Tag Archives: writing skills

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

Living a Dream – Day 20

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

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 , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Writing about Emotion

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

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 →

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Characters in Place

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

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 →

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Just Write

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Karen Whitelaw

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 →

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Writers are Observers

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

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 →

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Expanding the Moment

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

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 , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Characters and Objects

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Karen Whitelaw

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 , , , , , , | 7 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