Karenlee Thompson: Conversations With God (or Who Dares Wins)
My guest in the attic today is Karenlee Thompson. Her post tells the story of how she garnered all the bravado she could find in order to approach someone she revered—the ‘God’ of the title to this piece—to not only read her collection of short...
Linda Strader: ‘Dear Diary …’
Although this series is open to any writer from anywhere, most of my guests have been Australian. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce an international guest, Linda Strader, who visits the attic from the USA. Read Linda’s story about writing a memoir and...
How to Write a Book #4: Learning the Craft
In a previous post for this series, I wrote about how hard it was to wear ‘L’ plates again after deciding to become a writer in my early forties. Today, I’m going to talk about how I actually learnt the craft of writing. At the time I started writing,...
Karen Lee: If the Cloak Fits
A few weeks ago, after I shared this How to Write a Book post, a writer I didn’t know emailed me. That writer’s name was Karen Lee, and she told me that she’d read my post whilst at the hairdressers. It was the first time she’d visited a...
Fiona Robertson: Beginning Again
Every week I say I’m honoured to share the post for the attic and you’re probably sick of reading that phrase. However, each week I am honoured to share the guest post, as well as humbled and a little thrilled that someone has written such a moving...
Tess Woods: What Makes a Real Writer?
Today I welcome Tess Woods into the attic. I’m so proud to share this essay because Tess is a dear friend of mine. It’s written in her inimitable style and with her trademark length (she’s never short for a word 😉 ). You won’t regret taking the...
How to Write a Book #3: A Glimpse Into My Editing Process
Editing your own writing is hard, so today I thought I’d give you a glimpse into my editing process using an example from my novel. Most of my novel has undergone extensive editing—only a handful of scenes came to me fully formed. I’ve...
Ruth Dawkins: The Best is Yet to Come
I’m excited because today’s writer in the attic comes from one of my favourite places in the entire world, my old hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. All of the things she writes about Hobart in this piece are true, and her words brought back memories of things...
Alyssa Mackay: Me, Myself and Author
A couple of months’ ago, I came across a hilarious blog post, First thoughts reading my first draft, on Alyssa Mackay’s website. It had me in stitches, so I browsed Alyssa’s other posts and saw she wasn’t a one-hit wonder—there were other...
How To Write a Book #2: Take Your Writing Seriously
Continuing with my series on ‘How to Write a Book’, this week I thought I’d write on another aspect I found particularly difficult to put into practice: Taking my writing seriously. I’m never comfortable giving advice—I prefer to write about my...