Category Archives: Writing

Friday Fictioneers – 8 August

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

Every Friday writers from around the world contribute 100 word stories prompted by a photograph. Rochelle Wisoff-Fields co-ordinates Friday Fictioneers. Thank you, Rochelle. Here’s my story and you can check out the others on Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers blog. Slippages Made … Continue reading →

Posted in Short stories, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 57 Comments

Is There a Right Way to Write?

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

I was astounded recently when a former student, a woman whose work I admire, who has gone on to become a successful prize-winning writer, confessed she didn’t like to read, that she didn’t read. Until I heard this I believed … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

Writing in Digital Time

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

Since I embraced the digital era in the last year – yes, I’m a slow learner – I’ve started to fear my writing has suffered for it. Time I used to spend redrafting stories has gone into writing blog posts. … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Writers’ Secret Weapon: vulnerability

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

I once heard Peter Carey, two times winner of the Man Booker, tell Phillip Adams on ABC’s Late Night Live that the week before a new book comes out he can find himself curled on the floor in a foetal … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 31 Comments

Sentence Fragments: How to Use Them

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

Pedants point smugly and sneer, ‘That’s not a sentence.’ Microsoft Word screams when we use them. But many writers write in fragments and to great effect. Good fragments aren’t made by chopping off any old sentence randomly. Fragments are short … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

A Fresh Look at Verbs

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

Verbs provide the energy and action of our sentences. They can make our writing powerful and vibrant, or flat and ordinary. Considering how important they are we often don’t give them the attention they deserve. Here’s an exercise I found, … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Reading in Public

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

I stand in front of an audience clutching my stories in my shaking hands. My voice trembles in sympathy. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but no, reading in public always has that effect on me. It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Guest Blogger – Jessie Ansons

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

How to keep motivated when you never seem to win I recently came second place in the Newcastle Herald’s Summer Short Story competition with my story, The Deepest of Blues. I won my first ever prize for writing and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Short stories, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Characters are Pieces of History

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

We, and our characters, all exist in a public and a private life at the same time. I’m someone’s sister, wife, child, mother, friend, neighbour. I’m that person who loves the thrill of body surfing large breakers, and gets asthma … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

January Challenge

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

Early in my writing life I became friends with a woman who created perfect prose. Her language, its rhythms and word choices, sang exquisitely. Her stories evoked such overwhelming emotion in me that I often felt like crying from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments