Mala Naidoo's Blog, page 8
May 10, 2019
Fiction: History, Culture, Truth and Niche Audiences
Every voice like every story has its place in the world. A niche audience might be readers of a particular history, people and culture of forgotten voices. In an era that has in so many ways moved leaps and bounds forward, the opposite is true of human tolerance. Everywhere we dare to look, the capacity …
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April 27, 2019
Podcast Advice for Writers
As writers, it’s easy to slip into weeks of solitary confinement when a story takes hold. Lost in thought and lost on the page as fictional worlds emerge is the hedonistic phase of writing. The connection to reality slips out of view in the heat of composing… While this is an orgasmic time, …
April 13, 2019
Fiction: Perfection in Imperfection
Perfection is too exhausting. It’s not true to who we really are as individuals, communities, and societies. Fictional characters echo this representation of imperfection without necessarily being labelled Shakespeare’s Iagos of the world – they do exist – the first page of the daily newspaper or the first news item on the evening news reveals …
March 28, 2019
Fiction: Women and Culture
Every writer has a unique voice drawn from culture and values. Even when one opts to write a ‘different’ tale with ‘different’ people, the authentic self seeps into some aspects of the writing process. Having been raised in South Africa my psyche is wired to the spirit of the people. I remember older women as …
March 14, 2019
Food and Fiction
A good story, like good food, is an unforgettable experience. In the creation of fictional worlds, the protagonist comes to life through his or her foibles, eccentricities, habits, relationships, hobbies, voice, mannerisms etc. While sensory details include the sounds, we hear and the images we see, through the words on the page, the degustation in …
February 23, 2019
The Art of Conversation in Stories
We enjoy a good yarn, some more than others. The reticent and the chatter-box are encountered as part of our daily social interactions. How much is enough or too much in the stories we create? Dialogue works: To move the story forward To give information Contribute to characterisation Gives …
February 13, 2019
Creative Love for the Valentine in YOU!
The creative well is endless if you’re in it for the long haul. Writing eBooks, print books, creating audio books, working with editors, cover designers, and marketing your books – no publisher will do the marketing for you! An abundance of creative energy soon leads to mental exhaustion a type of brain drain that can …
January 26, 2019
Editing Ideas
The End! A joyous moment in finishing a novel after many months or years of getting up early or staying up late at night, writing the story that has burned within, is only finished after the professional edit. A product in hand created from the imagination in a fictional story is a proud moment. …
January 11, 2019
Voices From Trinidad To Australia
As the New Year settles in, I’m following through on my creative intentions for 2019, to reach out, to connect in a global publishing landscape to learn and share ideas. Through this shared landscape, I met and was inspired by prolific, Trinidadian author, Brenda Mohammed. She is the author of twenty-one publications, including the non-fiction …
December 30, 2018
Writing Life: Looking Back
Time and technology have propelled us through 2018 at the speed of light. While the end is nigh, it’s nostalgic for some, as memorable, or a year quickly fading and forgotten for others. A nostalgic or forgotten year? What’s your choice? It has been an incredible year on the writing and publishing front with changes …
