You know how people often say that kids teach you a lot? Well, turns out that it’s true. I’m not sure they meant what I’m about to say though. I learnt something from my little boy’s T-shirt the other day. Have a look:

Yes, I’d bought this cute little T-shirt thinking that it’d be sweet to show the world what I think of him – that he’s Mr Perfect. But the universe, a slightly oversized T-shirt, his squirminess and one letter hiding under the armpit all combined to make him Mr …

So as you know I’ve now got a baby, and it probably won’t surprise you at all to hear that this means finding time to write is trickier than ever. I seem to be getting a few windows of opportunity at the end of the day but these windows seem to be quickly filled with doing the writing that pays the bills (necessary) and feeling extraordinarily tired (unavoidable). But rather than waiting until my little boy has grown up – although that sometimes seems the easiest solution to the “when …

I recently reviewed Peter’s new edition of The Thinker’s Thesaurus, and invited him to write a guest post here at Becoming A Fiction Writer to defend his suggestion that we writers should use more sophisticated words. Here ’tis – well worth reading. You might change your mind. Oh, and the pic’s of Peter (my idea not his), so you’ll know who you’re hearing from.

My vocabulary is perfect; yours is pompous or deficient

As a group, those who read the blog posts on this website are about as linguistically elite as they …

Yes, you could call this a thinly-disguised excuse for posting a picture of my gorgeous new baby. Ruben is much more handsome than a picture of either of my novels as they currently stand. But in fact, it’s actually true that after his birth, I decided that the process of bringing him into the world was considerably easier than the process of bringing a novel into the world.
Sure, it took us a few years to actually “get” Ruben, and my pregnancy wasn’t easy – especially for my writing, since it …

I don’t know where I first heard the term, but I’ve always rather liked the idea of asking people to delurk. If you haven’t heard this term before, the Urban Dictionary says it means:
Entering an online discussion after a time spent lurking, esp. if suddenly prompted to do so.
In other words, if you’ve been reading this blog regularly, but I don’t know about it because you’ve never commented or contacted me, then this is your big chance to delurk. I love interacting with readers and if you make some comments here …

It’s quite a long time ago that I blogged about the benefits of a fiction writer getting creatively divergent (or doing “creativity cross-training“, which sounds a bit too athletic!). But just because I haven’t blogged about it, doesn’t mean I haven’t done it.
As I see it, getting your right and left brain working together in ways other than writing has got to be a good change and (hopefully) benefit your writing. For some reason the craft of amigurumi has popped up on the internet in front of me quite a …

My other half refuses to sit down at my computer any more because he can’t type using my keyboard. I guess, looking at this picture, I can understand why. I type so much, and probably a little too fast and too hard, with the tough fingernails I inherited from my mother, and the letters have worn off many of the keys. And this is the second keyboard I’ve been through in about a year.
I don’t usually notice because 95% of the time I touch type, but there are odd occasions …

Books are not usually the stars of cool photos, but this is really an exception. Recently at Bondi Beach in Sydney (oh, how I wish I could have popped over to Sydney and seen this in person!) a furniture store (one I like, but nonetheless won’t plug on my blog) set up this display of bookshelves and organised a “book swap”. You could bring your own books and swap them for ones on the shelf, or just take a book and give a gold coin donation, with proceeds going to …

Sara, one of my cats, who doesn’t talk in her sleep
Inspiration for fiction writers can come from all kinds of places. I’m always on the lookout for quirky stuff that might just set my creative juices flowing when I’m not feeling in such a creative mood. And there’s nothing like a bizarre website like Sleep Talkin’ Man to inspire you.
Apparently this British guy talks in his sleep pretty much every night, and his American wife records what he says (not sure when she sleeps!). She then blogs it the next …

Just before Christmas, a colleague of mine excitedly recommended a book she was reading (thanks, Kath!): The Doorbells of Florenceby Andrew Losowsky. It’s quite a special book to look at – a small hard back with nice quality paper, full of colour photographs, graphics and an attractive font. And it’s not only attractive physically, but the whole idea of it is absolutely adorable.
Basically, it was inspired by Losowsky’s random decision to photograph a bunch of doorbells in Florence. Fortunately, Italian doorbells are a lot more beautiful than my rather uninspiring …