-
September: In which chaos reigned
In this month in review it’s hard not to look back at all that’s changed in 2022. It’s been two months since we moved from suburbia to my partner’s dairy farm. It’s been three months since I left my job in publishing to better support the farm, cuddle up with my toddler and pursue freelance…
-
Organising my Short Story Files
The time has come to *shudder* organise my short story files. I’ve been writing short stories since I was about sixteen. Before I had ever even read an actual short story! Needless to say I have a lot of files. Countless short stories with countless drafts. Not to mention all the half-baked ideas where I…
-
Writing characters that can be adapted for the screen
In a previous role I was lucky enough to meet with one of the CEOs of a pretty major animation studio. They were looking for children’s fiction with non-human protagonists who, rather than being children, were childlike. Think Shrek and Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey. As an aspiring writer I also know that the prevailing…
-
Writing on the Train
If you use public transport to get to work each day, chances are you have a chunk of free time in which to write. When I was working full time in Sydney my commute was more than 2 hours each way. When people heard how long my commute was they always assumed it was a…
-
2018 in Review
I write this on the early train to Sydney. It’s my first day back at my new job, at a major publishing company, after Christmas. It’s the second of January 2019 and I already know this year is gonna rock my life like no other… But lets not get ahead of ourselves. This post is…
-
Writing Practice, Like Actual Practice
I’m a lazy writer. Sometime in the last year, I don’t when, I decided I didn’t need to work at writing anymore. I had a few publications under my belt, heck, I’d won a competition. My work was good, I was good, everything was good. And so I got complacent. I stopped getting…
-
Writing Exercise: The Buffy Effect
I was watching reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer recently and it occurred to me that it would make an excellent writing exercise. Writing exercises are great to have in your back pocket for when you need an extra boost of inspiration. Exercises, whether you follow them exactly or not, get you thinking critically and…