Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Writing Magazine

What can I say? Also, how can I say it? As a teacher of creative writing, I’ve always tried to encourage my students to find their own special voices. This is because in fiction the voice seems to be the element that engages readers most effectively. Whenever a reader or reviewer says a work of fiction is beautifully written, or spellbinding, or uplifting, or enjoyable, I’m sure this usually means the reviewer loved listening to the voice. So, your own unique voice, the one that belongs exclusively to you – when you find it, maybe it will then become crystal clear where your talents and motivation when it comes to writing fiction truly lie. All those other important elements, such as plotting, characterisation and narrative viewpoint, should hopefully fall into…

Shall we have a look at that box of old photographs?’ I asked my Mum one afternoon in the autumn of 2021. I didn’t know it then, but it was a Sliding Doors moment. If my curiosity hadn’t got the better of me I might never have found a mysterious photograph of my great aunt, and I certainly wouldn’t have written my debut novel The Show Woman. But that’s one benefit of being a journalist: I’ve always been nosey. Last summer after 27 years in print journalism I hung up my Press credentials for a new career in novel writing. Over the years I’ve interviewed five Scottish First Ministers, four Prime Ministers and one Taliban leader, covering stories from Kandahar to Kirkcaldy. I’ve spent a morning at Susan Boyle’s house…

By fifteen, I knew with absolute certainty that I was a writer. It was the heyday of early aughts publishing – midnight release parties had first become a thing, and millions of people devoured one literary zeitgeist after another – and standing in those snaking bookstore queues, all I wanted was to be the one writing them. By twenty, I told myself, twenty-five tops, I’d graduate from writer to author and become a household name. But by thirty, I’d spent half my life working toward a dream that still hadn’t materialized. Some authors skyrocket to stardom and never look back. My literary vehicle was slower. More horse than rocket. Or maybe a mule. Because stubbornness – about my desire to do something I kept failing at, to start over each…

Most writers need some kind of support network, whether it’s from a writing group, mentorship or tutorial group. It’s so important to find the right balance of encouragement, advice, constructive criticism and, perhaps most importantly, understanding. My own network first grew and then shrank to what I think is its ideal size – eight close writer friends. One of these has been my editor, and will, I hope, edit my work again; most of the others I met through the Scattered Authors Society, an informal, ever-expanding group of writers for children who keep in touch on Facebook, Zoom calls and in-person meetings. For ten years, I was one of the organisers of three-day retreats at the beautiful Charney Manor, a Quaker retreat in Oxfordshire, and it was there, through led…

Many things can add that extra frisson of fear to horror fiction. Prime among them we might think of the time of day or the weather, the device we know and love as pathetic fallacy. A bleak and stormy night in the dead of winter provides threat and the fear of the unknown that may be lurking in the shadows. But there can be more to this equation – not just the season, or even the ominous fog, rain or snow. The calendar is full of specific dates that you can call upon, with a lot of significance to deepen the dread of your terrifying tales – and in this article we’re going to explore some of them and how they can add to your dark fiction. This is Hallowe’en…

As someone who has written fiction and non-fiction across several different styles and genres, I know that each time I have tackled something new for the first time it has been a challenge. The first such chapter is usually written several times before an acceptable style settled on. Recently I was reminded of one method that can make this process much easier. A retired teacher joined a writing group of which I am a member and immediately began talking about his ambition to write for children. As a bridge to fiction a book of puzzles was suggested, and somehow I found myself setting to as a co-author. In due course a book was completed, published and both our names appeared on the cover. A Bit Tricky (described as for ‘kids…

WIN! £775 IN CASH PRIZES & PUBLICATION www.writers-online.co.uk/writing-competitions Writing Competitions, Writing Magazine, Warners Group Publications Ltd, West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH POETRY SHORT POEMS Keep it short and sweet in this month’s competition for haiku, limericks, any short poetic form – or any poem no longer than ten lines. Prizes: £100, £50. The winner and runner up will be published in WM Jan. Closing date: 15 August Entry fee: £7.50/£6 subscribers Ref code: WRO/July25/shortpoems OPEN 750 WORDS Short stories that fit on a single magazine page tend to be around 750 words – so send us your best one pagers, in any genre, style or form. Prizes: £200, £50. The winner will be published in WM Jan and the runner up will be published online. Closing date: 15 August…

Len’s standing by the feelings machine, eating a banana at 2am. I don’t think he’s ever looked at the feelings machine since it got installed. Most of us have had a go on it, mucking about, but Len never did, just shook his head to himself like when we’re passing round a good gif. Thing about Len is, he’s like the dad you wish you’d had, if you didn’t have a good dad. It was Len who taught me how to handle shift work. I’d worked in the Countdown stockroom and in the bakery and I reckoned I knew it all, but I needed a quiet word from Len because four days of 12-hours on is a different kettle of fish. I’m always pleased when I’m rostered on with Len.…

In 2015, Young Adult author Corinne Duyvis coined the hashtag #ownvoices as a way for writers and readers to promote works within which the characters share an identity or experience of marginalisation with their author. I doubt she had any idea how quickly and powerfully the term would take off – or that we would still be using it, debating it, and writing articles about it a decade later. #Ownvoices eventually became a rallying cry, embodying the movement to uplift and empower a vibrant, diverse range of narratives in modern publishing. Many people from marginalised communities set out to write #ownvoices content because they want to see nuanced and respectful representation of themselves, their families and friends, in fiction. However, #ownvoices writing can also be a more organic process, something…

1. When and where did your journey as an author begin? Back in 2020, when I applied for the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency’s first-ever mentorship scheme. I was one of six mentees picked from more than 1,500 applicants. We were taken through a six-month crash course introducing us to the world of publishing, and all received agent representation at the end of the process. 2. What is (or has been) your proudest moment as a writer? The launch of my second YA novel Red Flags at Waterstones Piccadilly. The last time I’d attended an event there in 2019 I wasn’t yet a published author, so to be sitting in the same space six years later talking about my own book felt surreal and very special. 3. Who or what is…

Apparently, I have a knack for writing ‘unlikeable’ characters. I find this amusing, since I spent my whole younger life wearing the ‘nice girl’ mask, the one who didn’t want to offend, or show any disagreeable traits. Prior to writing professionally, I was an actress who was always cast as the sweet victim. Then, at thirty-seven, no longer able to play the ingenue, I started to write and found my roar on the page. I shocked myself with the stuff I seemed to be channelling and expressing: the anger, the complexity, the contrariness of human nature. As a young person I was often left perplexed by the behaviour of some of the people closest to me, and I guess the drive to write these sorts of difficult characters stems from…

“Are we meeting for lunch today?” Joycelyn called as Mike was leaving for varsity. 1 “Yes. Are you OK with that, ‘The Willows’ at one o’clock? Love you.” 2 They were sitting at a window table 3 overlooking the fountain Square, 4 perusing the menu, 5 knowing what they would order – ‘the usual.’ 6 Mike glanced at Joycelyn, who had been unusually quiet. 7 “You’ve got tears in your eyes; something wrong?” 8 he asked, 9 surprised. 10 “I’m pregnant!” she said. “What! Are you sure?” 11 “That’s what my doctor said.” 12 Mike handed her a handkerchief to hold back the tears now flowing. 13 He moved over to her side of the table and put his arm around her. 14 “We will be OK; I know it…

When you’re a writer you need another writer to share successes with, or to have a good moan to. Ordinary people don’t understand our problems but other writers do. I’ve discovered this works really well if you’re both struggling with novels. Simon Whaley, my friend and colleague, occasionally visits me but, as we live a distance from each other, we frequently exchange emails in which we discuss life in general and novel writing in particular. I’d been struggling with the third and final novel in a series. My main character was very secretive and didn’t want to talk to me. I’d reached the 40,000 word stage and left her stepping on the scales at Flabfighters. Being a pantster, I didn’t know what was going to happen next. ‘I need another…

According to my records, this is the one hundredth of these masterclasses that I’ve written for Writing Magazine. So, I thought I’d revisit the writer I chose for my first masterclass, and have written about many times since, Kate Chopin. For this month I have chosen her story, ‘A Pair Of Silk Stockings’. As always, you’ll get the most out of this masterclass if you read the story for yourself: https://www.katechopin.org/pdfs/Kate%20Chopin%2C%20A%20Pair%20of%20Silk%20 Stockings.pdf Let’s start by looking at the very first sentence. It’s only thirteen words, but it tells us so much. Mrs Sommers, our main character, is referred to as little. Whilst this may be purely a physical description, it also suggests that she may also be, or consider herself to be, insignificant. We also learn that fifteen dollars is…

How does anyone become a million-selling novelist? By getting one of those elusive lucky breaks, by writing the right novel at the right time, by already being famous? Or, as the novelist Nick Alexander did, by putting in years of hard graft and never losing hope? ‘Before my writing career took off with my sixth novel The Case of the Missing Boyfriend, I had to rent out my own apartment to holidaymakers, live in a tiny, freezing cabin in the Swiss Alps, and borrow money from friends because I was too broke to pay my bills,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t fix my ancient (and horrifically dangerous) car, buy decent food for my cats, and for many years I felt as if I was just pretending to be a writer. ‘So…

A lthough an antagonist is often assessed in terms of their effect on the protagonist or plot, there can be so much interest in a complex villain. Occasionally the devil has the best lines and it’s all one can do to stop gunning for the bad guy over the hero. One example of this was the 1991 film adaptation of Robin Hood, where the actor Alan Rickman went full throttle on a self-aware, flamboyant Sheriff of Nottingham and stole the show. In the book world, Rebecca de Winter, in Daphne Du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, might not be the main antagonist but she’s the complex centre around which everything else revolves. Bad guys can often feel more engagingly broken and compelling than a worthy one and you’d be wise to think…

Anthology Poetry Competition 2025 The Anthology Poetry Competition is inviting entries of original, unpublished poems on any theme. Poems may be any length up to 40 lines. The winner will receive €1,000 prize and publication. There are second and third prizes of €250 and €150. The entry fee is €15 up to 30 June, and then €18. The closing date is 31 October. Website: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/poetry-competition/ Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition 2025 Win €1,000 and publication in the annual contest from Munster Literature Centre. The Fool for Poetry contest is open to new, emerging and established poets worldwide, and is inviting entries of manuscripts of collections of between 16 and 24 poems. The first prize is €1,000 and there is a second prizes of €500. One of the winners will…

Creative Writing Ink Short Story Competition 2025 The Creative Writing Ink Short Story Competition invites entries of original, unpublished stories up to 3,000 words, in any style or form, from writers worldwide. The winner will receive £1,000, a Creative Writing Ink online course of their choice, and publication on the Creative Writing Ink website. Two runners up will each win £200. The final judge will be writer Tyler Paterson. The entry fee is £12 per story. The closing date is 31 July. Website: https://creativewriting-ink.co.uk/competitions/creative-writing-ink-short-story-competition-2025/ Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction 2025 The Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award is run by Scottish Arts Trust. The categories are: • The Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award is an international competition for stories up to 250 words. The prizes are £2,000, £500 and £250. • The Golden…

I can’t juggle and I certainly can’t juggle with flaming torches without burning holes in the carpet. If I was to try, then I would need to study, and practice too no doubt. Before I started, I would need some how-to advice, and the same is true of many areas of life and activity. Many things seem daunting, not so much because they are difficult, but because in the absence of how-to information they appear to be so. Many books and articles provide how-to advice and there are many opportunities for this in the area of travel writing. Some of these are linked to routine activities, like packing, in which people might be advised as to how to do it better. Others are more one-off, like how to deal with sitting…

People are often bemused when they find out that I have my own agent. Is that necessary, they ask? To which I say, emphatically, yes – particularly when they are as brilliant as my agent is. But it is a fundamental business adage that one shouldn’t get high on one’s own supply: doctors should not prescribe their own medicines and lawyers should not represent themselves in court. Above all it allows the ‘writer’ me to stay safely separate from the ‘agent’ me. However, what having my own agent has done is make me much more aware of how much anxiety there can be for authors and how easy it can be for those anxieties to spill into behaviours which can damage their relationship with their agents, so I thought it…

Voice in a novel is a subject many writers may not consider as being fundamental to storytelling. Often, the less experienced writer may end up with dialogue or narration that makes all their characters sound the same. In fact, what has happened is that they are writing the dialogue in their own voice. In my dark speculative literary fiction novel, Land of Hope, I created a universe in which character’s voices and their relationship to each other are key to establishing the story’s setting. My narrator, Hope, has a deep connection to the land where she grew up as a shepherd’s daughter, an unnamed northern moor of England where flocks of sheep roam as they have for centuries across ancient burial sites from the days of Vikings. It struck me…

This year marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and there are events planned to mark this special occasion. Most people have encountered Jane Austen’s writing, via TV and film adaptations as well as by reading her books, and her work continues to have a lasting appeal across the generations. Some writers have used her work to directly inspire fresh books that adapt or extend the original premise and content of her novels. However, there are some things that every writer can learn from her writing so let’s consider some of her strengths. USE OF HUMOUR AND SATIRE One of the things we enjoy in Jane Austen’s writing is her humour. And although she undoubtedly intends to make the reader smile, her humour serves a satirical purpose. She is…

Wild places and their inhabitants are woven into Jane Johnson’s lush, immersive storytelling in such a way that each of her books feel as if they’re taking their reader on a thrilling, intriguing journey of discovery through layers of time, history, extraordinary events and their effects on the lives of those who live there. Her latest book, Secrets of the Bees, is no exception. Blending historical and contemporary fiction, it’s an intergenerational story of nature, place, and the effects of human intervention that starts when grumpy old Ezra Curnow, who has lived off grid with his bees in a remote corner of West Cornwall, has his existence disrupted by incoming estate owners who want to rent out his cottage to tourists. Ezra, who represents the old ways of existing in…

In our first look at the Building Block of Description we looked at the two initial steps of Description: 1. Create the image in your head 2. Step inside and wander around the image – whether it be a scene or a character – focusing on your senses This wandering around, experiential approach to Description will bring an authenticity to your writing that merely thinking of a scene or what a character looks like may lack. Our next step is to begin turning this wandering around experience into words whereby the reader can build the scene in their imagination and wander around it too. Let’s begin with something you will find mentioned in every article, every how-to book and every creative writing course – SHOW DON’T TELL. Show don’t and…

Under the Lemon Tree is a story about hope, healing and heritage that takes place beneath the clear blue skies of Agistri, a beautiful Greek island. It is a story from a female perspective as my novels all are to date and, although my books are standalone, they always seem to contain common themes of grief, love, friendship and family secrets. Under The Lemon Tree is about a Greek family who live in London and my protagonist, Katérina, is reeling from the death of her twin brother. She is at a crossroads in her life, her marriage is over and she is unsatisfied with her career. Having moved back to her parents’ house at the age of thirty-seven, the comfort of family feels both soothing and suffocating. But everything changes…

What a clever bunch the WM writers are! They picked up last month’s playful prompt and ran with it, taking advantage of the direction to use genre writing to express something they cared about with verve and flair. The most popular genres were eco-fiction and political satire, and we loved the anger, wit, originality and defiance with which writers submitting to this call expressed their opinions on the state of the planet and current events. As ever, it’s been a hard task to pick the two that appear on these pages, and in the end what makes the difference to the two we’ve chosen is the ingenuity of expression within the chosen genre. These are two pieces that use the conventions of their chosen genre, and really hook you in…

One of the greatest challenges for a poet is to find something new to say. It’s all been said before. Any poet who manages to find a truly original subject should keep very quiet about it, write the poem, and then win all the accolades going for that remarkable achievement. So how do we go about finding an approach that will thrill the reader with its freshness? One way is to think about links. As soon as you link one theme with another, you minimise the chances that it’s been said before. Poet Sue Gerrard from St. Helens, Merseyside, struck gold when she realised that a love poem with a sad theme and dramatic twist could be linked with a picture portraying an idyllic love scene. So the same central…

Spending time in nature increases children’s feelings of wellbeing, and improves physical health. Fostering a connection with nature also helps children become more aware of the environment. How can we use our writing to help? This two-part mini-series looks at different ways of exploring nature for all ages. In this first part, we talk to children’s authors and nature-lovers Andy Shepherd and Claire Barker. Andy Shepherd: The Wood Where Magic Grows What is the book about? In a nutshell, it’s about the power of imagination and how we can use that to unlock the green magic that’s growing on our own doorsteps. But mostly it’s about how much I love trees and playing in nature! Iggy and his new brother Cal move to Greenacre cottage and almost immediately encounter a…

The problem with the business of writing is that all the business stuff leaves less time for writing. Ultimately, as writers, we’d rather be writing than messing around creating social media campaigns, spending hours contacting book bloggers to create a new launch blog tour, remembering to track our advertising spend on Amazon and Meta, or getting bogged down with research. The solution is to buy time back. Instead of doing all of this ourselves, we could find and pay someone else to do it all for us. Step forward the Virtual Assistant. VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE A virtual assistant (VA) is not an artificial intelligence app, but an actual human being. However, instead of your assistant coming to work in your writing space, they typically work from their home, wherever that may…

Michael Gregorio is the name used by the husband and wife team of Michael Jacob and Daniela di Gregorio. Perhaps this should be Our Writing Day. Michael and Daniela used to be ferocious workers. ‘We published eight chunky novels in ten busy years,’ he says. ‘Four historical crime thrillers (with Faber & Faber), a contemporary crime novel written in Italian based on a true story (commissioned by the Italian publisher, Ambiente), then three mafia novels (for Severn House) which are set in rural Umbria, where we live. ‘So, how do we write together? Well, we don’t. We work in separate rooms in a large house, following an outline we have written up and agreed to in principle – Dani used to make me sign the outline, because I had a…

The Next Big Story Prize 2025 The Novelry has launched a new contest for emerging novelists with a £75,000 prize The Next Big Story Prize is inviting writers from the UK, USA, Australia and Canada to submit the first three pages, or 1,500 words, of a novel. The winner will receive $100,000/£75,000 (if the winner is in the UK) and eight shortlisted writers will receive The Finished Novel course from The Novelry worth $4,995. The panel of judges includes Tayari Jones, Emma Roberts, Julia Quinn, Zibby Owens, Yann Martel, Zosia Mamet, Carley Fortune, Kimmy Nwokorie, Jacki Oshry and Brady Lockerby. There will be the opportunity for the public to vote on the shortlist. Submissions must be fiction. All entries must be original and unpublished. Writers entering the competition must not…