• Mmm, don’t think they’ve quite thought this one through…

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  • My Monday Motivations post this week is a reminder that you have three weeks left to enter my flash fiction competition. Entries are invited on any theme and there’s a word limit of 250 words. 1st prize is £50, 2nd prize £25 and third prize £10. To find out more and to enter, click here…

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  • The Shock Factor Last week, I suggested using dialogue when you open your short story. Dialogue is an excellent way to begin and to involve your reader. Another effective way is to open with a statement. A one line statement makes the opening even stronger and can really draw your reader in. Here are some…

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  • My daughter seems to have a knack for coming up with great words for my weekly writing challenge and for stimulating your creativity. She’s come up with another five for you: maraca flabbergasted ventriloquist pensive Obama So, you can add another five words to make this into a ten-word story challenge. Off you go! Last…

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  • Markets For Writers

    My market for you this week is for a flash fiction competition, ‘Less Than 100 Words‘. It’s held weekly and a prompt is given each week. Entries for under 100 words are invited. The closing date is 6pm (BST) every Friday. Entry is 99p and the prize for the winning story is £20. To find…

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  • Wonder what the difference is and whether rubbish is allowed!

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  • Monday Motivations

    Thank you to everyone who’s taken up my writing challenges. I’ll begin with Steve Walsky, who didn’t quite get his post linked to my writing challenge of the 21st May before I’d posted the results. But please take the time to read his story and to take a look round his interesting and inspiring site:…

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  • Dazzling Dialogue If you’re working on a short story this weekend and can’t find that compelling opening, why not begin your story with a passage of dialogue? It instantly involves the reader and draws him into the story e.g.: “I hate you. I hope you die!” Stacey pushed David away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…

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  • During the last school holidays, my daughter came up with a fun challenge for you – five  words to fit into a ten-word story. Well, she clearly doesn’t have enough homework this half-term as she’s come up with some more words for my latest challenge. These words are: Fedora Patagonia Pink Melancholy pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (apparently the…

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  • Markets For Writers

    My market for you this week offers top prize money of £10,000 to both winners of its short story and poetry competitions. So the competitions are certainly worth entering! The Manchester Writing Competition is inviting entries for the best portfolio of between three to five poems (maximum combined length of 120 lines) and the best…

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