7 things to look for when hiring a content writer
Your content is the key to engaging with your audience, so it needs to grab attention – and keep it. It should get your message across effectively and stamp you as an authority. But producing high-quality content on a consistent basis is time-consuming. So, it could be a smart move for you to hire a content writer, so you can get … More
7 reasons why telling our life stories is good for us
This is a blog post I wrote for Life Stories Australia – about the benefits people get from the process of reminiscing and sharing their life stories.
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The power of sharing your story
As a journalist who gathers people’s stories for a living, there is a special moment I look for in an interview – a moment of empathy, of resonance, that comes with the storytelling. It’s how I know I’m on the right track.
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Is writing about your life an act of self-love or narcissism?
This is a blog post I wrote for Life Stories Australia, which asks whether writing about your life is an act of creativity and love – or is it ultimately just about ego and navel-gazing?
MoreWhat I learnt in the dojo about writing
The founder of aikido Morihei Ueshiba, or O’Sensei, considered aikido to be a method for correcting your own mind. The lessons I learned on the mat, I still apply today in my writing. The discipline of daily practice Aikido – a Japanese martial art form – can be translated as ‘the Way of unifying with life energy’ or ‘the Way … More
7 books to read if you are writing a memoir
If you are writing a memoir, you should have not only read a number of other memoirs yourself, but you should inhale as many books about the art of memoir writing as you can.
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The nature of bliss, with Rev Tim Costello
I asked Reverend Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision, about what ‘following your bliss’ means to him. This was when he was still head of the Baptist Church in Collins Street, Melbourne. He said that for him, bliss is the sense that your life has been for a purpose. After the interview he headed out into the back alleyway behind the church … More
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Learning to trust the quiet whispers of the heart
This post is about learning to live from a place of passion and heart, writing as a tool for self-expression, and how Suzanne Vega’s lyrics kill me.
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Kathy’s story: roaring into retirement
How did a publisher’s assistant end up in Africa raising lions? Kathy Murrell and I worked together at John Brown Publishing in London in the ’90s. When I heard how her story had changed, I had to find out the details. It all began when Kathy was made redundant after 20 years of service – turns out it was just … More
Curing blindness in the third world
Dr James Muecke is an Adelaide-based ophthalmologist who co-founded the Sight For All Foundation. After I interviewed him for medicSA magazine about his work preventing blindness and how the Foundation came to be, it reminded me of something the Rev Tim Costello had said to me when I interviewed him, about how in a world where 40,000 kids die each day from … More