First up, the goal-related news … I actually didn’t get much writing at all done in February. Even the posts you saw were mostly written in January, and I’m afraid that’ll be the case for the next couple of months, as I’ve been struck with pregnancy-carpal-tunnel – basically the same as regular carpal tunnel, but a whole lot better, because after I give birth to this kid in April my wrists and hands should return to normal and I’ll be typing away with the best of ‘em. So I’ve had …

“Are you bored yet?” This is the most common question that people have been asking me since I’ve become a bit housebound thanks to some pregnancy dramas. At first, I was a little surprised to be asked. Then it kept happening, and I realised that obviously a lot of people think they would be bored if they were in my situation, “stuck” at home.
Of course, I’d much prefer to be still at work teaching, and also able to get out of the house a bit more (although I don’t miss …

As I promised – a lot more for my benefit than for yours – I’m going to check in at the end of each month to see how my progress is going on my New Year’s resolutions. You know how it is, especially for me, a bit of external pressure knowing that someone out there might be wondering if I’m keeping up my promises or not really helps me to do it.
The great news is that so far, the progress I’m making on my resolutions is pretty excellent! Considering we’re …

I recently got a message from a writer named Robert Scarlato, and although he’s really just starting out, it didn’t take me long to be impressed by both his productivity and his sensible self-marketing. He asked if he could do a guest post here at Becoming A Fiction Writer and I readily agreed:
I used to struggle all the time with writer’s block. After writing one book, from midnight to six am, while still a freshman in high school, I found that one of the best ways to get your writing …

It’s almost a fortnight since I updated you on the progress I’m making with finishing off the writing of  my Bratislava novel, and I’m proud to say I’m still on track to have it fully written and even pretty well revised and edited in time for the ABNA contest. (Obviously, completed edited with heaps of time to spare would be better, but life just isn’t always like that).
One of my students (thanks, Val!) gave me this mug recently, courtesy of our Margaret River Chocolate Factory – in case you can’t …

Oops. I just looked back at the writing resolutions I made for 2009. There were just four of them, and in any average year I think they would’ve been pretty achievable. But this wasn’t such an average year, as you’ll guess by my dropping out of the blogosphere for half of it.
Just the same,  I did manage to partially achieve some of my 2009 resolutions. The second goal was to finish revising Kanako’s Foreigner and submit it to agents; well, I finished revising it, submitted it to the ABNA contest …

Last week at one of my favourite blogs, The Professional Hobo, Nora wrote a very nerve-touching post about the lack of support she felt she got from friends when she published her first book – to summarise, she kind of expected a few more of them to buy and read it, and was disappointed when they didn’t. And I had to agree with a lot of her feelings and experiences.
Being a writer is a bit of a mysterious job. Unless you write (and get published, somewhere and somehow) yourself, I …

You may have noticed I haven’t stopped by this blog for a lil’ while. Sometimes life does get in the way of writing, no matter how hard you try to stop it, and that’s sure what happened this year. While I’ve kept up my paid blogging more-or-less, finding the mental space and the physical time to be creative hasn’t quite been there, for a bunch of now-not-so-important reasons that I might go into later.
What I find interesting, and wanted to share today, is the process of how the need and …

No doubt some of you have been wondering how I went with my 15-day creation challenge and my goal of getting my novel ready for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The good news is: I did it!
Procrastination overcome by short-term goals

I really have to shout out a huge thank you to Zoe at Essential Prose for coming up with this 15-day challenge. The goal was to choose a project and work on it for an hour a day for 15 days. I’m actually pretty amazed at how well this worked.
Perhaps …

Not only did I start 2009 a lot later than others, I just can’t seem to get back into my fiction writing. I think being away from my computer over the holidays was something I quite enjoyed, so now that I’m back home I get my paid writing done – the “must” part of my writing life – and then get as far away from the keyboard as possible – often, I must admit, into the swimming pool.
Editing my Japan-based novel

Since an important goal of mine this year is to …