Guides
Crafting picture books that sing off the pagePicture books are the first theatre most children ever attend. A grown-up's voice carries the words across a bedroom floor or a couch, while tiny hands turn…How to Incorporate Real-World History Into a Fictional SettingA fictional world becomes more convincing when its streets, institutions, conflicts and customs feel shaped by events that happened before the story began.…Creating Believable Family Dynamics in FictionFamily relationships give fiction its emotional pressure. A household can be loving, chaotic, formal, funny, or quietly damaged, often within the same scene.…How to Make a Short Story Collection Feel CohesiveA short story collection can contain different characters, settings and conflicts while still giving readers the sense that every piece belongs to the same…The Writer’s Guide to Querying Agents in a Shifting Publishing LandscapeQuerying literary agents has always required patience, precision and a clear sense of where a manuscript belongs. The process is changing, however. Agents are…Writing a non-linear narrative that enhances your storyA non-linear narrative does not move from event A to event B and then event C in a tidy line. It may begin with a consequence, return to an earlier wound, leap…How Symbolism and Motifs Deepen a Novel’s ThemesA compelling novel often communicates its deepest ideas through more than dialogue and plot. A recurring object, colour, place, gesture or natural image can…The Craft of Keeping Readers Turning PagesA compelling novel creates a quiet pressure that follows readers from one page to the next. They may be waiting for a confession, a rescue, a betrayal or…Showing not telling in storytelling: when the old rule should bendFor nearly a century, the writing maxim "show, don't tell" has been drilled into aspiring authors by creative writing tutors and craft manuals stacked in…How to write a political thriller that reads like the evening newsAustralia has its own appetite for the genre, from parliamentary intrigue set in Canberra to cyber-espionage yarn spun across the Pacific. Writers here don't…
