Back to Blog

Good ideas about Giant Kiwis make great stories

I was 7 years old and my sister was 10 when my family immigrated to New Zealand from the USA.   We arrived in Auckland on a P & O ocean liner called the SS Orcades which deposited us at the bottom of Auckland's Queen Street on a wintry, cold, August Sunday.The first big thing my parents did was rent a car and drive all over New Zealand looking at places to settle.   My sister and I spent long hours in the back of a Morris 1100  (which was, in the 1960s, a very new an...

Having magical super powers

Do you remember a time when you thought you had magical super powers?Maybe you felt this way when you were little - or perhaps these days, even as a grown up person, you wish you had them ..I was in the company of a delightful young fellow the other day who was telling me how he could make my cat Betsy magically disappear from the couch and reappear out in the garden under the lemon tree."How do you make that happen?" I asked to which he replied with a flourish, "I BELIEVE!"I remember when I was...

The large elephant in the room

I had a writing mentor when I was younger, Mrs. M. She used to say,  "Don't just write about the nice stuff; take on the yukky bits too."We all have times in our lives when we've done something we're not proud of.Perhaps we've really hurt another person through our actions or words.Maybe we broke Aunt May's precious china poodle, worth a million dollars, when we were staying over one weekend, tried to glue it back together, failed, stuck it in the garbage and never fessed up.And then t...

Writing our memories

Sometimes we want to write about people we have lost who were close to us.Author Jonas Hassen Khemiri says in a recent interview with The New Yorker: "What kind of memories do we cling on to? ... Whenever I have lost someone, my first impulse has been to try to collect all my memories of that person and write them down. Almost as if in a naïve attempt to render them immortal."Khemiri's words make me think of the need we have to remember that person in our words, the feverish impulse w...

Of boats, mussels, fish-scales on the arms .. and John Croft

Expect the unexpected. Be ready to let memories flow, triggered by the most extraordinary circumstances, events, chance meetings, 'blasts from the past.' Write the stories that come to your mind. Here's one.Back in the late 70's I worked at McFarlane's Fisheries, packing oceans of schnapper for export and earning money for university.  McFarlane's was located across the road from Auckland's Victoria Park on the corner of Fanshawe and Halsey Sts.I did it for a couple of summers, and occasion...

How to become a better writer: keep a journal

Yeah I know - I can hear you already. "There she is again, going on again about keeping  a daily journal." Sigh ....As you may have guessed, I advocate for daily journal writing as a valuable tool for writers, because I believe this practice will make you a better writer. Yes. Honest.  Why do I say this? Here are five reasons:1. Part of writing is collecting inspiration, being a magpie, gathering sights, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings, and writing about them in our journal, thus...

When writing does not come easily ...

“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.” So said American novelist Ernest Hemingway.​And writing can be like that. It flows effortlessly one day, but the next our creativity is encased in solid rock that needs to be drilled and blasted to let our brave words and phrases be free. I have often wondered why this is. Sometimes I can attribute it to tiredness, general fatigue, ...

A room of one's own

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” So said author Virginia Woolf in her book A Room of One's Own.These days, most of us will probably have a room ... but the money can be a problem for any writer, let alone just women fiction writers.Where do you write?Jane Austen wrote at a spindly little table whose top was the size of a dinner plate. Virginia wrote at a simple desk in a  converted tool shed in the garden that was so co...

Writing that all-important first line

Ever since Herman Melville began his novel Moby Dick with the words, "Call me Ishmael" authors have wrestled with that all-important first line.Who can forget Charles Dickens beginning A Tale of Two Cities with, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." or Orwell's quote from 1984. Ah yes, that first line - how we agonise over it - and I wonder if Charles, Herman and George worried over theirs or if they just thought, "You know what? I'm going to sta...

"Easy reading is damn hard writing."

So said 19th century American novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.Truer words have never been spoken. When you read writing that flows, words that engage you and you're in love with, I would say, hand on heart, that hours of meticulous and hard work went into creating it.Because great writing doesn't happen by accident. I first started writing stories when I was at high school, long, rambling tomes. I called them my 'Downfall Series'. There was The Downfall of Ferguson ...

Life writing - why bother?

When it comes to writing about yourself, you may wonder, why am I bothering? Who is going to be interested in my life and what I have to say?You may be surprised.Telling stories about ourselves is almost as old as time itself. We've been doing it since we dwelt in caves. Back then, we drew pictures of our surroundings and activities - drawings of the animals we saw every day, the ones we killed for food, sketchings of our environment including aliens from space (or so some believe - and the...

Want to beat writer's block? My five tips can help.

That anxiety of the blank page or laptop screen ... the feeling of paralysis that creeps into our fingers when we try to tap the keys or pick up a pen ... the building sensations in our gut caused by apprehension, confusion, guilt. We know the feeling.That's WRITER'S BLOCK. Arrgh!We've all had it. Even writers who are prodigious with their output suffer from it now and then. So how do we beat this block, shove it aside so that we can unleash our artistic energy and scribble away in a heat of cre...

Chocolate cake, champagne and a belly dancer: the perfect birthday celebration

July was always a special month in our family because Mom and I both have birthdays.Mom passed away in 2010 and today, 1 July, she would have been 90. My birthday is rolling along in a couple of weeks.The seventh month of the year was always eagerly anticipated by Mom and I because it gave us the opportunity to have a double hoolie, a good old knees-up that only the celebration of two fabulous birthdays at once could bring. Mom would say, 'Let's get the girls over' and that meant gathering ...

I'm reading my old journals ...

Late last year I set myself the task of reading through my old journals. They're in boxes, numerous exercise and writing books stacked away under my desk. There's quite  a few of them, and here's a picture of some. They begin when I was 18, and continue on to the present day. Tucked in amongst the pages are mementos that I saved: old theatre programmes, newspaper clippings, a McDonald's menu (from the first one opened in New Zealand) and a bus ticket from Auckland to Marton, issue...

Little Boy - the blackbird?

I've long been interested in the 'transmigration of souls' concept, where it is thought that the soul can pass from one body to another - either human, animal, or perhaps to an inanimate object.I think my cat Little Boy, who passed away some weeks back, has transmigrated into one of these bloody blackbirds that have plagued me all summer so far.I wrote about these winged friends in an earlier blog. They had a particularly productive spring, reproducing themselves at an impressive rate, so now th...

What are your writing resolutions for 2017?

How are you getting on with your writing resolutions for the New Year?Maybe this is the year  you'll start work on The Great Novel you've been pondering for ages. Or  you'll finish the one you began three years ago.Perhaps you're wanting to make a start with your writing - give it a go. I can help with that. I have two March writing workshops focussing on journal writing and life writing. Would love to see you. I'll have more during the year. As you sit out in ...

It's quiet round here without Little Boy

It's so quiet around here without Little Boy.He was always there in the morning, waiting at the door for his breakfast, scolding me for taking so long to get to it. Throughout the day, he was a constant presence,  talkative, always up for a walk down the stairs with me to the garden. It's hard not to keep seeing his little face peering through the windows, or out from under the benches, or from atop the table out on the deck.Our animals become such a part of our lives, such a fixture, that ...

Time to say goodbye

Little Boy has been poorly the last couple of days so we went off to the vet this morning. The news wasn't good, so I've brought him home for the weekend with some medications to keep him comfortable, so we can say goodbye.A friend often reminds me of the days before Little Boy arrived on the outskirts of my front lawn, looking beaten up and skinny, an obvious stray. She says that I was wanting a cat I could cuddle, because my other cat, Betsy, is a fractious tabby who doesn't like coddling of a...

The trouble with blackbirds

I've spent some time lately sitting out in the garden, resting while recovering from my recent breast cancer diagnosis and surgery.​There's been plenty to look at.The weather has been particularly lovely - warm, sunny, calm days that are encouraging all of us to come outside and enjoy, especially the birds and their new borns.The garden is alive with flapping, chirping, fluffy fledglings trotting about after their parents, shrieking away, mouths agape for worms and other goodies from the soil....

Why I write

The great American writer Flannery O'Connor once said,  “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” I can relate to those words, particularly when I'm writing my journal which has helped me to make sense of the world, and myself, for over 40 years.Writing for me has always been a balm for the soul, an outlet for the imagination, as normal and natural as breathing (whether it be deep or shallow, fast or slow, or yawning), and definitely a way for me t...

When breast cancer comes back

I’d always wondered how I would feel if breast cancer came back.Now I know. It’s  like a hammer blow to the heart.In my previous posting, I'd written about the anniversary of my first diagnosis, and how I usually celebrate that day marking another year of being cancer free. Of course I was unaware that I had another breast cancer then.As usual, I went in for my annual mammogram. It was clear, but my breast physician picked up a very small irregularity on the ultrasound scan which she al...

Pink - the colour of hope

On the 13 of October it'll be the 15th anniversary of my diagnosis of breast cancer.I think it's a good sign that a friend of mine had to remind me of that yesterday."Is it?" I exclaimed, and she asked, "So what are you going to do to celebrate?"For several years after my diagnosis, I always made sure I did something special on my anniversary day, something that I'd always wanted to do, or that I would enjoy. One year I went to Sydney to see La Boheme in the Opera House. Another year I went to t...

Character drives plot ... or plot drives character?

In my writing tips I've talked about writing your life stories and how to make a start but one of the other most common questions I'm asked is 'I want to write a good ripping fictional story and don't know how to begin.'If you're planning to write a story of high-seas adventure, or a dramatic historical novel, or perhaps a murder mystery - then having​ a sense of story line and the characters that will populate and drive it, is pretty much an essential.Crime writer Val McDermid&...

My writing day

I wish I could say that my writing day is as interesting as that of famous romance novelist  Barbara Cartland.She wrote over 700 romance novels lying on a sofa for several hours a day, telling her stories out loud to a secretary who sat with her, took down words in shorthand and then typed up the day's dictation.  My writing day isn't nearly as glam. I don't have a sofa that would be comfortable to lie on for any length of time, nor can I afford a secretary or cajole one of my fri...

You're never too old to make friends

I've been working on my memoir about my mother, Betty Jane, using my journal entries from the last year or so of her life as the basic structure of the book. Writing about Mom brings her back so powerfully that some days I'm almost positive she's standing behind me, reading over my shoulder, pointing out my grammar and spelling mistakes, as she always did when I asked her to read my work. ​Dad was Mom's primary caregiver and to give him a respite break, Mom would spend a week or so, from ...