#3 On the Convo Couch 🛋️
Who or what inspires Jo Riccioni to write...and keep writing?!
Hello Writers 👋
Welcome to the third edition of On The Convo Couch, the monthly Writes4Women newsletter.
We’re so glad you’re a part of our Substack family and our growing community. Will we see you at the write-in on Friday?
In keeping with our new tagline — Get Inspired. Get encouraged. Get writing. — we’ll be covering all three verbs in our monthly newsletter. This month one of our great co-hosts, Jo Riccioni shares some of her writing inspirations, reveal who and what encourages her to keep writing and share her top tips to GET WRITING.
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✨ Get Inspired
What or who inspires me to write?
Other writing.
I specifically say writing, not writers, because only certain novels, short stories or poems have the kind of magic that acts like a tinder to my own creativity. These works cause a visceral reaction in me. They suck me in and shake me up, and then they make me restless. I’m like the kid watching a magic trick, who constantly nags, How did you do it? Tell me how you did it! I want to understand the sleight of hand, the smoke and mirrors that create an entirely fictional world where readers are prepared to give over their trust and offer up their hearts to be wrung dry. It’s incredible when you have this feeling as a reader. Gabrielle Zevin did it to me with Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. EM Forster did it to me in A Room With a View. Bridget Collins in The Binding, Tim Winton in his story collection The Turning. With some works, it’s even a repeat trick: Austen does it every single time I read Pride and Prejudice, and Tolkien every time I read Lord of the Rings. Hardy in Tess. Rothfus in The Name of the Wind. Geraldine Brooks in Year of Wonders. Pat Barker in The Silence of the Girls. Hilary Mantel in Wolf Hall. Francis Harding in The Lie Tree. Sally Thorne in The Hating Game. I could go on. I think every writer has their special books that keep feeding the urge to write.
Three novels and many short stories into my career, I’m still trying to replicate anything close to the feeling I have when I read works like these. It’s an ongoing struggle. I think this is why one of my favourite quotes about writing is:
All books are love letters to other books
I’m not sure who said it, but I heard it first from novelist and short story writer Tegan Bennett Daylight. I like it because, honestly, who are we as writers without other books?
Readers.
It’s only now, three novels and many short stories into my career, that I understand the motivation writers can get from their readers. Love or hate social media, readers all over the world are now able to connect directly and easily with writers, and depending how much you court that relationship, it can be motivating. When you’re tired or the words aren’t flowing or you’re getting up at 5am before your day job and wondering why the hell you keep doing it, it’s those messages from readers eagerly awaiting the next book that spur me on more than any publisher deadline or fantasy about my next cover in a shop window.
I recently got an email through my website from a male reader asking when The Rising, the conclusion to my Branded Season duology was going to be available in the US. I told him it was dropping there on the 11 Feb 2025. He replied:
Thank you for the prompt reply. Since I’m 87, I just hope I don’t drop before the book does!
Could there be any greater inspiration to write?
🙌 Get Encouraged
I always take great encouragement from hearing other writers’ pathways to publication. The TikTok darling who blew up overnight and ended up on every best-seller list? Turns out she’s been writing for ten years and has four other published novels that no one’s heard about. The writer who was told they weren’t commercial enough, now on the shelves of Kmart. The writer who wasn’t Australian enough winning the most Australian literary award. For me, this serves as a reminder that publishers control a business model; they’re curating catalogue lists. But what they mustn’t control is what you write, and what they absolutely don’t control is audiences and reactions to books. That’s why small indie presses are so important to our literary culture - they’re usually more willing to take a gamble on work that the bigger houses won’t touch. It’s also why readers on social media can be a powerful tool in championing books (many self-published), telling us directly what they do and don’t want to read.
Ultimately, though, you have to write the book for yourself first, the book you would want to read and get excited by. I’m trying to be braver, to have more guts when I write, to write the thing that gives me a buzz, to write for myself, not publisher expectation. Women’s lives have been and still are subservient to so many other people. Surely the creative act should be a space where we don’t have to fulfil expectations and do what we’re told? Of course, if you want to make money in traditional publishing, you’ll probably have to toe the line in terms of your brand. But you don’t have to. I’ve decided I’d rather do other work to pay the bills, and have freedom in my writing, working to my own schedule.
✍️ Get Writing
Writers Groups
Without a doubt my biggest regular motivator is my writing group. They provide a deadline and keep me accountable. Even when I don’t always manage to front up with a submission to critique, their gentle ‘where are you at with your story, Jo?’ is enough to guilt the words out of me. My writing group is, in the nicest possible way, the whip to my WIP.
Curate your own writing hacks
As you listen to writers and read books on craft, curate a list of writing hacks and practice the ones that work for you. I’m not a fan of Ernest Hemmingway, but I do love one of his hacks that I discovered when writing my first novel. It’s his advice to leave a paragraph unfinished when you have to stop writing. Stopping mid-sentence is a great way of jump-starting the next session because you’ll remember what you were about to say, finish it and then you’re off and away without staring at a blank new chapter.
I also put great stock in Kate Forsyth’s advice to be with your novel every single day. Even if you have no time to write, you can still pay a visit through reading little bits of the draft or googling an area of research while you’re on the bus, scrolling through Pinterest for your mood board while you’re standing in a queue. That way it stays fresh in your mind and you don’t have to spend hours getting reacquainted on the days you do put words on paper.
Another of my favourite hacks when I don’t feel in the mood to write is to tell myself I’m just going to the desk for a little read. I’m not actually writing, just reading. Before I know it, I’m tweaking a word, re-writing a sentence and then, ta-da!, I’m actually writing. As Fay Weldon once wrote,
Some days you want to write, some days you don’t. The days you don’t, you sometimes write better than on the days you do.
Writers on Writing
Books about writing are also a thirst trap for me. I particularly like anthologies like Writers on Writing (ed. Roberts, Mitchell and Zubrinich) where authors spill the beans on what their writing day looks like, how they handle writer’s block, aspects of craft, etc. You always learn a juicy thing or two. Two of my favourite quotes from this edition speak to the crazy schizophrenic condition of being a writer – the need to simultaneously have huge vulnerability and incredible arrogance:
Everyone has gone through a loss of faith in the material. Sometimes the novel dies beneath you like a horse, and when it begins to really smell, bury it. But not until it’s really putrid do you bury it. Tom Kenneally
Writers need a huge measure of arrogance. Nobody else believes in you, so you’ve got to believe in yourself.
Hilary Mantel
Fall in Love on the Farm 🛻💕
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Bridie has until Christmas to convince her father not to pull the loan she needs to keep her organic produce farm alive. So when her elderly neighbour’s son—who’s been trying to buy her out—unexpectedly offers to help, she can’t say no. But as Christmas approaches, Bridie wonders if all the feels are just another complication or exactly what she’s been missing.
🎄A Fairytale for Christmas by Penelope Janu
Big-city lawyer Juliette is only in Ballimore to save her career by Christmas, but the small-town life has other plans. Helping out the locals, taking over the magical fairytale cabin in the forest, and facing off against the impossibly attractive farmer Beau may be exactly what she needs to rediscover a dream she thought she’d left behind. Can she create a happily-ever-after in time for Christmas?
🎄The Christmas Kindness Project by Lily Malone
After her 26-year marriage ends, high-flying property manager Rosie heads back to her hometown of Chalk Hill to rebuild her life. Nominated to represent her new employer in the Christmas Kindness Project, Rosie struggles with the pressure—until she gets unexpected help from Fletcher, a mysterious real estate valuer. Is it just a hot flush or is Rosie’s love life finally heating up this holiday season?
🎄Christmas at Yindi Creek by Stella Quinn
Angela’s holiday plans are simple—restore her late mother’s opal earring and return to the city. But with the opal dealers closed for summer, Angela finds herself stuck in Yindi Creek. Meanwhile, local sheep farmer Robbie has been quietly grieving a loss, but the town has decided it's time for him to heal. Will a meddlesome (yet heartwarming!) Christmas plan bring Angela and Robbie together for good?
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