Been meaning to post about this since the magazine arrived a few weeks back but Lake District holidays and sunshine got in the way.
The May edition of Writers' Forum contains the results of the Woman's Weekly Target Practice comp I posted about here. The starts of the winner and runner-up story are printed, and both will be published in WW Fiction Specials later in the year. Well done to those two writers!
I noted that one of the shortlisted writers was the blogging world's very own Karen, so well done to you, too!
The winning entry was praised for its use of original phrases. This bit struck me: After they [MC's grown-up children] had gone, her Georgian ceilings stretched a little higher... just those last 7 words give us both a snippet about her house and a wonderful way of saying the house seemed too large and empty for just her. Great word economy!
The runner-up entry is structured as a list of 10 reasons not to marry (which is also the title of the story). I have seen several stories in WW fiction specials which use list or diary formats. I think the message here is that they like quirky structures, so if that's what you write, send your stuff to WW.
There's an interesting review of the competition by Gaynor Davies, WW fiction ed. And a few comments by Sue Moorcroft who ran the competition. Both said many entries were good stories but not right for Woman's Weekly. The most telling phrase from Sue was: this competition is as much about good targetting as good stories. You simply cannot get by without studying the market in this game.
Don't forget the next Target Practice comp is aimed at The Weekly News - details here, deadline 30th April. Everyone I know who's had a critique by Sue says they are well worth the tiny £3 she charges for them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Well done, Karen!
Congratulations, Karen.
And thank you for the reminder about the next competition, womagwriter. Definitely worth entering for Sue Moorcroft's critique.
Congratulations Karen and tanks for spreading the good news womag.
Congratulations Karen!
Congratulations Karen! Thanks Womag. I follow your blog regularly from Australia and enjoy it very much...lots of great info and, of course, I entered this comp. Unfortunately, Writers' Form isn't available here (English Women's Weekly is) and I'd love to see the shortlist. Could you possible publish it for your Aussie followers? Hope you can and thanks again!
Thanks for the mention womag :o)
I thought the two winning entries sounded great, and I'm determined to up my game and get into that mag if it kills me!
I loved that phrase too re the ceiling being higher, womag
April - I'm in Australia too. We can subscribe to WF from Oz, and some newsagents will order a copy in for you - it's expensive but well worth it
Thanks Glynis.
I'm looking forward to reading the winning entries when they appear in the mag.
Hi Womag,
Just wanted to say hello because it was me who came second in this competition. I've been reading your blog for a long time (it's so helpful!) and had to say thank you for your congratulations and kind comments (and from Karen too-very generous).
Camilla
Hello, Camilla and congratulations. I thought your idea was very clever.
Hi Camilla and congratulations!
Well done to Karen!
Interesting about the structure preferences. Thanks.
Post a Comment