Do you know any market news? Have you heard about any free to enter writing competitions? Or come across calls for submissions or other opportunities?
Free entry competition news
The Imison Award (£3,000) celebrates the best in new writing for the medium of audio drama.
Free writing course
Thanks to Alyson for giving the link to this free course from The Writer's Bureau. Alyson said, 'I've no idea how good it is or whether it is trying to get you to buy a full Writers Bureau course.' I imagine they will suggest that – but that doesn't mean the free bit isn't worth a look. If you try it, let us know what you think.
12 comments:
The writer's bureau course sounds like it's aimed at complete beginners. That's great if you're just thinking about starting creative writing but I should imagine that most of us here are past the beginner stage. I reckon that most of us could teach it ourselves! Just a reminder that there's a fiction and puzzles extra in the My weekly Xmas special mag but the majority of the short stories in there are by novelists.
No good news really other than a recent 'now with Lucy' for a TPF submission. Why do some stories get accepted immediately & others get a 'over to Lucy' response, does anyone know?
Sheelagh, some years ago, when Shirley Blair was the fiction editor of The People's Friend, I suggested a blog post outlining the journey of a story, once submitted. I was curious about the process and thought other writers might be, too. The suggestion was successful and we were able to follow the 'story of a story'. At that time, if your own editor thought a story was suitable for publication, it was then passed up to the fiction editor and, if she agreed, it was then passed up to the magazine editor (who was then Angela) who had the final say. If successful, your own editor informed you and the processes of illustration and payment were begun. Since that was quite a while ago, details might have changed, and perhaps the fiction team would be agreeable to posting an up-to-date article on the journey of a story.
Thanks Eirin that's interesting. It would be great if they did a feature on that though it may not be of interest to everyone. I suppose I could just ask ( if I dare 😀) there must be some reason why only occasional ones get sent to Lucy though
@ Sharon - Sometimes reminders are good. Knowing something doesn't always guarantee I apply it in my case!
@ Sheelagh – My impression is that all stories, unless immediately rejected by our own editor, are passed to Lucy. I imagine that if it's a length they're short of and is set at the right time of year for the next issue she reads it almost immediately. If she accepts it, we just get told it's a yes, not that she had it. We only get told about those passed to her, but not read straight away.
I could be wrong though. That's happened many times in my life!
@ Eirin – Yes, that would be really interesting - even if nothing has changed, except the people involved. I imagine there must be at least a few differences though.
Thanks Patsy, yes that makes sense alright. Then I can celebrate (in my mind) a story that's sent to Lucy rather than wondering if there is some other reason for it. By the way I loved your story in the People's Friend Annual 2025. Its a really beautiful book with wonderful illustrations throughout.
Not a lot to report though I did have a story in this week's Woman's Weekly so that's always a buzz. I sent a poem to the Wetherby competition that was mentioned on here a couple of weeks back. Had an acknowledgement and a good luck message which was nice in itself.
I also had a 'good luck' acknowledgement from the Wetherby competition, Sue. :) I'm afraid I'm not really in to free verse - just not me, but silly rhyming poems ;) Not a lot going on here. Most of my avenues have dried up at the moment. Still persisting with the old Writing Magazine comps - not sure why :(
Keep going with the Writing Mag comps, Marguerite! They are excellent practice. I've started doing them again since the womag markets seem to have dried up.
Eirin is right about TPF stories. I understand they are read by individual editors, then the fiction editor (Lucy) and then the magazine editor and it depends on the length and season how quickly they are read.
I sold them two last week which was very nice.
Alyson
Thanks for the course details. I've just had a quick whizz through the course, and found that it's mainly ideas for getting started and deciding what you want to write, plus a few plugs for The Writers Bureau. The most helpful thing for me was the idea of keeping a time diary so that I can identify the best time each day for me to write. I lack any form of discipline around writing at a regular time!
Thank you for the positive encouragement, Alyson! At least it helps me build my ever-increasing bank of stories! I've enjoyed writing them - and always learning, of course.
@ Sheelagh - I've not seen the annual, but I can well believe the illustrations are nice.
@ Sue - Congrats on the publication. And yes, a friendly response is always good.
@ Marguerite - Silly is my kind of poetry too!
@ Alyson - Congratulations on the sales!
@ Maisie - I'm glad you got something out of it.
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