Happy New Year!

I hope 2020 brings you all much happiness and positive stuff.

And for me, I hope next year starts as this one is ending – I've just had an acceptance from Shirley for The Weekly News!

The bit in between

I hope you enjoyed Christmas and that 2020 will be a good year for all womag writers. Who knows, maybe the better events of 2019 will be repeated and another new market will open up, and another publication will drop the requirement for all rights?

Whatever happens, we can't get our stories published until we've written them. Personally I find this time of year is very productive, but if you need a little nudge to get you started, A Year Of Ideas: 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises might be helpful.


Or maybe it's that tricky part between starting to think up ideas and reaching your reader that you'd appreciate assistance with? In that case From Story Idea to Reader is the book you want – and it's currently half price!

What are your writing plans for the rest of the year?

Season's Greetings

I'll still be doing daily posts, featuring free to enter writing competitions over on my other blog, but this will be my last Womagwriter post until after Christmas. (Unless there's some really exciting news to report!)

I'd like to wish you all a happy winter solstice, merry Christmas and jolly nice anything else you may celebrate. For those born at this time of year – Happy birthday!

New fiction editor at My Weekly

The new My Weekly fiction editor has been appointed. She's Susan Watson (currently My Weekly's celebrity editor.) Congratulations to her.

No changes to the submission process have been announced – I'll let you know when/if that happens.

Your Go

This month's discussion topic – If you didn't write Womag fiction, what would you do with the time you currently devote to it?

Here's another monthly random photo for use as a story prompt. 

Please share success (or otherwise!) report any womag news, tips, advice you may have, make womag related comments or observations and ask questions – and answer them too if you can help.

 (If you have news or a question relating to a particular magazine, it's also fine to add it as a comment to the latest post for that magazine.)

Writing competitions

If you like writing competitions, take a look at my other blog. Every day from last Friday until the winter solstice (at least) I'm featuring a different free to enter writing competition (short stories, poetry, novels, non-fiction etc).

Do you like writing competitions?

Ever been placed in any?

A YEAR OF IDEAS – 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises

Do you like writing prompts and exercises? If so, you'll love my new book. There are lots in there. I know it says 365 sets of them on the cover, but it's a leap year next year, and I have a tendency to get carried away, so there are a few more than that.

A YEAR OF IDEAS – 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises

All writers need ideas. We need topics and themes, prompts to get started and a little encouragement to keep going. New writers may be wondering where to begin, daunted by a blank page and want help to transform thoughts into fiction. Even the most experienced have dry periods when ideas don't flow, or times when they appreciate a push to try something different.

Patsy Collins' methods are proven to work. She's employed them at workshops where she's never failed to get her attendees, from brand new and nervous to burnt out, not just writing but producing interesting scenes, snippets and stories.

Each of the daily sets of prompts in this book have been used in some way by Patsy, to create her own work. She needs a lot of ideas as she's completed five novels, co-written From Story Idea to Reader (an accessible guide to writing fiction) and produced nineteen collections of themed short stories, averaging two dozen per book. Hundreds and hundreds of her short stories have been published – mainly in women's magazines. She blogs, writes articles, wins competitions and is always working on something new.

Whether you're a new writer, or a more experienced one temporarily out of ideas, have hours to fill or just five free minutes, you'll find something in this book to help get you writing – every day of the year.

You can buy it here. The price is £2.50 ($3.22) for the ebook and £6 ($7.74) for the paperback.