I've just finished reading The Devil You Know, a new YA book by Australian writer Leonie Norrington, which was just released last month (August 09). I found it incredibly difficult to read. Not because it was poorly written; in fact it was just the opposite. The writing is superb - tight, controlled, fast-paced. But, in creating the world of young Damien and his family, the writing was

In the waiting room at a specialists office today I picked up the exhibition booklet from a 2007 exhibition of 'outsider art'by Arts Project Australia (APA). I flicked through the book and started reading the opening notes about the exhibition, which were about the history of 'outsider art' and the very notion of classifying the art of people who have mental or intellectual disabilities as '

Words are slippery things. Trying to find the right one seems impossible at times and it can seem like everything has been written before. That's when your brain seizes up and nothing flows and the only thing coming off at the end of your fingers are pedestrian sentences that plod along into nowhere. Words sometimes behave like stubborn toddlers, like when you're dragged as a kid into some

The other day I was talking to my daughter about my latest writing project and how I hoped to have it ready to submit soon. In her ultra honest & intuitive way she said, 'Well, don't rush it like you usually do.' The words pinged around in my head firing off all sorts of neuroses. Me? Rush things?? Do I really?Well, yes. Too often I get caught up in the goal and the outcome instead of the process

We all love to hate Montgomery Burns (okay, all except for Waylon Smithers). Mr Burns is the arch-capitalist. The epitome of greed is good. The man who stole the sun from Springfield to force them into 24-hour use of his nuclear energy.Well, he aint got nothin' on Australia's Productivity Commission! After completely screwing with the Australian music industry a few years ago (anyone noticed CD

This morning I dreamt I was walking with some people, carrying a large cocktail type glass filled with water that had a bright orange goldfish swimming in it. The fish was too big for the glass and kept bumping its face up against the side, its mouth gaping. I commented that the fish needed a bigger bowl, then suddenly the fish jumped right out of the glass and onto my shoulder. I've had weirder

Although I'm very glad I did my Masters, and I'm looking forward to the future challenge of a Phd, nothing beats writing just for the pure joy of it.In my current project I'm moving away from issue-based realism, letting go of the logic and just letting fly - mostly with luminous greeen vomit! (not mine, the characters...)I'm finding the words are flowing more easily as I focus on action-based

In the past two weeks I've read two YA novels: Give me Truth by Australian writer, Bill Condon and The Sky Inside by a US writer, now living in Germany, Clare Dunkle.Condon's book fits under the 'issue' genre in that it deals with the lives of two teens, David and Caitlin, whose parents are going through marriage problems and separation. It's written in multiple first-person perspective, with

As a result of a conversation with friends a couple of weeks ago, I've decided to change direction for a couple of months. I will get back to the 'new project' but right now I'm throwing myself into a completely different project for a short while.Okay, not exactly completely different. I'm giving myself six weeks to rewrite an old spec-fic manuscript that I wrote back in 2003/04. I've had some

Sometimes I think a lot of my issues around character/plot would be more easily solved if I felt more comfortable writing in the third person. I've written quite a few short stories from the third person perspective, and Curse of Fire, the kids' reader I had published a few years ago, was also written from the third person perspective.Most kids and YA books are written in first person, though,

Perhaps this isn't a good time to be making big decisions. But I seem to have inadvertently made one anyway.I had a chat with someone at uni last week and at the end of the conversation the outcome seemed to be that I had decided to do a Phd.According to myself, I loved doing the research on brain development and trauma so much that I've decided to wade into the mire once more and go even deeper.

It's a week since I got that rejection that devastated me and I've had a chance to cry about it and talk to my friends about it and slowly I'm getting some perspective on it. I think it's a good idea for me to leave the manuscript alone for a while; not look at it and not submit it anywhere else. I need to get some distance from the manuscript and the whole project. Maybe by the end of the year

I've just got another rejection for Girl in the Shadows - the second in a couple of weeks. At least this one had some encouraging words to say, but it really has put me in a position where I need to rethink what I'm doing as a writer.I've been working at a writing career for 10 years now, with only minor success. I worked really hard at Girl in the Shadows; it's the best writing I can do. It's

Every writer knows that rejections are part and parcel of the publishing world. But that doesn't make you feel any better when you get one. Especially when the rejection is essentially a rote note written on a scrap of paper (okay, maybe not a scrap of paper but one of those crappy 'with compliments' type notes).Maybe it's just me, but I think if you've taken the time and effort to make a

I've passed my masters - yay!I still have to do a few minor updates to it but I've officially passed. I was really happy with the examiners' comments both for the manuscript and the exegesis. One examiner described Girl in the Shadows as "an engaging and well-paced work with credible characters, convincing thematic development, written in a style which was both clear and yet suggestively obtuse

Although it appears I abandoned this blog months ago, it's probably worthwhile noting that I'm finally about to submit my masters research for examination. Yep, not only did I finish the manuscript, but I actually managed to write & finish the exegesis (short thesis).In September last year I thought it would never be done. My research & my manuscript had taken me in an entirely different

My manuscript should be lying somewhere in a big pile of manuscripts at Text Publishing by now. I agonised over the synopsis and ended up changing it at the last minute and now I'm too chicken to go back and look at it again in case I see a big, ugly mistake staring out at me. It's gone now & that's that.So now I have no excuse for not starting on my 'exegesis' (or thesis in normal language).

To enter the Text Publishing young adult fiction competition, I have to come up with a 100 word synopsis for Girl in the Shadows. So far, I've put together three I'm reasonably happy with but I'm not sure which one works best. What do you think?Synopsis AWhat happens when you look in the mirror and see a face that isn't yours? You hope it's a nightmare, a horror story. But it's real. It's the

I've got feedback from my sister and also a younger reader (someone from the target audience) and so far, so good.My sister picked up a few things for me to tidy up. Mostly it was things where new scenes didn't quite mesh with the old. But nothing too major - probably only about 5 hours work maximum. The younger reader really enjoyed it, too, which is a big bonus. She also gave me some great

Yep, I've done it (again). Finished the manuscript & sent it off to my sister for a read through. She hasn't read it before but I've talked to her a lot about different writing issues I've faced throughout the process, so it'll be interesting to see what she thinks of the (almost) final product.At least I know she won't be horribly cruel & all criticisms will be handed down gently.I've also

This week I tackled the major time issue within the narrative and the solution turned out to be much easier than what I'd thought.I was preparing to extend the span of time within the central part of the story. But that really wasn't going to work. Then I considered each of the scenes, and the time when they could/should happen, and I realised I was imposing unnecessary restrictions on myself.I'm

So far, so good. I managed to get chapter 1 to work properly without having to do a complete rewrite, so the levitation scene stays. I was thinking about a few alternatives, but none of them seemed to fit properly. I was a bit worried that the levitation scene was a bit cliched, but I think I've got around that. I mean, it really just is something teenage girls do. But I've toned it down a bit

Last week I read through my manuscript, made some notes and then did a scene by scene exercise where I wrote down a brief description of each scene in the manuscript. It didn't take long to get the scenes down - only about three hours - and it's a really useful way to find holes in the manuscript and scenes that are out of time sequence. The exercise has shown me that I definately need to extend

It's time to start tying all the bits and pieces together. This manuscript has changes so much from my original draft that it's almost a completely different story! And there comes a point where you have to stop rewriting, take a deep breath, take stock of where the story is and make a decision about its future.Doing the masters course has really helped in the development of this manuscript. But

I set myself a goal to write for 20-30 minutes each day, and I've been doing pretty close to that. Mostly I've been working on adding detail to the manuscript and also writing a couple of new scenes. I chucked the whole convict doco storyline that I started working on in January- it was awful! The girls are still working on an English assignment,but it's a much more interesting one that involves