I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I’ve finished the zero draft* of my book. There’s still a lot of work to do, but the worst is over. I think of this early complete draft as being like a pencil sketch for a painting. Now, I know what the story is [...]
I have written a guest blog for fellow writer Gabrielle Wang, who has asked a number of writers to write about where they write and how they write. So if you want to see a photo of my very messy desk, go to Gabrielle’s blog. While you are their you can see how other writers [...]
So I’ve started writing a new novel. It’s a Dragonkeeper novel. But it doesn’t follow on from Dragon Moon. It’s set about 400 years later. This is my fifth Dragonkeeper book. I suppose I thought it might be a bit easier, fifth time round. It isn’t. I spent about two months last year working out [...]
I’m back in front of the computer this week after a few weeks break. My book about the Battle of Fromelles went off to the printers two weeks ago. Now I am starting to think about what I will write next. I get quite a few letters and emails from people wanting to know where [...]
I know I said I’d written the last blog on my writing process, but today I went into black dog books to have a look at the dyelines of my book Sugar Sugar. This is really the last stage before printing. The printer sends a copy of the book on sheets of paper as it [...]
This is the sixth and last blog in a series about the way I write a book. After the 3rd draft, there might be a 4th draft. By this stage I’m getting impatient to get it over and done with. The internal design has been submitted by the designers, changed, because we weren’t quite happy [...]
This is the fifth in a series of blogs about the way I write a book. So the day after I sent in my second draft, I got sick. That gives you some idea of the intensity of working on that draft. Fortunately, the third draft is a lot easier. I got back comments on [...]
This is the fourth in a series of blogs about the way I write books. It’s been a while since I wrote the last one…that’s because I’ve been writing a second draft! So after I send off my first draft to my publisher, he reads it, my editor reads it. And they write their comments [...]
This is the third in a series of blogs about the way I write books. So assuming my publisher didn’t hate my synopsis, it’s time to start writing. For me, this initial draft is the hardest part of the process. I can easily talk myself into doing a bit more planning or a bit more [...]
This is the second in a series of blogs about the way I write. It’s not the only way to write a book. It’s just my way. So I’ve already got a premise, a story idea. I’ve worked out when and where the story is set. I’ve got a main character. That’s when I start [...]
black snake china climate change cooking dragon companion dragonkeeper trilogy dragons events Fromelles history inspiration jerilderie letter overseas editions pets ramose reading short stories sugar sugar the games the night we made the flag writing writing process writing process special series
BibliOdyssey
Fabulous blog of historical illustrations
Centre for Youth Literature: Writer in Residence Blog
A different writer blogs each month
Lili Wilkinson
My daughter’s blog
Andrew’s Black Dog Blog
My publisher’s blog
Yarra Climate Action Now
My local climate action group (of which I am a member)
Earthsign
The thoughtful and informed climate change blog of a fellow YCAN member
