Hi Ian,

Thanks for this. Really interesting. I like how you have elaborated the ‘write what you know’ idea, I think sometimes it is taken too literally and confuses or inhibits starting out writers but as you explain it can mean more than that or be dressed up. Very important point.

I think you’re particularly right about capturing a person’s essential truth or belief in what is written without it necessarily corresponding to their lived experience. I’m a believer in feelings and emotions as the fundamental force to writing; as Robert Frost (I think) says ‘No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader’.

I like the fun of exploring other worlds through writing, even though there are things to be sensitive to. But I agree with you, ‘…what’s the alternative? Write Aboriginal people out of the story? A kind of literary Terra Nullius?’ I think that’s really well said. Points 1 and 2 are excellent. that’s what I’d worked out/learned along the way but it’s nice to have it reaffirmed.

I love your language – ‘Viking runes to harness geomancic energy and manufacture fairy dust’ – beautiful!

Thanks again,
Joanne