inspiration
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Here’s part seven in my writing dialogue series. Here are parts one, two, three, four, five and six. Now for part seven: Use dialogue to break up big blocks of narrative text. It aids readability, as well as injecting pace into the story. ***
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Here’s part six in my writing dialogue series. If you missed part one, click here. For part two, click here. For part three, you’ll find it here , for part four, click here and for part five, it’s here. Now for part six: At the end of a passage of speech, don’t add a full…
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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…
Esther Chilton 