One for the mums

I think this is simply brilliant. Enjoy!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o6P2w5GkXmU

Adopt a word

Here's a fun site if you'd like to increase your vocabulary'

http://www.savethewords.org/

Click on a word to see a definition and example of its use. If you 'adopt' it, you promise to use it in conversation and writing as often as possible!

Some of those example sentences could be good story prompt ideas...

That's Life - Filler opportunities

With huge thanks to Rena, who posted the following notes under the Prima fillers thread, here are the filler opportunities at That's Life (UK version):

For all items, post to That’s Life, 3rd Floor, Academic House, 24-28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DT
Website www.thatslife.co.uk
Email stories@thatslife.co.uk or phone 020 7241 8082

Parenting tips – write to “Mum Knows Best” £25 paid – p15

Stories about baby.child/teens – email mumsworld@thatslife.co.uk £250 paid – p15

Look who’s talking – (cute kids photos) – write above address £25 paid – p15

Your Hot Mail – Pay £50 for Star letter and Tightwad Tips with photo. £20 for everything else. Email yourhotmail@thatslife.co.uk P22

Beauty Salon – Letters on beauty probs Star Letter £50 – others get product Lisa recommends/pics where poss. Email beauty@thatslife.co.uk P38

Aren’t Men Daft – Softest lad of week/pic £50 – others £25 email daftmen@thatslife.co.uk p43

Fight for your rights (Consumer page) £250 a story email consumer@thatslife.co.uk £25 paid for every “happy customer” letter published. Post to address above – p45

Various amounts from £200 - £500 paid for real life stories

Prima - another market for fillers

I bought a copy of Prima last week to read on a flight (we went skiing in Chamonix for a couple of days over the weekend - lovely!) Lots of opportunities for writers in it. And it's a good magazine - I really enjoyed reading it.

Here's what they're looking for:

Letters - usually commenting on features in previous issues. Write to Prima Letters, 72 Broadwick St, London, W1F 9EP or email prima@natmags.co.uk Payment is a year's subscription to the magazine, and a pampering gift pack for the star letter.

Picture Perfect - cute photos with a caption. Send to Picture Perfect, address as above. Payment £25.

What's it worth - send a photo of your antiques for a valuation. Email photo and description to sue.mcneill@natmags.co.uk or by post to address as above. Owner of most valuable item printed on the page 'wins' £50.

Words of wisdom - about 30 words, payment £25. A different topic each month, email wisewords@natmags.co.uk to find out about upcoming topics. I suppose I could have done that for you before posting this but thought I'd leave you some research to do yourselves, dear readers! The topic in the issue I read was The Greatest Love of my Life.

Tips - about 20-30 words, payment £25. Email prima@natmags.co.uk or by post to Sandra Tear, address as above.

And finally - a writing competition. Write a tale about your own life, no longer than 500 words. Email to yourwinningstory@natmags.co.uk or by post to Your Winning Story, address as above. Include name, age, address, phone no and a recent photo of yourself. 'Winner' each month gets £200, two further stories (edited down) get a year's subscription. One entry per person. And note, you are signing away copyright by entering (boo, hiss) but hey, it's only 500 words and you can reuse the idea in another story. Could be worth a go? Entries in the issue I read were all relationship-based.

When I read the magazine on the flight I turned down corners of relevant pages for this post. The final turned-down page is in the cookery section - no fillers there, but it looks as though I fancied the recipe for quick treacle sponge. Which is filling in its own way.

Filling your time

Has anyone tried their hand at writing fillers, readers' letters and tips, etc? I sent a few letters and tips off years ago but never had any published. I decided to do a bit of research and see what opportunities are around at the moment - since we have dwindling markets for short stories maybe we could diversify into fillers?

I bought a few weekly mags to see what fillers they are actively looking for. Here's what I found. I've given approximate word-counts of what's been printed - obviously they will edit items to suit their requirements.

Take A Break
Take A Break St - feel good photos of family and friends with a 20-word caption. Payment £100 per item. Email tab.street@bauer.co.uk

Tips - around 50 words and a photo illustrating your tip. Payment £60. Email tab.brainwaves@bauer.co.uk

Health - tell your health story, or about an operation. Payment £200. Send to Health, Take A Break, Freepost LON12043, H Bauer Publishing Ltd, London NW1 1YU.

Beauty SOS - send a beauty question to the expert, together with a photo of yourself. £25 for each letter used plus £25 for the photo. Email tab.beautysos@bauer.co.uk

Magic Moments - treasured memories or funny stories, illustrated with a photo. About 200 words. Payment £150. Email tab.magicmoments@bauer.co.uk

Letters - £100 for letter of the week, £50 for others plus £25 for photos used. You can also nominate someone to go 'in the stocks' - include a reason and a photo, payment £75. Send to Letters, Take A Break at address as for Health.

Real People
It's All About You - photos with short caption. £25 paid, and £100 for the lead one which has about 100 words. Email letters@realpeoplemagazine.co.uk or send to Real People, 33 Broadwick St, London W1F 0DQ

Real life stories - they will pay up to £1000. They use a lot - not just as main features but also as half-page fillers. Send story and photos to vicki@realpeoplemag.co.uk

Health - 1 page article, I guess about 600 words plus photos. Payment £150. Email health@realpeoplemagazine.co.uk

Trash or Treasure - what's your junk worth? Send a photo of the item and yourself. Payment £30. Email tot@realpeoplemagazine.co.uk

Mum to Mum - got a parenting problem? Write to the address above. Payment £100.

Tips - £15 for each tip used, £25 if you include a photo. About 30 words. Email tips@realpeoplemag.co.uk

Chat
For all items, post to Chat, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark St, London Se1 0SU or email chat_magazine@ipcmedia.com unless otherwise stated.

Chat to us - photos of friends and family with caption, £25 paid.

Your story - like Real People they include some full length features and some fillers.

Health - 300 words. Payment £100. Email chathealth@ipcmedia.com

Spooky - your real ghostly stories and photos. About 200 words. Payment £50.

Letters - about 60 words. £25 paid. As always, photos help.

Ahhh! - cute baby photos with caption. £25 paid.

Tips - £15 paid, or £25 with a photo. About 20 words.

Best
Letters - £25 paid, £100 for the star letter. About 100 words. Email bestletters@natmags.co.uk

Money saving tips - £25 paid. Email beatthecreditcrunch@natmags.co.uk

Bella
Letters - £10 or £50 for the star letter. About 60 words. Email bella.letters@bauer.co.uk


That's all the magazines I bought this week - quite enough to be going on with! A few notes - some specifically say no mobile phone photos. All require permission from parent or guardian to print a photo of a child. All want tips and letters to be exclusive, so don't send the same one to more than one mag at a time. Embarrassingly, this week's TAB and Real People do contain the exact same tip and photo, of a rather naff looking utensil holder made out of a fabric conditioner bottle. I don't expect that person will sell too many more tips to those magazines.

It's ok to send lots of tips on one sheet to a magazine - they can then use what they want. They don't send rejections, so I guess if you hear nothing for at least six months assume they don't want the letter/tip and you're free to try it elsewhere - but see Suzanne's comments following this post. Don't send your only copy of photos as they rarely return them.

Finally, as with fiction submissions, study the market before submitting. This might not feel like 'real' writing but some of the opportunities above certainly pay well!

Another possible market for your short stories?

Bridge House publish anthologies of short stories, and I understand they are happy to use ones which have been published before. Their latest book is Making Changes and it does look good - I've just added it to my overflowing Amazon basket.

Take a look at their submissions info. Looks like they want all sorts of stories - humour, ghost, horror, children's. You can email for more details - bridgehouse@btinternet.com

My Weekly - still not accepting submissions

Some of you will have heard this already, especially if you've chased My Weekly for those promised guidelines which were due out this week. Here's the standard email they are sending in response to queries:

If you have been waiting anxiously for our next guidelines (No.6) thank you so much for your patience. If you have sent us a short story, we thank you for your contribution. Unfortunately we are still unable to consider any more short stories at this time, other than ones already submitted before November of last year.

We realise this is very disappointing but we will be sending out full and comprehensive guidelines on Monday, March 9, by which time some of our categories will certainly need to be replenished.

Thanks again for your loyalty and we look forward to hearing from you in due course.
All best wishes for a happy, healthy 2009.
Liz Smith
(Fiction Editor)


Disappointing, yes. :-( So we must just concentrate on other markets still. At least if they are using up their stock of stories, if you've been waiting for an accepted story to be published hopefully it will be soon. They still have 4 of mine sent last year, so I live on in hope.

New Year - new markets, new blogs

I've spent the evening going through my stories filed under the 'In the Drawer' tab, and submitting them to anywhere that takes email submissions (because I have no stamps). I've sent some to overseas markets for the first time - the ones I have guidelines for on this blog. I've also tried Candis for the first time. New year - new markets!

Also for the new year, why not add a new blog to your favourites - here's a good one to follow. Several writers contribute to this one, including womag writer Geri who often comments here. She's written a brilliant post on the joys of working from home. Something I've been doing with the day job for ten years now (can it really be that long? Gulp.)

A new and subtler shade of blue

I was bored with the wallpaper. This one's nice, isn't it? If only it was as simple to redecorate the house. We've started on our bedroom this weekend - it's been cleared, the ugly built-in wardrobe has been ripped out... and the whole room needs replastering. Sigh. I expect to be sleeping in the spare room for months.

My Weekly contributor copies

I've just heard that as a cost-cutting measure, My Weekly have recently stopped sending out contributor copies. I wondered why I didn't get one when my story was in a December issue - luckily I knew the issue it was due to be in so didn't miss it.

So if you are awaiting publication by My Weekly, either email them to check when your story will be out, or check the magazine every week.

It's a shame they've stopped sending copies out. It means such a lot to get a contributor's copy. When it arrived in the post it always put a little shine on my day.

Writers' Forum - a spooky sense of deja vu

February's Writers' Forum appeared on my doormat this morning. I flicked through it immediately as usual - never can resist it - and spotted they've accidently reprinted pages 7-11 from January's issue: an article about how Minette Walters creates her characters and the letters pages are the same as last months.

Oops.

But never mind, our favourite features are all there - Della's writers' toolshed on story openings, Sally's competition calendar with hints (one from me!) on how to keep yourself organised, and a very interesting article from Sue Moorcroft on the results of the People's Friend target practice competition from a few months back. And there's an inspiring article from Glynis Scrivens about not using your personal problems as an excuse to not write.

Don't worry, Be happy

I was reading December's Writing Magazine last night, trying to reduce the height of my unread magazine pile which has only increased since I last mentioned it on this blog.

Came across a lovely article by Diana Cambridge all about how to feel good about your writing. Now at this time of year we should all be feeling good - we've made all those New Year resolutions and it's surely too early in the year to feel we've failed at any yet. But it made me think. If you're like me, and writing's not your day-job, it's just (just!) a hobby/compulsion/dream you spend your spare time on, then the most important thing is that it should make you happy. Nothing else matters, but that you should enjoy yourself while you're doing it. Well there are always going to be those times when it all feels like a struggle, and you wonder why you bother, and you might need to give yourself a break. But overall, looking back on the last few months say, it should have been a positive experience overall.

Otherwise there's no point. If you don't enjoy it, don't do it (unless it's what pays the bills!)

Diana's article includes several ideas for how to increase the pleasure you get from writing: use your love of words to help out in the community - in schools, in charity bookshops (my dream job: running a charity bookshop); go on courses or workshops; buy secondhand books then donate them (to womagwriter's charity bookshop perhaps?); set some achievable writing goals for the year; increase your skills by reading how-to books or learning new computer skills; go to local literary events; enter a writing competition.

All great ideas, and all something to help keep the fizz in your writing life. And if ever it all feels too much like hard work, take a break for a while, but don't give up (unless it only ever feels like hard work) - find a way to give yourself a new perspective on writing. Maybe a new project which needs some research. Maybe set a new goal and figure out steps to achieve it. Maybe do some reading to help work out requirements for a new market.

Whatever makes you happy.

Seasonal tales

I woke up this morning with a complete idea for a nice gentle People's Friend-type Christmas story buzzing around in my head.

I know at this time of year, according to the Womagwriter calendar, I ought to be concentrating on summer romances, but it's often easier to write seasonal stories during the appropriate season, while you're in the mood. Trouble is you then need to sit on them for six months before you can submit them!

Read this

Don't give up says the brilliant and ever-inspirational Sally Quilford.

Happy New Year!

Hope this year's going to be a good one for all you womag writers out there!

Last year was a mixed one for me - I didn't sell as many stories as the previous year or as many as I'd aimed at. But I did write more, and also earned more from the 7 I did sell. So a successful year in some ways but not in every way.

My aims for 2009 are to keep up the story writing, aiming for one a fortnight at least. And I would like to sell an average of one story a month.

And to help me achieve that, I am issuing myself with the Womagwriter's Commandments for 2009:

1. Thou shalt spend Wednesday evenings with thy laptop in a quiet room with no TV.
2. Wednesday shalt henceforth be known as Writing Wednesday, and it shall be the day on which thou shalt write new stories.
3. Thou shalt spend another evening a week editing and submitting stories.
4. Thou shalt get up to date with thy reading of women's magazines and writing magazines. This shall be done by taking a couple on the train to London once a week.
5. Thou shalt write more and faff less.