• It seems as if flash fiction is a firm favourite amongst you and I received some hugely entertaining stories for my weekly challenge last week. See them below. My new weekly challenge builds on the opening line challenge from a fortnight ago. This time I’m giving you the last line of a story: Perhaps tomorrow…

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  • Markets For Writers

    Markets For Writers

    This week I’ve found a market, which is inviting true-life spooky stories. ‘Take A Break’s Fate and Fortune’ magazine is full of unusual and unexplained happenings. If you’ve seen a ghostly apparition, had a reading from a medium which has come true, been given a message from a loved one who has passed on, or…

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  • I wonder it’ll do if you disturb it!  

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  • Monday Motivations/The ABC Of Short Story Ideas Part Two

    Apologies for interrupting my weekly series to bring you news of the launch of my book. Normal business is now resumed! But I would like to thank you all for the support you’ve given me with the book 🙂 This week, I’m covering the D, E and F of short story ideas. I hope they…

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  • Top Tip Of The Week

    Take a deep breath and just do it! In my role as a writing tutor and through meeting lots of writers through various media, I’ve found that many don’t send their work out. The reason? For some, they simply enjoy writing and want to write for themselves which is fine. For others they’re too scared,…

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  • I had some very interesting, intriguing and exciting interpretations of my opening line challenge: ‘She wished she hadn’t opened the letter’. Read them below and enjoy. Yesterday my market of the week was for a daily flash fiction competition, which invites stories of between 20-100 words. So to get you in the mood to enter,…

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  • Markets For Writers

    This week’s market will be added to my ‘More Markets For Freelancers Page‘. I know a lot of you enjoy flash fiction as evidenced by the delightful stories in the recent challenges I’ve run so I’ve found a market which invites writers to send in stories of between 20-100 words: ‘Just 100 Words’ is a…

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  • I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll give the bottom tourist attraction a miss:  

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  • My series of short story ideas will be back for next week so apologies to those of you who were looking forward to the D,E, and F of short story ideas. It’ll be worth the wait – I promise! I’m interrupting my series to bring news of my book, which was launched on Saturday:   …

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  • Top Tip Of The Week

    Building on my top tip from last week and the topic of dialogue, how do you differentiate between direct speech and indirect speech? New writers are often confused so here’s some help: Direct speech is where the character says the words for himself e.g.: “How dare you copy my answers! I’ve worked hard for this…

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