Nigel Featherstone: My Heart is a Little Wild Thing
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this post from one of my favourite writers, Nigel Featherstone. Nigel’s latest novel, ‘My Heart is a Little Wild Thing’ has been described as, ‘Powerful, tender, visceral and sublime–a must-read piece of...
Sharron Booth: The Myth of ‘Follow Your Dream’
I loved this gorgeously wise post by WA début author, Sharron Booth. I know writers, and readers, will love it too, as we all resonate with the struggles of writing a book and getting published. It’s never straightforward and Sharron’s post, with its truth and...
Writing the First Draft is the Hardest Part
People talk about plotters versus pantsers, and those who write their books sequentially versus those who write them ad hoc. But not many talk about those who enjoy writing a first draft and hate editing, and those who despise the messy first draft but love the...
10 Things I Learnt From Writing My Second Novel
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. For many reasons, including that I’ve had my head down finishing off Novel #2, I’ve been busy scribbling Novel #3 (over 50,000 words in already) and I’ve been working on a few other projects (see below)....
Portland Jones: Turning Family History into Historical Fiction
It’s with great joy I welcome Portland Jones back to the attic today. She visited back in 2019 – read that post here – but our friendship goes back to 2014, when we were both shortlisted for the City of Fremantle – TAG Hungerford Award. Portland has just...
Maria Papas: Lessons from ten year old me: how to tell a difficult story
Welcome to Writers in the Attic for 2022! I have some wonderful authors lined up already, and I’m looking forward to bringing you their stories from behind-the-scenes. I don’t know about you, but over this past two years, books have become a touchstone for...
David Allan-Petale: From Fact to Fiction
Well, I could say the locusts have taken over the attic this week: David Allan-Petale has come in to talk about his book, Locust Summer, and his metamorphosis from journalist to author. On the face of it, the two seem similar – both are writing, both tell stories –...
The Big Thing I Learnt From Writing My Second Novel: My Writing Process
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...
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...