creative writing | creative life
If you've been following me for any length of time, you'll know I LOVE Leonie Dawson's, My Shining Year Life and Business Goals Workbooks. I've been buying them for five or six years, now. I'm almost superstitious about them. Apart from the fun and colour and massive inspiration bombs I get from them, I …
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!"
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!"
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 …
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"
WTF? Yes, dear reader, I do still blog! In fact, I've missed it (and YOU) desperately. Sometimes, I think blogging is my favourite form of writing. I love the immediacy, the intimacy, the ongoing relationship. And I LOVE all the pretties. So, Elsie's makeover. Of late it has ground to a halt. Because... WINTER. Holy …
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 …
Remember that song by The Waterboys? The Whole of the Moon. 'You know how it feels to get too high, too far, too soon... Whatevs I'm dickin' around. Here are three backstory problems as I see them: 1 Too much backstory Are you trying to tell your reader too much, too soon? Are your opening scenes …
