Gemma Liviero
/How did you become a writer?
As a young girl, I was easily distracted and often with my head in the clouds, so storytelling seemed a perfect fit. If I wasn’t out riding my bike, I was indoors writing poetry and short stories. I won two short story competitions and made the finals in several others. After completing senior school, I took various creative writing classes, then eventually I got serious and decided to study for a diploma in professional writing with the ambition of becoming a copywriter. I went on to work in the publishing, printing, and advertising fields while writing novels in my spare time. My early novels were rejected, and I continued coming up with new ones. In my early forties, life changed with Pastel Orphans. Sometime after self-publishing, another award, and gaining good reviews, Lake Union Publishing approached me with an offer and then a traditional contract. Sometimes when you least expect it, amazing things happen. I like to imagine that by always supporting and celebrating other authors’ successes, some good karma came my way.
Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).
I was drawn to early gothic novels by Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Oscar Wilde, as well as to stories by the Brönte sisters, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Bryce Courtenay, and Khaled Husseini. I was moved by poems about war and influenced by writers such as Aldous Huxley and Margaret Atwood, who convinced me to bend the rules a little. My mother was a major influence also. One birthday, she bought me a poetry book by William Wordsworth, and I would pore over the pages and learned to recite some of them by memory. When I was fifteen, she bought me a portable Brother typewriter. I was hoping for something else that year, but it turned out to be the perfect gift and hugely useful (until the wonders of word processing). The experiences of various family members in the armed services, in WWI and WWII, also had an impact on my writings.
When and where do you write?
In the early phase of a new story, I write between four and six hours a day. During the editing stage, even longer. I tend to start mid-morning and have small breaks throughout the day. Thinking is a huge part of the process, and you will often find me outside gazing into space or at the trees, then using the old notepad-and-pen method when I get stuck on certain parts of the story where I have to join the dots. But the bulk of my writing and editing is in my office on my computer. I’ve tried writing in cafes, but I get too distracted. I’m a people watcher.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on another historical fiction that is a coming-of-age story, a mystery, and partly against the backdrop of war. Again, as with stories that have links to war, I focus on relationships and the effects of upheaval that extend long after the end of the conflict.
Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?
I’ve gone through periods where I struggle to have a clear vision. There have been times when I get a third of the way and although I’ve planned my ending, I look at the paths I’ve chosen and think ‘they’re not working’. At that point I rework, but I also enjoy the challenge. For new books, when I’m searching for ideas, I think of an event in history, imagine a person who might have witnessed it, then write what that person might have felt and seen. It might not be a great beginning or a theme or period I’ve researched, nor a story I might complete, but this method seems to reawaken my creative side. Worth noting also that there is a lot of thinking time with writing, and spending time in your head can be productive.
What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
I was taught formulas, that there had to be a beginning, a protagonist, an antagonist, a plot, a catalyst, a climax, and a conclusion. That was very early on, and I have bent some of the rules since. The best piece of advice was to write in a style that you feel comfortable with as readers can tell when you’re not. If you’re forcing the story forward, you might want to rethink it. Also, from my husband, block out negative thoughts and self-doubt.
What’s your advice to new writers?
Read a wide range of books to see what makes you turn the pages, but don’t necessarily choose a theme or style just because someone else used it successfully. Be authentic. Write about a subject you feel passionately about or find a genre that has you buzzing with ideas. Character personalities may change after certain things happen or secrets about them are revealed, but for the most part keep them consistent throughout the story. My novels are mostly character-driven, and I spend much time constructing personalities and analysing their motivations. Writers are usually their own worst critics, but it is also important to listen to constructive criticism by people close to you. It’s hard to hear at first and you may not agree with everything, but there might also be some value in it.
Bio: I’m a wife, mother of two adult children, and author living on the outskirts of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. My professional writing career includes copywriting, corporate writing, feature articles, editorials, and editing. Other jobs over the years include secretarial and office work, public relations, and web content, as well as typesetting and designing of ads and promotional material for print. I have an advanced diploma of arts (professional writing), and in between each novel I somehow manage to squeeze in another subject of BA history.
