Index of Posts

All my posts are listed below, in chronological order, with the most recent at the top. 

If the links are working properly, you can click on a title to go directly to that post.

You’re most welcome to use any material, including excerpts and links. Please credit  WritingCompanion and/or provide the page link.  Or you can include this information:  © Marsha Durham and WritingCompanion, 2007-2013. 

• Wild About the Alternating Memoir 

• Hello Possum, Goodbye Writing? Making writing dates 

• Why Write Screwed Up Stuff ?

• Writing a New Path

• The Elusive Fictional Past
  

• Back to Normal, Back to Writing

• Writing Against the Current   
  

• Maatsuyker: The ultimate writing retreat   
  

• Odd Book Titles: Fish who answer the telephone 
  

• Writing Tips from a Horse Whisperer

• What Does ‘Readable’ Mean?

• Six Essentials for a Great Writing Masterclass
  
  
•  Who?  Famed Writers Once, Now Obscure

• The First Sentence: Dark and Stormy

• Writing in the Dark, Getting to the Dark

• The Fine Art of Branding

• 5 Tips for Writing Fiction

• Writing from Experience: The Haunting of Hill House

• Fully Immersed in Writing

• Joining a Writing Group? 7 points to ponder

• Memoirs: Fiction or for real

• The Power of One

• 2010′s Words of the Year
  

• The Getting of Writing Wisdom 

• A Writer’s Digital Sabbatical: Beating the connection addiction
  

• Owning the Writer’s Role
  

• Memoirs: Untruths and Regrets

• Prompt: Bolano’s Nazi Literature Titles

• Led Writing Groups

• Macroediting the First Draft

• Failed Stories, Not Failed Writers

• Are You Procrastinating? Or Composting? 

• Deep Writing vs. Too Many Details

• Paper Notebooks and Writers
  

• Be a Scribe

• English: The crazy language

• Must-have Must-do Writing Goals

• Writing Group: Stay or go?
  

• Prompt: Five odd lists
  

• Goals for Writing: Creating goals and strategies (3rd of 3 posts on goal-setting)

• Goals for Writing: Your current state (2nd of 3 posts on goal-setting)
  

• Free E-Books on Novel Writing
  

• Writing Goals: What and why? (1st of 3 posts on goal-setting)
  

• Memoir: The ‘Barbie’ genre
  

• Writing Advice: Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of Eat Pray Love)

• Last Day at Chez Varuna
  

• Baths and Writing

• Another Day at Varuna

• Community and Writers

• Faith of a Writer–Carol Joyce Oates (Her essays about writing)
  

• Weird Book Titles

• Prompt: Arty Starters

• Writing Language Back into the Land (Guest post–Kelly Shepherd)

• Writers’ Research Part 2:  Characters and settings
  

• How Writers Research: Part 1

• Dark and Stormy Writing (Comically bad opening lines)
  

• Dreaming Ideas to Write About (Using dreams in your writing)
  

• Writers and Dreaming (Naomi Epel interviews writers about the  influence of dreams and the unconscious)

• Writing Bad Analogies (Deliberately bad analogies)

• Haiku Inspirations and the Pocket Notebook (Guest post  Kelly Shepherd)

• Getting to Prolific

• Prolific and Super-Prolifc Writers

• Writing Advice: Marilynne Robinson (Interview with Robinson)

• Writing, The Beats and On The Road (Jack Kerouac’s views  about writing)

• Writing Prompt 17: Searching Terms

• Phantom Editors and Writing ‘Mistakes’

• Finding Publications and Competitions for Writers

• Taming Technology As a Writer
  

• Writers, Watchers and Short Stories

• Writing Prompt 16: That first time

• 2008′s New Words

• Plum Pudding Vodka (Nothing about writing, but a luxurious Christmas/winter dessert)

• Line-Number Your Writing (Numbering lines helps writing group or mentor)

• Writing Prompt 15: Senses of place

• Getting Into Your Character’s Head

• Writing Prompt 14: Challenging scenes

• Mining Journal/Notebook Entries

• Writing Journal? Or Commonplace Book?

• Writing Workshops at Varuna

• ‘Filthy, Trashy’: Banned books

• Writing and Busywork, Busy Work, Busy-work

• Marking Up Books: Mutilation or act of love?
  

• Writing Prompt 13: Less is more

• Save the Cat! An interview with Blake Snyder, Screenwriter (guest post by Robin Mizzell)

• Writing Prompt 12: Alphabetical writing

• June Reads

• The Dulled Edge of Danielle Steel

• Bouncing Back When Publication Doesn’t Happen

• Writing to Stretch Your Mind
  

• Satisficing When Writing

• Split Pane: Great when writing or editing (option in Microsoft Word)
  

• Day 2, Sydney Writers’ Festival May 2008, Katoomba

• Day 1, Sydney Writers’ Festival May 2008,  Katoomba

• Writing from the Unconscious:  Trying to catch the wind

• So, What Are You Writing Today?

• Writing Prompt 11: Twisted titles

• Writing Basics: Track changes (Microsoft Word’s editing feature)
  

• Write Great Short Stories, Like Screaming Meteors

• Writing Prompt 10: Are we there yet?

• Writing Basics: Choosing software for writing

• Writing Prompt 9: Pick your strange phrase

• Writing Prompt 8:  Rewrite a fairy tale
  

• A Great Bookshop in Fiction and Fact

• What Wows Writing Judges? 

• The Writing House Has Many Rooms

• Writing Prompt 7: What’s in a song? 

• Writing Basics: Save your work—-then save again

• Writing Prompt 6: Story spinner

• Book Cover Design

• What We Love to Hate: Language pet peeves
  

• Writing Prompt 5:  Patchwork fiction

• Two Romance Novels: 1 yeech, 1 yea! 

• Warning:  Approach apostrophes with extreme caution

• Evanovich: How I Write (Writing advice from Janet Evanovich, humour/crime novelist)

• Critique Writing Groups: Grueling or inspiring?
  

• Writing Prompt 4: Starting sentences

• Don’t Even Think About Joining My Writing Group

• Ring-Ring: Your novel is ready (phone-text novel)

• Writing Prompt 3: Disturb your mind

• Calling Yourself a Writer

• Writing Prompt 2: A ‘found’ world

• Why Join a Critique-Based Writing Group?

• The Gathering Wins Man Booker, But. . . .
  

• Writing Mentors: What they do and how to select one
  

• 4 Tips for Succeeding as a Writer

• Writing Prompt 1: Be the rain

• Bad Sex Wins Prize

• Fail Better

• Lynn Freed:  Reading, Writing and Leaving Home

• Steering the Craft of Fiction (Sci-fi writer Ursula LeGuin)

• Ten Years of Banned Books

• Hopelessly Bad: Part 2

• We Find Your Manuscript Hopelessly Bad

• Jane Austen Gets the Thumbs Down

• 1oo Best Books? 

• Writing Neat Endings: Tyrannical epiphanies and self-actualisation

• Birdy Nose Song, John Updike! 

• Book Cover Design Favourites

• The Day of the Triffids

So many stories to tell, so little time.  And yet, only one basic skeletal model upon which to hang it all.