Half a post (see update!)

Free to enter writing competitions.

Other opportunities

Jerwood Arvon Writer residencies are offering  'a fully funded, self-directed development opportunity for 12 emerging writers. You need to have a current project in fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and playwriting - and of course to meet the requirements and be able to attend. It seems an excellent opportunity for the right people.

Update 26/10/25 - Sorry for half a post! We're still on our travels and I've not been able to keep up with everything. Still, it seems my plan of putting up what I can when I can and scheduling it is sort of working.

My news. I entered the Croydon Writers competition I posted about a few weeks ago and got this response - 'Although your entry did not reach the shortlist this time, it was commended by the judges and might well be successful elsewhere. Thank you for supporting our competition and well done!'
I thought it was very nice of them to take the trouble to say something encouraging. That turned the disappointment of not winning into a mildly positive experience.

Over to you

Please share writing related news – successes and failures, details of free entry writing competitions, updates about the womags you submit to, any other publication opportunities, and raise any queries you may have. All these things will help other readers of the blog, and help me to keep it going!

As always, feel free to use my photos as writing prompts. If you prefer words to images for that purpose, take a look here.

Free entry competition news

On the premises are back! To mark the occasion they're running a short story competition with a $250 top prize and lots of smaller prizes. They want 1,000 to 5,000 words about someone or something returning. Thanks to Alyson for letting me know.

Womag news

From Eirin Thompson - "Just wanted to let you know that The People's Friend has posted on Twitter/X inviting submissions of 3,000-word stories - any genre, any season. Hope this might be helpful to those not on Twitter/X." (Thanks to HB for also passing on that message.)

Fortunately I'd just had a rejection from TPF, so was able to submit something else to them. I super speedily wrote something fitting the requirements – and it was accepted two days later!

What a week!

Since my last post, Gary and I have celebrated twenty-five years together (although we've only been married about half of that) and our thousandth night in the mobile writing retreat (campervan). Photos are a random selection of those taken in that time.

We marked these occasions with nice dinners, coastal walks, castle visits, lots of tea, plenty of cake... OK, I know that sounds like we just carried on as usual, but we did make it different - honest.

Free entry competition news

The Wergle Flomp 'humor' poetry competition offers a $2,000 first prize, with quite a few cash prizes for runners up and honourable mentions.

For The Scottish Book Trust's 50 word competition this month, your story should include a bat. The image is of the flying kind, so I'm not sure if cricket stories would be OK.

The Commonwealth short story prize offers a £5,000 main prize, plus regional prizes. To enter you must be a commonwealth citizen aged over eighteen, and your story must be unpublished.

When womagwriters meet

After years of knowng her virtually, it was great to meet Alyson Hilbourne in person recently. If you read women's magazines you're very likely to be familiar with Alyson's lovely stories, and unless you're very new to this blog you'll know she often contributes links to competitions and comments as Ados123.

We had an informative guided tour around our meeting place. I wonder which of us will be the first to feature an archeologist in a story? 

(This might be a slightly easier 'guess where we are' challenge - but only if you concentrate on the top image. The others are random places we stopped on the way.)

Don't panic - contributing to this blog doesn't automatically mean I'll be heading off in your direction demanding a chat and cup of tea!

Free entry competition news

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for sending me the link to this novel writing competition. The prize is £5,000 and representation by Curtis Brown. There are runner up prizes of writing courses. To enter you must be female, resident of the UK, Republic of Ireland or the Channel Islands and not previously been traditionally published.

Thanks to Vivienne Moles for this ghost story competition. You have up to 5,000 words and until 21st December. The prize is publication and a small Amazon voucher.

And thanks to Suzan Lindsay for this poetry competition. It closes on Sunday night, so work quickly if you want to win the £50 of book tokens.