We’re doing a Squee! for Felicity, regular ROR blog reader and guest poster. (See Fel’s post on using research to give authenticity to your writing. She talks about her time on the tall ship and a balloon ride). Felicity (writing … Continue reading
The New Zealand Writers College short story competition is open to both NZ and OZ writers (who have had less than 4 short stories published). Winning or placing in competitions is a good way to establish your writing credentials. The … Continue reading
Today we have Brisbane based author, Paula Weston, whose debut YA fantasy Shadows has just been released from Text Publishing. Paula is going to talk about her passion, writing for Young Adults. She raises the question why are YA (and … Continue reading
The QWC Hachette Mauscript Development Program has opened again. This is not genre specific, in fact it is not even fiction specific, so you might have a non-fiction book to submit. Submissions close 5pm, Thursday 12th July. You can download … Continue reading
From Margo … A Deepening ROR—a wRiters On the Rise workshop, from the inside First there’s a bit of foreplay. Someone pipes up online: “When’s the next ROR?” Someone at the other end of the country: “I’ll have a novel … Continue reading
As some of you might know our ROR writing group gets together every 12 – 18 months to critique our books in progress. Back in 2001 at the first ROR we read Margo Lanagan’s Black Juice anthology and wept over … Continue reading
41 WAYS TO CREATE AND HEIGHTEN SUSPENSE IN FICTION PART TWO – PLOT AND STRUCTURE The first part of this article dealt with suspense from the viewpoint of characters and their problems. This part looks at ways to create suspense … Continue reading
41 WAYS TO CREATE AND HEIGHTEN SUSPENSE IN FICTION PART ONE – CHARACTERS AND THEIR PROBLEMS According to top New York literary agent Noah Lukeman (The Plot Thickens), if a writer can maintain suspense throughout the story, many readers will … Continue reading
The Varuna Publisher Fellowships is open for 2011. What is Varuna? It’s a beautiful house in the Blue Mountains which is run as a writers retreat. (For more see here). What is a fellowship? In their own words: ‘The Varuna … Continue reading
Back in the late nineties after I had my first children’s book published I wrote up a Beginning Writer’s Checklist (here’s the updated version). Recently, I came across this post The Common Traits of the Successful Writer by Bob Mayer, … Continue reading