Finished your manuscript and need an assiduous fresh eye? Just started writing, and need guidance on what to do next? Need some ideas or techniques to help you tell your story better?
I’ve taught creative writing at university level and in workshops for writers’ festivals, schools and community groups around Australia for over a decade. With a doctorate in narratology, a Masters in Creative and Life Writing with Distinction and over two decades’ experience as a journalist, essayist, script consultant, literary critic, fiction and creative non-fiction writer, I’ve been published in newspapers, magazines, anthologies and literary magazines in Australia and around the world.
I’ve been a judge for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Newcastle Writers Festival Fresh Ink Prize for Emerging Regional Writers, appeared at writers festivals around Australia, consulted to and curated for the Byron Writers Festival, am on the board of the Canberra Writers Festival, written readers’ reports for major UK publishers, and assessed manuscripts for the Australian Society of Authors.
I’ve offered feedback and editorial advice to some of Australia’s most acclaimed authors, as well as mentoring emerging authors for the Australian Society of Authors and Byron Writers’ Festival, and taught workshops on how to write a great short story or survive as a freelance writer.
I can offer a range of editorial and mentorship services, including regular consultations, detailed edits and editorial reports, cultural sensitivity advice and general guidance. But don’t take my word for it! Here’s some feedback from some of the writers I’ve worked with:
I found Sunil unique with an unusual intuitive understanding of my background and emotions, enriched by his widespread knowledge, both general, and those that were specific to my story. His insight into situations and people along with his in-depth dedicated approach to guide me have been most valuable. All in all it was a beautiful, enjoyable and worthy experience with dear Sunil. – MS
Sunil’s skill and help were invaluable in getting my novel to a place where it was publisher ready. It took a while to find the right publisher after several rejections (in the end, despite Sunil’s incredible efforts on this book’s behalf, I had to go outside Australia) and I hope this success will encourage other authors to keep trying. – DF
Sunil was incredibly generous with his time, and his passion for my manuscript was inspiring. He thought deeply and carefully about how to improve my work and enabled me to see my story from new perspectives. Sunil showed me the literary potential of the story I want to tell, and enabled me to lift it into something engaging, insightful and more honest. – MH
I’ve written on creative writing techniques for this excellent anthology, which includes advice and reflections from some of Australia’s best and best-known writers and is already a standard teaching text in many universities. Editor, novelist and academic Debra Adelaide says that “Sunil Badami’s five ‘golden rules for writing a short story’ are as useful as any that I have read:”
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A story should be a slice of life with a bend in it
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A story should start just after your reader thinks it’s meant to start, and end just before they want it to
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Start with the problem
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It all comes down to character
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The best language is the language you never notice.
Want to find out more about how I can help you bring your story to life? Get in touch!