Tag: #amwriting

  • Writing advice – Keep going

    Writing advice – Keep going

    A lot of emerging writers ask, ‘Can I do this? Should I keep going, or am I wasting my time?‘ I asked it all the time during my many years as an aspiring and emerging writer, and I kept sending my work to people hoping someone could give me a definitive answer. I used to […]

  • Keen to improve your creative non-fiction skills?

    Keen to improve your creative non-fiction skills?

    I know I recently came out as a crime writer – and I love crime fiction! One of my absolute favourite authors is John Sandford. That said, I think my first love is creative non-fiction. In fact, I love it – eep! – even more than fiction, because of its basis in real-life events and facts. If […]

  • On writing and persistence

    In 2017, my manuscript was one of five shortlisted for the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award. None of the writers on the list had a book published at the time. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement: I started the creative non-fiction manuscript that became Full of Donkey in 2010. I had my first essay, […]

  • 87 words to cut from your writing

    For four of the past six weeks, I’ve been on writing retreat, first as an artist-in-residence at Bundanon in rural NSW, and then as a fellowship recipient at KSP Writers’ Centre in Perth, WA. I love writing retreats because they allow me to focus on my current project to the exclusion of almost everything else, […]

  • Ep 45 Writing the book you need with Jacinta Dietrich, author of This Is Us Now

    When Jacinta Dietrich’s boyfriend was diagnosed with cancer, she turned to fiction to find this new terrain explored on the page. Except she couldn’t find her story. While there were lots of narratives involving cancer, Jacinta was looking for a story that involved a young couple involved in a newer – but crucially, established – […]

  • Ep 41 When you get it this young, you have it forever with author and editor Heather Taylor Johnson

    When she was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease at age 25, one of the many things it meant for Heather was that she’d have to quit skydiving – though not until she’d injured herself trying to hold on the person she was before. Heather Taylor Johnson is a writer and editor. Born in Minnesota and now living […]

  • Ep 40 Vigilante justice with author David Heska Wanbli Weiden

    ‘People come to me all the time and tell me about the metaphors I built in, and I tell them, “Man, I just threw it in there.”‘ David Heska Wanbli Weiden is an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation and the author of Winter Counts. His debut novel, Winter Counts was the winner of […]

  • Unleash your creative genius

    Humans are creative creatures. Look at everything we’ve created, from the Eiffel Tower to competitive hot dog eating to this amphibious bicycle. I’m always bursting with ideas (though none as great as that Floaty the Bubble Bike). And I’m sure you are too – even if you don’t know it. This has been one of […]

  • Ep 38 How to survive an earthquake with Michelle Tom

    ‘I went on a post-mortem enquiry. How did we end up here? We were five and now we’re two.’ Michelle Tom began her writing career as a print journalist in her native New Zealand. Michelle was selected for the ACT Writers Centre HARDCOPY 2019 program and for a Varuna Memoir Masterclass in 2017. Michelle lives […]