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.
6 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.
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