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In: The Paradise Motel, Uncategorized, Writing

I didn’t work on my new novel during the first six months of the year, but I was hyper-aware of it glowering in my Dropbox waiting to show me what a horrible writer I was. I did almost anything else, a short story, a book review, ran an advertising campaign, wrote copy for a website, pondered A.I., cleaned my house badly and mowed the property over and over until the temperature cooled and the grass ceased to grow. It was classic avoidance. I didn’t want to open it and see the results of that rampant, uncontrolled first draft.  Hemingway, Lamott and King advise getting comfortableRead More →

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In: The Paradise Motel, Uncategorized, Writing

When we last met, I was writing a novel synopsis, but not at the behest of an agent or publisher. I was 10 000 words into The Paradise Motel and in need of some scaffolding. The synopsis would be a living document. It needed to be strong enough to guide me, but malleable too. (If you haven’t read Plotting VS Pantsing, you might want to do so here as this post is its sequel 😳.)  Because I’d written a fair way in, I already knew my characters, what they sounded like, what they looked like.  I knew the town. But the plot was shaky. IfRead More →

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In: The Paradise Motel, Uncategorized, Writing

This post is for people who would love to write a novel. It’s on their bucket list and it doesn’t look like its going away. I get you. I am you. But there’s a few things to consider. Anyone who has given writing long form fiction some serious thought will recognise the complexity of it. It’s a bizarre magic trick and to pull it off, all you have are words. It’s crazy, right? There’s all those moving parts, setting, point of view, voice, character, plots. That’s a lot to juggle. You are a god, creating a world which doesn’t really exist, even it resembles theRead More →

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In: Human Nature, The Making of Numb, Writing
Bradkay Photographics

These were the instructions from the photographer also a Brad (Delaney), who was shooting my author headshots. He said this whenever I became self-conscious, which was rather a lot. “What actor do you like?” he had asked me early on. I’d said Brad Pitt because I’d recently seen his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes and he’s not just pleasing to look at, he’s a funny guy. I like funny guys. My partner is a funny guy.  Anyway, as I’m not comfortable with having my photo taken, BD was attempting to relax me, to give me something else to think about other than how weirdRead More →

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In: The Making of Numb, Writing

To get to the end of a first draft is a marvellous thing.  It’s hard to know how it happened.  It involves a kind of alchemy.  All manner of things, known and unknown go into it and finally, there it is.  We know, if we are worth our salt, there is more to be done.  Sometimes, there is much more.  We have wandered from the path, dithered about in the wilderness, trying this and that, before we return to the true tale.  We are struck by false epiphanies, which take us places we never meant to go – the severed head of our main character,Read More →

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In: Writing

To journal or not to journal? I’m often asked as a writer whether I keep a journal and the truth is it has been, until recently, rather off and on. I’d keep up the practice for a year or more and then for years I wouldn’t. It depended how I was feeling at the time. If I was under stress or suffering an ongoing emotional upset, I would scribble away in a journal to work things out. When I was happy and things were purring along, the journal remained closed. Why journal? I’m starting to see there are other reasons to journal though, and soRead More →

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In: Creativity, Human Nature, Writing

It’s one thing having a great idea.  It’s another to capture it in a way which will resonate with you hours, days, weeks or even years later.  It’s what’s needed though for sometimes it takes that long for an idea to find its way into a story.  In fact, I contend that those writerly notes, which still inspire us to make something of them years later are the best of the best.  That is note-taking done well. The writerly note is not just about what happens or who it happens to, even though it may contain plot points and quick character sketches.  It may beRead More →

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In: Creativity, Reading, Writing

  We draw them.  We colour them in.  We make them do things and somewhere along the line, we breathe life into them.  They start to move around in our minds.  They talk to us, making their preferences clear.  “Yes, I’ll do that, but not this.”  They develop proclivities and phobias.  They live. It is the weirdest thing.  In any other job, there would be alarm followed by a long ‘holiday’.  There would be flowers sent and whispers following us down hallways upon release.  Because it is weird, right? American children’s book writer, Lois Lowry says, “When I create characters, I create a world to inhabitRead More →

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In: Human Nature, Stories, Writing

Imagine laying beside a pool in Maui, enduring a conversation between an aggressively lazy boyfriend telling his partner that if he had booked their holiday, there would have been no confusion over their zip-line adventure tickets. “There would be one point of contact, if I’d organised it,” he says, stretched out on his pool chair, while his girlfriend’s phone trills and she attempts to explain the mix up again to perhaps her tenth point of contact. “You’ve got a big ass,” he decides, when she sits down again.  At this point my partner goes to the bar for a drink because I don’t think he can bearRead More →

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In: Human Nature, Reading, Science, Stories, Writing

It’s a tough question and if you are not feeling on top of your game, its a hand grenade.  Still, its the beginning of the year and in the spirit of continuing on with some kind of rationale, I have been attempting to answer this question for myself, but the more I have tried to answer it the more I found reasons not to do it. Reasons Not to Let’s face it!  It’s not an essential industry – well not like brain or heart surgery – not really. It’s not like farming.  Those indefatigable people who toil day in and day out to bring food to the table.Read More →