Querying Agents and Publishers
I've made another video and in this one I talk about querying agents and/or publishers. I include a few pointers on what you need before pitching, whether to try for an agent or publisher first, how to research which agent or publisher might be a good fit for you, and...
Writing About Hard Stuff
One of the most common questions I get asked by other writers is how to write about things that are hard to write about. Topics like past trauma or difficult family relationships or things about which we're embarrassed. In this video, I talk about how I trick myself...
The Big Thing I Learnt From Writing My Second Novel
Three years ago, I wrote a blog post for Allison Tait about 10 Things I Learnt From Writing My Début Novel. All of those lessons were incredibly important, but there was one thing I didn't learn in the writing of that first novel, which I talk about in this video....
How to Start Writing
Back in the day, I used to blog quite regularly (I wrote about that here), mainly because it enabled me to put my thoughts and experiences into words, and publish them without asking anyone's permission. I liked, too, that I could edit a post after pressing Publish,...
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 the...
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 needed at this point...
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 speaker. Speaking...
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 have a...
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 this year. So far,...
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 tried to write...
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,...
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 somehow...
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...
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,...
