I'll always remember one writing course when I talked about how much writing is rewriting. How hard it can be. How rare it is that your first draft is flawless. There were some surprised murmurs, some nodding heads. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘Just give yourself permission...
I’m lucky enough to be writing to you from Byron Bay today. I’m here for the Writers’ Festival and sitting in a café playing John Lennon’s Imagine. Yesterday I saw a koala out of the bedroom window of where I’m staying. Incredible to see this cuddly...
When I started off as a journalist I was fortunate enough to work alongside Mick Brown, a brilliant writer and long-time journalist at London’s Daily Telegraph. He’d read my stories and say, ‘Claire, Cut to the chase here.’ What he meant was, get rid of the...
In a recent video interview with the Australian Writers’ Centre I was asked how I write about other cultures. The pitfalls, the pleasures. And how writing about my Indian characters in The Pagoda Tree differed from writing about Ani, the Tibetan nun, in Last Seen...
There are lots of things that stop us writing. A common one is fear. How much do we hold ourselves back as writers? What are we most afraid of? Here are some common responses: Rejection Condemnation from others Being judged Putting yourself out there Not getting the story right. Last weekend I...