This Book Week, Luna (my caravan) and I travelled more than 400 kilometres visiting city schools and students in regional Victoria.

This is Luna

I was also lucky to be invited to present the Daylesford Words in Winter Young Writers Awards. So many entries, so much amazing talent. Well done to the winners and to everyone who entered. Writing and finishing a story is a fabulous achievement. Sending it out to a competition is huge.

It was great to meet so many enthusiastic young story creators in my travels.

My hot tips this Book Week were:

1. Write as often as you can … even if you can only write 10 minutes a day … stay in the habit.
2. Take pen and paper or something to write with everywhere you go. I even keep paper and pen next to my bed, and have taught myself to write in the dark because I always think of ideas just before I go to sleep and I never remember them in the morning so it’s best to write them down.
3. Read a lot … especially books that are similar to the kinds of stories you like to write. You can learn so much from other writers.
4. Find a writing buddy. It’s great to have someone who can read your work and give you constructive feedback on how to make it better. A writing buddy can also support you and tell you how well you’re doing.
5. Look for places to get your work published … and writing competitions to enter.

This brings me to my next point. Kids’ News is running a short story competition that gives you the chance to have your work published in a book.

Check out the Kids’ News writing competition at their website here.

Some of the Daylesford Words in Winter writing competition winners. Congratulations to everyone who entered!

The competition closes on 31 October. Good luck and happy writing 🙂

Dee