Open Mic Night
Busybird Publishing holds Open Mic Nights the third Wednesday of every month (excluding January and December).
novel
Book Writing Boot Camp
Do you want to write a book? It could be anything – a novel; nonfiction; self-help; biography; a business, community, or organisation’s history; or it could even be something totally different! And now you want to get it out into the world? Busybird Publishing’s Book-Writing Boot Camp is about arming you with the tools you … Continued
The Closet Editor
Once you finish writing your manuscript, what do you do next? Submit it somewhere Give it to friends to read Revise. If you answered number 1 or 2, you’re wrong. A first draft shouldn’t go anywhere. You might think it’s brilliant. It’s probably not. A first draft is a spill: ideas, prose, phrasing, idiosyncrasies, crap, … Continued
Fiction Masterclass
There is more to storytelling than just spilling your imagination onto the page. What is the three-act structure? How does structure compartmentalise a story? What is a structural map? There’s plotting and subplotting. And characters. What makes for an interesting character? What is an arc? What do readers expect from a character? What is pacing? … Continued
Fiction Masterclass
There is more to storytelling than just spilling your imagination onto the page. What is the three-act structure? How does structure compartmentalise a story? What is a structural map? There’s plotting and subplotting. And characters. What makes for an interesting character? What is an arc? What do readers expect from a character? What is pacing? … Continued
Of Mentoring and Packages
There are lots of people out there offering fast, nasty mentoring packages. They’re fast, because the mentor wants the quickest turnaround possible, which inflates their bank account. And they’re nasty because, often, the mentor knows very little about writing, or the publishing industry – if anything, they know just enough to bluff their expertise. Usually, … Continued
Rediscovering Writing
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything longer than a paragraph. I thought it would feel unfamiliar, but it feels like coming home. My spontaneous hiatus from writing, reading and generally functioning is coming to a close, and I am feeling a hesitant kind of relief. Prior to my internship at Busybird, I had … Continued
The Impossible Book
Someone once asked me what I would do if I knew I would not fail. I responded, without a shade of hesitation, that I would write a book. Have I? Nope. Do I want to? Most definitely. Will I? I don’t know. What if I fail? For years, the book I have had my heart … Continued