Sydney Community College is where I’ll be running a novel writing workshop over eight weeks, starting Feb 3. I think it’s sold out but there’s another one scheduled soon. Last year the students wowed me and broke my heart, in equal measure. Combination bad instant coffee, dry cookies, and being in a downtown office building at night. Unleashes the creative beast in us all.
He may have been a tad intimidated but Andrew Denton managed to keep his cool for most of a spellbinding confab with that wiliest of politicos—Bob Hawke. Hawke remained pretty tight-lipped throughout. Denton had to had to dig deep— in other words he had to hope his subject had soft underbelly and that it was…
My 1991 edition of Stephen King’s story collection, Nightshift, begins with an introduction by John D MacDonald (most famous for his detective Trevor McGee and for his story, The Executioners, which provided the basis for the film Cape Fear (1962, 1991). MacDonald tells it straight. In order to write well you need: 1. Compulsive Diligence…
writing, waiting, sleeping a little not much, drinking a lot a little too much, reading not enough but loving Hammett again, learning more about poetry and wishing my cousin would call. It is three weeks into the university term so I have films to watch and paper work. I am getting to know a very…
250 words down and it settles in. A great calm. A sea of words to keep me afloat. I stop looking for land.
I’m bogged down on page 124 of 300 pages of what was meant to be a quick copy edit and has morphed into a bigger than the Black Lagoon rewrite. Why? How many novels do I have to write before I can call it quits after, ooo I dunno, eight drafts? Instead of eight hundred?…
This is the final (ish) countdown. I have four more days to finish this rewrite. Break it down: I am on p 150/347 today, which means that in order to finish on Friday I have to turn over 50 pp/day which is roughly 8 pp/hour. So no time to be precious. Yesterday I worked from…
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