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11 things I am tracking in 2019 for my freelancing and why
Marisa Wikramanayake discusses what she tracks as a freelancer so that she can be a better journalist and editor.
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How do you tell a story?
Where does one begin? If you didn’t know by now, I am speaking at an event on Monday night in Melbourne. I and four other journalists have five minutes each to tell a story about our journalism careers. And I am a bit stuck. I am assuming that I am stuck because of a few things: When I do think of funny anecdotes, they are not long enough to drag out for five minutes. At least I don’t think so at this point.. Second, they seem commonplace enough things to happen to most journalists and since the audience will be made of people in the industry that seems an odd…
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Gin & Tonic update #2: I was so wrong! AKA #maricantmath
We interrupt this regular broadcast to tell you two things: 1. We are late. Apologies. I am still trying to get myself back into a routine and things keep happening to send me right out of it. More on that in a couple of weeks. 2. OMG I WAS SO WRONG! Let me explain. I intend to update you on what is happening with G & T and if you go to my Patreon and subscribe for $1 per month you can read G & T from start to wherever I am at by the time you catch up to it/the finish. So I have these posts on the blog…
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An update on Gin & Tonic
For those of you who are new and who may not be aware, I am writing a crime novel. This should not really surprise anyone. I love reading crime fiction. But I started writing this story last year. And I was lucky enough to smash out some huge chunks of words during my KSP and Varuna writing fellowship stays. I am hoping the book ends up being this madcap dash through Colombo tropical city humidity and heat with two teenage girls puzzling their way through crimes and the cops chasing behind them, missing jewellery, murder, mayhem and secret bars and annoying aunties and all. A few months ago I started…
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The NYWF-ty List
NYWF is National Young Writers Festival and this is the "NYWFty" ("nifty") list because it is truly nifty and is full of the resources the young writers were asking me and other people about at all the #NYWF2018 sessions over the past weekend.
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Mentoring Cher Tan via Writers Victoria She writes better than I do so it is a tad bit strange for me
I am now a mentor with Writers Victoria. It is pretty cool. Let me explain. I am trying to become a mentor on the IPEd/CSE mentoring program which caters to just editors but at the moment, I am also now a mentor for Writers Victoria. Writers Victoria is a writing centre for the state of Victoria in Australia. They hold events, run workshops and so on but one of the services they offer is mentoring. The Writers Victoria mentoring scheme operates like this: you apply for mentoring and Writers Victoria assess your application. You also nominate someone you want to mentor you from the list of mentors on their website.…
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I hit 10,000 words! Days 5, 6 & 7 of the Inaugural 2018 KSP - Varuna Foundation Fellowship
I suppose I gave it away in the title but oh my God! 10,000 words! Here’s what happened on each day. Day 5 was the Friday. Nothing got done on Friday. I was really exhausted. My sleeping patterns were out of whack and I was trying to fix my ear issue. I thought I could go out to meet my union colleagues and friends for drinks and come back and write. The drinks part happened and was fun but the writing part did not happen. So I had zero words for Friday. I had about four to five thousand words at this point to write in order to hit 10,000…
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Day 4: Freedom to write, freedom for writers Day 4 of the Inaugural 2018 KSP - Varuna Foundation Fellowship
Day 4 already. Well, nothing was going to happen on Day 1 given how tired and jetlagged I was. Today, most of the day was pretty boring. I had not slept well the night before. So the day was full of waking, sleeping, doing things I needed to do like eat and so on. I thought about the book a lot. And then I did my makeup, changed, called an Uber and went to see my friend Vicki Laurie interview Peter Greste at the WA State Library. So three things happened today on Day 4: Peter Greste pleasantly surprised me. I was very happy about that. Thank you Peter Greste.…
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Day 3: So many emotions Day 3 of the Inaugural 2018 KSP - Varuna Foundation Fellowship
Day 3 and I am just grateful. I didn’t get to sleep until five am because I was just so thrilled that I had met my goal. You get a high after you write and type everything in. But I did sleep in bursts till about noon. I would wake up, do some work related things, sleep a bit, write a bit and so on. I woke up at noon and went over to the main house and the office to meet Shannon who is the director here at KSP Writers Centre. I gave her some things from Sri Lanka and she offered to do a pharmacy run for me.…
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Day 2: A cat is here! Day 2 of the KSP - Varuna Foundation Fellowship
Day 2 and I woke up joyful today. Joyful because it was such a wonderful thought that I could write and everyone was going to be mindful of that. That no one would disturb me, no one would interrupt me, no one would think to themselves “She is free – let’s get a hold of her.” Also annoyance because my article was overdue and I needed to get it done so I knuckled down to do that while battling my ear going strange again. I made a mental note to see my doctor as soon as I get back to Melbourne. I figured out the A/C and I had a…
