The Australian Association of Writing Programs

Easily the most lively and entertaining session I attended - "News, Feature, Book: Journalism's Big Narrative Dig" with David Marr, Chloe Hooper and Paul McGeough. The room was packed to its capacity of 390 and everyone left wearing a chuckle.
DM began as he meant to go on, with a provocative, acerbic question for his fellow panellists: "Surely one of the functions of good journalism is to save the world from unnecessary books - how, then, do you justify writing yours?"
 
Of course it was a Dorothy Dixer and Marr (who's stretched the odd news story into book-length himself) seemed quite accepting of the answers proffered, such as:
* to tell all as a seamless whole, instead of in installments
* to go back and ask questions when the spin doctoring has died away
* to craft the story artistically and bring it to life
* to take advantage of the broad acres of a book to show more of the characters and their lives and to present complexity. Journalism is issues-driven, and 2-3K is considered a long article for newspapers/magazine features.
 
I'd recently finished reading "The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island" and (like many others) had been blown away by how deftly Chloe Hooper brought her fiction-writing skills to bear on a complex nonfiction subject.
DM commented on the 'circling' technique used in "The Tall Man" - he said Chloe circles the figure of Chris Hurley and gradually leads the reader to a deeper understanding.
He described the book as a 'sympathetic but brutal' portrayal of the chaos of aboriginal life - did she stay her hand? She said that she did, slightly, for the Doomadgee family. But she felt an obligation to bear witness.
Is there a debt the writer owes the subject?
Yes -  stories are currency in aboriginal society and they have experienced unfair exchanges in the past where anthropologists have taken them and given nothing in return.
She believes that even in telling a bleak story it is possible to still provide a sense of what is luminous in the world - thinks this is what keeps people reading. Also you need 'heat on the page' to overcome people's reluctance to tackle this kind of book.
I think it was Paul who spoke about needing to 'hook them early' but also in structuring chapters, to work in elements of surprise (tension and release) and manage revelations of information (hold a nugget and drop it in where it will work best to surprise/satisfy/shock). The ending is usually known in nonfiction, so the key is to put the rest of it in the right place.
If you as the interviewer/writer are feeling the emotions of anger/grief/revenge, you can trust that the reader will too.
How do you recreate the smell of the scene?- Paul - by taking copious notes that are never enough- David - you pray for the solid fact that produces the emotive response
Chloe said that as a novelist, she'd been unprepared for the files of facts she had to deal with in tackling the Palm Island case. She said initially she didn't even have a notebook, she just scribbled her observations on receipts, envelopes etc. But now she has a proper leatherbound book to store her notes. (DM teased her with 'she's from Melbourne' at this point. She wanted to know what he used and he said just spiral-bound pads.)
Chloe said she went to Palm Island raw but it can be helpful to know nothing. She would stay there for a week at a time and after 3 days she would find she wasn't seeing as well. If you stay too long, you lose your normal calibration and don't notice the appalling stuff - you adjust.
 
I finally worked out that Marr had been a colleague of Paul McGeough, after being surprised when he made him the butt of several jokes. At one point Paul misinterpreted a gesture David made as a request for water, when it was actually an indication that his mic was too close. Marr turned to the audience and said across the back of his hand - 'No broadcasting technique at all!')
 
How does writing books & the techniques you use in them change your journalism?
* when asked to write 1200 words after doing a book, you feel that you'd just be warming up at that point. You have to bring yourself back to the constraints.
* appreciates the smaller canvas and the fact that you can finish it in a week
* brief, tight storywriting is a great skill
* it's a great intellectual luxury to absorb yourself in a subject rather than being harried by the need to research/interview/write and file by Friday.