Advice for writers.
(Or, five things I have learnt from attending recent writery parties) There are many reasons to be jolly during the festive season, but it’s also a time of being mindful of others. If you don’t want to make any festive faux pas, at writery events, family or work parties, then…
Our imaginations have the power to create anything we like. We can invent magical things or experiences that we dream will come true. We can conceive explanations where none are forthcoming and in that way make life exciting and mysterious. We can dream big and in doing so give purpose…
This week I’m over at Routledge, being studied in a paper about social semiotics. It’s a continuation of the mStories project, for which I wrote my flash fiction story The Voice (click here to read for free!). The paper is by Jessica K Frawley and Laurel E Dyson from the…
Over the last few weeks I have experienced life as a publisher – and the journey has given me some interesting industry insights. Firstly, I’d best explain that I haven’t changed professions – I am now and will always be first and foremost a writer. My transition has been a…
Yay – to date, I’ve won first place in eight national writing competitions here in Australia, ten if you count my co-authored work. How? Well, that’s a good question, with a very simple answer: you have to know your market. To do this, you can start by researching: Who’s running…
Last week, a reader asked me how I go about creating memorable characters everyone loves. The simple answer I gave them was: I don’t. When it comes to fiction’s greatest and most memorable characters, we all have our favourites. Among mine are Gatsby, Hamlet, Scarlet O’Hara, Rhett Butler, and Bella…
This week I was hanging out with teenage writers, helping them write their stories and get those words into print. When I was a young writer, writing was absolutely everything to me. It was more important in fact than anything else in life – friends, family, school, even my personal…
