Month: January 2015

Word lovers
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Australianisms and their origins

Each week, we chat about the quirks and anomalies of the English language. This week, it’s Australia Day, so we put on our cork hat and decipher some local language… Q: Hi AWC, have you finished your last minute Australia Day gift shopping? I’m hoping the shops will be open till

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Uncategorized
Australian Writers' Centre Team

18 authors share their writing routines…

So you’re working on the next great novel. How do you approach it? An intense burst of 5000-words-a-day locked in a dark room with no Internet connection? A scrawled dozen words here and there on trains, waiting at the bank or in between sets at the gym? Or a leisurely

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Fiction writing
Dean Koorey

Novels – the long and the short of it

At the new year, there was a quote doing the rounds. It went something along the lines of “today is the first page of a 365 page book – make it a great one.” (Hang on, hasn’t that just described a diary?) Anyway, after clicking “like”, I started wondering just

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Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

"I got published!": Megan Blandford

We spotted Megan in Sunday Life recently! Congratulations Megan! If you have a success story to share with us, you can do so right here. We’ll share it with the world! For more success stories, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Competitions and Opportunities
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Win with the new ESU Roly Sussex Short Story Award

We love it when new annual story competitions are announced, and this one – from the English Speaking Union (ESU) in Queensland – is particularly noteworthy.< Named for its emeritus professor, Roland (Roly) Sussex, the contest is on the hunt for original, previously unpublished short stories – and will award

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Word lovers
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Invoke vs Evoke

Each week, we chat about the quirks and anomalies of the English language. This week, we’re extinguishing any confusion between two similar words… Q: Hi, I have a quick question. A: Well you’ve come to the right place. Q: Seriously? But we usually ramble on. I need this to be answered

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Fiction writing
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Need more help with “Show, don’t tell”?

One of the key concepts any writer needs to understand is “Show, don’t tell”. If you haven’t already read our explanation of this, check it out here. For many, this explanation just clicks. But let’s recap. “Telling” is like a statement of fact. Here’s a “telling” sentence: John was bored.

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Fiction writing
Australian Writers' Centre Team

The perils of writing good dialogue

Dialogue can be one of the most challenging parts of the writing process. It takes skill to write dialogue that is convincing and which takes your reader on a seamless journey through your story. When you’re writing direct dialogue (the exact words spoken) here are some important factors to consider:

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Uncategorized
Australian Writers' Centre Team

King of the Road book launch with Nigel Bartlett

You probably know Nigel as our presenter for Writing About Interiors, Style and Design, but he’s more than just an expert on freelance writing – in 2012 he completed a research masters in Creative Writing (as you do) and this year he’s launching his first novel: King of the Road.

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Word lovers
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Adviser vs Advisor

Each week, we chat about the quirks and anomalies of the English language. This week, quiet please, we get advisory… Q: So time for another Q&A huh? A: Yup. Hey, what’s that on your head? Q: Don’t I ask the questions? A: Right, okay. Off you go then. Q: What’s this

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Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

"I got published!": Wangmo Whitethorn

We love hearing from our students no matter what they have to say, but when we hear of a student being published, we just want to shout it from the rooftops! We’re a little scared of heights, so we’ll go with a blog post instead. Wangmo says: Hi everyone; I

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Grammar and Punctuation
Dean Koorey

Q&A: New Year’s vs New Years

Each week, we chat about the quirks and anomalies of the English language. This week, it’s a new year… Q: Happy New Year AWC! A: Thanks, and you too. May 2015 be filled with many more questions and answers. Q: Absolutely! And on the subject of New Year’s – do I

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Competitions and Opportunities
Australian Writers' Centre Team

The 2015 Text Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing

If you have a young adult or children’s book story in the works and want a deadline to work towards – today is your lucky day! Perhaps unlucky day if you wanted that deadline to not be in the first half of 2015… But the good news is that submissions for the Text

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Freelance and copywriting
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Have you considered these freelance writing revenue streams?

Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait ran a masterclass at this year’s Storyology conference, run by The Walkley Foundation. Called “Turn Your Passion into Productivity and Profit”, they spoke to a packed room about finding new opportunities in the world of freelancing writing. “Many freelancers complain that editorial pages are shrinking,

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Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

"I got published!": Jordan Harcourt-Hughes

We love hearing from our students no matter what they have to say, but when we hear of a student being published, we just want to shout it from the rooftops! We’re a little scared of heights, so we’ll go with a blog post instead. Jordan says: I recently published the

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Fiction writing
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Why you need to kill your darlings

There’s a famous saying in the world of writing that you need to be able to “kill your darlings”. What’s that all about? And what “darlings” should you be killing? In everything you write, you have to ask yourself, “am I moving forwards, am I taking my reader closer to

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