Nov 28 2020
Line editing involves making changes to a manuscript at a sentence-by-sentence level.
A thorough line edit can crank up the tension in your work, by making the prose punchy and to-the-point. The purpose of this is to improve the storytelling…
Nov 19 2020
If you want to know what a writing coach will bring to your prose in terms of editorial help, read my blog explaining how and why.
I’m delighted to have recently been appointed a coaching Mentor for Jericho Writers…
Oct 22 2020
In March 2020, I began working as a freelance fiction writing coach in Geelong, my hometown. I was at the end of a PhD in Creative Writing, so the timing seemed perfect. Nobody could’ve guessed that Covid and…
Sep 22 2020
Writing decent women characters is vital for the modern novelist, because surveys tell us that sixty per cent of all readers are female. The majority of editorial and commissioning staff in publishing houses today are also women. This means…
Aug 5 2020
Yes - family stories provide terrific inspiration. Here are a few things to consider before you embark on your journey.
Recently, I’ve been privileged to connect with three writers who used aspects of real-life family history to…
May 22 2020
Many years ago, when my bookshelves were filled with ‘how to’ manuals on writing, I remember struggling with the popular wisdom that writers should make a ‘character board’ for every character they invent. I associated these kind of pictoral…
May 15 2020
A client recently asked me how the mechanics of publishing work. This client has no interest in self-publishing; rather, he’s hoping to take the mainstream route when his novel is ready. I decided to blog about this because there…
May 13 2020
Why is editorial help important? How can independent advice improve a manuscript?
As a writer, you can only get so far on your own before you need an outside eye. Even bestselling authors have a regular editor. The…
Apr 10 2020
Genre describes the category to which fiction (or non-fiction) belongs. Crime, romance, Sci Fi, fantasy, memoir - these are all examples of different genres. The question is, why is genre important?
Genre fictions (horror, fantasy, romance, crime…
Mar 7 2020
Today, my Script Doctor service went live. I’m delighted to be able to offer editing and structural services for writers of fiction, non-fiction and memoir, based on everything I’ve learned and achieved over the past few years as a full-time…
Apr 24 2019
It’s been a long time since I blogged, mainly due to having moved to the other side of the world. I took a brief intercalation from my PhD, which helped with the readjustment, then picked up writing where I’d left…