The Dreamer & the Dream: A Personal Perspective on Writing Fiction

Masterclass with Coetzee Centre Writer in Residence, Dr Carol Lefevre

The writing of a novel is a strange and complex undertaking, one in which the fiction writer's task must be to create a dream that readers can believe. As John Gardner notes in his book The Art of Fiction, “…the organized and intelligent fictional dream that will eventually fill the reader’s mind begins as a largely mysterious dream in the writer’s mind.” Each writer approaches the making of a novel through their own unique creative practice, yet the aim of fiction writers everywhere is universal: to convince the reader to remain within the dream. Drawing on her work-in-progress, and on texts that have been instrumental in developing her own writing practice, Carol Lefevre’s masterclass will move through the important early decisions of the writing process to explore the ways in which other creative disciplines may be enlisted to enrich the
fictional dream.