2020 Stocktake
At the risk of repeating what everyone else is saying, I’m pretty sure most of us will be waving a hearty good riddance to 2020 at midnight tonight, booting it over the nearest horizon and hoping for a kinder 2021. A year without a new pandemic is high on my priority...
Guest Post: Re-Discovering the Joy of Writing
This week I popped over to Lee Kofman’s wonderful blog and wrote a guest post. It only took me five drafts before I was able to articulate what I really wanted to say about the struggles of writing a second book compared to the joy of writing a first, and all...
Varuna 2019
So I’ve returned home from Varuna, a writers’ house in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of NSW. I’ve spent time at Varuna before (see here and here), back in 2014 when I was the recipient of a residential fellowship, so I knew it was exactly what I...
12 Tips on Giving a Good Author Talk
As a published author, you’re expected to speak at writers festivals, libraries, book clubs and to writing and community groups. But, if you’re anything like me, the notion of public speaking might fill you with terror. I’m not, by nature, a public...
Three Things I Need Before I Can Write A Novel
At the end of last year, I wrote a post called The Trouble With Second Novels after I’d abandoned my second attempt at writing a second novel. At that time, I was trying to keep myself buoyant because I was feeling rather deflated—I’d hoped to...
The Trouble With Second Novels
This afternoon while it was 38ºC outside, I sat at my desk and opened my current manuscript. It had been a while since I’d written and, although I’ve missed creating sentences, I’d needed the break. I’ve been working on my second novel for most of...
Social Media For Writers
A couple of weeks ago, I asked you to send me your questions about social media. I received quite a few, too many to answer all in one post, so I chose the questions that seemed to have the broadest appeal. As you’ll see, my answers are lengthy as I’ve...
How I Got An Agent
A few weeks ago, Lauren Keegan invited me to be part of her monthly blog series, How I Got An Agent. You might remember Lauren from this amazingly honest and moving post she wrote for Writers in the Attic last year. She wrote about rejection, something all...
How to Write a Book Part #6: How to Write a Book (Again)
My guest in the attic today is one of the most generous writers around, always happy to share her experience and knowledge—her blog posts, articles and podcasts certainly helped me as a fledgling writer. She’s also one of the busiest people in Australia, and...
How to Write a Book Part #5: Seeking Feedback
It’s no news to any writer that seeking feedback on your work is one of the hardest things about this writing business. Yet, if we want to be published, at some stage we must put our words, stories and characters out there to be scrutinised by others. It’s as...