03 Mar How to cut out the boring stuff & be a better writer
When I started off as a journalist I was fortunate enough to work alongside Mick Brown, a brilliant writer and long-time journalist at London’s Daily Telegraph. He’d read my stories...
Blog
25 Feb How to get your reader to care
What’s most important in your writing is to get the reader to care – about the main character, the story, the idea. In fiction you don’t necessarily need to like...
18 Feb There’s no right way to write
This month I started teaching Creative Writing at the Australian Writers’ Centre. The premise of the course is ‘There’s no right way to write.’ Of course, there isn’t. Anyone who tells...
11 Feb Why fear stops us writing
I’m a great one for New Year’s resolutions. Starting or re-starting a writing project in the first quarter is sensible. You have the rest of the year to get it...
28 Nov Embrace the chaos of writing
I’m deep into writing a company autobiography about the Kensington Colleges at the moment. The deadline is fast approaching and there’s still too much to do. When you have a big...
14 Nov Dealing with rejection
No-one likes rejection. But every writer faces it. Martin Green from Pantera Press recently wrote, ‘Virtually every best-selling author was rejected by every publisher they contacted except the one where they...
07 Nov Writing to inspire yourself
How often do you stop and write for yourself? Not because you must or you’ve got a deadline to make – just for the pleasure of putting pen to paper...
24 Oct How writing can reduce your stress
Ask anyone who writes regularly in a private journal why they do it and they usually say, ‘because it makes me feel better.’ I started writing a diary aged nine....
04 Oct Take a risk with your writing
Overlooking the town of Laurieton is a mountain called ‘Big Brother’. The day after my workshops there I went to the top and there was a parasailer preparing to jump...
27 Sep How to write about place
Last week I ran two special workshops in the small coastal town of Laurieton on the mid-north coast of NSW. They were held in the old boat shed of the...