How you dress your characters makes a huge difference to your story-world.
Dressing your Characters. Why Clothes Matter!
Why I don’t mentor people
A writing coach recently asked me why I don't mentor people one-on-one. Okay. So in the past five years, thousands of authors and illustrators have come through girl&duck. Whether they've joined the Scribbles Academy, hung out in the Duck Pond, completed one of my online 'capsule courses', read my blog or simply watched my videos …
One Piece of Life-Changing Advice
Several years ago a stranger approached me (via email). She wanted to meet for coffee. She wanted to talk to me about creativity and writing and the world of children’s literature and…creativity. When you're an author you often get requests like this. And by-and-large my fallback is no. I mean, can you imagine what it’s …
The Secret Language of Rejection
We had an amazing thread going in the Duck Pond, last week. We were talking about ‘quiet’ books. You know the type. Gentle, nuanced, often deep. The kind of books that leave a mark, make you think. Perhaps even make you clever… Manuscripts (whether adult fiction or kidlit) often get rejected on the grounds …
Why Did My Story Get Rejected?
It's the big question, isn't it? The big, sad, sorry question. Sigh. I have of late been working on the sales page for the Scribbles Academy. If you run an online biz you'll know that writing a decent sales page is a massive job. If you don't run an online biz let me tell you …
Becoming more of who we really are
Because nothing of value was coming through she had to wait until autumn to blog again. Jen Storer (aka Ellen Wildwood because that's my Magical name) I was looking for a quote to kick-off this post, dear reader. But after flicking through my journals for AT LEAST FIVE MINUTES, I suddenly thought, fuck it. Why …
Want to be more creative? Do this!
A few years back, I wrote a book about creative writing. It's still selling on Amazon. But I never promote it. I want to tweak it. And it needs a new cover... Because. Shit.I know more now! I've got more to say. More to share. Maybe I'll just write a whole new book.Want to …
Our Latest Website Photoshoot: Behind the Scenes
Greetings, dear reader! Thanks for dropping by! I'll get straight to it, shall I? This is a looong post. I hope you have a teapot handy... 1 Why another photoshoot? Since our tree change in 2018, I've changed a lot. I've become more 'myself' if that makes sense and I wanted girl and duck to …
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Scribbles Creative Writing Awards Winners! Plus, Behind the Scenes!
Hello dear Reader!Yesterday (Tuesday Nov 5) was ANNOUNCEMENT DAY.Yep, we announced the winners of the 2019 Scribbles Creative Writing Awards (or CWAs as we affectionately call them).Now. Girl and Duck is a smooth machine. But we’re a small machine. So, in order to pull off a competition of this magnitude (and trust me it was …
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Don’t know who you are? This might help.
Years ago when I was nursing, we used to attach long cardboard labels to the patients’ bedheads. The labels alerted the staff to any ‘peculiarities’; anything the doctors thought the staff should be aware of such as Nil By Mouth, Allergies, Diabetic. I remember one patient well. On admission she tore off her label and …