🎙 INTERVIEW: Writing Rhythm, Desire & Tension in Literary Fiction w/ Opera Singer and Novelist Indyana Schneider
​** This is a LIVE interview with author Indyana Schneider about the craft of writing and reality of building a writing career. Attendees will be sent a recording after the interview. **
​What does it mean to write fiction that pulses with rhythm, sensuality, and risk? What can writers learn from the creative life of a globe-traveling opera singer turned novelist?
​Indyana Schneider’s novel Since the World is Ending has been described as “musical, hypnotically lyrical, rhythmic and sensory” (Laura Dockrill) and “utter poetry” (Jodi Picoult). Set over a single sweltering weekend in Vienna, the novel is a meditation on music, sex, and the devotion it takes to make art—and live fully—when the world is burning.
​In this conversation, Indyana shares how she brings her musical background to the page, how she crafts tension and desire, and how fiction writers can draw on rhythm, silence, and structure to write prose that sings.
​We’ll explore:
​What it means to build tension when the plot unfolds over just a few days
​How to translate rhythm and silence into prose
​Writing about music and sound without cliché
​How queer love stories take shape on the page
​Indyana’s journey to landing an agent and publishing her novels
​About Indyana Schneider
​Indyana Schneider is an international opera singer and novelist from Sydney, Australia. She studied Music at Oxford University and Opera at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover, completing her training at the prestigious International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera. Indyana now performs full-time across the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland and Australia.
​Between her music studies, Indyana wrote her debut novel, 28 Questions, on the tube while working in development in London's third sector. Her second novel, Since the World is Ending, was drafted in countless airports, train stations, and friends' living rooms as her singing career took her around the world.
​When not writing or performing, she is a keen and clumsy salsa dancer, a messy cook and a short-distance runner.Â
​Your London Writers' Salon Hosts:
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​Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti are the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, creators of the webby-nominated Writers' Hour daily writing sessions, and hosts of the London Writers' Salon podcast.
​Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to running LWS she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She writes and edits for the Story Grid. She has worked as an editor and literary scout at Random House, Quercus & Eccles Fisher. She analyses TV hit shows (Killing Eve, Ozark, Game of Thrones) on the Story Grid Showrunners Podcast.
​Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and facilitator. In addition to running LWS, Matt designs programs to help unfulfilled professionals pursue creative work, start businesses, and reinvent their careers. Matt's work has appeared in Quartz, Observer, Creative Mornings, and on his blog GiveLiveExplore.
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