Screenwriting is a very different practice to any other type of writing, and one that suits my personality. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sit under the palm tree being attended to by half-naked man-gods while typing away one’s fantasies?…
Events
Ethical interviewing & self-care: Guest Post by Heather Morris
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is ‘based on an incredible true story’. Those words are stamped on the front cover of my novel. What they don’t say is how finding and telling a true story can change the life of the …
The map of creativity. Guest Post by Hazel Edwards OAM
Currently I’m between book projects. I don’t know what I’m going to write next. And it’s weird I’m experiencing again the ‘plateau of boredom’ that I’d described in my memoir about my writing life Not Just a Piece of Cake; …
Why I was hard on myself as the narrator of my memoir: Guest Post by Jenny Valentish
Lee Kofman is a straight talker. When she told me – over a refreshing beverage in South Melbourne – that she felt I was too hard on myself as a memoirist, my inward response was to bristle. I’d just written …
Thematic compass to guide memoir writing: Guest Post by Cassie Lane
My memoir, How to Dress a Dummy, began as a Creative Writing Master’s thesis – a feminist critique of the beauty industry. The creative component was a recounting of my experiences working as an international model.
A member of …
How to write 3 memoirs by the age of 35: Guest Post from Ashley Kalagian Blunt
The second memoir I wrote was a romantic comedy about how my boyfriend and I finally decided we could live on the same continent. When I had an adequate draft, I sent it to a manuscript assessor. ‘It works’, she …
Literary Friendships
I think I got more lovers than useful writing advice from the various writers’ groups I tried in my younger years, even though those groups were often composed of intelligent people, and sometimes even acclaimed authors. Partly this must be …
Writing about not writing
It feels apt to round up the discussion of creative nonfiction that I’ve had here for the last two months by looking in-depth into one creative nonfiction book that in my view exemplifies this genre’s best virtues – its irreverent …
How to be a writer AND an author: Guest Post by John Fanning
A Canadian novelist once said to me that the difference between a writer and an author is that a writer writes, but an author writes and represents her writing, when it’s done and edited. But when I started out writing, …
My top 7 tips for writing creative nonfiction
To follow on my last post in which I sang the praises of creative nonfiction, this month I’d like to share with you some stuff I have learned about working in this often misunderstood genre (after much trial and error). …