Category Archives: About writing

“A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.” – E. B. White

“Creativity arises from a constant churn of ideas, and one of the easiest ways to encourage that fertile froth is to keep your mind engaged with your project. When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly.” – Gretchen Rubin, author of … Continue reading →

A handy new URL has now been set for the Bateman New Zealand Writer’s Handbook on Facebook – www.facebook.com/writershandbook – and I’m posting interesting writing news and competitions on the page for Kiwi writerly folk who might be interested. ‘Like’ us now … Continue reading →

Spanish bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who has recently published The Prisoner of Heaven, has made an interesting comment about writing in an interview for The Listener: “It’s hard work, writing … Honestly, a fight every day against your own limitations. … Continue reading →

Thought some of you, who could be struggling with novel writing, might be buoyed up by hearing about my latest writing project – well, the term ‘project’ is a bit ambitious for it – but I do have an idea, … Continue reading →

Recently I was interviewed for the NZ flash fiction website. Here’s the site for anybody who’s interested: http://flash-frontier.com/2013/01/25/interview-with-tina-shaw/

In these straitened publishing times, as a friend tells me, it’s more important than ever to write what we like and be damned. People do like distinctiveness and specificity. So true. And I remind myself that heaps of people love reading … Continue reading →

I was very excited to see the cover for the NZ Writer’s Handbook this week. Bateman have done a brilliant job with the design of both this cover and the typesetting. Am looking forward to seeing the finished product in … Continue reading →

Having recently finished a major project (yes, it was a novel), my mind automatically starts thinking, ‘What next?’ The funny thing about being a writer is that sometimes you have to remind yourself (or have somebody else remind you) that … Continue reading →

At an event with Paul Thomas – the NZ crime (and sports) writer – I was interested to hear his thoughts on how he first came to write crime fiction. Having read a lot of crime novels, Thomas felt he … Continue reading →