By Cameron Raynes How important is visualisation to the writer? To be able to see, in some small strange way, the characters you have created, the places they live, the things they do? How they hold themselves? How others around them react to what they do? (more…)

By Vanessa Jones As a writer, you may be quick to disregard LinkedIn assuming that it’s for those who work in the corporate world only. But the professional business networking site, which has been around for nearly twelve years, has over 300 million users and shouldn’t be underestimated as a tool for writers.  (more…)

By Cameron Raynes You’ve got a rough idea of the novel or short story you want to write. Or you’ve written one, but it doesn’t quite hang together or compel the reader to keep turning the page. What do you do? Is it possible that methods and approaches to writing for film can be harnessed […]

By Serena Wong We sometimes have this suspicion that art is trying to trick us, pull the wool over our eyes and ridicule our taste. But in reality, art is just another language. Not the language of an elite club guarded by secret codes, but a tool to distil the chaos of the world around […]

By Rose Hartley (SAWC’s Writer in Residence) Melbourne’s Emerging Writers Festival is too big to take in all at once, so I picked the most delicious-sounding events to attend. And what a feast for the ears it was. Launch of Poetic Justice I was in Melbourne for the launch of Poetic Justice: Contemporary Australian Voices […]

By Annie Waters (coeditor of Dubnium) If you had told me, three months ago, that I would have solicited, read and edited over seventy pieces of writing, whittling them down to twenty which were then polished, formatted and compiled into an e-book and limited print edition; had you told me that, I would have laughed/vomited […]

By Derek Pedley   One Down, One Missing Joe D Álo with David Astle Hardie Grant Books, $24.95 Serving detectives don’t write books. They especially don’t write books about the double murder of police officers by an armed robber who also happens to be a serial killer. Because when they do write such a book, […]

By Caroline Reid Dialogue and action are two great tools writers use to push a story forward, create tension and reveal character. In the ‘Talk it Up’ workshop as part of the Creative Writing Boot Camp for Teens you’ll be writing your own dialogue and in doing so you’ll see how you can begin to […]

By Lou Heinrich Writers’ festivals wonderful. They are the convergence of ideas, the collection of a like-minded community. Going to them are an excellent way to network, stretch understanding and feel like you are living a literary life. I was lucky enough to be invited to attend Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne, which was held […]

Read Play Work Love Live   Read other great writers. What do you enjoy reading? That tells you what you should write. Play, experiment, take risks. Obvious really but so few writers play. They do take themselves seriously and their work is poorer for it Work. It is hard. Harder than talking about it. Congratulate […]

How does flash fiction make you a better writer? By its very nature, it requires your writing to be the tightest it possibly can be. Your writing has to be stripped down to the bare minimum whilst still presenting a gripping story that will remain with a reader for a long time to come. Don’t […]

By Angela Meyer On my desktop is a whisky wheel, a device that’s supposed to help you with your tasting notes when sampling single malts. Does your drink have a touch of black pepper on the nose? Or is it orange blossom? Is it lactic or nutty on the palate? Is the finish more toward […]

By Cassandra Dean and Lucy Clark Cassandra and Lucy provide insight into a common mistake. In their capacity as editors, they come across the same misstep all too often – a rush through scenes and situations, so that all emotion and depth is lost. A reader wants to feel the emotion deeply, wants to experience […]

by Victoria Purman So you’ve written a book and it’s out there in the world, waiting for a home with a publisher. Or perhaps its about to hit shelves or e-reading devices. You think the hard part is over, right? Before you take to your bed and pull the covers over your head, here are […]

If you are not fortunate enough to have an editor then a little distance between the completion of a first draft and an edit can be useful. Time to forget what you were actually writing about can help the writer to approach the story as a reader might. Can you answer these questions? What is […]