inspiration
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One way to instantly hook your reader’s interest in your story is to introduce your main character to them and to make them care for that character. The result – your reader will immediately feel involved in your story: “Please. No…” Hannah looked at the big, balding man, her lower lip trembling. An adult would
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Family Photos – more than just a memento Photos of loved ones, including the beloved family pet, can often be found on our mantelpieces, windowsills or walls. The women’s weeklies all publish photos of babies, pets, special anniversaries and parties. Wedding photos, whether it’s our own, a family member’s or friend’s, could be amongst the
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With a new year fast approaching, many of you may be making resolutions and thinking about trying something new. Why not apply that to writing? Ever thought about writing for children? Writing for children can be fun as well as rewarding. In fiction, you can unleash your imagination to the full, transporting young readers to
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Do you find it difficult to start writing? Not sure what to write about? Try writing about the first thing you see when you look around the room. A book of stamps? What instantly comes to mind? A love letter? Who is the letter to? Is the love reciprocated? What if it’s not? Or pehaps
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Whether you’re writing an anniversary piece, an article about a place, person or event, you’re likely to come across all sorts of information. Some of the information might not be relevant to what you’re currently working on, but could you use it for something else? Look out for dates of importance. There might be an
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Changing Columns Being a columnist in a national newspaper or well-known magazine and dazzling readers with your knowledge and wit is many writers’ dream. However, take a look through the papers and magazines and you’ll see that many of them are written by experts in a particular field, celebrities or established writers, with a long
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Re-read, Re-write and Re-submit Do you save all your old stories? I do and now and then I’ll have a look back through them. I’ve discovered pieces I’d completely forgotten about. Most of you will be familiar with these – the ones you’ve entered into numerous competitions or which have done the rounds with the
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Ever thought about writing a true-life tale for one of the women’s weeklies? Many writers cringe when it’s suggested they consider writing a true-life feature for one of the women’s weeklies. Take a look at the cover of some of them and it’s easy to see why. ‘Gunned down by her mum’s gold digging killer’,
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Got For It! Not sure about pitching an idea to an editor? Written a story, but scared to enter it into a competition? Want to send a reader’s letter out but uncertain the magazine will use it? We all have doubts and we all receive rejections. It’s part and parcel of a writer’s life. But
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We all do it – overuse words like ‘that’, ‘very’, ‘really’, ‘then’ etc. They’re not necessary. Use the ‘find’ facility in Word and you’ll be surprised at how many of these words you’re using in your writing. Then go back through your work and get pruning! ***
Esther Chilton 