Tips for Writers

My daughter is named for a feisty Jane Austen character. My son is called Joshua – largely, I have to admit, because I fell in love with Mordecai Richler’s Joshua Shapiro and spent years trying [...]

It’s your job, as a writer, to care about every level of your narrative. It’s not just about the plot, or the characters and their words, actions and reactions. Those are all important, but in [...]

It seems strange, in these apocalyptic times, to continue with my normal blog subjects. Instead, I would like to wish our community well and urge you all to remain safe as far as you are able. [...]

The other day a young man approached me at a workshop and told me he longed to be a writer – but felt he hadn’t yet garnered enough experience of life. I can remember thinking the same thing when [...]

Do you want to be a teacher … or a writer? My advice would be that if you wish to teach, then become a teacher. A writer is a different fish altogether and the two do not happily swim in the same [...]

The wonderful thing about writing is that you can show us our everyday lives, so that we recognise every detail of it, or you can make us believe in, even become intensely involved in, a world [...]

What is a “darling” anyway, and why should it be murdered? I was asked this in a workshop recently, and it brought me up short. We are used, as writers, to being told to murder our darlings, but [...]

There are times when you just have to let go of a project. Last week, I spoke about having faith; putting in the hours even though your manuscript is a horribly defective creature which looks [...]

In a Creative Writing class I was teaching recently, I suggested that, if you’re not sure of an aspect of your writing – like which point of view would be most effective or how to structure your [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]