inspiration
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Writing Anniversary/Seasonal Pieces Every day marks the anniversary of when someone famous died or when a unique invention first came to light. General interest magazines often feature this sort of article. Additionally, depending on who the person is or what invention your article relates to, you may find a multitude of magazines interested in an
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Watch TV And Be Inspired! 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 so if coverage of
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Using The Five Senses In Your Story Sight and sound are often used to bring a scene to life and for impacting upon the tone of a story. But the senses of smell, touch and taste can also affect a story’s mood. A rundown cafe might smell like a mixture of sweaty training shoes and
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You can do it anywhere! Not many of us have the luxury of becoming a full-time writer as soon as we start out. Instead, it’s a case of snatching hours and minutes here and there in between the day job and all that life throws at us. The same can be said for where we
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Be Accurate Facts and statistics are used in articles all the time. They often enhance an article, adding authority to it as well as interest. But those facts have to be right. You may have a deadline you need to meet, or it might be Friday afternoon and you want to get your article off
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Dynamic Dialogue Dialogue is good for imparting information, but only use it to impart necessary information. The reader doesn’t need to know every little detail e.g.: “I thought you were having your hair cut today,” Sally said. Her eyes narrowed, running over her daughter’s hair. “I was, but they had a water leak. That was
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Want to grab your reader’s attention right at the beginning of your story? Try shocking them: I knew she was dead even though the dull eyes stared back at me, mocking me, tempting me to raise the knife once more. This thrusts the reader right into the story and makes them want to read on.
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Four and no more! Too many characters in a short story can lead to your reader being confused and the characters can easily become two-dimensional with no substance to them. In a short story, you only have a limited number of words in which to tell your story so make sure every character has a
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Happy Anniversary! Every day is the anniversary of a famous person’s birth or death, historical event or the invention of something which changed lives. Articles based on these anniversaries make for fascinating reading and a lot of magazines pay very well for them. So why not tap into this? Though, a word of warning –
Esther Chilton 