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One of the biggest mistakes writers make is trying to do everything perfectly, immediately. Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird, writes, “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. Perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness, playfulness and life force.” Most people discover that when they learn to turn off […]

Writing fiction is not an intellectual exercise. One of the keys to creating powerful fiction is to evoke emotion in your writing. You want your writing to create an emotional response in the reader. It is the emotion that will connect the writer and the reader to your characters and your story. So when you […]

Author Gabrielle Lord shares her top four writing tips: Read books about writing, especially screenplay writing, or better still, do some courses in this area. To develop good knowledge of structure, pace and narrative, there’s nothing better than understanding how a story works and that’s what happens with screenplay writing. Storyline your story – that […]

She may look every inch the glamorous supermum with smoky eyes and spiked heels, but TV personality Nicky Buckley wants every mother in Australia to know that behind the diamante and plunging décolletage she wears on Seven’s hit show, Dancing with the Stars, there’s an ordinary mum who still does the shopping and the bedtime […]

Exclusive extract from The Last Anniversary (Macmillan), written by Liane Moriarty. Sophie had been going out with Thomas for nearly a year when she decided to break up with him. The decision was the result of weeks of agonised self-analysis. Yes, she loved him, but did she love him for the right reasons? She knew, […]

Many people have a lot of misconceptions about writers and the process of writing. One of them is that in order to write, you have to be in the mood and that successful writers feel wildly enthusiastic and inspired every time they sit down to write. In fact, just the opposite is true for most […]

If you want to write fiction, whether it be short stories, novels or filmscripts or plays, we recommend you start writing by following these three basic rules from Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Keep your pen moving Capture first thoughts Let yourself write junk These deceptively simple rules are designed to help you access […]

Monica McInerney’s latest and fifth book Family Baggage (Penguin Books) was selected as the Great Read by The Australian Women’s Weekly and was a bestseller. To all aspiring writers, Monica highly recommends Stephen King’s On Writing. Here are Monica’s four top writing tips: 1. Space Set aside a writing area in your house that won’t […]

Neil Perry is one of Australia’s leading and most influential chefs. He has managed several quality restaurants in Sydney and today concentrates on his flagship brand, Rockpool restaurant in Sydney, XO restaurant in Surry Hills and Rockpool Consulting. Neil heads a team of six consultants to Qantas Airways. Menus are developed quarterly for International First […]

She’s the girl who has it all – soaring career, sexy new man, beauty, brains and a newfound appreciation for who she is and where she’s come from. Megan Gale tells Michael Sheather she’s delved into her past and likes what she sees. Megan Gale breaks all the rules. She is smart, sexy and seductively […]