Read a selection of top tips from our Discoveries creative writing workshop at ESEA Lit Fest, featuring 2025 Discoveries judge and novelist Claire Kohda (Woman, Eating) and author Stephanie Scott (What’s Left of Me is Yours).

Where to start

Stephanie: Go for the idea that is the pushiest — the bossiest idea, that pushes all other ideas off the desk. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything about the topic or theme, as long as you’re interested in it; you can immerse yourself in research.

Claire: Listen to your idea. It’ll show you where it wants to go. Try not to listen to any voices in your head that tell you that you have to be a certain type of writer. If you are anxious about getting started, let the idea grow until it’s nagging at you to write it – write yourself emails, or record voice notes, or talk about the idea with friends – until the blank page feels like it is a relief rather than something anxiety-making.

Creating characters

Claire: I’m not sure where characters come from for me. They just appear in my mind. Then, the most important thing is to let them be themselves. If they want a certain name, give them that name; if they want a specific job, or they have interests that you weren’t expecting, let them have them. Observe them and let yourself be guided by them.

Stephanie: Get to know your characters — what are their likes and dislikes? How do they speak, walk, laugh? What are their relationships to the other characters in your story? Sometimes they will arrive to you fully formed and sometimes you’ll have to build them from the ground up.

Structure

Stephanie: Feel your way through your structure. Writers rarely write a full book chronologically, so don’t get bogged down in your first draft — speed write to get it all down on the page, and then go back and fix it!

Claire: I tend to follow my characters through their stories, not knowing much about what might happen along the way until they happen. Usually, I just have an idea of where the novel might end, and that ending becomes like a destination for me and my characters. Working this way means that writing can be surprising, fun, entertaining and unexpected, so don’t worry if you don’t plan meticulously! Writing is a process of discovery.

Keeping yourself motivated

Stephanie: Don’t think about how large the mountain is — just put one foot in front of the other.

Claire: Find friends who write and build a community; you don’t need to even share your work with them if you don’t want to, but the moral support is invaluable. If you lose your confidence along the way, you can find it in writer friends who have confidence in you still.

Inspired? Motivated? Find out more about Discoveries here and enter now.