Inspiration for Writers
Getting back on the train soon
I’ve had a car for most of winter, which is handy for getting to work when it’s cold and dark in the mornings. But it does mean that I’m missing an important ritual of my teaching days: catching the train and the bus. I’ll have to give up this car again soon, but I’m really [...]
Visual inspiration: My wall of photos
When I started thinking about my second novel, to be set in Bratislava, I knew I wanted to do things differently from the first time, when I set my novel in Japan.
I set off writing about Japan with barely a look back at my diaries, notes and photographs of my time there. I did this [...]
Listening to the Perth Writers Festival
Yes, it’s a fair while back that I actually went to February’s Perth Writers Festival but I’ve only just got around to catching up on the promised podcasts of the sessions. At the time, some of the session organisers had promised that they would soon become available online to listen to, and in February and [...]
Randy Pausch, the ultimate inspirer, inspires me too
And before you say it, yes, inspirer is apparently a real word (I wasn’t sure). If you’re the 0.0001% of people who haven’t been following the story of US lecturer Randy Pausch, then give yourself a gift by watching his famous Last Lecture on YouTube. It’s all about making the most of life, achieving your [...]
Melbourne mind meltdown
I was looking forward to exploring Melbourne last week to refresh my mind with a few new sights and sounds. And my Melbourne trip definitely had this effect, but surprisingly almost a little too much. I can’t imagine now how my brain used to survive when I was travelling for months at a time through [...]
Creativity is written in the stars
My horoscope looks good this week. Now, I usually only glance at a horoscope page as an example of creative fiction, but when it’s good, I’m happy to believe it. Some astrologer in a local paper is predicting me a four-star week and in particular, a good week for a fiction writer:
Classy Venus moves into [...]
I’m planning to get creatively divergent soon …
About a fortnight ago I wrote about doing some creativity cross-training to help my fiction writing - that is, doing some form of creative activity that I don’t usually do with the idea that it could help expand my creative thinking in general, and therefore, hopefully improve my writing too.
The main feedback I got was [...]
A change of scenery: Melbourne beckons
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bit of a holiday, and since I was accustomed to jetting off all over Asia or Europe or even further afield while I was living abroad, my soul’s taken a bit of a battering. Which is why I’m pretty excited to be spending a week in [...]
Meme me: 6 things about me and my writing
The always-interesting Guera (current location: Mexico) tagged me for the 6 Things Meme which I thought I could turn into a bit more background about me with a heavy fiction writing slant. (No, that doesn’t mean I’m going to just make stuff up, although that does sound like an attractive thought.)
Before I start, the rules, [...]
Creativity tips: Cross-training
I think I’ve said before that I’ve never had a problem with writers’ block, just a problem with sitting down and actually writing. So I nearly didn’t read a recent post at Tina Su’s Think Simple Now when it came through on my blog reader, despite it being titled “Connect With Your Creative Writer”, because [...]