Garth Nix is the bestselling author of the Old Kingdom series, with over 40 published books, specialising in young adult fantasy. Garth has been a full-time author since 2001, but has a long history in the publishing industry as a literary agent, editor, publicist, and sales representative. Garth has appeared on bestseller lists across the world, including the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Booksellers and more; and his work has been translated into 42 different languages. In addition to many other literary awards, Garth was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2025, for his “services to literature”.

World builder, explorer, and heart-string puller, Garth Nix approaches fantasy writing with strict logic. His attention to detail and expertise in crafting fantasy as reality make every battle piercing, every loss wrenching, and every character achingly human.

In preparing for this interview with Garth, I read his spellbinding Sabriel, the first instalment of his bestselling Old Kingdom series. Garth’s ability to weave worlds together from modern history, folklore and grand landscapes sets a sinister scene for the discovery of responsibility, the pain of parting, and just a peck of love. Sabriel was a world that loathed to be closed. 

True to book withdrawal, I scoured the internet for Garth’s interviews. I uncovered his creative process of “build as you go”, and thus structured our impending discussion accordingly. He begins by fleshing out a world; I opened our interview with his. He meets his characters as the story progresses; I asked for insight into his own life and inspirations, how they transcend form and find themselves within his narratives. And finally, whittled all his wise words down to one key takeaway: Write what you love, take from what you know, and finish your art. Only then can you unlock a chance. 

My first question for you is around how compelling your world-building is. I want to know what the process of taking real-world inspiration and reshaping it into the worlds you create is like. And maybe, what's something currently that's inspiring you in your writing?

Well, I guess my objective is always to try to make the invented world feel real. That's what I love about fantasy when it really works: that it feels real. Somewhere you could actually go to, perhaps. The way I do that is by drawing on real places and real history, as well as myth and legend, even though it's not real, per se. It resonates with readers who feel that connection, from fairy stories and fables and so on.

But I think small details also help build that feeling of reality. You don't want to overdo it. You can have too many details, of course, but it's the small details that make somewhere feel real. It's the small things of what people wear, what they notice, details about the house, or the forest, or the car. All of these things add up to create that illusion. And the reader's brain does the rest. Quite often, people think that you've supplied many more details, because of their own imagination. But you just need enough to spark the whole process. 

But certainly, I draw upon real places in my own experience. For example, at the moment I'm writing the third book in my Bookseller's series, The Even-Handed Booksellers of Edinburgh, and I'm writing a scene at the moment, which is set on Arthur's Seat. I climbed it last year while in Edinburgh. I also climbed it three years ago before dawn to get the view. The hill was completely enclosed in fog, so I couldn't see a thing. But I've used that in the story as well. So yeah, I draw upon real places and my experience in them. I mean, even in the places that are completely invented, like in Sabriel when she first crossed the Wall, and she's cross-country skiing. I wrote that more than 30 years ago, when I was cross-country skiing. And so I drew upon my own experience of that. I just put it into a fantasy world.

Your attention to detail is something that I noticed. It’s so key to how you immerse your readers in the story. For example, in Sabriel, when they're fleeing the underground conflict, and they’re chased by the bandits, I was like “okay, they're being chased, cool”, and then I forgot about it. But then you relinked it later. Everything that you write is so purposeful. And that's something I really want to emulate and work on in my own practice.

Well, there has to be logic to a story. If you set something up, then you need to deliver. It’s the famous adage about Chekhov's gun. Chekhov puts a gun in the first scene of a play; you know it's going to be used at some point. I think that applies to everything. It's certainly something I always try to make work in my novels and my short fiction. I want everything to make sense. 

And of course, one of the things, as some people say, is how on earth did you set this thing up, and 10 chapters later, come back to use it. But often I don't know that I'm going to do that. I don't know how it's going to be connected. One of the great things about books or any kind of writing is revision. It’s a wonderful tool. I'm always revising as I write. 

I typically revise what I've written the day before, before I start writing new material. But quite often I realise things and go back to join the dots. Story logic is very important. It has to make sense to the reader, even if it's a different sense than they anticipated. People sometimes think that writing fantasy, you can do anything. But you can't. You have to make it connect to what you've already done. 

A fantasy writer creates their own boundaries for what they want to include. You don't have to use contemporary reality. But once you've established your boundaries, you do need to work within them.”

You write and revise as you go. By the end of your first draft for a novel, do you find that when you go back, you're cutting a lot of things?

It depends on what it is. Sometimes there's cutting, sometimes there's adding, sometimes it's just streamlining. But there have been occasions where I've gone back, and I've thought, okay, I do need to make a major cut, or I do need to condense these five chapters into one. 

Sometimes you get a case where an editor will say they don't think something works. I mean, famously, I wrote Libriel and Abhorson, the second two books in the Old Kingdom series, as one big, huge novel. My editor at the time at HarperCollins said she thought there should be two books and that I should expand upon both halves. My initial reaction, as always with editorial input, was “Oh, no, it doesn't need that”. But I also know I need to think about it. And I thought about it, and I thought, “Yes, no, she's right, I do need to do that”. And that took another year, basically. But I separated this huge book into two, adding a lot of material to both parts, and it works a lot better. Things are very malleable until they're done. 

You've said in previous interviews that you discover your characters as you're writing the story. Do you ever find yourself surprised by the things your characters say and do? And how do you know if these moments are consistent with their arc as a character and the narrative overall?

Well, they don't really ever surprise me because I'm in control of them. My characters do what I need them to do for the story. I'm very story-focused. I have an idea where I want the story to go and what the characters will need to do. I guess what I am surprised by quite often is that I may have been thinking a character will behave in a certain way, and then I'll get to a point in the story where I need them to be different. And then I have to think, “How do I make this happen?” So, I guess they surprised me in that sense. But they still do what I want them to do for the story. 

In terms of knowing their arc, a lot of writing is instinctual. It is for me, anyway. Story instinct is trained by reading. All my childhood reading and constant reading thereafter were actually equipping me to be a writer. And then, of course, writing itself. The more you write, the more you learn about how you can tell the story, what your characters need to do, and how to write whatever you need to write.  

I think you do need to stretch yourself sometimes, which is one of the reasons that I love writing short fiction. I used to write a lot of short fiction because you can do very different things. And I find it kind of like an antidote to the novels. A novel is a long haul. I think that's useful in training yourself as a writer: reading lots of different things, because that's how you expose yourself to different techniques. I often read novels that are written in a particularly peculiar fashion to me, but it works, and I think, “OK, it can be done. This is how you do it.” 

Constant learning. 

Constant learning. Absolutely. Every day.

So, on the topic of reading and learning, when did you realise that you were attracted to literature, not just as a reader, but as a writer? What was your journey to becoming a full-time writer?

I always loved telling stories. In my early teens, I started playing role-playing games. Dungeons & Dragons was brand-new, and I discovered it. Didn't know anybody else who played whatsoever. But I got a group of friends together at school, and ran a game for them for about five years. That was a lot of storytelling practice there. And I wrote short stories while I was at school. 

However, I didn't seriously think about becoming a writer until I was travelling in the United Kingdom at 19, rereading many of my favourite books in the places where they were set. I read Dickens in London, Arthur Ransome in the Lake District, Alan Garner in Cheshire, and so on. Rosemary Sutcliffe on Adrian's Wall. As I was reading those books, I thought, “I would like to write one”. 

I was actually writing some short stories and had written half a novel at that time. I should have continued it. I didn't, unfortunately. 

When you finish something, you create possibility.”

If you've got half a novel, nothing's going to happen. And that was a lesson I had to learn. When I came back to Australia, I thought, I do want to be a writer. I was very interested in writers, publishing, and the business of books. I'd read quite a lot of writer biographies, which I still read. And one of the things I realised was that it's a very difficult thing to make a living at. So, I should plan for a day job. 

So I thought, I can get a better day job if I get a degree. I discovered that at that time there was only one creative writing degree in Australia, offered by what is now the University of Canberra. So I did that, and it was great. The main thing was being in the company of writers. 

During that time, a couple of friends and I got a job co-writing a theatre restaurant show, which made us quite a lot of money. So that was getting paid to write, which was fantastic. We also put on a murder-mystery show for a restaurant. And I wrote half of what was to be my first published novel, The Ragwitch, while I was there. 

Then, when I left, I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I also needed a day job. Some friends of mine worked in a bookshop, so I got a job there, and from there, I got a job as a sales rep with a publishing company. And then I worked my way up to being eventually a senior editor at HarperCollins Australia. But I was constantly writing, even while I had those day jobs. 

In terms of being a full-time writer, that opportunity came for the first time in 1997, when I got my first significant American book deal. So I went full-time. I thought, I've always wanted to be a full-time writer, and now I can do it. But I quickly realised I'd gone from being super busy, writing at night and on Sunday afternoons, to not getting anything done. Whereas if you write a couple of nights a week, you can write a book in a year. I actually didn't know how to cope with being a full-time writer. Luckily, I returned to work as a part-time literary agent at Curtis Brown Australia. And I did that for several years whilst also writing. It just gave me structure again. 

At the end of 2001, I couldn't balance the full-time writing and being an agent. So I had to make a choice, and I've been a full-time writer ever since then. By that time, I had developed new routines. Ever since that time, I have treated it as a day job. I'm very lucky. I have a separate office, and I go to work in the morning like an office job. 

When I listen to you talking about it, it seems to me like a fantasy – being this full-time writer, what an amazing thing.

Very few people are. I've been super lucky.

You're travelling and meeting people doing all these different promotional things, but at the same time, the way you approach it is like how you approach your writing. It's all very logical. You got a day job, and you worked your way up. It's just been a journey towards the dream.

You do have to have a lot of luck. You need some talent, obviously. But you have to do the work; that's probably the most important thing.  

Your writing is your best ambassador. Your writing goes off and opens doors, your books and your stories. Every new story, every new book is an opportunity.” 

But I know a lot of people who are very talented and who work very hard, who just haven't had their breaks. And it can be things like the kind of stuff you write just fits in with the zeitgeist, or it doesn't. You know, sort of right place, right time. So yes, if you do the work, it creates the possibility of life taking effect. Writing is a very chancey proposition, and the day job is very important for a lot of people. Historically, that was always the case. Many, many famous writers had day jobs.

It's the way of perceiving it, right? It shouldn't necessarily be about making it your sole profession, but more about an identity and how you go about your craft. 

Yeah, I mean, you're a writer if you write. You know, that's all it is. The rest is sort of icing on the cake.

What is one of the hardest lessons you've learned about being an author?

That's a tricky one. I guess, because I worked in publishing for a long time while being an author, I knew a lot about how things worked on that side. So it has always tempered my expectations, understanding how things work or don't work and when things happen. I think it’s one of those constant things for a writer, that you don't know what will happen with a new book or a new story. You hope that it will connect with people. Obviously, it's fantastic if it becomes a bestseller and so forth. But maybe it's that unknown. Each time you finish a book, you don't know what will happen. But I’ve certainly always known that, and I deal with it. 

I tell people who are starting out as writers that it's important to already be working on the next thing and not to obsess about what's happening with whatever you've got out there. Whether you've self-published it and no one's buying it, or you've sent it out on submission and it's taking forever for anything to happen. It's important not to be thinking about what's going on with that past project. It's important to be in the middle of a current project. Because whatever happens, you're going to need that next thing. If things don't work out and the book doesn't work, you need another one to have another chance.

Do you have any words of wisdom for us students in times of doubt and when perseverance is in limited supply?

I mean, I've been doing this for a very long time. I've written 40 books. You still feel that doubt every time. Everyone, very established writers I know, household names, they still have that struggle. Is this book any good? Have I forgotten how to write? All those things. And, unfortunately, the only answer to it is perseverance. But that said, I do think there are also times when you should go do something else. Go for a walk, go for a swim, look at the sky, go watch a film, or go look at art. Other people's creations often help re-energise your own. Another thing is taking time to step back from the big project and write something short. Everyone struggles, everyone doubts, but going on is important. And as I said, finishing things is important. If you finish it, the possibility exists. So you've got to try and push on and hope for luck.

Yes, I think that's my favourite quote of today. Having something finished gives you the opportunity to see where it can go. Well, that was about all the questions I had, and we're running perfectly on time. So, thank you so much for meeting me, and I really appreciate all of your wise words.

Thank you. Good luck with your writing.

Sincerely, thank you. Take care!

See Garth Nix at the Sydney Writers Festival on the 23rd of May, on the Fantastical Worlds panel. In conversation with authors Lev Grossman and R. F. Kuang, they will discuss how “fantasy is fiction at its escapism best”.