Category: How To and Tips
Dialogue: Say, Say, Say What You Want, Although …
Most writers would agree they love interacting with other writers. After all, who understands the trials, tribulations, crippling self-doubt and (at times elusive) euphoria better than a fellow author? But ask us scribblers how we feel about writing dialogue and it seems the group is split clean down the middle. Half of us love to […]
On Finishing What We Start, and Other Writerly Myths
I often joke with friends that if you don’t finish what you start, you’ll end up with a trail of half-eaten sandwiches around the house. I don’t remember where I first heard this analogy for unfinished work, but it’s such a vivid image that it’s stuck with me all these years. Can you imagine how […]
Back to Square One: A Celebration
It happened, like most things in my writing life were wont to do, at 11pm. I opened the laptop, looked at the ghostwriting project I was working on, and realised that I was done with my itinerant writing life. It was time to go back to my true love: fiction. Of course, I’ll write whatever […]
The Challenges and Joys of Writing Historical Fiction for Teenagers
Flying through Clouds is my new historical novel for young adults, and follows on from my first novel, Racing the Moon, which was published in Australia in 2014. Although both novels share the same main character and are set mostly in Sydney in the 1930s, the stories are quite different, and so were my […]
Five Things I Did Wrong In My (First) Novel
Like many writers, my debut novel, Everything But The Truth,is not really my debut. I always feel like a fraud admitting that, but I am sure I’m not alone. The truth is, however latent your talent, however strong your drive, writing is a skill, and knowing how to write a book needs to be learnt, […]
Tips For Staying Sane While Writing A Memoir
“You can do this” “No I can’t.” “Yes you can, just focus.” “I think I’m just going to go for another walk and then eat a biscuit” “Okay fine – but then back to work. You have a book to write.” “Blergh.” This was me. Having a chat with myself in the bathroom mirror for […]
Writing The Dreaded Synopsis
Some authors say that writing a whole novel is easier than writing a synopsis. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I agree it sure as hell ain’t easy! Why is it so hard? There are a number of factors, I think. First, it seems so unfair that, having spent months or even years […]
My Writing Process: From Idea to Published Book
By the end of this year, I’ll have ten books on the shelves, in two genres and two separate series. Yet, every single one of them started with some kernel that excited me – a “What if” that spiraled into 60-100,000 words. For the latest book in my Profiler series, the kernel came from several […]
Finding A Voice
Honesty: My debut novel, The Exclusives, is a psychological thriller set in an all-girls boarding school. Initially, the book was a romantic comedy inspired by the American film with Drew Barrymore, Never Been Kissed (still one of my favourites nearly twenty years on.) As I was writing the novel I was being tutored by Esther […]
You Know More than You Think, So Trust the Process
Just before I gave up on my master’s thesis – a sprawling social novel called Florida Pure – I sat in front of my laptop in a panic, turning to the bookshelf behind me and pulling down beloved novels, reading their first paragraphs and comparing them to mine. It was an exercise in self-sabotage. I […]
Recent Comments