PETERPERKINS

Many writers don’t plan to fail – they just fail to plan. The writer has four main building blocks – Structure, Plan, Story, and Plot. They are irrevocably linked. An author cannot have one without the other three and hope to be successful. Today we will deal with STRUCTURE. First, decide your genre – that generally determines what Structure you use. There are four accepted structures. 1. Freytag’s Pyramid – Simple story – Children’s Books 2. Fichtean Curve – Novelists – Myst

“Peter, are you saying I need to develop a new character?” “No, it’s not about you, it’s about developing a character for one of my books.” Protagonist, antagonist or minor player, the character must be clear, uncomplicated and ‘jump off the page’. Often they will be similar to someone you, the reader, knows. In fact, it has often been said that Syd and Marge Bousen, owners of Majalin Downs in ‘THE CONDAMINE BELL’ are my wife Noela and me! Could have been worse – they might h

Australians have some funny sayings. We call anywhere 100 kilometres outside our Capital Cities “the bush” when most of it is open plainlands. Of course it wasn’t always that way. I was born in the Queensland bush and for most of my formative years lived in Queensland bush towns. Driving anywhere in the Queensland bush when I was a kid meant just that – driving through the bush – wall to wall trees. Occasionally you’d see small clearings with cattle or sheep in silent compet

“You must write some Blogs. I need one a week from you.” Ocean, my Publisher said while we were sitting in The Coffee Shop at Helensvale. Everyone around us seemed to be on holidays – all dressed in colourful casual clothes, laughing, chatting, eating, waiting. Nobody wearing a space suit and I’d just been asked to fly to the moon. “Blog? What’s a Blog?” I ask looking at Ocean somewhat bemused. What is Superman asking me to do? I’d recently written, self-narrated and in the p