writing ideas
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Last week’s challenge was to tell a story in five words. It was clearly no problem for you. So how about telling a story in five words – but somewhere in the story, you must use the word red. Here are you fabulous five-word stories from last week: The Bag Lady: Dressed, coffee poured, reading…
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Entering a short story competition? Think outside the box. When I ran my last short story competition, a lot of entries focused on death and an apocalyptic world. 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…
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Researching your market – analyse the publication as a whole You might buy a magazine to analyse because you have an idea for an article but don’t just analyse the articles. It’s a good idea to study the whole of the magazine. This will give you an idea of the readership of the publication and…
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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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Writing Anniversary/Seasonal Pieces Every day marks the anniversary of when someone famous died or when a unique invention first came to light. General interest magazines often feature this sort of article. Additionally, depending on who the person is or what invention your article relates to, you may find a multitude of magazines interested in an…
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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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Using The Five Senses In Your Story Sight and sound are often used to bring a scene to life and for impacting upon the tone of a story. But the senses of smell, touch and taste can also affect a story’s mood. A rundown cafe might smell like a mixture of sweaty training shoes and…
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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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My ‘Deer’ challenge set a couple of weeks ago produced some super stories, which I’ve already featured. Here’s another from Geoff Le Pard. Please click on the link to be thoroughly entertained: Nigel Deare and The Curse Of the Lillies #flashfiction And here are a few of your pieces from my staircase challenge: Kristian: https://talesfromthemindofkristian.wordpress.com/2018/12/06/a-challenge-falling-for-blue-eyes/ Jim…
Esther Chilton 