inspiration
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Stuck for something to write about? I often find a photo starts the creative juices flowing. Here’s one of an old ruined abbey. What happened there all those years ago? What about now? Could there be a ghost haunting the ruins? Or perhaps a homeless person stays there – what could their story be? Let
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Hospital Waiting Rooms, Horrendous Halls and Farm Parks How many times have you moaned about hours spent hanging round hospital waiting rooms as your appointment runs late? Take a notebook with you next time and put those wasted hours to good use. Or why not take/download a book and see what’s making it into the
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The TV – a source of inspiration for writing? In many houses, the TV is the focal point of the room and we spend a lot of our relaxation time watching it. Visit your local newsagents and you’ll see a lot of shelf space taken up with TV magazines. Most of these have letters pages
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Make sure you’re up-to-date Whether you’re working on a short story, article or filler to send to a magazine, in order to ensure that you know exactly what the editor is looking for, you must analyse the publication carefully. An up-to-date copy is essential. It’s no good borrowing a two-year-old copy of one of Aunty
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Entering a short story competition? Think outside the box. When I ran my last short story competition, a lot of entries focused on death and an apocalyptic world. Jot down several ideas. The first few will probably be themes a lot of entrants will write about. Ignore these and let your mind push you forward
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Involve Your Reader Not sure how to open your short story? Try addressing your reader directly. It instantly makes them feel part of your story. Here’s an example: Just one more, that’s all I was going to take. You know that, don’t you? You understand. Well, they didn’t. And they wouldn’t listen. Looked at me
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If you’re writing something funny, don’t over-explain the humour. It’s very easy to feel as if you have to explain exactly why something is funny. You don’t. Keeping it brief and to the point will ensure the humour comes through. Too long and windy and the humour is lost. *** And here’s a tip from
Esther Chilton 