Have you written a short story that you think will resonate with women? Maybe you like scribbling flash fiction. Try one of these women’s writing competitions. Sorry lads, these are just for the ladies. Listed in order of deadline Open to international authors unless listed otherwise. Also check out my list of writing competitions open …
Ladies only – Short Fiction Contests 2018 – 2019 Read More »
Writing in New Zealand is a tough business. I’ve recently started reading a lot more New Zealand fiction and as a country, we are producing some great work. I’ve discovered some talented authors in the Twitter writing community. These hard-working creatives should get more exposure. The idea for this segment grew from a desire to …
August is my birthday month, so I have already been pondering the onward march of time and the date of my own demise. A little dramatic? Maybe. Last weekend, a friend and I went to a discussion at the Word Festival on writing about time travel. US author Ted Chiang and NZ authors Whiti Hereaka …
“Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Besides, in this random miscellaneous company we may rub against some complete stranger who will, with luck, turn into the best friend we have in the …
Is it lazy to research the history of a place by reading fiction stories set there? Asking for a friend. I do love finding out about the history of countries before I travel there and a good novel is such an interesting way to do it. Before we went to live in France, I searched …
I’ll have a room of one’s own with a window, please. Settings are my favourite thing to write – I love trying to capture the feeling of a scene. I can’t drop a single word in a room without windows. But a view of trees or the roiling ocean seem to summon the muse and …
Each month, around the 20th, I publish a Top Three. I am so happy about all the great writerly types I’ve met through blogging. Who else will understand the torture of plotting at 1am, the flirty brush of 1st person POV and the morning-after hangover of misguided secondary plots. There are finite words in the …
Do you have a self-hosted blog? Perhaps it has a shiny domain and an even more brilliant theme? The next step is to drive traffic to read your fantastic words. Once you have written one or two pages of content, it is time to think about being discovered by readers through search engines. This article …
WordPress, backlinks and SEO – what’s the big deal? Read More »
Writing in New Zealand is a tough business. I’ve recently started reading a lot more New Zealand fiction and as a country, we are producing some great work. I’ve discovered some talented authors in the Twitter writing community. These hard-working creatives should get more exposure. The idea for this segment grew from a desire to …