Patricia Leslie

Breaking news! I've added a Writing Tools & Tips page to my website. Check out the first of my favourite things - Scrivener. Now back to your regular reading... I read an article on why, as we get older, time seems to speed up. I'm sure only yesterday it was Christmas and today its already February. What happened to the in between? When I was a still a child, time seemed to drag. School holidays went almost forever and the school term certainly did. Christmas to Christmas was

I sat down at my computer to write a witty and profound blog post and was faced with this… Blankness. Sometimes writing on demand just does not activate creative free flow of thoughts and ideas. In the interim, let me share with you what I as a writer have been up to. It’s certainly not blankness. I’m busy writing an essay on Relative History, which is scheduled for publishing in late September. I’m scratching my head a bit with it because it took me awhile to come up with a

I thought that, as a woman, writing strong female characters would be a snap. What I didn’t figure, was how easy it was to fall into stereotypical gender roles. After writing my latest historical fiction work with the plan to let women tackle adventure and adversity head on in true urban fantasy style, I came to the conclusion that focus was required with every page. Without focus, I found scenes appearing where the women were being saved, or at least helped an awful lot by t

When I was asked to talk about the writer’s journey at the Writers Unleashed Festival, I was in a bit of a conundrum: where to start, how much to share, and what could I add to the conversation that hadn't been heard before. A writer's journey isn't a straight line from point A to Point B, its round about, up and down, stopping and starting. So I thought I'd share instead the three things I like to do each day and in that way also share my journey and my approach to writing.

Not long ago I had a solid three days of writing and am now approximately half way through my manuscript. I say approximately, because I’m aiming at around the 80,000 word mark while quietly hoping for closer to 100,000. I’ve also given myself a deadline for completion of the first draft so I really need to get cracking and find more blocks of concentrated writing time. I’m sure my boss would prefer I didn’t have a 3-day weekend every week! While I had planned for this weeken

On Saturday, I will be one of six authors presenting at a Local Author Showcase at Sutherland Library. I’ll be talking about inspiration and settings, and have collated a snapshot of “travel” photos taken from various research roadtrips. I’m often asked what it is about writing that drives me to keep at it. I process thoughts, develop ideas, and increase my memory potential by writing notes as I go. It involves me and by jotting things down I participate in the creative flow

I’ve just read an article about the short and long term marketing advantages/disadvantages of social media: Playing The Long Game In Self Publishing. Being very much a short term strategy, social media can take up a lot of good writing time. I knew that, but if you’re not active then you’re not seen. This is still true, but the level of activity is what needs to be assessed. Is it worth constant updates when those updates have a shelf life of only a few hours (or minutes in t