The first full sentence I ever constructed was in Mrs Bower’s class when I was five.
It was a terrifying moment- my fingers shook as I placed the little word cards in order: ‘I am a girl.’ My first sentence.
I stuck with ‘I am a girl’ for some weeks until Mrs Bowe gave me a gentle push towards new possibilities. I have been exploring them ever since.
I trained originally as an actor at the Victorian College of the Arts. In 1995 I began the Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT, later deferring studies to work as an actor. I have worked in television, film and theatre. I discovered I worked well with children through working a theatre-in-education companies touring theatre into schools. I played a wild and tempestuous five-year-old called Lily. I was in my element. My strength in writing for children comes from my ability to access that child’s voice in myself.
I write for all ages now. In 2002 my play for adults, Difficult to Grow, was produced by the Playbox theatre as part of the Theatre in the Raw Readings. It was later broadcast on ABC Radio, and I played one of the three characters. The Australian Script Centre published Difficult to Grow as part of its 2001 Collection.
I now perform my first picture book, My Yellow Blanky, for children in schools all over Victoria. I am currently writing an adult novel, having just completed my first novel for ten to twelve-year-olds, Surviving Aunt Marsha (omnibus Books, 2003).
I imagine writing might be a bit like making music: it’s all about understanding rhythm and making words sing. I always read my work out loud, to myself and then to others. It’s the best way to hear the sound of the music you are creating with words.
Every sentence has to be necessary, as when an actor speaks – everything she says needs a reason, a drive.
I become very involved with my characters as I write them. They become a kind of crazy, flawed, unpredictable, loveable family. When I’m in the middle of something I think about the characters all day. I worry for them and I share their triumphs. They attachment feels serious. It lessens as the book is surrendered to the editing process, but it never goes away.
I am inspired in so many different ways – by my memories, by the things in life that cause me pain, by the world around me, and by the sound of words when they’re put together in a certain way. The way stories arrive is unpredictable because their drive and their source lie in the subconscious, and you can’t get more mysterious than that!
Acting and writing are closely related processes for me, but I do love the solitary writing life and the freedom in creating stories and characters. The road ahead feels enormously exciting- there’s an element of the unknown in writing. Who knows what will come next? That’s a really exciting thought. How will my writing change over the years, how will it grow? How many people can I reach? How can I make a positive and significant contribution to the world?
I am really happy about writing. It is the most important thing to me.
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