Don't feel you have to understand everything straight away, Toni Jordan advises potential authors.
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"I know so many good writers who haven't started anything and the reason is 'I don't know enough about this' or 'I don't know what happens in the second half'," she said.
"When you start, you start thinking and your fingers start moving and you'll never know what you'll come up with if you don't begin. I really only have one way of doing things, which is I just make it up as I go along."
Jordan's latest creation The Fragments will be the book of the festival at Write Around The Murray next month.
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Described as a book for book lovers, the novel outlines a Brisbane bookseller's quest to unlock the mystery of a deceased author's second book, which exists only as scorched remains.
Set in 1980s Brisbane, where Jordan grew up, the story recalls the legwork required for pre-Google research.
"Really the whole book, I guess, is a sense of nostalgia for things that have gone and things that will never be recovered and the old versions of ourselves that will never be again," she said.
Now based in Melbourne, Jordan once worked as a molecular biologist but when studying technical writing happened to choose a single creative writing subject.
"My first book was an assignment from that first course that I never stopped working on," she said.
"Some kind of creative practice really improves the quality of your life. I'm obsessed with writing because I think it's really the most democratic of the arts, all you need is a pen and paper.
"You don't need anything expensive and you don't need equipment and anybody can begin from anywhere."
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But as already noted, one does need to begin and, if producing a novel, continue.
"It's a habit and a discipline and if you develop that discipline I think your unconscious mind brings you better ideas because it knows it can trust you to do what you said you were going to do," the author said.
"Making life just a little bit firm for yourself is a really good idea."
Presently enjoying a break from writing after completing her PhD, Jordan is looking forward to attending her first Write Around The Murray.
"It's the festivals that kind of make it a sustainable life because I actually get out and meet people and speak to humans and remember how that all works," she laughed.
- Go to writearoundthemurray.org.au for more details