When Leone Purdy of the Sale Write-ability writers group decided to self-publish her poetry book, not everything went to plan.

I was elated. My first book published – and it was lovely. I felt pride in myself; a feeling that was new to me.  Was this beautiful, softcover, book of quirky, idiosyncratic poems really mine? Working with a publishing service had all seemed so easy. I’d paid them to edit and review my manuscript. Where once it had been a jumbled mash of incoherent, long-winded and unrhythmical verse, it was now a polished poetry book.

On the imperative and impossibility of writing animals in an age of extinction.

I have always been fascinated with how cinema depicts writers and the craft of writing. Much of what appears on the big screen, the huge publicity tours and massive advances, is pretty far from the mark in terms of reality for all but the most successful authors. That said much a lot that cinema gets right: the hard grind of getting the words on a page to make the deadline, dealing with rejection, struggling with envy in relation to more successful colleagues, the constant effort of staying relevant, etc.

Young Writers: School Holiday Program: Writing for the Screen

CC: The move away from commercial to network television has allowed TV writing to break out of some of its traditional boundaries in terms of format and audience. What are the results of this for aspiring TV writers?