Yesterday I re-read this. I won’t tell you who wrote it, so don’t look beyond the first paragraph. Just see if it resonates. Have you ever felt this way about your work? ‘The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing...
I’ve just landed in post-royal-wedding bliss. England is as green as green can be and hawthorn blossoms float like clouds along the dense hedgerows. I was up early walking through the fields with my mum’s Jack Russell, Ella or ‘little lovetty’, as Mum calls her...
Staying motivated on a long project requires a particular sort of grit. There are strategies that help you hang in there for the long game. When I had my mini writing retreat at Bundanon, I was looking back over my ‘writing journal’. These are the notes...
I often wonder why so few people actually finish their writing projects. Or, why other people have great plans but don’t act on them. Any creative project has 3 distinct phases and each one requires you to harness a particular energy within yourself. Stage #1 –...
1. Write them down. Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, did a study on goal-setting with 267 participants. She found that you are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals just by writing them down. 2. Practise daily goal setting....
I’m always looking for ways to boost my productivity and output, mainly because there are so many things I want to write, do, create, see… Here are my 10 hot tips. 1. Batch. This is where you carve out chunks of time to work on the...
I had a terrific time at the The Hindu Lit for Life festival in Chennai. My workshop on world building (of the fictional variety) was a lot of fun with an engaged group of 20-plus people. I even got a mention in The Hindu paper about it. There was a typo...
Very excited to be presenting this workshop in Chennai, India for the The Hindu Lit For Life 2018. This is the first time I will be back in Chennai since I did all the research for my novel The Pagoda Tree and I am looking forward to sharing the...
I've just come back from a mini writers' retreat at Varuna the Writers' House in the Blue Mountains. This time I was staying in the actual studio where Australian writer, Eleanor Dark, wrote her books (you can see a photo with her and one of her manuscripts...
The holiday season has begun and it's time to choose a Christmas present for the writer in your life or even for yourself! Check out the following suggestions: 1. Yoga or Gym Membership. It’s not only the mind that needs to stretch – but also the...