inspiration
-
Got For It! Not sure about pitching an idea to an editor? Written a story, but scared to enter it into a competition? Want to send a reader’s letter out but uncertain the magazine will use it? We all have doubts and we all receive rejections. It’s part and parcel of a writer’s life. But…
-
We all do it – overuse words like ‘that’, ‘very’, ‘really’, ‘then’ etc. They’re not necessary. Use the ‘find’ facility in Word and you’ll be surprised at how many of these words you’re using in your writing. Then go back through your work and get pruning! ***
-
Entering a writing competition? Here are a few tips to ensure your entry is on the shortlist: A judge wants to read something unexpected, exciting and compelling so think outside the box. Make sure your story isn’t over the word count. Your story may only have gone over the limit by five words, but if…
-
Take your time The time of day can make a difference to the type of atmosphere your readers feel. For example, you can darken a story by setting it at night. There’s always an extra sense of menace, of threat and uncertainty in a story that takes place at night. ***
-
Stuck for an article idea? Try looking through the magazine you want to write for… You may want to write for a cat magazine but can’t think of an original idea. Looking through the magazine in question, you come across a quirky and interesting article about cats and superstitions relating to them. This gets you…
-
Perfect Paragraphs If you’re writing an article or story for a magazine, think about your paragraph lengths. When you send your work out, your pages are A4 size. The lengths of your paragraphs may look short on a page that size but imagine them in a newspaper or magazine. You can fit about 16 words…
-
A story written in the first person can be very effective in creating a sense of atmosphere and making your readers feel as if they are part of the story, seeing and experiencing everything along with that character. Take the following example: I looked at the garden, at the weeds weaving their way towards the…
-
Think outside the box Whether you’re entering a themed or open-themed writing competition, don’t write about the first thing that comes to mind. Jot down several ideas. The first few will probably be themes a lot of entrants will write about. Ignore these and let your mind push you forward and onto something a little…
-
Here’s part seven in my writing dialogue series. Here are parts one, two, three, four, five and six. Now for part seven: Use dialogue to break up big blocks of narrative text. It aids readability, as well as injecting pace into the story. ***
-
Please welcome Laura Sansom to my Guest Writer Spot for the first time. She’s written a great story for us. Before you read her story, you might like to know a little bit about her: Laura is an aspiring writer whose projects has, and will continue to include poetry, article/ content writing, flash fiction and…
