blogging
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Well, here’s a warning if ever I saw one!:
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Almost there…here’s S, T and U: S is for Spy: The word ‘spy’ immediately conjures up an image of James Bond hurtling down a mountainside on skis or careering round corners in a fast car. Your story can involve that type of spy but think outside the box. A spy could also be a sister,…
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Can’t think of a way to open your short story and to ensure you hook your reader? Shock them! It’s important to grab your reader’s interest in the first few paragraphs. It’s even better if you can do it in the first sentence. The shock factor is a great way of achieving this and for…
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Before I launch into this week’s challenge, I wanted to mention the problems some of you are having with getting hold of my book, ‘The Siege and Other Award Winning Short Stories’. If you’re in the UK or US, it’s pretty straight forward and you can download it from Amazon UK or Amazon US. I…
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This week, I’ve found a short story market for you, which accepts stories from all across the globe – the annual ‘Ink Tears International Short Story Competition 2014‘. With the first prize a very nice £1000, it’s a competition not to be missed. There are are also prizes for the runner-up and four highly commended…
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I wouldn’t recommend this one!:
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Moving on to the sixth part of my weekly series and it’s time to welcome P,Q and R: P is for Party: Most of us have had a party or been to one, be it a children’s party, housewarming party, leaving party etc. Perhaps your party or the one you attended was on the boring…
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Lower not higher! What’s wrong with the following sentence?: “I’m going to the beach this weekend,” He said. Answer: the capital ‘H’ of ‘He’. It should be lowercase and not uppercase. A lot of writers make this mistake and it’s so easy to do. But when you write using ‘he’ or ‘she’, for that matter,…
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For last week’s challenge, I wanted you to write a humorous piece and all your work made me smile. Thank you! This week, I’m going to give you a single line for a story/poem/article/anecdote. Now, this line can appear anywhere in your work – at the beginning, middle, end or somewhere in between. It’s all…
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This week’s market is for UK and Irish residents. Purple Pumpkin Publishing have just started to hold regular short story and flash fiction competitions. There’s a competitions page on their website, which gives details of all the up and coming competitions. Entry is free. A small cash prize is offered to the winner and each…
Esther Chilton 