creative writing | creative life
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 …
Continue reading "Scribbles Creative Writing Awards Winners! Plus, Behind the Scenes!"
Hello, dear reader! Today is Shortlist Day! So, what’s the big deal about a shortlist? Lordy lord! A shortlist groups together the best. It acknowledges the most accomplished in a huge collection of entries. It’s how we make literary awards (such as the Scribbles Creative Writing Awards), manageable — both for the judges and …
Continue reading "The Scribbles Creative Writing Awards Shortlist!"
So dear reader, you might remember I wrote about my Depth Year here and here. (Just wanna know about the new e-course? Scroll to the bottom, sunshine!) To recap, mine has been a Low Buy Depth Year. What does that mean? I committed to going deep with what was important to me and letting …
Continue reading "Why My Depth Year Failed. Plus, My New E-Course!"
Dear reader, If you're in The Scribbles Academy you might be familiar with my confession. If not... Have I ever told you about the time I wrote a romance story? OMG. I still groan with embarrassment. It was the mid 1980s and the Australian Women’s Weekly in conjunction with Mills and Boon, was running a …
Hey sugar! Missed Q and Q Friday last week? Doh! We talked about loads of stuff from hand-lettering in picture books (divine and tricky!), to the submission quirks of some publishers, to how long is a middle grade novel? No. Really. How long??? Plus, I had me a little rant. I want as many kidlit …
In the world of girl and duck, I get this often: Jen, I feel like I've known you for years. I always feel like you're talking to me, personally. This doesn't happen by accident. When I decided to take girl and duck online, I knew I had a lot to learn. Especially about marketing. I …
Since our first video in August 2016, Q and Q Friday has had almost 21,000 views. That’s a lot in a niche industry. A lot in a small country like Australia—with crap SEO. Hear me GOOGLE? Get your bloody SEO sorted! Help the little guys get seen! We’ve produced 107 videos (so far) and covered …
Continue reading "End of an Era: Why I’m Closing Q & Q Friday"
Ever since I started coaching aspiring and established authors and illustrators over at girlandduck.com, I've been saying the same thing: This is a personal development bootcamp, honey! Remember when Goldie Hawn joined the US army in Private Benjamin? She thought it would be a lark. Maybe they'd do a little stretching, some 'jogging' (remember jogging?), …
Continue reading "Writer? Illustrator? Six reasons you’re in a personal development bootcamp"
This week at girl and duck, we opened The Scribbles Academy. It's been super exciting and lots of people have jumped on board. Thank you!!!! I know you're going to love your Scribbly experience! But how did this all begin? What's the real story behind girl and duck? I wrote about this a couple of …
Continue reading "Author or Businesswoman? The Story Behind Girl and Duck"
Hello! Oh my Goddess! I was going to knock up a quick, bullet blog to get you up to speed. But. It all got too messy. Too much to say. Too much to consolidate. So. I'm devoting this post to the Scribbles Masterclass because, hey, this is what we do at girl and duck. We …
