Literary Birthday – 15 August – Garry Disher

Happy Birthday, Garry Disher, born on 15 August 1949.

Garry Disher Quotes

1. I discover most of my stories by accident. I don’t go looking for them, they find me, in the sense that something I read, see, hear about or idly muse upon will suddenly – or gradually – reveal its story potential to me. It’s a matter of learning to be alert, of asking myself why a newspaper article or an overheard conversation is lingering in my mind, and then examining it more thoroughly.
2. Some ideas might give me a whole book, others only a character or a scene, and many lie dormant, waiting for another idea to round them off. I can sit on an idea for years before it’s ready to find its way into a story.
3. I once heard two kids chatting on the tram, one saying to the other, ‘Everything went wrong when Grandma came to live with us.’ I could write half a dozen novels from that one line.
4. Having specific ideas to build on is great, but any piece of writing needs a general driving force behind it. Ideally, a problem is posed and an answer beckons, or there’s no forward momentum for writer or reader. Even a shopping list is driven by a question: ‘What do we need for dinner tonight?’
5. Causality is at the heart of fiction, even if deeply buried.
6. I wrote my early (non-crime) novels and short stories as voyages of discovery (in line with Sean O’Faolain’s belief that three elements need to be present at the start: a character, a situation and a promise). That approach didn’t work with the crime novels: coincidence reigned (always the enemy of fiction); characters acted out of character; I couldn’t balance plot and character. And so I now plan all of my novels in minute detail, taking several weeks.
7. I write several drafts, first in longhand, then on the computer, refining as I go along, until the manuscript is the best I can make it, but knowing that the editor will suggest changes. The whole process can take a year.

Source for quotes: Writing crime fiction: a personal approach

Garry Disher is an Australian author of crime fiction and children’s literature. Disher has published over 60 highly praised, prize-winning, and widely translated books in a range of genres: crime thrillers, literary/general novels, short-story collections, YA/children’s fiction, and writers’ handbooks. His latest titles include the bestselling standalone crime novel, Sanctuary, and Mischance Creek, the fifth in his prize-winning Hirsch outback cop series.

Source for photograph: Author’s Website

by Amanda Patterson
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