Category: Fiction writing

For writers, self-editing is a crucial skill, especially if you’re planning to send your finished manuscript off to a publisher or enter it in a competition. Whether or not you have friends who can help you as beta readers, you need to be able to edit yourself well.   The Australian

By Adrian Beck, author of the Derek Dool: Supercool series.
Making time to write is tough.
Making time to write when you have kids is an even bigger challenge.
But making time to write when you have kids (doing remote learning) whilst in the middle of a pandemic is MISSION IMPOSSIBLE! Well, nearly. But like Tom Cruise, I’ve found a way. And I also do all my own stunts.

Deciding whether a story is YA, Junior Fiction or Middle Grade comes down to the fundamentals of all writing. That is: story, idea, setting, language, character, voice, structure, length… All these factors help shape what sort of story you’re writing. But in making this decision, possibly the most important thing to decide is… Who is your reader?

Teenage writers are bursting with creativity and fresh perspective, but between the structure of the English curriculum and all their other work, sometimes writing falls by the wayside. If you have a talented teen you’d like to support as a writer – or you’re wondering how to get your teen

For authors looking to write for children and young adults, it’s important to understand that what they want to read is evolving. Young readers now have screens and devices constantly competing for their attention, but they are still interested in reading engaging, well-written books. While you don’t need to follow

Have you been working on a manuscript for a children’s book?  Walker Books Australia are looking for new diverse Australian stories for kids. They’ve launched an initiative called Walker Wednesday – a biannual event where they will be reviewing unpublished manuscripts from new and established writers.  Linsay Knight from Walker

Writing a novel: There’s no one right way to do it. One of the biggest points of difference among writers is whether to plan in advance or not, with those who do referred to as ‘plotters’ while those who don’t earn the moniker of ‘pantsers’ – as in, by the

For parents of high school students, it can seem like they’re so busy with schoolwork, a social life and other hobbies that writing takes a back seat – even if they’re talented or have shown they enjoy it. If your teenager is interested in writing, but you’re not sure how

Our popular Writing Picture Books course has turned out some of Australia’s top picture book authors, and our graduates credit their publishing success to what they’ve learnt from our expert tutors. We checked in with some of our graduates to find out what specifically it was from the course that

Some teenagers grit their teeth to get through English at school, while others find it a fulfilling outlet – particularly creative writing. If you’ve got a teenager in your life who’s showing interest in creative writing, and you want to help them take it to the next level, our experts

Chapter books: They’re a massive part of a child’s journey to becoming an independent reader and, written properly, can encourage a lifelong enthusiasm for reading.  Lesley Gibbes is the award-winning author of internationally published chapter book series Fizz, and teaches the Australian Writers’ Centre’s course on Writing Chapter Books for 6-9 year