• It’s nearly a month since I launched my first flash fiction competition and the entries are starting to roll in. It’s been very exciting and thank you to all who have entered so far. In case you missed it, here are the all important details. There’s still plenty of time to enter. Flash Fiction Competition:…

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  • Top Tip Of The Week

    Accuracy My tip for you this week concerns being accurate in your work e.g. 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…

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  • A lot of you certainly had fun with last week’s writing challenge, which was to write a ten-word story, using the words ‘bamboozled’, ‘banoffee’, ‘Horatio’, ‘afro’ and ‘twerk’.  Scroll down to see the hilarious results below. Now, onto this week’s challenge. This time there’s scope for you to write a longer story (a length of…

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  • Markets For Writers

    My market for you this week is restricted to women, I’m afraid, but it is a good one. Mslexia are holding a novel competition for unpublished women novelists. The book can be in any genre, but must be at least 50,000 words in length and written for adults or young adults. The entry fee is…

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  • Looking for my weekly installment for this slot is a treat. There are so many brilliant ones to choose from:

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  • An Interview with Esther Newton

    I don’t know how I got to Esther Newton’s blog, but once I did, I spent a good bit of time browsing her posts and enjoying her take on the publishing world. When she launched The Siege, I wanted to share her story with all of you. Briefly, Esther is a tutor for a British…

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  • Top Tip Of The Week

    My writing tip for you this week is a reminder about the importance of: Market Research When you first start writing, you know you need to analyse your target market carefully in terms of readership so you know who you’re writing for, the length of articles/stories the publication uses, the type of article/story the editor…

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  • Last week my daughter came up with the words you needed to use in my ten-word story writing challenge (‘discombobulated’, ‘unicorn’, ‘bacon’ and ‘fabulous’). She clearly did a great job as you’ve all been taking up the challenge with great gusto (scroll down to see all the entries). So I thought I’d ask her again.…

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  • Markets For Writers

    For those of you who relish writing something with a dark edge to it, this competition will be perfect for you. ‘Almond Press are holding their ‘The Apocalyse Chronicles’ short story competition. They say, ‘The key theme of the short story competition is Apocalypse. We value diversity, so stories written from a dystopian, dark fiction, weird fiction…

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