Often your story idea may dictate your choice of genre. This is why whenever I teach creative writing, I cover the different genres in the first class so students get a sense of where their idea will fit into the literary landscape. As part of this,...
Last weekend I went to a puzzle room in Sydney with my family. These are the latest craze to come over from the US and UK. Basically, you are given clues and your team has to escape the themed room (s). We didn’t finish in...
The central idea in a story has different names: through line, spine, narrative thread among others. Essentially, a story is about a series of events that happen. Usually, you have one protagonist or hero and the story is the journey we go on with him...
Sometimes it’s hard to prioritise. Out of all the things you could be doing right now, is sitting down to do your writing or your creative project the best thing you could do? I’ve certainly been grappling with this issue. At the beginning of the year,...
There isn’t any right way to write. Often the tense we choose to write in is personal I find writing in present tense really hard; yet an author friend always writes in the present. Some stories lend themselves to the present tense: say for example, if you are writing from the point of view of...
Lots of people said nice things to me at my London book launch but the nicest thing had nothing to do with my book. Jane Smith, a librarian from Concordia Lutheran College in Toowoomba, Australia, happened to be in London that night so I asked her...
Question: I don’t know where to begin. Answer: One of the participants asked me this question last weekend in my travel memoir course. She said she felt overwhelmed. My advice, start really small. Using post-it notes brainstorm what you think you want to include in your...
I'm a great believer in immersion in a writing project to really make headway with it – especially when you’ve lost your way. I was lucky enough to be awarded a month’s residency at a writer’s retreat in Switzerland in July. In a chateau, no...
Today, as India celebrates 70 years of independence from the British, there is an alternative lens to view the history of the two nations. A history not solely defined by the Raj, but one that evolved during a window in the mid-eighteenth century before British rule...
I stopped this Chinese tourist the other day at Bondi to take a photo of his t-shirt. He and his girlfriend thought it hilarious, proudly telling me the t-shirt was made in China. 'Other people have laughed. You're the first to take photo,' he said. It...