Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 i Writing Magazine

‘I wish I could go back and tell myself to just enjoy it more.’ That’s what a seasoned writer told me when I shared that I was petrified for my debut. A blockage was preventing me from enjoying myself; my fears ran riot, particularly late at night, joining together into mega-fear. Married to a therapist, I dutifully wrote down my fears. Here are the first five: Fear of bad reviews Fear of no reviews Fear my family and friends will think it’s lame Fear my family and friends won’t care Fear that it’ll do poorly and my agent/publishers will see me as a busted flush Interestingly, we see that the first four proceed as two pairs; they are mirrors. One side of the coin is that I will be judged;…

Ready to have the first 300 words of your manuscript critiqued? Contact tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk for details Penelope McLachlan was born in the UK and spent her childhood is Brazil, returning to UK for school and university. She worked in Brazil at universities and returned and has lived the rest of her life in UK. She is married and has a cat. There would be no new year’s eve parties on the advent of 2050.1 Cassandra, Sebastian, Imogen and Andrew,2 all wearing masks, huddled3 on the roof as the water rose. Felicia miaowed from her basket and Fido whimpered from his cage.4 Both animals were also masked.5 Humans and animals were slathered in mosquito repellent.6 Dengue and malaria threatened.7 We must save them all, thought Cassandra.8 “Time to load the boat,” said…

Pick and emotion, we asked, and the WM writers really went for it in response to this month’s call for submissions. We’re long over being surprised by the standard of the writing submitted, because every month the Spotlight in-box provides a regular treasure trove of talent. So we weren’t surprised, but we were delighted, with such an overflowing cornucopia of emotion-related pieces – because no matter what the context, storytelling relies on the writer‘s ability to convey a particular feeling in such a way that the reader feels it too. That’s what made the two exceptional pieces we selected so impressive: as you read them, you’re drawn into the experience of the viewpoint character. If you aren’t moved to empathy by these two pieces, we suspect you might have been…

I had never really meant to write this book. I’d been working on another novel for some time and I had yet to admit to myself that it wasn’t really coming together. Sometimes books behave (one I wrote in six months), mostly they don’t (one took me 15 years). This was the beginning of the pandemic, I was stuck at home like everyone else and home now, and for the next many months – though we didn’t know it to begin with – was all there was. I wondered what on earth I was going to do with this time. I kept thinking of Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage Around My Room, which was written under house arrest in 1790 in which, to keep the author’s mind active, he wrote a…

1. When and where did your journey as an author begin? I decided I wanted to be an author when I was seven years old. Throughout my life I’d always written short stories and poems, but it wasn’t until twenty years later – soon after I voluntarily separated from my job as an editor at a publishing company – that I sat down at my kitchen table, followed through on that childhood dream, and wrote The Gravity Between Us. 2. What is (or has been) your proudest moment as a writer? That was when I found out The Gravity Between Us was named one of the fifty best romance novels of all time by Reader’s Digest Magazine. That was huge for me as a Sapphic Fiction writer, not to have…

As climate change continues to have an everdeeper effect, and discussion on the topic expands in all forums, the topic of space colonisation appears once again on the horizon. Of course you’d like to think we’re a good many years away from that point, but the idea of humanity heading out into the stars and populating other planets has long been a staple within science-fiction. In the time of the Golden Age of science-fiction, this was a hopeful and optimistic forward expansion into lands unknown, brave travellers exploring an unfamiliar frontier. However as the genre has become darker it has become a pressing concern, a question of basic survival for the species in these far-flung tales. In this article, we’ll be exploring how to write stories of humanity’s journey into…

Do you need to research a particular topic in depth and you don’t know where to start? Instead of doing online searches and/or using your local library, you could try taking an online course. The advantage of online courses is that they offer curated material and present information in a structured way. This is particularly helpful when you’re new to a topic area and don’t already know what the main facts, concepts, events and timelines are and how these different pieces of information fit together. These days there are innumerable online courses to choose from. They are offered by individuals, companies, educational establishments and various organisations. Some are free, others charge a fee. You can find courses by searching online. However, in terms of research, your best option is likely…

The Solstice Prize 2024 The contest is for nature-themed creative writing by young people has a new category for writers aged 18-25. The Solstice Prize 2024 for Young Writers is run by Writing East Midlands. Entries are invited of short stories and poems related to nature, the environment and climate change by young writers. The age categories are 7-11, 12-14, 15-17 and 18-25. First-placed winners in each category will receive £100 and their work will be published in the 2024 Solstice Anthology. Five highly commended writers per age category will receive goody bags and have their work published in an online anthology. There are also regional prizes for the best entries in each category by young writers living in the East Midlands. The 2024 Solstice judge is author Gill Lewis.…

www.writers-online.co.uk/writing-competitions Writing Compitions, WritingMagazine, Warners Group Publicions Ltd, West Street, Bourne Lincs PE10 9PH WIN! £775 IN CASH PRIZES & PUBLICATION OPEN 100 WORDS £250 TO BE WON Every word matters in this month’s contest, which invites you to tell an entire tale in precisely 100 words (not including title). The entry fee allows you to submit two stories. The winner will receive £200 and the runner up £50, and the winning entries will be published in the May 2025 issue of Writing Magazine. The entry fee is £7.50/£6 subscribers. The closing date is 15 December. Ref code: WRO/November24/100words SUBSCRIBER-ONLY It started with a… One thing leads to another in this month’s contest, which is for stories between 1,500 and 1,700 words in any genre as long as it begins…

We sometimes say of the greatest authors that we’d read anything they wrote – even a shopping list. What makes them so good? It’s true that Terry Pratchett or Stephen King or Hilary Mantel approach their subjects with a unique sensibility and voice, but it’s more than that. The DNA of all good writing is narrative. Hold on, though … Isn’t narrative a very basic element? We know about it. How does it qualify as an ‘advanced’ technique? Let’s start with what it is. My dictionary says narrative is a story, or an account of a series of events in the order in which they occur. This is clearly inadequate and even wrong. We all know that stories don’t have to be told in order. Moreover, a narrative needn’t have…

Rejection is part of our life and experiences. From relationships to not securing that job we wanted, we all have to deal with it at one time or another. It can be painful and disappointing. Writing rejection is no exception. I’ve received so many rejections over the years from literary agents and publishers, that I could’ve easily decorated my bathroom and had some left over for an extension. On other occasions, I never received a reply at all to my submissions. There were times when I contemplated giving up on my dream of getting published as a feel-good romance author. Was somebody trying to tell me something? What if I wasn’t meant to be a published writer after all? But then I read that old adage, a published writer is…

Writing is the best job in the world but let’s be honest; there are times when it feels like the hardest. Those days when we just can’t get to the crux of the matter, or indeed, the heart of a character. I understand the frustration of writer’s block, burnout, creative roadblock… whatever you might call it. My view is that we risk making the writing life more difficult than it needs to be by ignoring a powerful tool we all have within us. That is, when we look outside of ourselves for inspiration when we can mine the rich seam of personal experience and memories we all have threading through us. Nowhere is this as important than in crafting and writing believable and threedimensional characters. Advice for writers varies widely…

In the final part of our look at the Building Block of Character, we will be looking at the role of the Antagonist. As with the other character types, we will be using a story of mine called ‘Sundays’. You can find it here: www.writers-online.co.uk/how-to-write/sundays-a-shortstory-by-ian-ayris/ Before we look at the Antagonist in ‘Sundays’ – Dad – I want to speak a little about what an Antagonist is. The German psychoanalyst, Karen Horney – stay with me here – described three ways children create or adjust relationships in order to cope with anxiety. That is, they either move toward (become compliant), move away (become detached) or move against (become aggressive). An Antagonist would normally fall into the latter category, in that they are actively moving against the Main Character. The Antagonist,…

The Last Days of Johnny Nunn is the second DS Max Lomax novel. It moves Max on from its predecessor, Never Walk Away, to the year before the London Olympics. He’s drawn into the investigation of the murder of a community activist in south London, another site ripe for corruption and a turning point in our recent history. The book also tells the story of Johnny Nunn, a former boxer returning to his neighbourhood after a five-year absence to find that the home he left is in the hands of white-collar criminals and Olympics profiteers. I’ve always been drawn to crime stories with an undercurrent of social realism, examining universal themes through specific human experience. For The Last Days of Johnny Nunn, that means throwing a light on what happens when…

This month’s story, ‘The Dilettante’ by Edith Wharton, is about a love triangle. Although, as it turns out, the relationship between the three characters is more about manipulation than about love. What I want to focus on is the light and shade of mood and emotion the characters go through, and the personality attributes they display, in the course of the story. As always, you’ll get the most out of this masterclass if you read the story for yourself: www.literaryladiesguide.com/full-texts-of-classic-works/the-dilettante-by-edith-wharton-1903-short-story-full-text/ The ‘Dilettante’ of the title is a man called Thursdale, and this definition of Thursdale sets the tone of the story. He is a womaniser who is interested in women, but does not want to make a meaningful commitment. Indeed, we learn that he has considered previous romantic relationships and…

As is the case with many authors, American novelist Timothy Janovsky says his interest in creative writing sparked early. ‘When I was in elementary school, I was chosen for a special programme called Challenge, where I was taken from my usual classes and brought to the library for an hour with a few other students and a visiting teacher,’ he explains. ‘We read fiction together, and wrote short stories and poems. At the end of the year, we had a tea party/reading of our work for our families. I read my story about an orphan picking dandelions on the side of the road. It was very sad. When I looked up, several of the parents were crying. At first, I was afraid I’d done something wrong, but then everybody clapped,…

If you have a query for Lisa, please send it by email to lisacuttsenquiries@gmail.com Q Could a hypnotist enlist the help of individuals to commit a murder by bending them to his will? I am aware that there is a general perception that a person can’t be forced to do anything under hypnotic influence they wouldn’t do in real life. When they are caught, what is the verdict likely to be, murder or manslaughter? Also, would the hypnotist be held responsible in any way? What sentences are likely to be imposed on both criminals (active killers) and hypnotist (passive killer)? Craig Booker via email A The charge is a tricky one, and something that would be up to the CPS to authorise. I think it’s likely that all of them, including…

2024 Blue Pencil Agency Pitch Prize The 2024 Blue Pencil Agency Pitch Prize is open to unrepresented authors for a novel in any adult fiction genre. It offers the opportunity for up to 10 winners to pitch their novel and receive feedback from the agent judge, Katie Greenstreet from Paper Literary Agency. The Readers’ Choice Award will be awarded to one winner. At least 10,000 words of the novel should have been written. Send your opening 500 words, synopsis and cover letter including your pitch. The entry fee is £12 per submission. There is a minimum of 20 free entries for disadvantaged writers. The closing date is 25 October. See website for submission details and eligibility: https://bluepencilagency.com/bpa-pitch-prize-2024/…

Nothing is new for very long. I’ve made the point made here before that, for instance, every possibility to promote a new book should be planned well in advance to make the most of the newness. I was reminded of this a little while ago, when the person who has written a screenplay of my novel, Once a Thief, told me it had won first prize in its category at the Berlin International Screenplay Festival. Since then, it has collected more prizes and been shortlisted at several more festivals, including ones in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Realistically, I am not getting excited about setting the television to record just yet, but I like to think it is a positive comment on the story and certainly it is an…

The ring of the doorbell surprises Carol. She is not expecting any deliveries and not many other people come to visit. She dries her hands, leaves the kitchen and goes down the hall, taking a quick look at her five-year-old daughter Sophie who is happily playing picking out notes on the piano in the sitting room. Her house is small, an end of terrace built in the flurry cheap housing that expanded London in the 1930s, but she and Charlie have made it bright and cheerful. One side of the house faces north, with a view over the Thames to the towers of Canary Wharf. Charlie is there somewhere, at a desk, on a phone, earning money. He’ll be back sometime after seven. London has been a disappointment to Carol.…

I started writing ghost stories to send to friends and family in place of Christmas cards in 2005. That’s not entirely accurate. The very first book I wrote at the age of four – my mum, who I dictated it to, said I was insistent it was a book and not just a story – had a ghost in it, and a dragon too. The next serious attempt at a novel, at 14, was also supernatural and ran to nine full chapters before I abandoned it, possibly on admitting to myself that it was a barelytweaked retelling of The Quatermass Xperiment, the 1955 version of which I had recently watched on TV. I’ll stop myself there, and concede for the pedants among us that in none of his multiple iterations…

Dann McDorman is an Emmy-nominated TV news producer. He’s also worked as a newspaper reporter, book reviewer, and cabinet maker, and still has a full-time job. ‘I have to work around that,’ he says, ‘by writing in the early morning during the week and then stealing whatever time I can at weekends. My moderate to despairing insomnia means I’ll text or email notes to myself into the middle of the night, some of which still make sense after dawn. Perhaps the most felicitous time to write is when I’m not writing at all. I try to run a few times each week, and often the best, most exciting ideas will come when I’m halfway through the jog. The challenge, then, is to keep these amazingly brilliant thoughts in my head…

What keeps an author at the top of their game? In the case of Patricia Cornwell, one of contemporary crime-writing’s most legendary figures, the answer is apparent as soon as she turns up on Zoom. It’s being fascinated by your subject and bringing that excitement to what you’re writing. A shonky transatlantic connection with time-lapses and occasional voice distortion does nothing to dilute Patricia’s enthusiastic whoosh of energy as she talks about the new Kay Scarpetta novel, Identity Unknown. From the off, she launches into what keeps her motivated. ‘I will tell you the real trick – there was the Scottish writer, called George MacDonald, and he talked about the importance of walking into the shadow – doing things that make you insecure, doing things that may frighten you if…

I remember a secondary school English teacher asking me if I was an avid reader. I lied and said yes. Then she asked if I wanted to write a novel of my own. I said ‘absolutely’. It was another lie. I used to like reading until I discovered it was something I was ‘slow’ at. I thought I was normal speed, but other kids read faster than me, and I didn’t like that because other kids walked faster than me and ran faster than me and climbed the stairs faster than me. I didn’t want reading to be another thing I lagged behind in, and so, I dismissed the whole idea of being ‘a reader’. Because of that, I couldn’t imagine being ‘a writer’. I came back to reading in…

HOUSE HOLD ESSENTIALS Explore the possibilities of basic items. Firstly, compile a list of what constitutes household essentials either for you, or for someone you want to write about – a fictional character or a real person. Look at the items on your list. For each one, write something down: a colour, a taste, an association, a memory. Once you’ve done this, either pick one or more of the items and write a passage of prose or poetry around them, or use the list you made as the basis for a new piece of writing. MOUSTACHE Write about someone with a moustache. Who has got a moustache? What sort of moustache is it? Colour, texture, shape, size? How does it alter their face? When did they grow it? If if…

What’s the attraction of reading (and writing) fiction set in the past? Why should anyone want to know what happened, or might have happened, before they were even born? Let alone meet reimagined versions of people who actually existed? Or, on the other hand, who never existed, even if they lived in places we can still visit today? Maybe it’s because, as human beings, we can observe that although down the ages technology, manners and traditions are subject to change, human nature seems to remain basically unalterable, and standards of good behaviour tend to stay the same? Those Biblical Ten Commandments, for example – most of us would surely accept it’s still wrong to steal, kill, lie and so on, at least in theory, even if in real life other…

Not all stories are – or have to be – based on personal experience but writing about something which does reflect something of you can be a good starting point. Two authors, Farrah Riaz and Ian Eagleton, share their experiences about writing a story which comes from the heart. FARRAH RIAZ The Twirly Wiggly Dance is your debut book. Tell us a little bit about why you wrote it. I always liked making up stories when I was younger and had a vivid imagination. Storytelling felt very natural to me. As I grew older, I think it was at the back of my mind, but I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself. Because once I did that, I would actually have to do something about it. As an adult,…

The Book Edit Writers’ Prize 2024 The free-entry contest is for unpublished UK novelists from under-represented backgrounds. Now in its fourth year, the contest is held in association with Legend Press, and will be judged by Lara Howarth. Eight winning writers will be selected to take part in a Zoom showcase with invited industry guests from the Book Edit’s industry network. Winning writers will be given training on reading their work aloud before the showcase. An anthology of the readings will be published online. To enter, submit the first 1,000 words of an unpublished novel manuscript, a synopsis up to 500 words and a brief account of your writing experience. Entry is free. The closing date is 15 October. Website: www.thebookedit.co.uk/writers-prize?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email Egg+Frog Inspirathlon 2024 Respond within a week to inspiring…

ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award 2024 The ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award is for short stories up to 5,000 words by authors who have already had at least one short story published or accepted for publication. Stories submitted for the Award may be published or unpublished. The winner will receive £2,000, the runner up £1,000 and up to four shortlisted authors, £500. The closing date is 31 October. Website: www2.societyofauthors.org/prizes/thesoa-awards/alcs-tom-gallon-trust-award/ The SmokeLong Grand Micro Competition 2024 The now annual competition known as ‘The Mikey’ is for fiction, non-fiction and hybrid narratives. All entries should be prose, not poetry. The winner will receive $1,000. The second-placed entry will receive $500, and the third-placed, $300. The finalists will each get $100 and all the winning and finalist entries will be published in the December…

I need an operation (nothing to serious, thank you for your concern), but my goodness what a complicated process. What made me think and what I want to refer to here is the timing and the recovery period. For anyone leading a busy life, however much something may need to be done, fitting in medical treatment is likely a problem; it is disruptive of both social and work arrangements. What prompted me to think to mention it here is that I will not be able to drive for a little while or fly (and I am attempting to see that it does not scupper a holiday booking already made). With this in mind, I realised that a good many medical issues link to travel and provide a specific area to…

Bridget found me in a deserted bay near Scarborough. I was sitting on a rock jotting notes as the March showers came and went. She came and sat a little distance away with her own notebook, both of us writing to the steady beat of the breaking waves, the plaintive calls of the seagulls. At once I could only write about her. After a while she walked across the sand towards me, and read out what she had written about me. I was lost. That day was supposed to be the last day of my holiday. Instead I called my work and quit. She was that special. And now she was leaving in two days. For half a year. ‘I will wait,’ I said. She shook her head. ‘Come with…