My Top Tips for Writers

• Attend workshops, conferences, and writers' festivals, read "how to" books, and go to book launches – all great for honing your skills, and networking with other writers.
• Investigate writing courses. Most online courses let you travel at your own pace.
• Join, or start, a writers' group; these work best if you are writing in the same, or a similar, genre. Arrange to meet regularly, share some of your writing prior to the meeting, and give/receive advice on the work.
• Start a writing group. This is different from the writers' group. No matter the genre, get together with others who want to write and go to a café, library or some other space where you can sit and write your own thing. You'll be surprised how much more you will add to the pages of your story when you have someone to spur you on.
• Read, read and read, especially the genre you like to write. And don't overlook the audiobooks available. Don't we all love being read to …
• Most of all – WRITE!

Good Books About Writing

• Everything I Know About Writing  -  John Marsden
  
• Writer to Writer  -  Gail Carson Levine
• Juicy Writing  -  Brigid Lowry
• Once Upon a Slime  -  Andy Griffiths
• Writing a Children's Book  -  Pamela Cleaver
• Making Picture Books  -  Libby Gleeson
  

And a Must-Have

• A good Macquarie Dictionary (a paper version, sitting on your writing desk).

Articles

Read my recent article on imaginative play for children, which was published in Kids on the Coast Magazine.
Parenting: Imagination - should we set boundaries?