She was more than just a writer — To be honest, I’d never read any of Sylvia Plath’s work until I began studying her at university. It was in my second year of an arts degree in Sydney, Australia, when my lecturer — whose name was Joy — introduced me to The Bell Jar, Plath’s only published novel…

#3 Puppies chew everything — I planned to write this list for my 42nd birthday. Well, now that’s done and dusted, I thought I’d better share the life lessons that have made an impact on me and have even changed the direction of my life. To give you a bit of context, here’s a little…

And where the bloody hell is mine? — As a new writer, I’ve been told by many industry professionals that I must find my writing voice in order to produce work that resonates with my readers. But what exactly is this elusive voice and how do I find it? So, a little bit about me first. I’m from…

The secret is referred memberships — When I first began writing on Medium back in 2019, I didn’t know you could get paid for writing articles. I was happy to publish my articles for the mere experience of writing. I wrote in order to establish my unique writer’s voice. To learn the technique of writing for…

Tackling writer’s anxiety with 6 positive steps — I’m a perfectionist. I get anxious about a lot of things that may seem trivial. Small tasks build up and merge into one behemoth of a messy task. I have Writer’s Anxiety (capitalised because it’s a Big Problem.) Some people might call it writer’s block, but that doesn’t capture the…

Can you improve your writing depending on which type of writer you are? — In my writer’s group last week a woman said she wasn’t very good at writing dialogue in her stories because she wasn’t a great conversationalist in real life. It was hard for her to write natural-sounding dialogue in her manuscripts, so she never included much dialogue. Her manuscripts were full…