writer | editor | artist
Woohoo! Approval has just come through for a course I’ll be teaching at USQ in semester one next year. The course is called CWR2001 Fairytales and Other Forms. According to the newly-approved synopsis (not yet available on the uni website, but soon, I promise!): Through close study of a range of poetic forms, and a…
Recently, a fellow writer who has often received feedback telling them they need to proofread their work more carefully asked me for some advice on proofreading. Here’s what I came up with in terms of advice on how to approach proofreading your own work, with a little help from your friends. What is proofreading? Proofreading is not the…
What are you doing this summer? I’ll be getting in some time on the beach: sun baking, swimming and surfing. I’ll also be facilitating an awesome 10-day short story workshop through the McGregor Summer School. Lots of workshopping of your stories! Writing races! Chocolate! Bunnies! Ok, so maybe not so much with the bunnies. But still –…
The following is the proposal for a paper/presentation I’m hoping to deliver at the 2014 ANZSA (Australia and New Zealand Shakespearean Association) conference, Shakespearean Perceptions. The conference will take place at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, October 2-4, 2014. Abstract This paper is a creative excavation of the temporal and textual gaps in Shakespeare’s…
This is the abstract for a paper I’m hoping to deliver at the 2014 AAWP conference, Minding the Gap: Writing Across Thresholds and Fault Lines. The conference will take place in Wellington, New Zealand, 30 November — Throughout literary history, a number of women writers have taken on male noms de plume. Critics and other…
I hope you’ll be attending GenreCon this year — it’s going to be an amazing event, with a rich and diverse program of panels, discussions, workshops, debates and other wonders. I’ll be making two ‘official’ appearances. The Joy of Writing workshop will take place from 1:30 – 5:30 pm on Friday, 11th October at the…
“Maps are essential. Planning a journey without a map is like building a house without drawings.” [Mark Jenkins, The Hard Way: Stories of Danger, Survival, and the Soul of Adventure] This is the second in a series of posts designed to help you focus your writing. Last week, your homework was designed around making an…
Not everyone wants or needs to work with a mentor, but many writers feel the need to refocus their writing practice at some point. This is the first in a series of posts that, together, will comprise a kind of DIY mentorship. The DIY mentorship isn’t designed to replace a real mentorship, which also includes…
I’m not a huge fan of three act structure if it’s talked about as the ONLY structure available to writers or other creators who work with narrative, or – as in this TED talk created by the educator Matthew Winkler – people say that it’s a universal mythic structure that occurs in every culture in…
No single approach to writing, no single essay or piece of advice, is enough. There are as many ways to write as there are writers, and as many ways to encourage others to write as there are teachers. I do not pretend to have all the answers. Instead, I try to offer a playful and…