Holly Throsby was a musician, singer, songwriter way before she was an author. She’d released five solo albums, toured extensively and been nominated for several ARIA awards before she shifted from writing song lyrics to writing story sentences.
Holly’s debut novel, Goodwood, was published in 2016 and it was a bestseller. Two years later came her second book, Cedar Valley, which was also a resounding success and Holly’s latest book, Clarke, has already been extremely well received.
While Holly writes fiction – stories set in country towns and filled with mystery and secrets – the emphasis is as much on the characters and their personal relationships as it is on the plot lines.
Australian Rural and Regional News contributor, Serena Kirby spoke to Holly recently about her latest novel, Clarke, the writing process and asked about advice for would-be novelists.
ARR.News: You’re an accomplished musician with numerous albums under your belt. Had writing a novel been something you’d had in your mind for a while or did it spring from something that happened?
Holly Throsby: I’d always thought it would be a really great thing to be able to do, but I didn’t think I could necessarily do it. I studied English literature at Uni as part of my Bachelor of Arts and was a very keen reader but I was very interested in songwriting as that seemed to come really naturally to me.
But there came a point when I started to feel a little blocked with songwriting and that point coincided with Richard Walsh – a consultant for Allen & Unwin – contacting me. He scouts out for people who might not ordinarily write a book and looks for people that he thinks might be suited to write a book. Having Richard as a kind of mentor really gave me the confidence to write.
ARR.News: Do you see any similarities between writing music and lyrics and writing for a novel?
Holly Throsby: For me, it’s a super different headspace, but there’s a similarity in the process too because you obviously want to create great sounding sentences just like you want to create great sounding lines in songs.
In regards to the writing of Clarke, it’s quite a sparse novel and maybe that’s sort of influenced by my lyric writing which requires you to use a small number of words to conjure an image or an atmosphere.
ARR.News: It was several months ago that I read Clarke but the book still lingers with me and I certainly never saw the twist at the end coming. Have other readers commented on this?
Holly Throsby: That is such a nice compliment, thank you, and yes most people have definitely said that they didn’t see the end coming, which I feel really happy about because obviously it was my intention that it would be a surprise. And that’s kind of the art of writing anything that has a mysterious narrative in it – it’s about what information to give and when to give it and how to kind of drip feed stuff out so that it keeps the reader interested.
ARR.News: I loved the small town feel in Clarke. I don’t know much about your early years – did you grow up in a regional town?
Holly Throsby: Actually no, I grew up in Balmain in Sydney. It’s not a small town but it’s a peninsula suburb and so there was a very villagey feeling there when I was growing up. I’d go along the main street and always bump into people I knew. It had a very friendly kind of village-like atmosphere, which was really nice and I think I’m inclined to that type of atmosphere.
When I started recording my albums we were often in houses outside of the city and obviously I visited loads of regional towns when I was a touring musician. I found the audiences to be really different in those places and I really loved those experiences. And so when I started writing the books, the small town setting just seemed to suit the kind of book I wanted to write. There’s also a really beautiful kinda Australian vernacular found in small towns and I think you notice it more when you’re used to an inner city dialect.
ARR.News: Clarke is set in the 1990s and is filled with a plethora of references to this era. You were only in your very early teens back then so how did you tap into that era? Did all those things come from your memory or did you research or ask people?
Holly Throsby: Pretty much most of them came from my memory but there’s a couple of references in there that I had to ‘phone a friend’ for. For example, I did ask my partner’s mum what would be the fragrance worn by an elderly woman in a small town during the 90s as I wouldn’t have known that it was Red Door. Other references came from my memories of TV ads.
ARR.News: Do you have another book underway?
Holly Throsby: I have some ideas but they’re taking a little bit longer to percolate and I’ve learned to trust that process. When I was younger I used to freak out when I’d have a creative dry spell and think, ‘oh, that’s it – I’ve got nothing left and it’s all over’. It’s often the case that after a long drought I’ll then have a really fertile period and a lot will happen. So I’m in a kind of winter time at the moment where I’m just not quite sure what I’ll make next.
ARR.News: Do you have any advice to others who may dream of writing a book?
Holly Throsby: My advice would be to read books about people who’ve written books and read books about how to write a book. That’s what I did as I didn’t have any idea how to write a book when I first started. I also suggest going to writers’ festivals and listening to people talk about their writing.
When it comes to the actual part of sitting down and writing, just set aside very small chunks of time in which to write. When you’re starting off with a blank page I don’t think anyone should sit down and think I’m gonna write for like an hour. Because an hour is actually quite a lot when you’ve got nothing to work on.
And the thing about writing a novel is that, before you start, it’s incredibly daunting. But then, once you get into it and you treat it like a daily practice, it becomes a lot more manageable in your own head. The pre-embankment is always a little daunting.
Related story: Review – Clarke
This interview is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
