tips for writers
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Humorous Writing In the current economic climate there isn’t much to cheer us, so a humorous article or funny story comes as a welcome break. But writing humour isn’t as easy as you might think. Here’s a helping hand to make sure you leave your readers smiling: Ideas for humorous letters, fillers, articles and stories
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Beware the terrible typo! For some of us, writing is a full-time occupation and for others, it’s something we aspire to. Whichever you are, you’ll likely be fitting your writing in round the family, house and numerous other commitments. So sometimes your writing can be rushed, but even if you’re in a hurry and need
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Sizzling Story Ideas Short stories in magazines always seem to flow effortlessly from beginning to end. Competition winning entries stun with their originality and brilliance. Small press magazines are full of thought-provoking stories which inspire, enrich and delight. It’s easy to imagine that the authors have a limitless supply of ideas waiting to leap onto
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Don’t Rush It! In a short story, the ending is important but be careful not to rush it. Some writers can see the end in sight and grab it – too soon e.g. in a romance story, you have gradually built up the will they/won’t they scenario. Your readers are right there with the characters,
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Dodgy Commas! In dialogue, is it necessary to place a comma before a character’s name? Read the following example: “I can’t hear John.” Written like this, the sentence clearly means that the person speaking can’t hear John. But perhaps the writer actually means that the person speaking is telling John that he/she can’t hear. See
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Has your article been rejected? Don’t give up on it. As a writing tutor, I’ve met and corresponded with many different writers, who have many different experiences to share. One common factor every one of those writers shares, me included, is rejection of an article, short story, filler etc. But sometimes a change in editor
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Written Warning! I’ve written about the importance of following the rules when entering a writing competition before. One very important rule to take notice of is the closing date of the competition. If this is the 30th April, for example, don’t leave it to that date to send your entry off. Some competitions will accept
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Fancy Fonts If you’re writing for yourself, it’s fine to use different fonts, bold and/or coloured text but if you’re sending work to an editor, keep it plain. Editors can be put off by fonts they can’t read or big blocks of bold text. Times New Roman or Arial is preferable and a font size
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I’ve been working on a commissioned article for a cat magazine this week. It’s involved quite a lot of research, which I always love doing. Though, with research, it’s important not to get carried away and to spend too long sifting through facts, figures and points of interest. Otherwise that article won’t ever get written
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Say yes to rejection! The word of the week on my blog has been ‘rejection’ and how it’s something we all have to cope with if we want to be successful writers. My tip for you, and something which I’ve put into practice over the years, is for each rejection you get, set it aside
Esther Chilton 