Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Writing Magazine

Tina Jackson Content Editor One of the many wonderful things about writing is that it’s a continual, fascinating process of discovery – of words, of ourselves as writers, of other people, other times, other places. There are no limits to what we can imagine, and the only limitations we face in writing about it are the ones we place on ourselves. That’s where WM can help – by offering you insights into creative writing topics and techniques you may not have considered, or might have considered beyond your reach. One issue of perennial fascination to writers is the unreliable narrator, so this month, we’ve taken a deep dive into that topic in the esteemed company of Chips Hardy, the co-creator of TV series Taboo, one of the most original and…

I have always felt at home with the dislocated, the disconnected and the dysfunctional. People who are somehow denied an anodyne sense of self and place, and who have to endure and hopefully prevail without them. So, I’m fascinated by what happens to people who cross the line – be they soldiers, pioneers, addicts, explorers, artists, criminals – and how that dislocation causes them to follow ever more dangerous paths. Dislocation causes many to create a new, contingent self, and to protect this fragile sense of identity and place, they often perform all kinds of antithetical acts. Pioneers might discard their ‘civilisation’, soldiers may murder, artists may defile; all pressed by a perverse logic that underpins their survival. This self-sustaining disconnection ensures they can never safely return. Of course, such…

I’m not sure if I can truly pinpoint the moment my new novel Once A Monster was born – but I can trace the history of some of its most important ingredients. As a boy, looking through an old illustrated book of Greek myths, and being at once captivated and reviled by a depiction of the Minotaur, looming in the shadows of the Labyrinth beneath Knossos. As a twentysomething, unemployed and living in London, my imagination fired by the allusive sound of its oldest street names – the Crutched Friars, Seething Lane, the Black Ditch – and realising that London has been a dozen different cities across its life. As a thirtysomething, my infant daughter up on my shoulders and (having realised for the first time that books were…

Jacky Hyams is a journalist and bestselling author based in Brighton who says she fell into non-fiction book writing and often works to commission. ‘Journalism doesn’t take up much of my time nowadays. It might creep into the working day on a rare occasion,’ she says. ‘Writing historical non-fiction, of course, requires a great deal of research – reading online, naturally, but I’ll often have a printed book to read by my bedside, so in that respect, my research doesn’t quite end when I leave the desk. ‘I’m not a night owl, in the strictest sense so my writing day, as such, is more similar to a 9-5 routine than you might find with some writers. As a former journalist, working mainly from home for many years, the discipline required…

Excavating the past It’s taken me a long time to write and publish my debut children’s novel, writes subscriber Elizabeth Barber. Trained as a primary school teacher, later I studied for fiction and non fiction certificates in creative writing and have been tutoring adult creative writing classes in Hertfordshire since 2006. Some years ago, as a hobby, I wrote articles and stories for magazines, but it was a physical object that set me off writing Stone Arrows, my stone age story for middle grade – eight to twelve year olds. I found a small stone age flint flake in my garden and this sent me on a Mesolithic adventure set in the year 7000BCE. I wondered who last held the flint flake and the character of Zeta soon began to…

In December of 2004 my very first Novel Ideas appeared. If my maths is correct it means this will be my 229th Novel Ideas column. When I told the LSO (Long Suffering One) this, I asked, ‘How on earth have I managed to find enough to talk about for all those years?’ ‘You always have plenty to talk about,’ was his reply. I’ll take that as a compliment. When you’re a writer you never know what might happen. Some things take courage. In 1998 I was terrified after answering a small advertisement in Writers’ News asking for tutors. How could I teach others when I was still learning myself? That learning was a life-long thing escaped me. Now, after a quarter-century of tutoring I am still learning. Then in 2004…

When and where did your journey as an author begin? As a child who loved reading books, I knew I wanted to be an author one day. However, it wasn’t until I was much older, having spent nearly a decade working as a local newspaper journalist, that I felt ready to try to create my own fictional world. I finally seized the opportunity to follow my dream when my office was centralised and I decided to leave. I started working on my first novel, and the rest is history. Not that my first attempt was published. It’s still in a drawer. But, fortunately, I had far more success with my second attempt, Time to Say Goodbye, which launched my writing career. What is (or has been) your proudest moment as…

There’s a creative joy in putting meaningful words down on paper. For some, the flow spills directly from the heart, unfettered; it can expose what remains unsaid, what speaks loudest within, and the words rush out as the pen attempts to catch up with innermost thoughts. The story is eventually completed, the writing reaching its natural end, and yet it doesn’t manage to connect with others. Something has become lost along the way. So, when you’re next advised by industry experts to massage this raw material into an altered, potentially more commercial, structure, it can hit hard. With the mention of escalating ‘plot points’, it’s easy to feel this is a cookie-cutter response to a unique, intuitive journey, and an attempt to predict a winning formula in an unpredictable market.…

Creative Mind Writing Competitions 2024 For Creative Mind’s 2024 Writing Competitions, enter short stories up to 900 words and poems up to 40 lines. There are competitions for writing on the environment, and on art and society. The ‘environment’ and ‘art and society’ themes may be explored from any angle. There are prizes of £50, £30 and £20 in each category in both competitions. All entries may be considered for an anthology. The entry fee is £4 or £7 for two and £9 for three pieces. The closing date for the environment competition is 29 January, and the art and society competition closes on March 29 2024. Website: www.creative-mind.co.uk/creative-writing-competitions-2024/ The Elmbridge Literary Competition 2023/24 The 19th Elmbridge Literary Competition from The R C Sherriff Trust and Elmbridge Borough Council is…

Booth Booth is the journal put together by Butler University MFA programme. The editorial staff is comprised of students, faculty, and alumni from the programme. Open to submissions between 1September and 31 May for poetry (1-3 poems), fiction and non-fiction up to 7,500 words, comics, lists, and audio files. Payment is US$50 via PayPal. Website: https://booth.butler.edu Air/Light Air/Light is an online literary journal published by the English Department at the University of Southern California. It’s open to submissions from 1 September to 1 December and 1 March to 1 June 2024. Submit non-fiction in the form of personal essays, critical essays, memoir, diaries, letters, reviews, reportage, travel, and interviews. No more than 4,000 words. For fiction all genres and styles are welcomed, no more than 4,000 words. Poetry, fewer than…

The Norwegian writer Jon Fosse has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for his innovative plays and prose, which give voice to the unsayable,’ writes Gary Dalkin. His most recent work is the Septology sequence of novels, with earlier titles including Olav’s Dreams, Wakefulness and The Bottle-Collector. The monetary value of the Nobel Prize this year was 11 million Swedish Krona, or approximately £821,000. Fosse told Norwegian public radio that he was ‘surprised but also not,’ having ‘been part of the discussion for 10 years and have more and less tentatively prepared myself that this could happen.’ In a prepared statement he wrote, ‘I am overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened. I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other…

Published by Warners Group Publications plc West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH Main office: 0113 200 2929 Subscriptions: 01778 392 482 Advertising: 0113 200 2925 Publisher: Collette Lloyd, email: collette.lloyd@warnersgroup.co.uk Content editor: Tina Jackson, email: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk Senior designer: Nathan Ward, email: nathanw@warnersgroup.co.uk Designer: Mary Ward, email: maryw@warnersgroup.co.uk Marketing: Collette Lloyd, email: collette. lloyd@warnersgroup.co.uk Advertising sales manager: Mark Dean, email:mark.dean@warnersgroup.co.uk Subscriptions: writingmagazine@warnersgroup.co.uk Typeset by: Warners Group Publications plc, West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH Printed by: Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH Distribution: Nikki Munton, email: nikkim@warnersgroup.co.uk, tel: 01778 391171 Warners Group Publications plc,West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH…

Ready to have the first 300 words of your manuscript critiqued? Contact tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk for details Retired design engineer Robin Downs has recently rekindled a childhood passion to write. A natural storyteller and with many short stories beneath his amateur belt, he has started a challenging new project. Potion Blue is his first novel, inspired by a love of all things mystical. Warm contentment permeates every inch of my body,1 as the fervid beating in my chest2 slows to a tranquil pace.3 Sinking slowly from the peak of climax4 into a pool of blissful endorphins,5 my senses bathe6 in the heavenly afterglow.7 Snug within tightly drawn bedclothes,8 my nose the only victim to the icy room,9 I observe10 exhaled breath11 pass the soft red glow that halos my alarmclock.12 6.30 am.13…

It’s hard to pinpoint when and how inspiration strikes for a novel, but I know exactly when it did for The Detective. The Waiter and The Cook were the first two books in my Kamil Rahman thriller series about a disgraced policeman from Kolkata who comes to work in a Brick Lane curry house. It was great fun to write this fish-out-of-water character, solving murders with his housemate Anjoli, while working as a waiter and then a chef at her dad’s restaurant. I had an arc for Kamil which meant by the third book I would have him working his dream job in the Met Police while struggling with his unrequited love for Anjoli. I knew the East End setting with its eclectic environs was almost a character in itself,…

THE PRETENCE OF PRE-ORDERING Now available for pre-order. You may have seen the phrase online so often you don’t stop to think about what a nonsense it is. First, it begins with a deception – ‘now available’. No, it isn’t. Which is the whole point of the second part – ‘pre-order’. If the thing was available you wouldn’t, by definition, need to ‘pre-order’ it. You could order it and it would be despatched. When a company uses the phrase ‘now available for pre-order’ the retailer is encouraging advance orders using a linguistic sleight-of-hand which tries to give the false impression that the product is ready to ship. Then we come to ‘pre-order’. What does this even mean? You either order something or you don’t, but ‘pre-order’ implies an intermediary step…

Stephanie Glencross joined David Higham Associates in 2018. Previously, she was an editor at Gregory & Company and edited award-winning novelists like Val McDermid, Minette Walters, and Tan Twan Eng. Her list includes crime and thriller genres, like police procedurals, psychological thrillers, and courtroom dramas. She’s always on the lookout for novels that deliver a new twist on the way crime and thriller stories are told. What is it about the crime and thriller genre that you enjoy so much? It provides many elements that appeal to me as a reader: firstly, a huge variety within the genre itself – it offers novels from spy/espionage to police procedurals to intricate, clever puzzling mysteries to domestic noir to psychological suspense to action thrillers… and increasingly to novels that don’t fit neatly in…

American Short Fiction American Short Fiction has no set guidelines as to content or length, but insists that ‘anyone wishing to send a story to American Short Fiction should first become familiar with the work previously published by the magazine.’ There are samples at the website. It runs three prestigious competitions each year as well as three issues of the magazine, and is open to subs until the end of December. Submit short modern literary fiction. It must be original and unpublished. Despite the name international submissions are welcomed. Payment ‘is competitive’ for first rights. Website: https://americanshortfiction.org Brilliant Corners Brilliant Corners is devoted to focusing on jazz-related literature, publishing ‘a great range of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction’ written around jazz. It accepts postal submissions only between 1 September and 1…

Arvon grants With its residential and online courses, Arvon has been offering a home to creative writing for over 50 years and has a system of Low Income Grants and Concessions for UK residents who need financial help to pay the fees, writes Jenny Roche. For writers who are deaf and/or disabled or have any additional living/support costs, this will be taken into consideration when you submit your application. Grants for the full, or part payment, of one residential course per year are available and this will include tuition, food and accommodation costs. There is no assistance for travel costs to a course. After receipt of notification of a Grant a minimum deposit payment is required within seven days. Concessions are available for 50% of an online course and 30%…

CWA Debut Dagger 2024 The CWA’s prestigious annual prize for unpublished crime writers is inviting entries. The Debut Dagger is for unpublished, unagented crime writers looking for agent representation and a publishing contract. The winner receives £500. Writers entering the competition must be unagented, and must never have had a publishing contract for a novel of any kind. They must not have self-published their entry, or any piece of writing of more than 20,000 within five years of the closing date. To enter, submit the first 3,000 words of the crime novel manuscript and a synopsis up to 1,500 words. The entry fee is £42. The closing date is 29 February 2024. Website: www.thecwa.co.uk/awards-andcompetitions/the-daggers/debut-dagger/ Discoveries 2024 The writer development programme from The Women’s Prize Trust is inviting entries from aspiring…

The Prolitzer Prize for Prose Prole Books are inviting entries for their 2024 Prolitzer Prize for Prose competition, which is for fiction or creative non-fiction on any subject that engages, challenges and entertains the reader. The maximum word count is 2,500.The first prize is £200 and two runners up will each get £50. Winners will be published in Prole 35. This year’s judge is Dave Wakely. The entry fee is £5, and £3 for any subsequent entries. The closing date is 21 January 2024. Website: www.prolebooks.co.uk/competitions.html The Rubery Book Award 2024 The annual international prize is for books by indie and self-published writers and independent presses. The winner of the book of the year category will receive £2,000, with £200 for each category winner. All entries must be books that…

1 Eligibility All entries must be the original and unpublished work of the entrant, and not currently submitted for publication nor for any other competition or award. Each entry must be accompanied by an entry form, printed here (photocopies are acceptable), unless stated. Open Competitions are open to any writer, who can submit as many entries as they choose. Entry fees are £7.50, £6 for subscribers. Subscriber-only Competitions are open only to subscribers of Writing Magazine. Entry is free but you can only submit one entry per competition. 2 Entry Fees Cheques or postal orders should be payable to Warners Group Publications or you can pay by credit card (see form). 3 Manuscripts Short stories: Entries must be typed in double spacing on single sides of A4 paper with a…

I stumbled over an interesting debate on the social-mediasite-formerly-known-as-Twitter the other day. An author had signed a 10+ book contract with their publisher and was celebrating. But among the remarks of ‘congratulations’ and ‘well done!’ was the comment ‘surely writing so many books will affect the quality of writing?’ Anyone who’s social media savvy will know that snide comments are often par for the course. Sometimes they are misguided. Other times they hit the nail on the head. This one got me thinking: when does quantity start to affect quality? I’m signed up for three books a year, and I’ll be honest, there have been times when I’ve wondered whether I’ve bitten off more than I can chew – when edits come in and I’m working on a manuscript, or…

Although crime writer Elly Griffiths brought her much-loved Dr Ruth Galloway series to a close with The Last Remains at the beginning of this year (‘for now’, she has said), contrary to some reports she has very much not stopped writing. Elly’s a prolific author, having published four books under her real name, Domenica de Rosa, before writing as Elly Griffiths: the Dr Ruth Galloway titles, the Harbinder Kaur series, The Justice Jones series for children, standalones and the other series for which the bestselling author is particularly known, the Brighton Mysteries. The Great Deceiver, the seventh in that series, was published at the end of October, and Elly has plans for more. ‘I still think I might write a book that wasn’t crime but then I get an idea…

I always wanted to write a novel, but had pegged it for my retirement. There was no time, so I contented myself with working in a creative industry and making the most of the opportunities which came with that. In my field of factual television there was writing – plenty of it – in briefs and research notes, scripts and pitches. I’d even started to dip my toe into the realm of scripted television, helping re-work foreign dramas for a British audience. It fuelled my desire to write creatively, but life got in the way, until the pandemic came along. Now, to be very clear, I did not spend Lockdown One crafting my first novel. I wish I could have been that cliché, but I was working full time from…

Stories with ‘double acts’ are hugely popular with young readers and publishers. There are many books – and series – in existence which focus predominantly on the dynamic between two characters. These are particularly found at the younger age of the fiction market, in picture books and chapter books. WHY FEATURE FEWER CHARACTERS? • Key characters Having a smaller ‘cast’ to keep track of can help prevent younger readers from becoming overwhelmed, especially if they are new to reading more complicated stories. Even if there are further background characters who appear at some point in the story, if two are pushed to the fore, and occupy the most time on the page, it can make stories more accessible. Equally, when you have two well-created characters who have a strong dynamic…

Vox pop Vox is a major US-based general interest website which covers everything from culture to politics, technology to science and health, writes Gary Dalkin. They accept freelance pitches for stories (usually between 1000-2500 words) for the following sections: World: stories about what’s happening around the globe and how the world is changing. Stories should focus on some aspect of geopolitics, which could be little-known events in a particular country, or a wider network of interconnections on a global level. Email: world@vox.com. Future Perfect: covers the world’s biggest, most neglected moral and technological problems, and the philosophical debates around how to do the most good. The section includes everything global poverty to animal welfare, artificial intelligence and biotechnology, philanthropy and altruism. Pitch section editor Marina Bolotnikova bolotnikova@vox.com The section has…

BBC Writersroom Open Call The BBC’s next Open Call for scripts will be open from 7 November 2023 to 5 December for submissions of drama and comedy/drama scripts written for film, TV, radio, stage, online or children’s TV/radio, writes Jenny Roche. They are not necessarily looking for scripts to be produced, although this may be considered. The basic idea behind the call is to identify writers who have a talent which can be developed. You must be over the age of 18 years and reside in the UK or Republic of Ireland to submit. Scripts must be written in English. What is being sought is writers with a distinctive voice, a good sense of storytelling and structure, engaging believable dialogue and good character creations in a ‘page turning’ script. Submit…

Ringwood Short Story Competition 2023 The competition from Ringwood Publishing is for writers with a connection to Scotland. The Ringwood 2023 Short Story Competition is an inclusive contest for stories from up-and-coming writers from all walks of life. It’s open to writers based or formerly resident in Scotland, or who identify as Scottish. The winner will receive £100 and the winning story, and up to two others, will be published online. The Leela Some Prize (£50) will be awarded to the best entry by a writer of colour with a Scottish connection, and the Grant Muir Prize (£50) will be awarded to the best entry by a Ringwood intern, member of staff or author. Enter original, unpublished short fiction up to 3,000 words. The entry fee is £2 per story.…

Cambrian Mountains Poetry Competition 2023 The competition is for poems that illustrate a geographical, spiritual, ecological or personal experience of uplands. Poems may be entered in English or Welsh and should be no longer than 40 lines. The prizes are: best Welsh poem, £150, £20 book token; best English poem, £150, £20 book token; best poem from a contributor resident in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion or Powys, £100, £10 book token. Entry is free for Cambrian Mountain Society members. For nonmembers it’s £3.50 for one, £6 for two and £8 for three. The closing date is 30 November. Website: www.cambrian-mountains.co.uk/ The Moth Poetry Prize 2023 Win a €6,000 first prize in the annual contest from Ireland’s Moth magazine. The Moth Poetry Prize is an annual competition that is one of the world’s…

The Stinging Fly The Stinging Fly is an independent, not-for-profit Irish literary magazine with a mission to seek out, nurture, publish and promote the very best new writers and new writing, writes Gary Dalkin. The title is published each summer and winter as an approximately 240-page book and is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary. Some content also appears on the website. Each issue features new, previously unpublished work by Irish and international writers, including a mix of poetry, short stories, and nonfiction, occasional author interviews and novel extracts. The editorial team led by novelist Lisa McInerney (The Glorious Heresies) are always excited to read new writers and strongly encourage submissions by writers from underrepresented areas of society. The next submission period is from 13 November until midnight Irish time on…

From the OTHER SIDE OF THE DESK The old warning that there is no such thing as a free lunch does not in my view go far enough. I recently had the experience of a client passing on some business to me, a couple where the wife had written a series of self-published books which for reasons I won’t go into a major publishing house was now interested in acquiring. From the off I should have been wary. The husband took such an interest in his wife’s affairs that I was barely able to speak to her at all, to a degree that made me feel uncomfortable, but the husband had been the CEO of a major business and clearly felt that entitled him to handle his wife’s business affairs.…

Damien was born, and shortly after that he developed an unwavering love of fantasy and the supernatural. He has short stories published across numerous anthologies and magazines, and is very grateful to anyone who has read and enjoyed them. He is currently working on selfpublishing his first novel. He is fond of corvids and, contrary to rumour, is currently the oldest he has ever been. Michael’s Camera – 20:47 Twigs snap and crack. The camera tilts, looks up into darkness, pans forward again. “Guys!” Michael shouts. The pool of light from the camera illuminates a thick woodland, path crisscrossed with branches. There is no depth; the woods eat up the light and create a pool of darkness around the scene. “Where is everyone?” Michael mutters. “So, I’m in Wayfarer’s Woods.”…