18 May 2012
Out Damn Shame Monster, Out I Say
“Your historical monsters are the building blocks of your core negative beliefs … It is necessary to acknowledge creative injuries and grieve them. Otherwise they become creative scar tissue and block your growth.” Julia Cameron—The Artist’s Way Stephen King and Julia Cameron both speak, in their own ways, of creative monsters and the havoc they bring to the creative life.... read more
18 May 2012
Fear is a Word Killer
The mere act of being a writer comes with many inherent fears. When I was younger it was all fun and games – Sunday afternoons spent writing, school lessons spent writing. I initially studied creative writing at university simply because it was something that I enjoyed doing and something I was kind of good at. Then as the years passed I realised that writing isn’t just something that I enjoy doing but... read more
17 May 2012
A caution for male writers when creating female characters
Last week, while conversing with my wife about an appropriate housewarming gift for a single woman in her mid-twenties buying her first home, I had an epiphany: I don’t remotely think like a woman. Therefore, I need to expend significant research and call on female beta-readers when creating female characters. If not, my stories won’t appeal or be convincing to female readers. I’ll make this topic... read more
17 May 2012
Uncomfortably Numb
There are two particularly smelly beasties that prey on me almost every time I set out to write; meet my greatest fears as a writer — the (not so great) Expectations and The Blank Page. The expectations (whether high or low) of others and my own, often leave me with the feeling of finding myself standing waist deep in a bucket of gore in the midst of some big cat enclosure. It’s not pretty;... read more
16 May 2012
23 Ways To Skin A Cat
When I started out writing, I felt I had to learn as much as possible from those who came before me. There was no Internet then. Being the last generation to grow up without it meant getting my information the old-fashioned way. I read books. Hit the library for whatever information was there. And even then there wasn’t a cornucopia of meta-writing. That meant if you didn’t have direct access to... read more
16 May 2012
Atychiphobia
It seems odd to talk about fear in relation to writing. When I think of fear, I think of grand things. Dangerous things. Deadly things. Snakes scare the hell out of me—for reasons I’ve never been able to uncover. About five years ago I acquired a healthy fear of fire—a story for another time. But writing? Equating fear and writing somehow seems… overblown. Which is why you may have... read more
15 May 2012
By Morning Light
On a sun-blanched table I write. I skitter scatter type delete dredge words from vast crevasses of nowhere. I bite my fingernail. I exhale. Birds gossip-monger, hop flirt in giddy cacophony. I tap imaginary pen against imaginary paper on a screen I can barely see in glaring 7 am desert day. I inhale. Coffee steams. I sniff, sneeze, sip. I stare at nothing; flinch– the flick of a bee I never noticed... read more
15 May 2012
Fears and Tears
Fear is an emotion which washes through your body as quickly as a bushfire rips through a dry gully. It can consume a rational being and leave deep scars which heal slowly. Fear is an emotion many actively try to avoid as it draws from deep emotions based in helplessness and hopelessness. Triggered by a word, a smell or memory; fear, as an enemy, has an arsenal larger than the US military. Fear travels in... read more
