https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/services-backend daily 0.75 2025-09-20 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/services-backend/retreats monthly 0.5 2025-09-20 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/services-backend/workshops monthly 0.5 2025-09-20 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/services-backend/mentoring monthly 0.5 2025-09-20 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/services-backend/publications monthly 0.5 2025-09-20 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/services-backend/events monthly 0.5 2025-09-20 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest daily 0.75 2025-12-09 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/pov monthly 0.5 2025-12-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/32a9c370-fd65-4cc3-80f3-93455579daeb/Small+Gods.jpg The Writers' Nest - Point of View: Who’s Telling the Story? - Make it stand out Small Gods (Discworld Novel 13) by Terry Pratchett © Victor Gollancz, 1992 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/bf454ac5-a09b-4cf7-aa22-4ccebaa46a1d/unsplash-image-WLKIF2CQb5I.jpg The Writers' Nest - Point of View: Who’s Telling the Story? - Workshop Foundations This month at The Writer’s Nest, we’re doing something a little different. Instead of diving straight into writing exercises, we’re laying the groundwork first, exploring the theory behind Voice and Point of View so that when we meet, we can spend our time where it matters most: in feedback, exploration, and practice. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/9e076fa2-96f2-4f42-bfba-53b749fed8b4/cats+POV.png The Writers' Nest - Point of View: Who’s Telling the Story? - Points of view The Many Eyes of Storytelling Point of view isn’t just a technical choice, it’s the axis of perception around which a story turns. It decides who speaks, who sees, and how truth is filtered. Every story you’ve ever loved owes its power not just to what it tells, but who it lets you become while reading it. “Point of view is the very essence of the art of fiction.” Henry James – The Art of Fiction (1884) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/58b2ecb0-794d-4300-853b-03e5d0579c3d/Lolita_1955.JPG The Writers' Nest - Point of View: Who’s Telling the Story? Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov © Olympia Press, 1955 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/voice monthly 0.5 2025-11-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/1762581848403-65G838Z1A6Z3ANY0K8W3/unsplash-image-NFvN4Sx3-VQ.jpg The Writers' Nest - Finding Your Voice: The Sound of Story - Workshop Foundations This month at The Writer’s Nest, I’m doing something a little different. Instead of diving straight into writing exercises, I’m laying the groundwork first, exploring the theory behind Voice and Point of View so that when we meet, we can spend our time where it matters most: in feedback, exploration, and practice. https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/first-lines monthly 0.5 2025-11-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/1762490718992-XC5KO1ST541PPZKSXBDQ/unsplash-image-mk7D-4UCfmg.jpg The Writers' Nest - Finding Your Voice: First Lines - First Line Fridays Our second Writer’s Nest session was all about beginnings, how to start a story, write a paragraph, and build a world. Members shared their own “first lines,” and what followed was a lively mix of craft talk, laughter, and a few unexpected detours. Every line was a glimpse into a different mind and rhythm, proof that there’s no single way to invite a reader in. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/49f00bac-72a4-49e6-9bf6-3b50a18bcb6b/Aristotle.png The Writers' Nest - Finding Your Voice: First Lines - Aristotle Beginnings as the Imitation of Action In Poetics (c. 335 BCE), Aristotle identifies mimesis, the imitation of action, as the core of storytelling. For him, a good beginning is not a random starting point, but the logical entry into a chain of cause and effect. “A beginning is that which does not itself follow necessarily from anything else, but after which something naturally is or comes to be.” Here, the first line establishes the moment of causality, the spark that makes everything that follows possible. The function of a beginning, then, is to set emotional expectation and prepare the reader for catharsis (emotional release). In modern terms, Aristotle teaches us that a first line is not decorative; it’s the first motion of the dramatic arc. https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/pillars-of-creative-writing monthly 0.5 2025-11-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/1762482285273-ZYFJTMS2LVEVZ1SBX7EH/unsplash-image-NFvN4Sx3-VQ.jpg The Writers' Nest - Finding Your Voice: Part One - Voice Voice is diction, rhythm, perspective. Wayne Booth reminds us that the author always stands behind the narrator, deciding how trustworthy they appear. Holden Caulfield’s slang and digressions create intimacy and unreliability at once. One distinction we drew was between voice and dialogue. Dialogue is what a character says. Voice is how the story is told. Even if no character is speaking, voice is still present in the rhythm of sentences, the tilt of metaphors, the attitude toward detail. Voice can also be our voice as writers. Just as Austen’s ironic wit or Brontë’s gothic intensity feel unmistakably theirs, our own work will develop its own recognisable patterns, favourite words, the way we build a sentence, the things we can’t help but notice. Over time, this “signature” becomes part of what readers seek out in us. At the same time, each story deserves its own voice. The sharp lyricism that suits a gothic romance might not serve a clipped, contemporary satire. Think of voice as a costume or mask: your underlying cadence is there, but it adapts to the role. This is why writers often say they “hear” a narrator before they fully know a plot. Voice is both a fingerprint and a performance. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/e2e3ed57-3b47-4db0-bd30-078f6c58ed51/AdobeStock_569504734.jpg The Writers' Nest - Finding Your Voice: Part One - CHARACTER Character is more than traits on a page, it’s desire, flaw, and choice. James Wood calls it the “illusion of depth.” In fiction, character is the vessel through which story becomes human. In big-picture terms, character is both mirror and engine. A mirror because characters reflect what it means to be alive, our hunger for meaning, our moral waverings, our need for connection. An engine because their internal movement (what they want versus what they fear) drives the external plot. Without character, events are just occurrences; with character, they become consequence. Think of Elizabeth Bennet: clever, sharp, but blinded by her own prejudice. Why do we love “flawed” characters? Can we really enjoy characters who don’t have relatable flaws? Some of the greatest characters in literary fiction aren’t even the heroes. We have unforgettable villains as protagonists (Lolita, American Psycho) and Heroes who make big mistakes (Project Hail Mary, The Great Gatsby, Harry Potter). We touched on just a handful of the types of characters and character tropes: The Hero, The Damsel, The Villain, The Sidekick, The Wise-Counsel etc. As well as more complex character writing such as unreliable narrators, and deeply flawed heroes versus the kind-hearted villain. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/697464dc-bc50-4293-a1e5-398865fd33f0/Scene+marker.png The Writers' Nest - Finding Your Voice: Part One - Scene Scene (and/or Plot) is where fiction burns. John Gardner called scenes “the engines of fiction” because they are what actually move the story forward. Without them, you only have exposition, summary, or reflection, important, but inert on their own. Scene is where character, voice, and pressure collide into action. Think of Alice Munro. In Runaway, it isn’t a grand twist that changes everything, but a single gesture: Carla laying her hand on the goat’s back. That quiet moment carries enormous weight because it reveals choice, emotion, and consequence all at once. Scene is never “just what happens.” It is the hinge of meaning. At its heart, Scene is Plot. It embodies both the what (action, event, behaviour) and the why (motivation, subtext, stakes). One without the other collapses: pure action without motive feels empty; motive without action feels static. Scenes do more than report. They compress time, magnify conflict, and make change visible. A scene doesn’t need to be dramatic in volume, a conversation over a cup of tea can alter the course of a novel if it cracks something open in a character. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/1762476206082-5YGO291KH01N37VV4ZFE/unsplash-image-YfWwcpKfNFw.jpg The Writers' Nest - Finding Your Voice: Part One - The Pillars of Creative Writing At our first Writer’s Nest session, we dived into the foundations of creative writing, not as a mysterious gift, but as a discipline with its own history, frameworks, and practical tools. https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/a-call-to-write monthly 0.5 2025-11-07 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/the-writers-nest monthly 0.5 2025-11-07 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/category/creative+writing monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/category/how+to+write+fiction monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/category/workshop monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/category/writing monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/category/Melbourne+Writers monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/category/community monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/category/foundations+of+craft monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/voice monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/tone monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/point+of+view monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/Workshops monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/Eynesbury monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/Foundations+of+Craft monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/How+to+Write monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/unreliable+narrator monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/third+person monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/POV monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/Writing monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/Melbourne+Writers monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/sound+of+stories monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/Writing+Workshop monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/Community monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/nest/tag/first+person monthly 0.5 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/home daily 1.0 2025-12-09 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/about daily 0.75 2025-09-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/bd6a7df0-5475-4302-8b1f-fb217ba08d06/White+EP.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/389e98da-8dce-4044-82c6-5387b242ad12/bookstack+trans.png https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/contact daily 0.75 2025-11-06 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/amylmontague daily 0.75 2025-09-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/b932b7dc-cac7-403a-89dc-bbaa52469c2d/Amy-Montague-and-judge-John-Kerr-1030x687.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/ca8a80bc-7ed0-4c75-a52c-c0b4781c0b65/AM+Monogram.png https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/portfolio daily 0.75 2025-11-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/b45e20f3-187b-4aaf-9c81-3483e22185b2/1-100_1478.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/bd6a7df0-5475-4302-8b1f-fb217ba08d06/White+EP.png https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/new-page daily 0.75 2025-09-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/ca5c256d-bdab-4d8c-be7c-3305da266d95/FLA-23-1030x687.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/bd6a7df0-5475-4302-8b1f-fb217ba08d06/White+EP.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/62ff233c-6275-406d-987e-a62dd1a7c5ba/Amy-Montague-and-judge-John-Kerr-1030x687.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/409a54e1-3a34-4b5e-99f7-ab06905303b4/Sam-Furphy-Amy-Montague-Serena-Moss-Mayor-Shane-Sali-Adam-Furphy-1030x687.png https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/privacy-policy daily 0.75 2025-09-27 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/terms-of-service-3 daily 0.75 2025-09-27 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/all-the-moments daily 0.75 2025-11-06 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shop daily 0.75 2025-08-09 https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shop/p/product-3-szb2y-gzh2r-xsxlg monthly 0.5 2025-06-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6674976803f31e2a9285655a/e2dcb173-fcb2-413a-b9a3-5a5080092198/imgg-od3-ate8vfe5.png Shop - Product Name https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shop/p/product-6-yrdld-pcpw6-4fwfx monthly 0.5 2025-06-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6674976803f31e2a9285655a/1ab59a05-617c-4e10-9770-e15bbacadf0b/imgg-od3-lzeck6b4.png Shop - Product Name https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shop/p/product-4-9e76d-pr6ls-93668 monthly 0.5 2025-06-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6674976803f31e2a9285655a/c392796b-75c5-4b19-aaf2-3f8a88d6a859/imgg-od3-2k2o2bww.png Shop - Product Name https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shop/p/product-5-f98ry-4ll53-da3n5 monthly 0.5 2025-06-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6674976803f31e2a9285655a/23282433-07c5-4c4b-8a33-05f0b809e91e/imgg-od3-h1kgsiuu.png Shop - Product Name https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shop/p/product-2-5c6mb-j8mng-nfjxe monthly 0.5 2025-06-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6674976803f31e2a9285655a/678dc10c-36f5-4ca7-81d4-20bb1b8e98c0/imgg-od3-smv6u_w0.png Shop - Product Name https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shop/p/product-1-ydar7-e8mlb-lrxyx monthly 0.5 2025-06-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6674976803f31e2a9285655a/9249bd19-acf1-4bdf-8951-88090a3a4cbb/imgg-od3-bksx58yd.png Shop - Product Name https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shorts daily 0.75 2025-11-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/8c2e1f60-2416-4ae5-99c9-3224416add5e/AdobeStock_1589090531.jpg https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/shorts/shorts monthly 0.5 2025-11-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/8c2e1f60-2416-4ae5-99c9-3224416add5e/AdobeStock_1589090531.jpg https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/novels daily 0.75 2025-11-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/5921d022-c8fa-4e7a-ad7d-c032c2e91803/White+EP.png https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/novels/the-overture-of-fear-and-desire-eloisa-clark monthly 0.5 2025-11-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/9a4d0b0f-f515-423d-ba9e-80fe0495c4dc/OVERTURE.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/424cbbb9-51fc-4a9b-ab09-fdffcb1efe69/Lux.png https://www.eynesburypress.com.au/novels/the-requiem-of-pain-and-rapture-eloisa-clark monthly 0.5 2025-11-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/4f43614c-9d33-4a04-8183-53bc42474967/Requiem+Mock+up.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6890673e3ade54219a4ddeea/bff43a39-a312-46d7-8fd4-93f3af3c8f1c/RAPTURE+page+mock+up.png