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Review of the Winter Solstice Writing Retreat, June 2021 Kinglake, Victoria is surrounded by trees and national park. On the third weekend of June 2021, it was also shrouded in early-morning mist. If you had been passing through, beyond the cacophony of Sulphur-crested cockatoos and kookaburras, you may have heard the scratching of pen nibs … Continued
There are many reasons why you might write about your life. You may have had an adventurous journey that people will be interested in reading about, or you have overcome trauma and come out of it stronger and happier than ever with a lot of great experience to pass on to someone else. It might … Continued
When talking to people at parties, usually one question is always asked: ‘What do you do?’ Now here’s how these conversations never turn out: Person #1: ‘I’m a brain surgeon.’ Person #2: ‘Really? I’ve got an idea for a brain surgery I’d like to try one day.’ Person #1: ‘I’m in bomb disposal.’ Person #2: … Continued
I take immense pride in writing as a craft, so it annoys me when people trivialise it, consider it a shtick, or don’t take it as seriously as they should. Let me break down some of the things I’ve heard, the outlook some employ, and how they should actually be looking at it … … Continued
Something that’s often required of the writer is a bio. This might be needed to enter a competition, for an ‘About the Author’ page in a published book, or an ‘About Me’ section on a website. Yet, despite the writer knowing everything about their own life, and their writing journey and accomplishments, they struggle with … Continued
In the last blog, we looked at breaking down content so that whatever message the content as a whole was intended to deliver – be that the plot of a novel, the biography of a subject, the information of a topic, or the guide of a self-help book – it did so logically, causally, and … Continued
Lots of writers look for a formula in writing, e.g. a novel should be 80,000 words each chapter should be 2,000 words 80,000/2,000 = 40 chapters. And then they’ll try write to that template. The problem is that in any given chapter, you might wrap up what needs to be said in 700 words. What … Continued
Lots of people are interested in writing memoir. And, because it’s memoir, they think it’s going to be easy. The whole story’s there, isn’t it? You just have to now put it down on the page. But memoir doesn’t work like that – and this applies if you’re writing autobiography, a biography of somebody else, … Continued
