SELF EDITING TIPS FROM AN EDITOR, IPSWICH MEMOIR WORKSHOP THIS WEEKEND!
Plus all the usual retreat news, writing advice and publishing opportunities
Pick a card, any card! I love doing tarot readings on retreats.
Hello my darling writing friend,
Sorry this newsletter is late. How are you doing? I hope life is treating you gently and that your writing has been going well. It’s been a big month for me with trips to Far North Queensland and then the retreat in Bali, so I am very tired. I’ll keep this one short, but hopefully there’ll be some useful information or a publishing opportunity for you! I hope so!
IPSWICH folk or those looking for an affordable Life Writing Workshop I am in Ipswich at The Book Bouquet our beautiful new local bookstore on Saturday. BOOK HERE! Guaranteed to get you writing. Come along and say hello in person. I’d love to see you there.
GYMPIE writers I’m coming for you at the end of the month - scroll down to upcoming events!
Will you walk this path with us?
I have a couple of last spots left in my August 7 – 9 Feedback and Revision Retreat to help you either plan or redraft a book in progress. We create optional feedback groups to share work if you’d like to and the workshops are geared to help you with the essential elements of structuring and polishing your work. MORE INFO AND BOOK HERE
WRITERS AT WORK
WRITING HINTS AND TIPS
In the meantime, here are some tips for self-editing.
FIRST REVISION: Look at your main plot points and see if they are fitting the overall structure of a compelling narrative. What is your hook? Inciting incident? Midpoint? Dark night of the soul? Climax? This is big picture only. No fiddling with sentences. Just check those main points are all in place and where they should be.
SECOND: What’s at stake? What’s the movement between hope and fear? Check every scene and scene ending and see if you can raise tension to up the stakes, and keep the readers flipping pages as you move them between hope and fear, escalating in pace as you hit the climax and act 3. Cut anything that is off on a tangent, any info or backstory dumps, any scenes without conflict, any over-long interior monologues.
THIRD: Check each scene. Does it need to be there? Is it either furthering the plot or giving us important information about a character or a character dynamic? If not, CUT. Save any offcuts to a file I like to call “Good bits for later”. I usually end up putting reams of pages in there but only once have I ever retrieved a sentence, and that was only one sentence.
For those new to self-editing – read through your draft and find bits of telling that deserve to be written as full scenes. Then SEE HERE for tips on how to write those scenes.
I still find my first drafts to be a lot more telling than showing in scenes so identifying those spots is always my first plan of attack.
Here is an article I’ve found interesting this month.
OMNISCIENT VOICE or HEAD HOPPING? By Anne R Allen. I found writing the omniscient voice for the family in Dear Madman the most challenging of all voices I’ve attempted in the past 24 years of writing. I didn’t want to head hop and slide in and out of different characters within a paragraph, but I did want to give voice to each of the family members, and it was the only way I could get both the victim and the murderer’s perspectives in the murder scene.
RETREAT NEWS
TRANSFORMATIONAL WRITING RETREATS!
Woohoo! Bali was smiling on us this retreat with the sun beaming down on us every day. Perfect weather with cool nights for sleeping. We had a great writing gang on retreat, from multiple-published authors to total newbies trying their legs. We wrote up a storm, feasted, laughed and generally had a ball. Read all about it HERE.
We will be back in Bali next year June 21 – 27. MORE INFO HERE (will be updated soon)
Join us in the beautiful Byron Bay hinterland:
NEXT RETREAT IS BEAUTIFUL BYRON BAY – 19 – 24 September 2026 at Sangsurya Retreat Centre.
5 places left! BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.
Is this spring when you finally start writing? Get those stories out of your head and onto the page at this fun, nurturing and inspiring retreat with two highly experienced, kind and knowledgeable writing mentors and published authors, Kerstin Pilz and Edwina Shaw.
Relax with yoga and gentle movement every morning, then get words on the page in writing workshops perfect for all levels of ability and experience. Over the five nights and six days of retreat you’ll learn everything you need to know to create a compelling narrative from the stories of your life.
But more than that, you’ll also connect with your writing tribe, feel the joy of creative expression, relax deeply with guided meditations and sound bowl sessions, feast on delicious chef prepared meals, set free your inner goddess in a dance workshop and shine light on the way forward with a fun tarot reading. All inclusive! And everything is optional - make it the retreat you need.
Come along and join the fun of this creative community. Whether you have words under your belt or just the desire to write, this retreat will work the magic you need.
ALL THE INFO AND TO BOOK HERE.
At my Dear Madman event in Townsville at MaryWho?
UPCOMING EVENTS
SATURDAY 11 July: IPSWICH – The Book Bouquet – WRITE YOUR LIFE – 2 pm – 4:30 pm – ONLY $30!! BOOK HERE
WEDNESDAY 22 July: GATTON LIBRARY – Dear Madman author talk and presentation. 6 – 7 pm Gatton Library, Lockyer Valley where the murder took place. Spooky! Someone is coming along who has a link to the property! This will be a fun one! BOOK HERE. $5 for snacks :)
THURSDAY 23 July: SISTERS IN CRIME LITERARY DINNER! I’m thrilled to have been invited to be on the panel for this fabulous literary dinner with some wonderful crime writers. 6pm-9pm Thursday 23 July 2026 Darling and Co, 157 Given Terrace, Paddington, Brisbane
Cost: $65 includes dinner, a drink and killer conversation
Featuring authors: Edwina Shaw ~ DEAR MADMAN, KD Aldyn ~ YOU GIRLS PLAY NICE, Shailee Thompson ~ HOW TO KILL A GUY IN TEN DATES, and hosted by Harrie Blake ~ BOOKS TO BLOOD
FRIDAY 31 JULY: GYMPIE LIBRARY – Introduction to Creative Writing Workshop. 10:30 am – 12 midday. ALL THE INFO AND BOOKINGS HERE. Writing friends around Gympie or northern Sunshine Coast – this one is for you and it’s FREE! BOOK HERE.
Thank you Judy!!
HORN TOOTING!
I’m very excited that I’ve scored some beautiful reviews, including the one above in Good Reading Magazine, thanks to the very lovely Judy Gregory.
THANK YOU for writing a review of Dear Madman for me all those lovely souls who’ve been helping me keep this boat afloat. So far I’m at 27 reviews on Goodreads. Please help me get to 50 and rave to your friends about Madman and get them to buy a copy. I won’t make a bean until over 1000 are sold. Here’s the link to the Goodreads page. Please add a review for me – it can be short :)
Have you got something to toot about? Send me your info and I’ll toot for you :)
PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITIES
12 July: Newcastle Short Story Award
The Newcastle Short Story Award is open to Australian citizens and permanent residents aged 18 years or older. Each year, we invite submissions of original, unpublished short fiction. Shortlisted stories are published in the Newcastle Short Story Award anthology, and prizewinners are announced at an awards celebration in November. The recipient of the first prize award will receive $3,000
12 July: The Parramatta Play Project
The Parramatta Play Project is a professional development opportunity for eight emerging/early-career Western Sydney playwrights. This project provides the next generation of Western Sydney writers with an opportunity to develop their skills, expand their creative practice, and gain experience in writing for performance within a collaborative environment. Writers will generate material that will be woven together into a new theatrical work inspired by the City of Parramatta.
13 July: Richell Prize for Emerging Writers – TRY THIS ONE!!!
Entries are open to unpublished writers of adult fiction and adult narrative non-fiction. The winner will receive $10,000 in prize money, to be donated by Hachette Australia, and a year’s mentoring with one of Hachette Australia’s publishers. Hachette Australia will work with the winning writer to develop their manuscript with first option to consider the finished work, and the shortlisted entries, for publication.
14 July Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition
Now in its 14th year, the competition is open to both short stories and creative non-fiction.
14 July: Gloria Burley Award
This award for unpublished fiction manuscripts honours the Whitsundays Writers’ Festival original founder and author Gloria Burley. First Prize receives $2,500 and shortlist receives promotion in their media campaign.
15 July E.M. Fletcher Writing Competition 2026 Entries for the best short story of 1500 – 2000 words on a family history or genealogy theme will be in contention to win prizes proudly sponsored by Family History ACT. Win up to $1,000
17 July: The Kyoto Retreat
The 2026 Kyoto Retreat is a program created by Japan-based, independent curator Dexter Wimberly. The Kyoto Retreat offers artists, curators, and writers, based anywhere in the world, an opportunity to spend four weeks in Kyoto, Japan, for research, exploration, and inspiration. If selected for the retreat, you will receive a roundtrip flight, a private bedroom, and $800 USD to supplement meals and local transportation.19 July 2026 Woollahra Digital Literary Award
27 July 2027 Peter Blazey Fellowship- non-fiction fields of biography, autobiography and life writing.
29 July: The Letter Review Prize
The Letter Review Prize is an internationally celebrated event, offered every three months in the categories of Short Fiction, Poetry, and Books. They publish their winners, maintain shortlists, submit to The Pushcart, and award over $16,000 USD annually to writers. Their prize is among the highest paying literary prizes administered by a literary journal in the world30 July: Heroines Women’s Writing Prize
The Heroines Anthology reimagines women in myth, fairy tale, folklore or legend, & tells women’s lost histories and untold stories. Submissions are open to women writers from around the world. First prize winner receives $500. All short-listed entries are published in Volume 7 of the Anthology
31 July: The Next Chapter
The Next Chapter selects a group of writers with manuscripts in progress. The Wheeler Centre provides each of them with a stipend of $15,000 and a handpicked mentor to work closely with them on bringing their writing to life. Participants also receive the opportunity to attend a residency at Varuna, The National Writer’s House in Katoomba, NSW, and other development opportunities throughout the year.2 August: 2026 UQP Mentorship Prize for Under-represented Writers
The UQP Mentorship Prize for Under-represented Writers is a mentorship and residency prize for previously unpublished authors from communities under-represented in Australian writing and publishing. The prize is designed to support emerging writers in developing a manuscript for possible future publication.31 August Scarlet Stiletto Awards 2026: Celebrating short crime by women. Try your hand at writing crime and hook into this wonderful writing community.
And that’s it for me this month! I hope you’ve found some useful information, some inspiration and perhaps a prize or opportunity that has excited you.
May the month ahead be easy and gentle with us all. May the sun shine and smiles outweigh frowns. May we help each other and tend to each other with kindness and compassion and may we extend that same kindness and compassion to ourselves.
May you wake enthusiastic about the day ahead, filled with ideas for your stories, and enough bum glue to stick you to your seat to write them. May publishers start a bidding war over your submissions and may those dollars start rolling in. You deserve the very best. Now get writing!!
With lots of love from my garden to yours,
Edwina :) xx
