Writers' Forum Woman's Weekly comp

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.

It's been a good week...

... the sun has shone, the trees are blossoming, I sold a story to TAB, and received a contributor copy of People's Friend for my story appearing in the issue dated May 9th.

I wish all weeks could be like this one!

Lake District

I promised a couple of photos of our Lake District holiday so here they are! Both photos are from the first day, when we had stunning weather. Rest of the week was overcast at best, wet and windy at worst, but that's to be expected.

Here's the view across forever - hubby and older son (14) sitting on the edge of the world.


And here's me and the boys on the way up to Stickle Tarn.

Wish I was back there now! The sheer joy of continuously putting one foot in front and slightly higher than the other is immense. My knees are less keen on the descent, but there's always a good old traditional pub waiting for you when you get back down to the valley.

Fancy being a guest blogger?

Over on the excellent and highly recommended Strictly Writing blog, the ladies are running a competition for guest bloggers. They want 500-word articles on anything to do with writing. The winner is published on their very popular blog, and also wins a copy of Rebecca Connell's The Art of Losing .

So, if you're a blogger, or if you're not and would like to give it a go, pop on over to SW and check out the competition. Deadline is this Friday (17th April) but I think all you need to do by then is to register interest and let them know what you will blog about.

Come on all you womag writers - I'd love to see one of my regular visitors win this one!



By the way I had an excellent if somewhat rainy holiday, and will post up a couple of photos as soon as I organise myself enough to download them to the computer. Thanks for all your good wishes!

Lake District

I'm off on holiday for a week, starting tomorrow. Some serious battery recharging will be taking place, amid the hills and waters of the Lake District. I'm fully expecting the water to be pattering on my head and running down the back of my neck by the way - have been there before and am well aware of the weather patterns!

For the walkers among you, we are staying in Ambleside and planning some hikes in the Langdale valley, and up the Old Man of Coniston. Isn't that simply the best imaginable name for a mountain? :-)