Today I'm going to muse on a topic that has been floating around the writing industry blogosphere the past week or so -- which is what writers get out of blogging and how big a 'platform' novelists need in order to sell books (or to even be considered for publication by the larger publishers). Anne R Allen … Continue reading What I get out of blogging
Vale Sara
It's very difficult to put into words how I felt yesterday upon hearing about the death of Sara Douglass, a true pioneer of Australian fantasy. Even today, having had time to reflect and read some of the tributes, I feel intensely and confusedly emotional. I did not personally know Sara Douglass. I never even had … Continue reading Vale Sara
Struck by an IDEA
Ever since the conclusion of the WriMoFoFo challenge in mid-July, my writing productivity has declined somewhat. This is partially due to the fact that I'm hunting for a job (a time-consuming and mind-numbing process), but mostly due to my decision to edit/revise/expand the opening section of this new novel and the conviction that there has … Continue reading Struck by an IDEA
On perseverance
A short post from me today. And indeed, I'm going to cheat and direct everyone to this post from literary agent Rachelle Gardner, which came into my inbox this week and served as a timely motivational aid. Her message is about finding the strength to go on in the face of adversity, not giving up, and facing … Continue reading On perseverance
Changing direction
Well, fate snickered at me a week ago when, despite my earlier upbeat words about targets and optimising the wordmachine, production came to a grinding halt. Sparks flew and wheels screeched as the brakes were slammed on in response to my sudden realisation that the MS I was working on was not the MS I should be working … Continue reading Changing direction
Bad decision vs stupid decision
One of the undisputed rules of storytelling is to hurt your characters: the protagonist must either fail to achieve a goal and in so doing make things worse, or achieve that goal at a cost that outweighs the benefit. If the writer is doing it right, in most cases things spiral out of control because … Continue reading Bad decision vs stupid decision
Useful word: Subitize
I remember once having a discussion with one of my writer friends about how to deal with numbers in a group (encountered by the point of view character) when writing from an intense 3rd or 1st person character POV. She contended that if the narrative didn't state exactly how many were in the group, it became vague … Continue reading Useful word: Subitize
Why I write fantasy
Literary agent Rachelle Gardner recently ran a readership poll on her extremely popular blog and has now published the results. Of particular interest to me (and her, as it turns out) is that 26% of writerly survey respondents write science-fiction/fantasy (SFF), making it the most popular represented genre. The next most popular was general/'non-genre' fiction (21%), followed … Continue reading Why I write fantasy
Good advice
Last week I stumbled upon Anne R. Allen's Blog and she has some incredibly sensible things to say about writers and blogging. Her series of posts on blogging (highlighted in her side bar) covers tips on content, search-engine optimisation, pitfalls to avoid . . . and how to attract readers. Highly recommended reading. On the … Continue reading Good advice
Thoughts on self-publishing
Everyone is talking about self-publishing at the moment. Authors and agents are blogging about it regularly, and I've stumbled upon several blogs and websites that provide resources and advice about how to format correctly, produce for different devices, design covers, distribute etc. What was considered once-upon-a-time (not so long ago) to be a daft and unprofessional move … Continue reading Thoughts on self-publishing
Ellen Gregory 