Category: Writer’s Journey
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Bucking a Creative Trend
I don’t like notebooks. (Phew! I’ve wanted to confess that for some time.) It’s not practical or an aesthetic aversion — they can be things of superb utility and immense beauty. I simply hate what they represent — a crutch for the frailty of human memory. The problem with crutches is they can very easily…
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Losing the Desire
Writer’s block is real. I’ll probably cop flak for that, but it’s true. There is a school of thought, and I used to subscribe to this view, that writer’s block is an excuse for lazy writers to not write. I used to think it was something that came about from a lack of imagination, from…
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The Reader’s Instinct
So, I failed to complete short story in time to meet an anthology deadline, in the lead-up to Christmas and New Year. Don’t get me wrong, finishing the story was very achievable. I really liked the characters I created; I relished the predicament I’d dropped them in; I even loved the character arc my protagonist…
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Striving for 2019
With another year of creativity opening up before me, I’d love nothing more than to toil away in complete and utter isolation, heedless of how I fare. But, I understand that it can be healthier to share ones goals in order to achieve some level of accountability for one’s work. So, having posted about my…
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Highs and Lows of 2018
December is, typically, a month of reflection for many. Authors, in particular, seem to like to review the year just gone and see what they’ve achieved. So, what have I done? While I tend to mark my achievements by career milestones — two of which were reached in the year — there were other successes…
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Reflections upon 2 Years of Blogging
My name is Matthew, and I’m a blogger. I originally started, while riding the high after a writers convention, with the aim of posting at least once a month for a whole year. And I’ve been at it now, I realised the other day, for more than two. (To be honest, I didn’t think I’d…
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An Introvert’s Learnings from Writers Conventions
I recently returned from another jaunt to the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild’s annual convention — Conflux 14: The Unconventional Hero. This is the third Conflux I’ve attended now, and as always, I came away feeling reinvigorated about my art and my writing. But given this is the case, why do I always procrastinate and find…
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The Path to Story
Back in February of 2017, I blogged about a story that was about to be published. That story was ‘The Banksia Boys’. And in June just gone, that story won the Australian Shadows Award for Short Fiction for 2017. Having already previously blogged about the creative inspiration behind the story, I thought this month I’d…
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Milestones in the Writer’s Journey
I hate failing. (I know, I know. Extremely unhealthy place to be mentally. I’m sure when I can afford to do so, both in time and money, I’ll unburden myself to a good therapist.) It took decades for me to realise — intellectually, if not emotionally — that failure is an essential part of learning.…
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The Story Behind ‘Old Man Red Gum’
I’ve mentioned in this blog previously how much I love reading about the inspiration behind stories I’ve enjoyed reading — Stephen King is especially good at this. Since my flash fiction piece ‘Old Man Red Gum’ has just been published in Midnight Echo #12, I thought I’d do the same. ** Spoiler warning ** ‘Old…