Next month is NaNoWriMo and I have an idea for a novel. I’ve had this idea since NaNoWriMo 2017 and have been running through different storylines in my head for almost a year. I’m keen to do NaNoWriMo again this year, despite the lack of time I have available and how overworked I am. I…
Let’s talk about getting to that second draft. For me, the hardest part of editing the first draft has been reworking the plot. The plot in my novel is quite complex, though it can be broadly split into three main sections, which I’ve been able to map out quite well (see Aristotle’s plot structure for…
Yeah, so, the last few weeks have sucked. I haven’t done anything on my digital poetry project. I’ve only edited one chapter of my novel. I have written four poems, but the one I’m most happy with isn’t publishable (I wrote it while I was upset with someone, which is a shame, because it’s a…
Creating worlds is hard. Or, should I say, creating believable worlds is hard. Thankfully, earlier this week, I was able to sit down with an expert. I e-met science-fiction/fantasy author Lee Battersby when he emailed me through my website and asked me to judge the City of Rockingham’s Christmas Poetry Competition. I judged that competition twice…
This week just been I moved house (and got sick, thanks Rob/Garth!). I also, finally, got to announce that I’ll be an invited artist at the 2018 National Young Writers Festival. I’ll be honest, I’ve been struggling with my writing lately. Work has been stressful; I was covering for another staff member for three weeks,…
I finally got around to rewriting the opening chapters of my novel, and it’s taken me a very long time. I did no research before writing the first draft and, as a result, I made a lot of assumptions that needed to be changed. Natasha Lester, a writer of historical fiction, explains that she does…
Scott-Patrick Mitchell (SPM) is a performance poet based in Perth, Western Australia who is constantly taking risks and experimenting with new forms of writing. He’s recently started writing fiction, and I’ve been quite eager to talk to him about whether poetry has supported or complicated the transition. As well as his work in writing, SPM is…
A few days ago I read an article by Brooke Boland, which covers three different trends in the publishing industry. The one that caught my attention was the lack in growth in ebooks and digital publishing. As someone with a background in electronic literature, I was quite eager to investigate why the accessibility of the…
For me, writing about trauma is confusing. Having experienced some similar traumas to the main character (and narrator) in my book, I feel I’m able to give her voice a lot of authenticity. However, a lot of the experiences in the book also trigger some of my own, and I end up feeling a lot…
Children’s author Josh Langley is a guru when it comes to how to be creative and let go of your fears. How do I know this? Well, he helped me. I first met Josh Langley at the 2016 Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, where we were both participating authors. Josh and I met at…