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    Writing courses, free resources and webinars, and developmental editing Writing courses, free resources and webinars, and developmental editing
    • Home
    • Mentoring
    • Retreats
      • Venice Writing Retreat
      • Stow-on-the-Wold Writing Weekend
      • Karoo Writing Retreat | Memoir & Fiction Getaway in South Africa
    • Courses
    • Resources
      • Free offerings for writers
      • Downloadable writing resources
      • Blog
    • About
      • About Us
      • Testimonials
      • Contact
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    Archives

    Monthly Archive for: "January, 2020"
     Writing Secrets: When does contemplation become procrastination?
    1
    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Jo-Anne Richard's blog, Tips for Writers
    Posted January 29, 2020

    Writing Secrets: When does contemplation become procrastination?

    We don’t allow ourselves enough time to be bored. The modern world encourages us to fill every moment – and our phones encourage this. If you’re standing in a queue, it’s important that you don’t [...]

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     Monday Motivation: Face acting v. dialogue
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted January 27, 2020

    Monday Motivation: Face acting v. dialogue

    Face acting is a particular skill that some actors possess. This ability to communicate a range of emotions, sometimes in quick and contradictory succession, is a gift to screenwriters who will, [...]

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     International Education Day: 13 quotes for life-long learning and curiosity
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    By All About Writing
    In Misc, Quotes for Writers
    Posted January 24, 2020

    International Education Day: 13 quotes for life-long learning and curiosity

    I was homeschooled for twelve years, from first grade all the way through to graduating from highschool. While this had both positive and negative incomes – on my self and in my life [...]

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     Writing Secrets: Is your writing intention staring at you fiercely?
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Jo-Anne Richard's blog, Tips for Writers
    Posted January 22, 2020

    Writing Secrets: Is your writing intention staring at you fiercely?

    So the year has begun. And now your creative intention is staring you in the face, and it has a ferocious expression. It seemed easy enough a couple of weeks ago. If you took any notice of my [...]

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     Monday Motivation: A little Latin to perk us up
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted January 20, 2020

    Monday Motivation: A little Latin to perk us up

    A little Latin to perk us up: Odi et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requires. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. Of course you’ll all recognize this as one of Catullus’s most memorable [...]

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     Start your year with some literary fun in Muizenberg
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Invitations
    Posted January 16, 2020

    Start your year with some literary fun in Muizenberg

    Enjoy a bit of literary fun with All About Writing and Slow Life at our creative writing workshop at Casa Labia in Muizenberg. Be inspired by the cry of gulls as you release your creativity, [...]

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     Writing Secrets: The writer’s promise
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Jo-Anne Richard's blog, Tips for Writers
    Posted January 15, 2020

    Writing Secrets: The writer’s promise

    You might have noticed that I’ve avoided all mention of that R word this new year. Deliberately so. I don’t want to remind you of last year’s determination to run five k’s a day. And I certainly [...]

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     Monday Motivation: Write what you love in 2020
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted January 13, 2020

    Monday Motivation: Write what you love in 2020

    The start, not just of a new year, but a new decade acts as a spur to all of you whose ambitions include finally getting round to writing the book you’ve bottled up inside for so long. The [...]

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     Writing Secrets: See the world differently this year
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Jo-Anne Richard's blog, Tips for Writers
    Posted January 8, 2020

    Writing Secrets: See the world differently this year

    This new year, make the decision to see the world differently – through a story-teller’s eyes. If you can do this, then every day, every trip to the supermarket, can feed your writing. [...]

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     Monday Motivation: Doubt is a writer’s best friend
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted January 6, 2020

    Monday Motivation: Doubt is a writer’s best friend

    Richard is on a much-deserved break, so here’s a re-post of one of our earlier Monday Motivations, from 2016. Doubt sits at the right hand of all writers. We spend a day at work, struggling [...]

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    ✍️✍️What exactly is the Power of Writing c ✍️✍️What exactly is the Power of Writing course? ✍️✍️

The Power of Writing takes you to the heart of creative writing. Over just four online modules, the course introduces you to a handful of creative writing’s essential skills.

The Power of Writing course is designed to introduce you to the key skills of creative writing – and help you use these skills in your own writing. 

We’ve wrapped the theory around a series of practical writing exercises in four modules. The course will: 

 ✍️Help you to write confidently without constantly censoring yourself. 
 ✍️Give you tools to develop your unique writing voice. 
 ✍️Introduce you to disciplines that will continue to help you to write fluently long after the course is done. 
 ✍️Give you tools that will help you write more vividly. 
 ✍️Show you how to think more creatively and communicate this in your writing. 
 ✍️Help you get more out of books by reading actively. 

‘I have been writing for a number of years but every so often, I like to sharpen the saw. Your course is so valuable in this regard.’ – Hendie Grobbelaar

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the modules… I loved the fact that the modules are balanced. The first two do not require specific writing techniques, but exposes thoughts and observations. The last two modules start exploring the how of transforming ideas/happenings into something that works on paper.’ – Melanie du Plessis, Centurion

‘I enjoyed the introduction to each assignment, explaining what is needed with examples, especially for an online course.’ –Alma van As, Welobie

‘My experience was positive. I enjoyed the challenge… It was great focusing on writing rather than the content that one does in the daily drudge of communicating. I liked writing for the pleasure rather than rushing through the normal communications of the day – bit like “stopping to smell the roses”.’ – Charles Nesbitt, Somerset West

Sign up online: https://allaboutwritingcourses.com/product/power-of-writing-course/
    In this week's writing motivation, Richard invites In this week's writing motivation, Richard invites us to just write three good sentences. Can you avoid the trappings of being a writer and put pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard? 

Read the full piece in our Link in Bio and if you don't subscribe already, sign up via the same links.

#AllAboutWriting #allaboutwritingcourses
    "I do try to make Tannie Maria different from myse "I do try to make Tannie Maria different from myself. However, as I have become softer and plumper, I guess I’m becoming more like her. But that wasn’t my plan. Where we do overlap is in our love for the Karoo." - Sally Andrew, author of the Tannie Maria mysteries.

It was a real pleasure to host the unassuming author of the Tannie Maria mysteries, Sally Andrew, on our monthly webinar. She had much advice for would-be writers, imparted in her generous, down-to-earth style, always infused with her quirky humour. We chatted about place, about characters and about planning and writing practice. She finds it important to keep her characters as different from herself as possible. I guess I’m the same. It’s not something I’ve ever particularly striven for, yet most of my adult characters are quite different from me, in personality, preoccupations and the way they present to the world. Yet, nonetheless, I always draw on myself to some extent. I try to embody them and, for that brief period of writing, become them. In that way, I draw on what is different from me, yet still to be found, real or imagined, somewhere within me. - Jo-Anne Richards, All About Writing

Watch the replay now available at www.allaboutwritingcourses.com or visit our link in bio

#allaboutwriting #writingwebinar
    Why wait for a New Year's resolution? We've opened Why wait for a New Year's resolution? We've opened up the dates for our next LIVE Creative Writing Class starting 2027.
🦆Early bird special currently running!🦆

Transform your writing in 10 weeks. Our live Creative Writing Course gives you the skills, tools and expert guidance to tell your story – whether it’s a novel, short stories, biography or memoir.

Led by Jo-Anne Richards and Richard Beynon, this course is ideal for aspiring writers beginning their journey and established writers looking to refine their craft.

When: Thursdays from 14 January to 18 March 2027

Time: 16:00 to 20:00 GMT | 18:00 to 21:00 SAST

Sign up online: https://allaboutwritingcourses.com/product/creative-writing-course-live/

#allaboutwriting #creativewriting #onlinewritingcourse
    Next week we are joined by South African author @s Next week we are joined by South African author @sallyandrewkaroo of the bestselling Tannie Maria mysteries ( @penguinbookssouthafrica ) for a FREE online webinar. 

✍️Live Zoom Event | Monday 24 August 2026
✍️17:00 to 18:00 UK time
✍️18:00 to 19:00 South Africa Time

📚 We'll explore her recipe for success
📚 We'll talk about her latest book, Wild Things Never Die
📚 We'll explore the real ingredients of a writing life: from planning to publishing
📚 There will be a reading
📚 Live Q&A with Sally
📚 And we might even talk about a recipe or two

SIGN UP FOR FREE: Link in Bio

#allaboutwriting #freewebinar #writingwebinar #sallyandrew #writingcraft
    The All About Writing Team is thrilled to congratu The All About Writing Team is thrilled to congratulate our own Jo-Anne Richards on her publishing deal for a new non-fiction book! She has signed with Jonathan Ball Publishers and her publication date is set for April 2027. This marks Jo-Anne's 6th book and her first non-fiction title. 
Congrats, Josie! 🥂

You can stay updated with her news via our newsletters and her website: https://jo-annerichards.co.za/

@jonathanball_local @joannerichardsauthor

#allaboutwriting #joannerichards #southafricanauthor #jonathanball
    Join us for a very special *free webinar* with Sal Join us for a very special *free webinar* with Sally Andrew — bestselling author of the Tannie Maria mysteries – to talk about the recipe for success.

🌟 Live Zoom Event
🗓️ Monday 24 August 2026
⏰ 17:00 to 18:00 UK time
⏰ 18:00 to 19:00 South Africa Time

Sally's new novel, Wild Things Never Die, brings Tannie Maria and her hen Henrietta undercover with Maria’s fiancé, Detective Henk Kannemeyer, to the Karoo Wilderness Reserve. Their mission: save the vetplantjies! At the luxury game lodge, they spy on guests and support the Anti-Poaching Unit in a battle against dangerous gangsters. 

📚 We'll talk about Wild Things Never Die 
📚We'll explore the real ingredients of a writing life: from planning to publishing
📚There will be a reading
📚Live Q&A with Sally
📚And we might even talk about a recipe or two

Sally Andrew is the best-selling author of the award-winning Tannie Maria mystery novels. She lives with her artist partner in a mud-brick house on a nature reserve in the Klein Karoo. She has a master’s in Adult Education from the University of Cape Town and was a social and environmental activist. She now writes, cooks, does Biofield Tuning (sound healing), and is training to be a doowop girl. Her Tannie Maria novels include Recipes for Love and Murder, The Satanic Mechanic, Death on the Limpopo, and The Milk Tart Murders. She has also published a cookbook called Recipes to Live For. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages and adapted into an international TV series.
    ✍️Read this week’s Monday Motivation as Rich ✍️Read this week’s Monday Motivation as Richard discusses the three clauses of the writer/reader contract. ✍️

1)Unfamiliarity has to be real.
2)Surprise has to be earned.
3)Remember the felt, lasting effect of events on both characters and readers.

Three clauses, then, though really they're one obligation facing in three different directions: don't let the reader's appetite for the unfamiliar go unfed, don't let the mechanism of the surprise go unearned, and don't let the aftermath go unfelt. Break any one of them and the contract curdles – into repetition, into cheap trickery, or into a book that was pleasant enough at the time and entirely forgettable by the time you’ve turned off the light and turned over for sleep.

Uncover all three in depth in this week’s newsletter and if you don’t yet subscribe - visit our link in bio.

#WritingCraft #WritingTips #AllAboutWriting #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingMotivation #FictionWriting #WritingCommunity #CreativeWriting #WritingAdvice
    Read this week’s Monday Motivation as Richard wa Read this week’s Monday Motivation as Richard walks us through a multi-character dialogue scene he is crafting and discover the key ingredients for making the scene work. 

Uncover more in this week’s newsletter and if you don’t yet subscribe - visit our link in bio.

#WritingCraft #WritingTips #AllAboutWriting #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingMotivation #FictionWriting #WritingCommunity #CreativeWriting #WritingAdvice
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