Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Writing Magazine

Character is destiny, right? It certainly is when it comes to writing. If you can conjure characters and bring them to life on the page, not only will they create their own dramas, but readers will relate to them, invest in them, and follow their stories. With so much at stake, being able to write characters is one of the most essential aspects of a writer’s toolkit, which is why in this month’s issue, we’ve asked some brilliant novelists to examine thought-provoking aspects of character creation. You won’t want to miss the insights from Rupert Dastur, Sairish Hussain and Holly Watt on how to get to know your characters (p4), create characters with differing perspectives (p6) and write the characters readers love to hate (p8). Character can be destiny, too,…

PARTY LINES Writing a thriller involving a murderous MP can be a tricky business, writes subscriber Brian Price. If you assign your villain to one particular political party, its members may turn on you, accusing you of being either a right-wing fanatic or a dangerous lefty. Making a villain too similar to a prominent political figure could also attract claims of bias – although Mick Herron, in his Slow Horses books, portrays a rising politician who bears an uncanny resemblance to a recent Prime Minister and seems to have got away with it. In my books I am scrupulous not to identify my politicians’ allegiances. Readers may draw inferences, from the social milieu in which the characters move and their attitudes, about which party they belong to but, in Britain…

John Baker is an agent passionate about science fiction, fantasy, and horror, which is why he’s also interested in the genre-blurring speculative fiction. In October 2024, he secured a world English-language rights deal with publishers Angry Robot for Stewart Hotson’s new novel Project Hanuman, which blends Indian mythology with space opera. As an agent at Bell Lomax Moreton, he also leads the agency’s film and TV work, and he’s currently the secretary of the Association of Authors’ Agents. His list of authors includes Gavin Smith, Kenechi Udogo, AM Shine, SA MacLean, as well as Stewart Hotson. He’s particularly keen to hear from underrepresented writers, neurodiverse authors, and anyone writing for adult, new adult, and young adult readers with an exciting story to tell. What is it about being a literary…

Burial Books Burial Books publishes primarily horror and dark fantasy books, writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. The team’s imprints, Howdy Dude Paperbacks and Clones & Clones Books, publish science fiction, westerns, crime fiction, and fantasy books. Currently the team are open to ‘spooky stuff’. Howdy Dude Paperbacks is also open to submissions of a range of short stories. The editorial team at Burial Books will open shortly for novellas but currently seek short stories for two anthologies. No reprints, multiple or simultaneous submissions please. One as yet untitled anthology is a sword and sorcery fantasy and the team want stories between 2,000 and 6,000 words. The deadline is 1 October. The science fiction anthology needs pure SF stories, between 2,000 and 8,000 words. The deadline is 1 August. Payment is US$10 for…

Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize The longlist for the world’s largest and most prestigious literary prize for young writers – the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize – has been announced, and includes authors from the UK, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Palestine, writes Gary Dalkin. Comprising eight novels, two short story collections and two poetry collections, the longlist is: Mosab Abu Toha, Forest of Noise – poetry collection (Palestinian); Emma Glass, Mrs Jekyll – novel (British); Jo Hamya, The Hypocrite – novel (British); Seán Hewitt, Rapture’s Road – poetry collection (British-Irish); Ferdia Lennon, Glorious Exploits – novel (Irish); Andrew McMillan, Pity – novel (British); Lottie Mills, Monstrum – short story collection (British); Ruthvika Rao, The Fertile Earth – novel (Indian); Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep – novel (Dutch); Rebecca…

The Plaza Flash Fiction Prize 2025 Enter flash fiction in any style or form up to 1,000 words. There are prizes of £1,000, £300 and £100, and the ten shortlisted poems will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 3. The judge is Barbara Black. The entry fee is £10 for the first entry, and £8 for any subsequent entries. The closing date is 31 March. https://theplazaprizes.com/competition/the-plaza-flash-fiction-prize/ The Plaza Short Story Prize 2025 The Plaza Short Story Prize is inviting entries of original, unpublished short stories up to 5,000 words. There is a first prize of £4,000 and second and third prizes of £300 and £100. The top ten shortlisted entries will be published in the Plaza Prizes Anthology 3, which will be launched at the awards ceremony in 2025.…

Dialogue Earth Dialogue Earth is a London-based independent non-profit dedicated to producing exceptional environmental journalism on urgent climate and sustainability topics, writes Gary Dalkin. The platform has a network of specialist country editors located across South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, and seeks to offer even-handed reporting and constructive dialogue on crucial debates, as well as exploring possible solutions to complex problems. The extensive editorial team welcomes pitches for articles between 1,000 and 1,500 words from journalists and experts on, but not limited to the following topics: climate, business, pollution, energy, nature, food, oceans, forests, justice, and water. They also require region-specific stories, for which see the full guidelines. They work with writers to develop stories, and do not accept pre-written pieces. Send a brief initial outline of…

Anyone who believes that free verse is the easy option in writing poetry needs to think again. A rhymed, metrical poem that works technically has already ticked half the boxes. The fact that it is, indeed, a poem is indisputable. A free verse poem, even nowadays, struggles to establish itself as poetry rather than chopped up prose arranged in lines, by means of subtle but recognisable rhythms and slant rhymes, figurative language, carefully structured lineation, and that indefinable essence of poetry. Both have to communicate content that makes the reader sigh, gasp, whoop with joy, or sit back with the satisfied smile of one who has just read something mindblowing. A very simple test for the poetic quality of free verse is to write the words of the poem in…

WIN! £1950 IN CASH PRIZES & PUBLICATION www.writers-online.co.uk/writing-competitions Writing Competitions, Writing Magazine, Warners Group Publications Ltd, West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH OPEN UNEXPECTED TALES Enter stories in any genre between 1,500 and 1,700 words featuring a twist, coincidence or surprise, or where a chance happening plays a significant part. Prizes: £200, £50. The winner will be published in WM Oct and the runner up will be published online. Closing date: 15 May Entry fee: £7.50/£6 subscribers Ref code: WRO/April25/unexpected WIN YOUR WAY TO SWANWICK Win sponsored places at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School with writing on the theme of ‘Horizons’. The second prize in each category is a £100 School Gift Card and the third prize is a copy of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2025. Enter fiction up to…

I have written for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would sit on the floor with a biro and A4 pad and write until my hand hurt. I used to love the smell of biro and the way the words made the paper crinkle. I also used to write poems, and make stapled ‘anthologies’ and rhyming books for friends’ birthdays. Stories are a key driver for me: I have always read widely and obsessively. I once overheard my Dad telling my Mum that I needed to live more in the ‘real’ world. I was incredibly lucky that he made up bedtime stories though, and I am grateful to my parents for nurturing my love of reading. Even though I loved writing as a child, I stopped…

STAR LETTER RAGE AGAINST THE AI MACHINE I very much enjoyed (ironic, considering how much I’m against AI) your feature How to write better than AI, by Douglas McPherson (WM March) As if having writer’s block, dealing with rejections from publishers and becoming disillusioned with writing in general weren’t enough for would-be writers to contend with. Now the sadly inevitable proliferation of AI can be added to the list. This is technology which – if allowed to do so – will indisputably lead to the eventual extinction of human writers. In the not-too-distant future, stories conceived and penned by flesh-and-blood authors will no longer be required. The losers will be human writers, and those human readers who want their connection with writers to be solely and uniquely human; the winners…

When and where did your journey as an author begin? I got my first job in journalism in my twenties and worked my way around different newspapers (the Guardian, Independent and Daily Mail) and magazines (Glamour and Brides). I think the idea to write a book was probably bubbling away somewhere beneath the surface, but it felt like a huge stretch from writing 500-word news reports. What is (or has been) your proudest moment as a writer? Landing a six-figure double book deal in the US. The night I got the news I was out with a friend. The offers started to come though on email from my US agent just as we were heading into a live literary talk together. I couldn’t check my phone again and it was an…

The term interactive fiction is these days probably most applied to video games – the medium so often involves stories that are not linear tales. Rather than moving from A to B, we may start out at A but the many narrative possibilities in front of us give us the chance to finish at C, D or even Z if we take the right path. Our controller, our mouse or our keyboard give us control of key character decisions, allowing us to inhabit a protagonist and guide their route. But video games are not the only way that we can tell interactive stories – and in this article we’re going to explore some of its history, the opportunities out there for writers and some advice on approaching the medium. Early…

If you have a query for Lisa, please send it by email to lisacuttsenquiries@gmail.com Q My main character’s (ex) best friend made her way into the main character’s home, verbally and physically attacked her and then caused a lot of damage to her property. The main character leaves and reports this behaviour to 101, not thinking anything will be done as she’s not in danger. The neighbourhood police then arrive at the scene and after a brief chat, take the ex-best friend away in the police car to the police station. 1. As the ex-best friend is known to main character, would the police contact the main character who reported the behaviour to say police have been to the scene and have now brought the ex-best friend in? 2. Would…

SAVE UK CREATIVES FROM SCRAPING In January the prime minister, Keir Starmer, launched the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, writes Gary Dalkin. Companies have already committed £14 billion towards AI initiatives, with the intent being focused on 50 recommendations made by the government’s AI adviser, Matt Clifford, centred on supporting the development of artificial intelligence to deliver public services. Starmer said AI ‘will drive incredible change’ with ‘the potential to transform the lives of working people’, adding that ‘We’re going to make AI work for everyone in our country.’ Except perhaps, creative people, because in the drive to make the UK an AI ‘superpower’, the onus looks set to be on companies and individuals to opt out of having their work or data scraped from the internet and used for…

The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2025 Applications are invited on this year’s theme, which is ‘Fear’. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash grant. Second and third place runners up receive £1,000. To enter, send original, unpublished writing on the theme, no longer than 1,250 words. The word count has been reduced from previous years. Entries may be in any genre, including fiction, non-fiction and academic work. Entry is free. Each writer may send one entry. The closing date is 1 April. Website: https://alpinefellowship.com/writing-prize Creative Future Writers’ Award 2025 The theme for this year’s award for underrepresented writers is ‘Wild’. The free-entry Creative Futures Award for underrepresented writers in the UK is in three categories: poetry up to 50 lines; fiction up to 2,000 words; creative non-fiction up to 2,000…

The Bath Novel Award 2025 The international Bath Novel Award for emerging writers is inviting entries of manuscripts aimed at adult and young adult readers by unagented writers who are unpublished, self published or independently published. The winner will receive £5,000 and one longlistee will be awarded a place worth £1,980 on the online course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way. This year’s judge is literary agent Laura Williams of Greene & Heaton. To enter, send the first 5,000 words and a one-page synopsis of an unpublished, independently published or self-published novel. Writers entering the competition must not have received an offer of publication with advance for the submitted novel. The entry fee is £29.99 per novel. Sponsored places are available for writers on a low income. The closing date…

Christmas Spirits Christmas Spirits is a literary magazine with an editorial team who love Christmas stories, especially ghost stories, writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. Currently they seek ‘unpublished ghost stories suitable for sharing around the fire during holiday celebrations.’ Writers are free to set the story anywhere but must be in ‘winter, the winter holidays, or framed by them.’ Give the team ‘stories with a ghostly aesthetic: Cobwebs tangled with tinsel, atmospheric scares, winter chills of the spectral kind.’ No AI-generated manuscripts or AI-generated art. Christmas Spirits is open to stories, between 1,000 and 5,000 words until 15 March. Flash fiction and spooky poetry are welcome. Include a brief third-person biography under 100 words and a blurb describing the work. Payment: US$50 and a copy. Website: https://christmasspirits.org Remains Remains is a new high…

He made me his Queen,crowned me with jewelled holly,laid a necklet of wood-sorreland sweet anemones around my throat. His soft moss lips pressed plushonto my own, his silverbirch-bark skin scratchedagainst my cheek. He waltzed me across a dancefloorof fallen leaves, beech and hornbeamlike sprung parquet underfoot.He lifted me to his bed of ash boughs. He gave me a rill of stream water to drink,the tang of soil ferrous on my tongue.Finally, he placed a bitter acorn in my mouth.I lapped it against my palate but would not bite. The leaves and grassshivered at his fury. The birds sang silent.I left the woods, alone,with my cobweb heart intact.…

With any kind of non-fiction, it can be difficult to decide, from all the information you have available, what should go in and what should be left out, but when you are telling stories from real life – creative non-fiction – that task becomes even harder because your source material is vast and complicated. You know too much. Having decided the story you want to tell, it’s all too easy to stray from the narrative path into interesting digressions where you risk losing the reader or to slow the pace by getting bogged down in too much detail and description. For these reasons, when it comes to redrafting, you may have to be particularly brutal in killing your darlings. ‘Killing your darlings’ means cutting any irrelevant material, from words and…

‘Where are you?’ asked the Long Suffering One. ‘What are you staring at?’ I can stare into space and see nothing but that’s not an answer so I told him I’d been called back to the mothership. Now, after reading even more stuff about being mindful, I consciously stare at things like the sky, or a bird flying, or the long grass swaying, and try to describe them in words. On a good day I’ll write down the description in a notebook. On days they’re not written down, they’re forgotten, like those brilliant ideas that arrive in the early hours. The LSO asks if I’m OK when he sees me staring at a book. The pages are open but haven’t been turned over for a while, and he knows how…

‘We’re going on a cruise on Windermere,’ said Bethany. ‘Anybody else want to come?’ I watched several of my writing group friends frown and look at each other. This was the first full day of our group’s annual retreat and, for some of them, it was their first writing retreat. ‘I thought we were supposed to spend the entire weekend writing,’ said Tracy, one of the new retreaters. She shut her laptop and grabbed her coat. I couldn’t help but smile. ‘Topping up the creative well is just as important, if not more,’ I explained. ‘After all, with no inspiration, where do we get our ideas?’ Sounds like a procrastinator’s dream to me!’ Tracy winked as she left with the others for the morning two-hour boat trip. When it comes…

Q Is it better to plan out my story or dive in and discover it as I write? A A lot of ink has been spilled over whether diving in is the best approach as it feels right, for some, to channel the muse as it comes and to follow wherever it takes you. Authors often resist story plans and adopt the ‘by the seat of your pants’ technique whereby they jump straight in, excited at the germ of a story that won’t leave their thoughts. Planners, in contrast, make meticulous notes and write background profiles or biographies on their characters before attempting a first draft, a stark contrast to the improvisors out there. Some authors feel overplanning can be the equivalent to overthinking and that some of the organic quality…

Blue Marble Review Blue Marble Review is an online literary journal which only publishes work from young writers, 13 to 22 years old. Poetry, fiction, personal essays, travel stories, and opinion pieces as well as art and photography from young writer are welcomed. Submit fiction, in the form of flash, short stories, or hybrid forms, no more than 1,500 words, non-fiction no more than 1,500 words please and one to three poems. Payment is US$30 for prose. Website: https://bluemarblereview.com Guernica The editorial team at Guernica focus upon the intersection of arts and politics, publishing ‘memoir, reporting, interviews, commentary, poetry, fiction, and multimedia journalism’. Submit fiction and non-fiction, 2,000 to 7,000 words, and poetry. Website: www.guernicamag.com/ Raising Mothers Raising Mothers publishes ‘experimental and traditional fiction, micro and flash, creative nonfiction, interviews,…

Feral House US independent press Feral House was founded in 1989 and aims to publish thought-provoking nonfiction, including work by and about members of marginalized communities, writes Gary Dalkin. Feral House accepts unagented submissions, and the team of editors is interested in: Memoir, biography, music, history, self-reliance, realpolitik, criminal justice, mysticism & occult, children and food. Launched in 2005, Process Media Inc. is an imprint of Feral House that focuses on artistic, new-age, and self-reliance themes. Send your enquiry to info@feralhouse.com. Include: a one-page full description of your book and explain why it’s compelling and interesting; table of contents; total word count; chapter outline with a one or two sentence summary of each chapter; sample chapter (this doesn’t have to be the first chapter); a short autobiography and explanation why…

Ver Poets Open Poetry Competition 2025 The annual contest from Ver Poets is inviting entries of original, unpublished poems in any form and on any subject, up to 30 lines. The prizes are £600, £300 and £100. Winning and selected poems will be published in an anthology. This year’s judge is Rory Waterman. The entry fee is £4 per poem or three for £10 and £3 per poem thereafter. The closing date is 30 April. Website. https://verpoets.wixsite.com/verpoets/competitions Wirral Poetry Festival Open Poetry Competition 2025 The Wirral Poetry Festival Open Poetry Competition is inviting entries of original, unpublished poems on any theme up to 40 lines. The first prize is £250 and there are four runners-up prizes of £25. For the Wirral Prizes for entries by Wirral writers, the prizes are…

THOUGHTS ON SELF PUBLISHING WITH Find out more at: www.troubador.co.uk When self-publishing, authors face choices about platforms and services and one of the most common questions we get asked at Troubador is what makes us different from KDP. This article compares the options: a full-service self-publisher such as Troubador compared to a publishing platform such as KDP. Here are six key considerations for making the best decision for your book. 1. Sales channels KDP focuses on Amazon’s platform, offering print-on-demand services. While convenient, this limits distribution to Amazon, making it harder for indie bookstores to stock your book. Publishing with Amazon will usually deter even the most supportive independent bookshop as well – as Amazon is an indie bookshop’s nemesis! Troubador, on the other hand, ensures availability across multiple retailers,…

…to the shops where she searched for suet,jelly crystals, Izal toilet roll,oxtail for broth. …to church wearing her ancient hat,where she hummed tuneless hymns,took money out of the collection plate. …to days by the sea where she cried,talked about her long dead parents,always wanted to paddle. She came with me to choir practicewhere she sat at the back with mint imperials,muttering, twisting a lace-edged hankie until that one day when she stood up,sang Lascia ch’io Pianga in a clear soprano voice.Even the basses wept. I took her to my poetry groupwhere once she tried to recite Cargoesbut got stuck at Quinquireme of Ninevah until that one day when she stood up,recited perfectly The Lake Isle of Innisfree.I cried for the beauty of it. Today I have brought her here,listened to…