A Crowning Moment – WIPpet Wednesday

I had an interesting experience this week, when an inner ear infection caused an onset of severe vertigo. The world was spinning - and spinning fast. It's a terrible feeling when you can't focus on anything and even closing your eyes won't make it stop. In the end, relief came in the form of a …

The Hobbit: An Extraordinary Movie!

It's no secret on this blog that I am a huge Tolkien fan, so if you think this is going to be a balanced and critical view of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey you'd be sadly mistaken. Just so you know I've been looking forward this release forever. I went to the world …

A Plan So Cunning…

Right now I'm gearing up to participate in NaNoWriMo, the great November writing marathon where tales are spun upon gossamer threads, fingers develop calluses as tough as the sole of a hobbit's foot and stories are shaped and forged in the fire of imagination. You might think I've been spending this time warming up my …

To Thine Own Style Be True

In my post Writing the Ravine: A View from a Rope Bridge, I had in the back of my mind my own habit of writing in circles.  For me writing can be a slow and laborious process.  Right now I'm about to tip into the second act of my WIP and yet I've become bogged …

When Writing Gets Hard – A Light For a Dark Place

Trust me; we all have days when we wonder what we're doing.  When we've read our work so many times it seems to blur on the page and we couldn't spot a spelling mistake in our name.  These are the days we need to dig deep, to remember why we thought we were writers at …

Injured in the Line of, er… Writing

There are a series of TV advertisements in NZ with the catch-phrase "Want Better Work Stories"?  Today I find I can relate, because this week I've been in a world of pain.  And the thing is, no matter how creative we like to think we are, there is no way to make an injury exacerbated …

Sustenance for the Road

Sometimes even the best of us get a little weary and start wondering why we bothered to set out on the great writing adventure in the first place.  Especially when we could be curled up on the couch reading someone else's book. The truth is - it's hard to scrape out writing time when you …