What I have learnt is that when I am writing I need to know the place I am writing. I have to have a picture of it in my head. Where I went wrong was letting the place in my head change. In the first draft of Cassandra, the characters did things in the space they lived … Continue reading Draw a line through your imagination
Tag: Writing Fix
Blog posts – 5 things I have learnt so far
Blogging helps me to strengthen my writing muscles. The instant publishing and need to consider an audience is helping me to be both flexible and controlled. Like a gymnast! I also learn a lot from reading blogs and trying to emulate what I see. 1.Have a Hook When you communicate on Facebook you are appealing to … Continue reading Blog posts – 5 things I have learnt so far
A Ute is a real thing
As an Australian writer, I am sometimes surprised by what gets lost in translation. Most recently it was my assertion that a character could walk straight from her classroom to the outside. One of the wonderful critters in my international writers' group found this odd. It never occurred to me that our Australian schools are different. … Continue reading A Ute is a real thing
Jane Austen and slow cooked pork
The Pocket Book Club went classic this month reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This was my sneaky choice. I picked it because I wanted to make my mother read a Jane Austen book. Luckily a successful experiment. Why Pride and Prejudice? I could have chosen another, but last year was 20 years since the … Continue reading Jane Austen and slow cooked pork
Editors are like nutritional supplements
In the olden days, when I was in high school, we wrote out our assignments by hand. Pen and paper. We even ruled a red line along the edge of the page as the margin. My friend Shelly said to me one day, the difference between her and our friend Victoria, was that if Shelly's … Continue reading Editors are like nutritional supplements
What I learned from Bobbie Gentry
I grew up with limited television. We had two channels, and when I was at boarding school, one television for 100 girls (and the same two channels). We did not go on too many holidays, but when I was about 13 we spent a week or two at the beach and I luxuriously watched all … Continue reading What I learned from Bobbie Gentry
Brands are for cows!
Now there is a book on the way (see There is a book stuck in my birth canal) apparently I am supposed to get serious about 'brand'. Being a farmer's daughter, I just want to say, branding is what we did to cows. We lit a little fire, put the brand in to heat up and … Continue reading Brands are for cows!
There’s book stuck in my birth canal
If writing a book is like pregnancy, then conception is the spark of ideas - exciting and new. Gestation is the long haul of writing, the all-day morning sickness, the lumpy lugging around of the protruding manuscript, and the occasional joyful kick and the happy knowledge that something is growing. When the thing is fully … Continue reading There’s book stuck in my birth canal