Advice for writers.
Characters, characters, characters – they’ve dominated my last few weeks. This weekend I judged the Mosman Youth Awards in Literature and was impressed by how well entrants got into the heads of such a diverse range of characters – young and elderly, real and surreal, abstract and concrete, monstrous and…
Opportunity can be a funny old creature. It often hides in the shadows out of reach or lurks where you least expect to find it. It can disguise itself as a closed door or sheer cliff-face drop destined to destroy you. It can seem to offer itself to everyone else…
Life doesn’t always go to plan. This week I’ve received a career knock back every single day. Every – single – day. I celebrate a lot of my successes on this blog, but it’s just as important to share my behind-the-scene disappointments – that way you get to experience my…
Sometimes as a writer it’s hard to know how much impact your words are having in the world. After all, how do you monitor ‘impact’ – by sales figures, fan mail, awards, the number of stories you’ve published, Twitter follower figures, or something else? I like to think of it…
Over the years, I’ve mentored scores of writers on their quests to write or finish writing a book. Recently, I had the privilege of mentoring Victoria on her quest to write a children’s chapter book about the fashion industry. Her main character Georgiana dreams of one day becoming a famous…
Wow, my first YouTube video is out NOW! Big thanks to the Thomas Keneally Centre at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts for inviting me to give this YouTube talk about ‘Towards White’ (IFWG, 2017), to Phil for filming, and to Dom at Desire Books in Manly for hosting us.…
Wow, what a ride of a year! I’ve had lots of ups, and lots of downs. I always try to focus on the ups, however, not the downs, in an attempt to continually inspire myself (and others), rather than drag myself (and others) down. So at this very self-reflective time…
