Angela Meyer | Arts & humanities website

Angela Meyer

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25.01.2022 Here’s the typewriter tap dance sequence from the Too Marvelous For Words number, as it appears in the 1937 musical film, Ready, Willing, And Able. A miniaturized Ruby Keeler dances on typewriter keys with Lee Dixon.

24.01.2022 My next Faber Writing Academy at Allen and Unwin course is coming up in October, on editing your own writing. I'm looking forward to it! Mid-week evenings, over five weeks, and online. Sign up here: http://faberwritingacademy.com.au/Page-Perfect-Editing-Your

24.01.2022 The Melbourne Writers Festival #MWFDigital program has just launched & I can’t wait to speak with Robbie Arnott & Jan Carson about their incredible, transportive books. Browse the program & grab tickets. It’s a pay-what-you-can deal https://mwf.com.au

24.01.2022 A literary character is a complex creation. In most types of fiction, your characters will need to be well-rounded; empathetic (if not likeable); act in a believable way; carry the story’s tensions; and have an arc that ties in with that of the narrative. They will most likely also represent, in conflict or concert with other characters, the themes of the overall work. Many manuscripts fall down because their characters are weak and are not harmonious with the other elements ...of the work. These characters are cliched, flat; they are carried by events rather than having an effect on their unfolding; they answer their own questions (destroying tension); they are illogically uneven (rather than consistently complex); and they experience no meaningful growth despite the events occurring in the story. How do you create meaningful, memorable, effective (in terms of their story role) characters and avoid the pitfalls? Here are five areas to consider, in my latest newsletter: https://angelameyer.substack.com/p/how-to-create-memorable- Also, pre-order my capsule course on creating memorable characters at a steal (70% off) before it launches in October! https://gumroad.com/l/fictionessentialscharacter

20.01.2022 I have a new website for my freelance services! A beautiful, simple design by Ethical Design Co. Get in touch if I can help you with anything ... https://meyerliterary.com/

20.01.2022 Learn how to take your first draft to submission-ready level with me and Faber Writing Academy at Allen and Unwin in October this year. This course sold out early last year! I hope to recreate the warm and collaborative atmosphere of the A&U offices in our online classroom The package also includes a sample edit by an Allen & Unwin senior editor.

18.01.2022 Looking forward to the Queenscliffe Literary Festival in May!

16.01.2022 One year ago today! This year, Edinburgh International Book Festival is running online, so even those of us far away and in heavy lockdown can enjoy their terrific programming. I’m very grateful

15.01.2022 The books that got me through this difficult year... What were yours?

13.01.2022 In one of the hardest periods of my life, words have been doors: sturdy lines on a page through which the past, depths of the moment, and possible futures move. Among the first books I ordered after my dad died last month were Ray Bradbury’s 1951 short story collection The Illustrated Man and his book of essays, Zen and the Art of Writing. I’ve been wanting to read Bradbury for years, inspired by the schlocky 1980s-90s Ray Bradbury Theatre tv show. In the show’s intro, a grey...-haired, bespectacled Bradbury enters a dark, cluttered room he calls his ‘magician’s toyshop’ a vivid rendering of his subconscious and his eyes search about for an idea. He describes the process of creating a story as a ‘trip’ that is ‘exactly one-half exhilaration, exactly one-half terror’. Read more: https://angelameyer.substack.com/p/open-the-door-to-your-ma

13.01.2022 One of my tips on creating memorable characters from my capsule course! This package of vids, docs, audio, activities & links is only $29.99 if you pre-order it before it launches on October 1 :) https://gumroad.com/l/fictionessentialscharacter... Full text of the video: To write a memorable character sometimes you have to probe the depths. No one has to know where those thoughts come from! Some of the most fascinating relationships to explore are the hardest ones to think about those ones between lovers, parents and children, friends, and work colleagues that aren’t so easy. Those thoughts that keep you up in the middle of the night could you give them to one of your characters? I know it’s hard to go there, but sometimes this can be the key to unlocking them. Not to make them autobiographical, per se, but to allow them to have the kinds of secret thoughts real people have those fears and desires that lie deep within us. You can take those thoughts and stretch or shift them, but no matter what, if you’re starting with something genuine you may be surprised at how it can help you introduce new dimensions to both your character and your story.

13.01.2022 Proud to be a contributor to this wonderful book which raises money for our wildlife. Available to pre-order now.

13.01.2022 My short story ‘Micro’ is on the Aurealis Awards shortlists Some much appreciated good news in a hard time. Congrats to all the other finalists

10.01.2022 One of my books is about a man finding a unique way to pass time in a self-imposed isolation & the other is about reinvention after significant loss. Good #isoreads? Available Aus, NZ, UK. ... Ventura Press Saraband Books

08.01.2022 I’m finding it a little hard to write at the moment. How about you? This virus is changing our lives. Our society. Many people I know are suddenly out of work. It’s a little too big to comprehend. The best thing I did today was not type some words on my keyboard but to overhear my elderly neighbour’s carer say to her ‘no luck’ as she got out of her car, and to slip on my thongs and race outside with two rolls of toilet paper to place carefully at a distance. That is the kind... of thing that’s making me feel okay at the moment. But writing is what keeps me whole and helps me stay sane, and so I am seeing what I can do. I am keeping a journal again, for example. If I can’t write much creatively at least I can record what is happening and how it feels. And I am still having plenty of ideas. I write them down in a notebook, mainly, but sometimes in my phone. They’ll be there for when things feel more balanced. But I am also reading. And reading, as I’ve mentioned before, can be part of the writing practice. How can you read in a way that feels productive to your writing, if that’s all you can manage right now? Click to read more (and please do subscribe) x

08.01.2022 For writers, the latest from my newsletter (cross-posted to Medium): I usually love talking ‘big picture’ but I wanted to come down closer to the line level and explain two types of mistakes I encounter frequently when editing fiction: an inability to physically place your reader within a scene, and a confusing progression of information. If an agent or editor is reading your opening pages and they have no idea where they are, or have to go back a few sentences to figure out ...what’s happened/is happening, I guarantee they won’t read on for much longer. To place, situate or position your reader, you might begin with a series of questions when writing (or, more likely, when revising or editing your own work): Where does this scene occur? Who is there? What is happening and what kind of point of view do we have on the events unfolding? Read more:

08.01.2022 There are readers who understand and gravitate towards particular categories such as crime and thrillers, romance, SFF, young adult Within these genres are a range of sub-categories, and some readers can be very specific about what they like or are looking for. Publishers are always seeking that elusive book that satisfies genre conventions but also has a fresh take: a surprising, timely or gripping ‘hook’ or a unique character or setting. A book that will both feel familiar... and fresh to readers. But I know also from my time as a bookseller many moons ago that there are plenty of readers who, like me, read very broadly and are not concerned about whether a book neatly fits into a genre and has all the tropes and beats of that genre. Many readers do quite enjoy a genre-blend, too: sci-fi meets romance, fantastical historical fiction, a thriller on the moon. When you think about it, a lot of what’s adapted to film and television absolutely blurs genre boundaries... Read more here:

07.01.2022 My latest post for emerging writers. A common issue I see in manuscripts is either a lack of tension or tension that is not built well or is too quickly diffused. As a writer, I understand how difficult it is to draw tension out! Often, and mostly unconsciously, you want to end your character’s suffering. Or you want to get something down on the page (information for the reader) before you yourself forget it! This is one reason redrafting is so important. You can then properly determine what your conflicts are, and increase the tension in your work to invoke them page by page, scene by scene. In this post I share five tips on improving tension in your manuscript:

06.01.2022 We are all having to spend a lot more time indoors. There’s one piece of furniture that is essential to this contained existence: our beds. A boat is how we imagined our beds, as kids. My sister’s white metal-framed bed was a ship, and we would reel our teddies in from the sea, the survivors of a wreck, to heal them with the etch-a-sketch. The dog would enter the room and we’d sneakily allow him into the boat, and cuddle him to us. His ears would be down, knowing he wasn’t al...lowed. A bed can be a fort, and a nest. I sleep with pillows all around me, in my arms, between my legs. But I don’t often cuddle through the night; I’m too claustrophobic. Sometimes I wake from a nightmare and I must wait until the paranoia subsides until I can step off the bed and down. (Adapted from a piece originally published in Kill Your Darlings. Read the rest below.)

05.01.2022 This Tuesday, pour yourself a glass of bubbles and join Booklove Tuesdays to celebrate and support - from the centre of Melbourne lockdown - the launch of Kath Engebretson's new literary novel, NINETEEN DAYS. We'll also be discussing my award-winning novella, JOAN SMOKES, and enjoying an excerpt from Lee Murray's new collection, GROTESQUE: MONSTER STORIES. Hope to see you there!

05.01.2022 This event is now on YouTube! Hope you enjoy :) Six authors from four time zones share their writing, and talk about how queerness operates in their work and how this has changed over time. Feat Kiran Bhat, Tom Cho, Farzana Doctor's Author Page, Jee Leong Koh - Poet and Sarah M. Sala. Moderated by William Johnson, Deputy Director of Lambda Literary. Presented by the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwAIhEq3k1U&feature=youtu.be

04.01.2022 My novella Joan Smokes is on Spotify, read by me, in case anyone would like some more things to add to their playlists for staying inside, etc. Best wishes and stay safe x Saraband Books Mslexia

03.01.2022 Six authors from four time zones share their writing, and talk about how queerness operates in their work and how this has changed over time. I’m looking forward to joining Kiran Bhat, Tom Cho, Farzana Doctor's Author Page, Jee Leong Koh - Poet and Sarah M. Sala for this group reading and conversation moderated by William Johnson, Deputy Director of Lambda Literary. Presented by the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. December 17 (or in the morning on the 18th down under). Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/queer-writers-speaking-across-

02.01.2022 I’m enjoying working on my capsule course on writing compelling characters. Still choosing some of the case studies (great excuse to re-read fav books & authors...) Suggestions welcome! This is the pre-order link: https://gumroad.com/l/fictionessentialscharacter