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Tag Archives: writing skills
Writing from the forgotten senses
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 writing, writing craft, writing journey, writing skills
4 Comments
Living a Dream – Day 20
Our last day in Menerbes. I was sitting out on the terrace this afternoon writing and someone in the valley lit a large fire. Australians tend to panic at the first whiff of smoke, but we’ve learned here that at … Continue reading
Posted in Travel, Writing, writing process
Tagged dreams, journey, Provence, travel, travel writing, writing, writing skills
13 Comments
Writing about Emotion
William Faulkner knew it. Janette Turner Hospital, Kate Grenville, Julian Barnes know it. But studies are just starting to prove it. The more writers hold back on the effusive emoting of their characters, the more emotion their readers will feel. … Continue reading
Posted in Writing, writing process
Tagged Evie Wyld, writing, writing emotion, Writing process, writing skills
8 Comments
Characters in Place
Jon Snow from Game of Thrones was invited to a swish New York dinner party. Incongruous? Absolutely. Watch the video clip of the dinner. It’s hilarious. I laugh out loud every time I think of it, yet something about it … Continue reading
Posted in Books, writing process
Tagged character, fiction, Game of Thrones, Jon Snow, setting, writing place, writing skills
8 Comments
Just Write
It’s one thing to actually force yourself to observe your writing habits. It’s harder to take the next step of understanding why you behave in ways that are obviously counter-productive, and then finding positive ways to get what these negative … Continue reading
Posted in Writing, writing process
Tagged behaviour patterns, Just Write, Neil Gaiman, writing, writing habits, writing skills
7 Comments
Writers are Observers
The rain storms over the past week have lit up our sky with rainbows. Many of them have been perfect arches in full vibrant colours crisply delineated. Some have been double rainbows. When I was standing in the park photographing … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged creativity, John Daido Loori, observation, senses, sensory detail, writing skills, writing tips, zen
10 Comments
Expanding the Moment
Sometimes I come across a passage of writing that stops time. It’s a magical moment where the writing creates a strange paradox: the words go on but time itself stops long enough for me to observe this expanded, intense and … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Writing
Tagged All the Birds Singing, details, Evie Wyld, Janette Turner Hospital, significant detail, The Claimant, time, writing, writing skills
20 Comments
Characters and Objects
Look at someone’s room and you’ll know something of its owner. The sunroom with a bright rug of crotchet-squares hanging over a wooden rocker. The rumpus room with the giant flat-screened TV and the brick bar in the corner. The … Continue reading
Posted in fiction
Tagged character, Christos Tsiolkas, fiction, objects, symbols, The Slap, writing skills
7 Comments
Sentence Fragments: How to Use Them
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