At the end of last year, an award-winning Australian film director told me that people often asked him how to best learn to become a filmmaker. His response – study Breaking Bad created by Vince Gilligan.
Like many of the ground-breaking cable television series, Breaking Bad unfolds like a good novel. David Simon, who created The Wire, another great series, pitched the crime writer, George Pelecanos, to join the writing team with the concept that The Wire was like a novel for television.
A burning question many aspiring writers often torture themselves with is ‘Do I have the necessary talent required to be a writer?’
People often ask me how many talented writers come to our courses. I respond by saying I believe everyone who has a genuine desire to write has the raw ingredients to be a writer.
The last session of our 10-Month Novel and Script Live course is always very special
In the photo below from the group dinner, we are all on a real high after completing the journey together.
Everyone in the group shared how amazed and excited they were about how far their stories and those of their fellow classmates had evolved over the 10 months. As well as that, everyone’s understanding of the process of storytelling and their ability to give constructive feedback to their fellow writers had gone to whole new level of insight.
Having read practically all of Michael Connelly’s books and being very much inspired by his character, Detective Harry Bosch, when writing my novel No Man’s Land, it was great to return to my roots as a journalist, sit down with him at the Wharf during the 2015 Sydney Writers’ Festival and interview him.
He’s a real master of the craft and I felt very fortunate to be able to ask him all those questions that have been bubbling away in my unconscious for years. And I’m pleased to say he seemed like a very decent bloke.
This is an excerpt from an ABC Book Show interview between Jennifer Byrne and best-selling Welsh novelist, Ken Follett. I thought it was a great interview that captured the essence of what makes a successful novel and reflects many of the key principles we apply in our courses at the Writers’ Studio.
In her background briefing of Follett she said, “I think it’s fair to say you went somewhat slowly to the top. Ten books which went nowhere, then the eleventh – Eye Of The Needle, which sold over ten million copies.