Meredith Jaffe

This month I talked with Meredith Jaffe about her latest novel The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison and I think I’ve set a new record at an hour twenty. You might need an extra long walk for this one listeners!

In this episode, Meredith takes us on the journey from first draft, through to structural and copy edits and how she finally got to the finished novel. She talks about writing multiple points of view with an ensemble cast of characters, the concept of head hopping, the unusual drafting process she used for her next novel and how she seeds backstory throughout the narrative, and she uses a terrific example from the novel to illustrate the point.

Meredith also talks about Sophie Hannah’s ‘Gnocchi Method’ of drafting which she used for her next book. Here’s a link to Sophie’s article she talked about in the episode - Why and How I Plan My Novels by Sophie Hannah. Sophie also talks a little more in-depth about the Gnocchi Method with Pamela Cook in this episode of Writes4Women which I highly recommend you listen to.

Remember there can be spoilers in this podcast, so if you prefer not to know anything about a book before you've read it, off you go and have a read, then come back and have a listen after you’ve read it.

About Meredith

Meredith Jaffé is the author of three novels for adults - The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison (May 2021), The Making of Christina (2017) and The Fence (2016.) Horse Warrior, the first in a children’s series, was published in 2019. 

She is the Festival Director of StoryFest, held on the NSW South Coast, and regularly facilitates at other writers’ festivals and author events. Previously, she wrote the weekly literary column for the online women’s magazine The Hoopla. Her feature articles, reviews, and opinion pieces have also appeared in The Guardian Australia, The Huffington Post, and Mamamia.

You can learn more about Meredith at her website and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.