The Discipline of Novel-Writing: A Writer's Creativity Toolkit (Exegesis)

Abstract

"The Discipline of Novel-Writing: A Writer's Creativity Toolkit" is a creative writing thesis in two parts: a draft novel centred on the contemporary Brisbane legal scene, titled "Six Minutes", and an exegesis which examines and addresses the scarcity of self-evaluative creative writing resources for writers aho are no longer novices. The exegesis and toolkit evolved from my search for answers to complex, common, but little-understood writing problems which I had encountered while producing "Six Minutes". By overlaying the legal world onto the world of novel-writing, I show how a novelist builds a case, much like a lawyer does. A number of aspects of my toolkit are generated out of appropriations from legal thinking practice. An interesting irony, therefore, is that my novelistic interrogation of misbehaviour in a law firm uses the tools of the legal world against itself.