, creams and burgundies.

Tutoring

I am constantly telling my children how lucky they are to have me as a mother but it’s only when I cook their favourite meal or help them with an English essay that they truly appreciate me! Mr 17 is in year 12 this year and we have already spent some time together talking through his first SAC. I also read through a few of his mates’ pieces – one of them named a character Karen. I am not sure whether to take it as a compliment or an insult – the character was rather annoying!

Your news …

Please tell me what you have been reading, writing or creating – I’d love to know.

Loose writing

by 8 Comments

Writers are often categorised by their planning style – plotters or pantsers. Plotters are those writers who meticulously map out their characters’ motivations, fears, wants, showing the internal growth against the external narrative drive – set out in spreadsheets, taped on walls. They need to know all of this before they can start writing. J. K. Rowling is a plotter. Kate Forsyth is another plotter.

Pantsers (as in, write by the seat of your pants!) like to dive in to writing their novel, holding an image in their head, maybe a scene, maybe a couple of characters who want different things and cross paths. Maybe they know there’s a murder at the beginning, perhaps they have a clear vision of a child’s birthday party or a revealing conversation at a beach in Mexico. Michael Robotham and A. L. Tait are pantsers.

Of course, there’s a spectrum, with vague plotters and outlining pantsers.

For my first book, I tried the pantsing method. I dove in, thinking that all ‘real’ writers knew exactly what they were doing, had a muse of inspiration sitting at their shoulder and that the right words in the right order would naturally flow. Needless to say, there wasn’t a lot of tension or conflict, my story meandered and there were definitely whole chapters that were fairly pointless.

Then I decided to rewrite it. This time, I drew internal character arcs against external narrative plot points. I questioned every single character about their motivation, their childhood, their biggest fear, their greatest want and mapped them in contrast to each other. I meticulously plotted each chapter, determining the purpose, setting, character growth, narrative reveal in a table which was indeed a thing of beauty. But when I came to write it, the writing a was a little flat. Actually, flatter than a footy oval after it’s been mown.

I did rewrite that first book with a new direction but that’s a long story for another post.

I’m now starting to write another novel, following a very loose way of plotting. I’m working my way through Alan Watt’s book, The 90 day novel. He offers a different approach with stream-of-consciousness exercises in five minute blocks to discover what your story is about.

I love it! I love this way of writing – it feels loose and free. I feel like I’m working on my book and progressing it but without forcing myself to think about the structure too much. Watt recommends spending the first 30 days daydreaming about your characters, using prompts to write from your character’s viewpoint such as:

  • The thing that I try to keep hidden is …
  • Justice will be done when …
  • The most cowardly thing I’ve ever done is …
  • If you knew me before, you would have said …
  • I couldn’t live without …

There’s also a section on structure so you can think about your three acts and the major plot points in them.

I am only a little way into my novel but already I can see it starting to take shape. It feels so joyful to write like this.

As for the 90 day promise, that will depend upon the amount of freelance editing work I have on my desk, whether my kids are sent home from school due to the coronavirus and how much writing I can fit in during the Easter holidays.

This stream-of-consciousness writing feels as insubstantial as the dandelions the woman in the photo above is blowing, the seeds dispersed anywhere and everywhere in a single breath. It also feels as freeing as the tiny seeds floating in the breeze and as full of possibility as a child wishing on a dandelion.