Tag Archives: writing craft

Newcastle Writers Festival

Posted on April 4, 2018 by Karen Whitelaw

April 6-8, 2018  Newcastle Writers Festival is becoming one of the most dynamic and friendly festivals in Australia for both writers and readers. It attracts big names in the world of writing and ideas: Robert Drewe, Jimmy Barnes, Kitty Flanagan, … Continue reading →

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Writing from the forgotten senses

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Karen Whitelaw

For three days last week the wind blew the rain horizontally. It pelted against the window glass and the drops sounded like someone throwing sharp needles. Last week I’d given myself a writing challenge: to write somewhere different each day, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, writing process | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Love the Details

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Karen Whitelaw

Details should be more than a writer’s friend; details should be our lover. Get intimate, close up. Slow down. Examine him/her with intense and specific attentiveness. Details make the place in our writing real. Whether it’s travel, memoir, stories or … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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A Writer’s Glimpse of a Man Booker Winner

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Karen Whitelaw

I’ve started reading Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, winner of The 2013 Man-Booker Prize, and I’m in awe. It’s fiercely intelligent. The language consistently reflects the mid-19th century, and rolls along in an improbable mix of luxuriously precise prose. Sometimes I … Continue reading →

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To Publish or not to Publish? Is that really the question?

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Karen Whitelaw

When I hear about people who write but have no desire for publication I always imagine closet diarists who hide their notebooks in drawers under their thermals if they live near the equator or their sarongs if they live in … Continue reading →

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

Is Writing a Waste of Time?

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Karen Whitelaw

New Australian research conducted by consultants Ernest & Young found the average employee wastes 50 minutes a day on work that will either be binned or not used. It obviously goes to show they didn’t survey many writers. After a … Continue reading →

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Margaret Jackson: ON LEARNING TO WRITE

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Karen Whitelaw

A year and a half ago I took my first creative writing course. I hadn’t known there were rules. These were like the rocks of a hidden reef that sank the unwary and uninformed. To name just a few: the … Continue reading →

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Guest Post: Aidan Walsh

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Karen Whitelaw

Hello all, I’m Aidan Walsh and Karen has asked me to pop in for a guest post. A quick intro: I’ve been telling people I’m a writer for about twelve years and writing seriously for about six. I mostly write … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments