Tag: writing tips

  • Ep 63 How not to write a memoir with author Bronwyn Birdsall

    Ep 63 How not to write a memoir with author Bronwyn Birdsall

    After contracting glandular fever as a child (aka mono), Bronwyn Birdsall ended up with such bad chronic fatigue, she missed six months of school. This was at a time when there was still significant stigma surrounding the illness. Bronwyn grew up in Sydney. At age 24, she moved to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and worked […]

  • Ep 53 Happiness in a turbulent world with award-winning author Fiona Robertson

    Fiona Robertson lived with migraines for years, writing short stories as a creative pursuit. Now she’s free from migraines and the award-winning author of the debut short story collection, If You’re Happy. Her work explores the lives of lonely people seeking happiness in a turbulent world. In episode 53 of James and Ashley Stay at […]

  • The 13 top writing tips I wish I’d had before I started

    I’ve wanted to be an author since 1989, when I was six years old. I took creative writing workshops in university and college. I churned out novels and stories and possibly the worst poetry in history of English. In my early thirties, I spent five years writing and revising a creative non-fiction book that, despite […]

  • Listen, be interested and be brave: Q&A with Samia Goudie, Boundless Mentorship runner-up

    The Boundless Indigenous Writer’s Mentorship, presented by Writing NSW and Text Publishing, is awarded to an unpublished Indigenous writer who has made substantial progress on a fiction or non-fiction writing project. The writer is paired with a senior Indigenous writer for a structured year-long mentorship. The 2021 Boundless runner-up is Bundjalung writer Samia Goudie, for […]

  • Getting the most from writers’ groups

    I’ve been in a writers’ group for over six years now, and the process of getting regular feedback has been transformative for my writing. Whether you’re thinking about joining a writers’ group (do it!) or you’re in one already but think it could be more effective, here are my tips on getting the most out […]

  • Ep 27 Writing for connection with Emily Maguire, author of ‘Love Objects’

    ‘It’s really important to me, as a writer, to get under the skin of my characters.’ In her new novel, Love Objects, Emily Maguire does exactly that, exploring one woman’s experience with hoarding disorder as a way to better understand our relationships with objects – and with each other. Emily is the author of six […]

  • The secret to fighting project inertia

    Recently I was invited to be a guest author at the Sutherland Shire Fellowship of Australian Writers, who are an absolutely lovely bunch of people. You don’t need to take my word for it. Just look at the How to Be Australian themed afternoon tea they put on. If you’re wondering, I didn’t have an […]

  • Ep 24: Sea-creature days with Kavita Bedford, author of Friends and Dark Shapes

    In Friends & Dark Shapes, author Kavita Bedford uses the term sea-creature days, ‘Days when things that lurk beneath the surface start to come up and feel a little stronger in day-to-day life than they normally do.’ We’ve all had days like that. In episode 24 of James and Ashley Stay at Home, we interview […]

  • From final draft to publication to audiobook

    In 2017, I found myself with a 12,000-word novella. It was best piece of fiction I’d ever written, and possibly my best piece of writing full stop, and it sat on my hard drive, dreaming of readers. I hadn’t intended to write a novella; my master’s degree program had dictated the word length. But writing […]