No, I grew up in Ukarumpa (Eastern Highlands) and down on the Bamu River (Western Province). I don’t think I ever spent more than a day or two in Moresby – we were mostly just there for the airport. The Parliament buildings are well worth a visit, though!

Wow! Did you grow up in Port Moresby? I’ll see if I can dig up any of my old papers from that class to share with you!

I once spent a week and a half writing one of two essays I had due, only to find that I’d left myself a day and a half to research and write the other. The lecturer noted “conclusion seems rushed” which may have had something to do with him catching me handing it in 5 minutes before the deadline!

I use outlines for scenes every day – I reckon it’s the only way to make that blank page cower before you instead of vice versa.

I totally get it! I went to a Jesuit prep school, and they had me writing 30-page term papers. There really is something that gets deep into your head with the discipline. Even with writing blogs, while I don’t always do a full outline, I always have in my head a sense of how the logic of the argument is going to go. Yay for useful things we learned in high school (though I have yet to figure out where algebra fits in my daily life LOL).

My AP Euro teacher *drilled* that into our heads, and we wrote AT LEAST one of these a week. For history, there were also 4 key things you were going to discuss as the underlying reasons: political, social, economic, and military. Pick 3 in the 5 paragraph essay. Usually the first three were the best.

Obviously, this didn’t always apply to what you were writing about, but that class and drilling us on the way to write for the AP exam was a savior throughout college. My freshman English class didn’t even come close to preparing me like the high school class did.