I’m having a good writing day. 1500 words so far – and the day is only half over! The last few days (and weeks) have been frustrating. Health issues, appointments, responsibilities outside of my writing life and life in general have all conspired to limit the amount of progress I’ve made recently, especially with my [...]

I subscribe to a number of newsletters about writing via email. I don’t always get to read every one of them, but I try to at least glance through most of them. Some are better than others, of course. I’ve just read one that comes from a writer who lives here in South Australia. His [...]

I wrote a few days ago that I was near the final editing stages of my novel for children. Now I have another hurdle has come my way: illness. Sure, it’s only a head cold with lots of sneezing, a dry throat and the beginnings of a nose like a tap that cannot be turned [...]

Dialogue is one aspect of writing fiction on which many inexperienced writers stumble. I know I did. In my early years my dialogue was… well… to be frank, it was appalling. I didn’t know what I was doing. Years later I still struggle, but it comes more easily and, I hope, sound more natural. Some [...]

Today’s quote about writing: “All the things we achieve are things we have first imagined and then made happen.” David Malouf, Australian writer Imagination is a powerful, essential, elemental, almost organic tool of the writer. It is the driving force behind all writers, especially writers of fiction. Without our imagination our stories cannot take shape, [...]