Jack Cameron Stanton on quick writing lessons after attending Claire Keegan's fiction clinic.

It’s banal to deny it: at every writing workshop there’s that tense beginning where everyone is sitting with their notebooks politely open with the date and heading at the top of the page, waiting for the mentor to say something that forces your eyes to drop to the page and scribble the first note to self. The first thing Claire Keegan said, with her booming Irish twang, was ‘I adore paragraphs and working on the text in front of me—not being a writer.’

Maggie Jankuloska talks to YA writer Sarah Epstein about finding time to write and her debut.

When you freelance, taxes can be a headache. Zoya Patel breaks down what creatives can claim on tax.

Look, there’s a reason why we’re in the creative industries – words, images and ideas excite us, and numbers have the curious ability to just turn our brains right off. If you’re a freelancer, then tax time can feel like a looming pit of despair each year. You know that you can be smarter about the deductions you claim, but you have no idea where to start (and probably not a whole lot of extra dosh to hire a tax agent to sort it out for you).

Noëlle Janaczewska on finding inspiration in the archives and how to research your next project.

Sarah Gates on writing for money and how to make your bank account blossom alongside your word count.

Let’s be honest: writing doesn’t tend to pay well, unless you’re JK Rowling or E.L. James. It’s likely you’re not earning enough to pay off those very expensive creative writing degrees. So when you do make money from articles on websites, short stories in literary magazines and maybe even a novel, it’s important to be financially savvy.

Here’s what you need to know about money and writing:

Author of The Art of Navigation, Rose Michael on slipstream fiction and knowing your genre.

Catherine Cole on writing, motivation and finding discipline in a busy world. 

Marisa Wikramanayake breaks down how freelancers can grow their super without wanting to cry.

For many writers, super or having a sufficient amount of super to retire on, is a pipe dream. As one young writer starting out told me, just thinking about it, makes them want to cry: “I have this great system where I ignore it and then hope I die young”

When you don’t know how much you will be making in a week, a month, a year and don’t know if your pitches will be accepted, how do you contribute to your super?

Eliza Henry-Jones talks the difficulties and joys of publishing a book ahead of her free-to-the-public short course.