A golden outfit made from spider silk has gone on display at London's Victoria and Albert Museum: The four-metre-long hand-woven textile, a natural vivid gold colour, was made from the silk of more than one million female golden orb spiders collected in the highlands of Madagascar by 80 people over five years. I remember hearing […]
Some days it takes every trick in the book to get up and sit down, even promising yourself that you don't have to write when you get there. (You're lying, and you know it. But you're counting on your inner perversity to carry that one through.) Then there's days, like today, when you sleep through […]
Since the old routine was proving difficult to groove back into, post-Mongolia, I've been trying out a new routine. It's not quite working yet. Previously I'd been landing early at the dayjob, and writing after I clocked off. This has the benefit of my morning tram not being a peak hour one, and the library, […]
I think my cup of tea is giving me hayfever. Can you develop a sudden and inexplicable allergy to tea? Oh farkit, if I'm now allergic to tea that's it, it's all over. Go on without me! I'm done for! Save yourselves! Ahem. I have been meaning to post for a couple of days now, […]
For the past couple of days, prompted by the fact that Glenda Larke is racing to write 30,000 words in 15 days, and finding it inspiring, I've been pondering all the ways we trick ourselves into writing, and staying focussed thereon. And I've come to the conclusion that lately, my bag o'tricks is empty and […]
Today, determined to finish the first pass of edits on "Shaping Lily", I decided to track my progress throughout the day. In the interests of accountability, you understand. Read on at your own peril. You have been warned. 9:17: Realise I've been dicking around on the internet far too long already, mostly reading through 6 […]
Today I mailed in my electoral enrolment details, officially changing my address to the state of Victoria. On Thursday I have an appointment to transfer my licence from a NSW one to a Victorian one, and to transfer the car's registration likewise. This is it, people: after Thursday it's official. This is no longer just […]
Today, I admitted defeat. I've been getting up at 5 a.m. to get an hour's writing in before the dayjob takes over. It's been working okay (when I'm disciplined enough not to check my email, that is), but it's been chilly enough that I've been working from bed to keep warm. This morning, however,1 it […]
Jane Espenson writes about removing dignity as a writing tactic: Loss of dignity is hilarious. …But the fact that something dignified is made laughable… well, we all know that that can be tragic, too. The kind of humor I've been talking about is just a few degrees skewed from poignancy, a point well understood by […]
I have finely honed procrastination skills, and they're pretty much always at the fore. Tricking myself out of procrastinating is an endless process which constantly requires new weapons in the arsenal. Any time one tactic stops working, it's time to bring in a different big gun. Off the top of my head, here's ten of […]