inspiration
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Make sure you’re up-to-date Whether you’re working on a short story, article or filler to send to a magazine, in order to ensure that you know exactly what the editor is looking for, you must analyse the publication carefully. An up-to-date copy is essential. It’s no good borrowing a two-year-old copy of one of Aunty…
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Fabulous Photographs If you’re writing an article for a magazine, always make sure you have clear, high quality photographs to accompany it. These can often be a deciding factor in an editor accepting your article. Even if you have written an entertaining and informative piece, if you only have drab, grainy photos to accompany it,…
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Involve Your Reader Not sure how to open your short story? Try addressing your reader directly. It instantly makes them feel part of your story. Here’s an example: Just one more, that’s all I was going to take. You know that, don’t you? You understand. Well, they didn’t. And they wouldn’t listen. Looked at me…
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This week’s Guest Writer is the fabulous Geoff Le Pard. Geoff has written several books, including novels, a memoir and short story collections. He has another entertaining collection of short stories coming out at the end of the month – Life in a Conversation, which is available to pre-order now. You’ll find a brilliant story…
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I’m enjoying reading about all the things that make you happy (my challenge set last week) so I’d like to give more of you the opportunity to tell me your happy thoughts, whether it’s a place, person, work, hobby…anything that makes you smile. ***
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If you’re writing something funny, don’t over-explain the humour. It’s very easy to feel as if you have to explain exactly why something is funny. You don’t. Keeping it brief and to the point will ensure the humour comes through. Too long and windy and the humour is lost. *** And here’s a tip from…
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Watch TV And Be Inspired! In many houses, the TV is the focal point of the room and we spend a lot of our relaxation time watching it. Visit your local newsagents and you’ll see a lot of shelf space taken up with TV magazines. Most of these have letters pages so if coverage of…
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Write About…Your Own Experiences Open up any of the women’s weeklies and you’ll see pages and pages of true-life stories. These range from stories about ‘my operation’, to overcoming an illness/divorce/death in the family, to doing something special, to an amusing pet story. If you did something a little different for your 40th/50th/60th/70th birthday, you…
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When I set my recent New Year challenge, a writer called Joy Lennick contacted me and sent me some of her wonderful poems. They weren’t on the subject of the challenge, but she wondered if I’d like to feature them on my blog. Of course I would! Enjoy 🙂 BREAKING THE SAMENESS She knew she…
Esther Chilton 