You might remember that one of the goals I successfully met this year was to submit a novel to the Australian/Vogel Literary Award contest. I did it – albeit a novel that I think needs a lot of revision, but at least a full verison exists thanks to the deadline of the contest – and the act of sending in that manuscript really meant a lot to me. And I hope to enter the Vogel with a new novel every year until I can’t (which, with an upper age limit …

Each time I enter the quarterly Writers Weekly 24-hour short story contests, I try to use a different approach to writing the short story. I’m a little ashamed to say that this year, these are the only short stories I’ve written, but it’s definitely been more of a long fiction year.
Anyway, in the July competition I did a lot more serious plot planning than usual; back in April I did a lot of brainstorming and then a one-hit write. This time round I decided to use a strategy I’d read …

In the ongoing saga of unpacking my boxes of books, I’ve come across yet another interesting (and practically historical!) find. Back in 2000 and 2001, I was living in Perth (having never left it – I did so in mid-2001) and I was just starting to get back into writing after not doing much since I left high school. It was good timing, because at the same moment, writing online was just starting to take off.
I’ve just unearthed my writing diary from 2001 – appropriately, it was a Dymock’s “Booklovers’ …

What’s the difference between me and a stand-up comedian? Obviously, the comedian is funny, and I’m not. But that hasn’t stopped me from being a little bit inspired by an article I read in this morning’s West about Wil Anderson, an Aussie stand-up who became famous to me when he worked on Triple J radio as the breakfast announcer.
The bit that inspired me was how he decided to give up all semblance of a “good job” and try being a stand-up comedian full-time. Actually, he got the advice from further …

I didn’t really mean to, but I’ve been having a feast of writing how-to books passing through my life lately. Usually I try to ration that kind of stuff out – because the one thing that’s a whole lot better than reading writing how-to books is definitely just WRITING – but the writing’s been in a bit of a lull and a bunch of how-to books that I’ve had on reserve at the library for ages just all arrived at once.
Which means this week I’ve been devouring Stephen King’s On …

Over the weekend I pondered the fact that if somebody was growing a beard and not cutting it or shaving it off until I published my first novel, then perhaps I would feel more obliged to get writing more quickly.
So far, nobody has offered to grow a beard for me (and thankfully, my husband hasn’t read about it … well I don’t think he has. Come to think of it, though, when he picked me up from the train station tonight the welcome kiss was very stubbly).
However, I have had …

This is a post of two extremes. To start with, I have to rant and rave about published books that include spelling or grammar errors. I hate that. I really hate that. This week I’ve been reading two books that were both self-published – one a novel, one a non-fiction book – and both are riddled with errors. I’m not talking just the odd missing apostrophe or one or two misspelt words, but the kind of errors that would leave the pages obliterated in red ink if I was doing …

It’s Friday afternoon, after a spectacularly unsuccessful writing week, and I’m in a bit of a silly mood. Which is probably why this article on a Metallica fan at Ananova inspired me today.
The story goes that Metallica fan Mick Cassidy bet his wife that he wouldn’t shave his beard off until Metallica released a new album. His beard grew and grew (and his wife probably grew more and more irate – I know I would) and a long five years went on before Metallica finally released a new album. Cassidy …

I’ve been swamped by day job and night job tasks recently – with an extra teaching load and a bit more writing to do, and I have been almost completely ignoring the actual writing of fiction. But I haven’t been ignoring the idea of fiction writing at all, as I’ve been immersing myself again in podcasts and books that have given me all kinds of great ideas and inspiration.
This week on the train I whizzed through the newest Armistead Maupin book, Michael Tolliver Lives – and it was such a …

One of the podcasts I regularly listen to (see – I promised I’d be listening to more podcasts again soon) is actually produced by a huge chain book store that I actually don’t really like that much, but their podcast series is great. I guess I have to tell you what I’m talking about – it’s the Barnes & Noble Meet the Writers series and the interviewer, Steve Bertrand, just does such great interviews with various writers that I always enjoy listening to them. That, and they’re short – usually …