March 2020

Writing Magazine

The BIGGEST and bestselling writing magazine - all your writing needs

Writing Magazine1 min read
Writing Magazine
Publisher: Collette Lloyd Email: collette.lloyd@warnersgroup.co.uk Editor: Jonathan Telfer Email: jtelfer@writersnews.co.uk Assistant editor: Tina Jackson Email: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk Senior designer: Nathan Ward Email: nathanw@warnersgroup.co.
Writing Magazine2 min read
Welcome…
I’m hugely pleased that we managed to get Eoin Colfer as our star interview this month. And not only because Eoin is an extremely talented and popular writer, whose sales would be the envy of just about all of us. What excites me especially about Eoi
Writing Magazine4 min read
The World Of Writing
The internet and social networks are killing our reading habits, so the headlines say, but two heartwarming campaigns have highlighted how the internet has helped two ailing literary endeavours. • Just before Christmas, online and high street book di
Writing Magazine7 min read
Letters To The Editor
Write to: Letters to the editor, Writing Magazine, Warners Group Publications plc, 5th Floor, 31-32 Park Row, Leeds LS1 5JD; email: letters@writersnews.co.uk. (Include your name and address when emailing letters. Ensure all letters, a maximum of 250
Writing Magazine4 min read
Forming A Limited Company
It’s said that the only certainties in life are taxes and death, but there is a third: paperwork. And that increases with success in your writing career. We are often asked whether it is sensible to set up a limited company to manage your copyrights.
Writing Magazine3 min read
Feeling Left Out
It already feels like a lot longer than a month ago that Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to such a thumping victory over Labour – but then Christmas is always a funny time of year, crammed as it is with so much familial and emotional content
Writing Magazine8 min read
Cliché: A COMMON CRIMINAL
Your ability to spot a cliché will depend, to a large extent, on the breadth and depth of your reading. ‘Greedy as a pig’ would be an original comparison to an infant encountering his or her first picture book, whereas most literate adults would cons
Writing Magazine3 min read
Ask A Literary Consultant
Last month I covered what to include in terms of your material when submitting to agents. This month, I’m focusing on how to chase up those submissions. I think it’s a good idea to submit to three to six agents at a time. A waiting time of up to thre
Writing Magazine10 min read
Fantasy Fulfilled
If you didn’t have the good fortune to grow up with Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer’s series of eight fantastical adventures of the young criminal mastermind, you might well have relished reading them to family members, or sneaking a peek when the kids fin
Writing Magazine2 min read
Away From Your Desk
Back soon! Paretsky and Ben Aaronovitch headline Granite Noir, Aberdeen’s crime-writing festival, taking place between 20 and 23 February. Website: www.granitenoir.com Benefit from the expertise of WM’s Beat the Bestsellers columnist Tony Rossiter, w
Writing Magazine6 min read
Precision Press Releases
Media coverage can instantly increase sales of your book, and enhance your profile as an author. And if you’re thinking about stopping reading now because journalists wouldn’t be interested in you, think again. Stories about local people doing impres
Writing Magazine2 min read
Fiona Veitch Smith
‘My road to publication was a long and convoluted one, taking fifteen years before I finally got a contract for my adult historical mysteries, set in the 1920s. On the way I had theatre plays and short films produced, was commissioned to ghostwrite a
Writing Magazine2 min read
Jessica Gladwell
‘The first thing I fell in love with in The Poppy Denby Investigates series was the historical setting. The books are rich with descriptions of the 1920s – right down to wonderful details about the fabulous clothes of the time. These descriptions are
Writing Magazine6 min read
The Style & Technique Of KAZUO ISHIGURO
Novelist, screenwriter and short-story writer, he has been nominated four times for the Man Booker Prize and won it in 1989 for The Remains of the Day (subsequently made into a hugely successful film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson). He’s
Writing Magazine4 min read
What’s In A Name?
I have just finished my second novel, by which I mean I have completed the final edit and am about to send it to my agent. When telling my best friend this, I mentioned that I have named the best friend in the story, after her. I expected her to be t
Writing Magazine4 min read
Crowding In
I spoke recently to a friend who was stuck in the throes of writing his latest book; stuck as in he couldn’t seem to forge ahead with anything – plot, direction, action, dialogue or characters. Especially the characters. As he vented about the lack o
Writing Magazine1 min read
WIN! £750 IN CASH PRIZES & PUBLICATION
750 word £250 TO BE WON Go wild! Use any theme, style or setting for this month’s competition but keep it tight. Your only restriction is a maximum 750-word limit. The winner will receive £200 and publication in Writing Magazine, with £50 and publica
Writing Magazine7 min read
Siphons
1st place SPECULATIVE FICTION COMPETITION £200 Jenny Morris lives in Crowborough, the home of Winnie the Pooh and an outrageous number of charity shops. She is currently finishing her PhD in Psychology and writing her first novel on the Faber Academy
Writing Magazine6 min read
Choice Spreads
Another year, and another amazing turnout for the Picture Book Prize! Congratulations – and thank you – to the 445 people who entered. We thoroughly enjoyed reading your wonderful stories. Congratulations to everyone on the longlist, the shortlist an
Writing Magazine6 min read
Under the Microscope
Outside was dark1 and the noise on the rain was like someone throwing stones at them.2 The house was lit up like Blackpool illuminations,3 and buzzing.4 The kettle was reaching fever pitch,5 while bread was spewing out the toaster.6 There was banging
Writing Magazine5 min read
Jean Fullerton
Jean Fullerton was born into a large, East End family and grew up in the overcrowded streets clustered around the Tower of London. She believes that it is that background that gives her historical East London stories a distinctive authenticity. Readi
Writing Magazine4 min read
Love Is The Answer
It will soon be St Valentine’s Day, so I decided to check out the Romantic Novelists’ Association and find out about the state of romantic fiction in 2020. Luckily the current chair, Alison May, was happy to chat to me. ‘The RNA is sixty years old th
Writing Magazine2 min read
I Wish I’d Known…
‘There so many things I wish I’d known when I started out on my journey towards publication. ‘The wisest thing I’ve ever read about the process of writing was comparing it to learning the ’cello. You wouldn’t expect to play to packed audiences at the
Writing Magazine3 min readPsychology
Love Is In The Air
Love is in the air this month for everyone, including your writing group. We’ve all experienced love and heartache, from the love for a new born child, to the love for our parents, the heady heights of teenage first love and that first rejection to f
Writing Magazine9 min read
Subscriber Spotlight
‘I have overcome a great deal to achieve my dream of publishing a children’s book,’ writes subscriber Catherine Brown. ‘At school I was identified as dyslexic. This condition was poorly understood and left me struggling to keep up. I was assessed as
Writing Magazine3 min read
Circles’ Roundup
SPOTLIGHT ON… The Scribblers group at the Linskill Centre in North Shields, Tyne & Wear, formed three years ago when the charity opened its doors to engage with the over 55s, writes Chris Wysocki. That’s when half a dozen strangers became friends. We
Writing Magazine1 min read
Your FREE Writer’s Survival Kit
Writing Magazine 2020 diary: featuring weekly writing prompts Notebook: What would writers do without one? Fill this notebook full of ideas for your next novel Fun stickers: Customise your laptop, Kindle, or anything else, and let other writers see y
Writing Magazine6 min read
Chop-chop
Antony Reid writes multi-genre fiction and poetry from a curious spit of land between the Dee, the Mersey and the Irish Sea where he tries to keep company with ‘the gold-hearted silver-tongued and quicksilver-minded’. He e-published a novella, A Smal
Writing Magazine1 min read
WIN! £275 IN CASH PRIZES & PUBLICATION
£125 TO BE WON The world is your oyster. Submit writing on any theme, fiction or non-, literal or figurative, but a thread of ‘journey’ must run through your submission somehow. Your entry should be 1,500-1,700 words. The closing date is 15 April. Th
Writing Magazine6 min read
Travel Tales
In this month’s story, Dimension by Alice Munro, we join our main character, Doree, as she takes a long and emotionally trying journey. As the story unfolds, we find out where she is going and why. We’re going to look at the importance of journeys in
Writing Magazine17 min read
Festival Guide 2020
1 Feb Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden, Flintshire Micro-festival that features relaxed opportunities to learn from and talk to writers Gladstone’s Library, Church Lane, Hawarden, Flintshire CH5 3DF; 01244 532350 12-23 Feb Southbank Centre, London SE1 D
Writing Magazine6 min read
Backyard Travel Writing
In a world hooked on high adrenalin thrills it might seem that travel writing will only get into print if the destinations are exotic and the experiences thrilling, dangerous or weirdly eccentric. This style of writing often dominates the headlines i
Writing Magazine10 min read
Courses Guide 2020
21-23 February, Writing for Children. A three day course by award-winning author Alan Durant with writing exercises, tutorials and discussions, food and drink. Perfect for any level of writing experience. Brighton 07944 374 734 Website: www.alanduran
Writing Magazine5 min read
Long Exposure
When writers, artists, composers or craftsmen create something new, they are adding to the world’s store of material that will keep their memory alive, and so buying into their own immortality. When another such person comes along, a week, a year or
Writing Magazine2 min read
Poetry In Practice
At times one has to spur inspiration into life. Tackle this by picking up a small shell. If no shell is handy find a pebble. You might have one that you collected from a walk or a holiday; if not you will have to rely on a picture or possibly simply
Writing Magazine3 min readPsychology
FIND YOUR WRITING happiness
Experimenting with different genres is a great way of extending your range and developing your writing voice. For example, I started writing poetry because I wanted to be able to write more lyrical prose and I often use themes and settings from my fi
Writing Magazine7 min read
Ready Player One!
While video games have been around since the 1950s in forms as basic as OXO (first released in 1952), Pong (first released in 1972), and text adventures, it’s only really since the 80s that games have made genuine efforts to tell more sophisticated s
Writing Magazine6 min read
Minutes Count
Congratulations! Your writing business has been awarded an extra 24 hours this year. It’s called Saturday 29 February. So what are you going to do with yours? Most of us never have enough time to write, yet, ironically, it’s not the amount of time th
Writing Magazine4 min read
Libraries
Libraries are great places to do research as they have so much material to explore. Sometimes this can feel overwhelming – it’s not always easy to locate the information you need. So, how do you go about making the most out of libraries? First of all
Writing Magazine2 min read
Under The Covers
When I’m perusing Twitter (other social media networks are available), from time to time I’ll see an author revealing the cover of their next novel. It’s an exciting moment for any writer – and I was thrilled when my publisher told me recently that m
Writing Magazine2 min read
Editorial Calendar
• The BBC announced it was axing Last of the Summer Wine, the UK’s longest-running sitcom, after 37 years. • The final, 512-day stage of the Moscow-based MARS500 isolation project began. The six-person international crew emerged in November 2011. • P
Writing Magazine5 min read
Kitty Wilson
Kitty Wilson’s Cornish Village School series has been a huge hit with lovers of romantic comedy, but what route did Kitty take on her journey to becoming a traditionally published novelist? ‘I have always wanted to write,’ she says. ‘I can’t remember
Writing Magazine2 min read
Behind The Tape
Q What is the current position regarding what is and isn’t allowed to go on in rape trials? Defence teams used to be ruthless in exposing the complainant’s sexual history and could demand to see material on their phone that damaged their credibility
Writing Magazine25 min read
Writers’ News
Tina Jackson Win a £10,000 first prize for new writing on the theme of Forgiveness and Retribution in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2020. Every year, the Alpine Fellowship awards prizes to the best works concerning the theme for the Alpine Fell
Writing Magazine2 min read
Also Mentioned…
One for book writers this month. Books remain, I think, something special. They are read, sometimes reread and lent or passed on, and I for one hate to throw a book away. The reader reads, and hopefully enjoys your book, but what else do they see wit
Writing Magazine12 min read
Introductions
Saga magazine, edited by Louise Robinson, is the UK’s leading lifestyle title for the over-fifties, and with more than 223,000 subscribers, is one of the UK’s best selling subscription titles. Every month it provides interesting and informative featu
Writing Magazine2 min read
Muscle Memory
I was probably about seven years old, in bed with the landing light on – I’ve always been afraid of the dark – when it came to me. I’d forgotten how to go to sleep. How did you do it? There I lay, eyes closed, waiting for it to happen. And, of course
Writing Magazine15 min read
International Zine Scene
Wards is a South African literary journal with a special focus. Every issue ‘invites writers from different, specific demographics to submit fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and research articles’. The title ‘wards’ is important because ‘wards a
Writing Magazine2 min read
Boldly Go
Travel can be expensive. Well, you can make Tlocal trips for the cost of a gallon of petrol, yes, and that’s a ridiculous price, though bottled water can cost more. Sorry, I digress. The point is that any substantial journey can cost a good deal. Thi
Writing Magazine4 min read
Mark Ellis
Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea, and the creator of WWII detective Frank Merlin. ‘When I was about thirteen an English teacher encouraged me and I wrote stories up until I finished in university,’ Mark says. ‘Thereafter I had careers as
Writing Magazine1 min read
Writing MAGAZINE
ON SALE 5 MAR Set your writing schedule with our definitive guide to competitions for the rest of 2020 how to stay on track, and motivated, for a 150,000+ word specfic epic Journalism: how to write for niche magazines, from pet fish magazine editor N
Writing Magazine3 min read
Coming Clean
I have a confession to make. It’s a secret I’ve kept to myself for over a decade, but I’ve decided finally to come clean and let you all in on it. I hate writing! There, I’ve said it. I don’t mind doing my articles each month. I always enjoy writing

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