DEAR READER

Your writing starts with you. That’s the message

FINDING YOUR VOICE

ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TECHNIQUES

WHAT’S THE big idea?

One of the biggest stopping points for writers is fretting over whether your idea is ‘big’ enough. Author Hattie Crisell, who has inter viewed dozens of writers about their creative approach, believes that the seeds of your best idea are already in you

COLOUR ME IN

Becoming a debut author is never easy, but being a debut author of colour adds extra layers of difficulty to be navigated. Here, two recently published authors and an editor describe what they’ve experienced, and offer their advice

RAISING THE originality STAKES

Keeping readers guessing whilst also immersing them in the reading experience is a fine balancing act. Novelist Ellen Wiles shares her thoughts on giving your work an element of the unexpected

SEEING THROUGH THE SMOKE

The London crime novel is in the best of hands with Dominic Nolan. He tells Tina Jackson about writing the under world in his latest novel, White City

REAL LIFE, great stories

This month, Jenny Alexander invites you to play with different writing templates

relationship

R omantic novelist Katrina Kendrick looks at the intoxicating appeal of the enemies- to- lovers trope

Your writing critiqued

James McCreet applies a forensic micro-critique to the opening of a reader’s long short story

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF CREATIVE WRITING Sound

Learn how to make music with your writing, as author and tutor Ian Ayris explores the sound of the spaces between words

Omens of CHANGE

Announcing a new novel is a wonderful

SCIENCE MATTERS

Alison Chisholm is impressed by a poem that pays tribute to a genius

Lone wolf or pack animal?

Authors have to choose whether to focus on a single protagonist or explore the possibilities of a group, says Margaret James

Five quick questions 5

1. When and where did your journey as

FALL & RISE

Flawed characters make for great fiction. This month, Helen Walters looks at how they might be redeemed, with an example story by Edgar Allan Poe

MAKE IT SHINE: Five ways to polish your middle-grade

Do you want your submission to stand out in the competitive middle-grade field? In the first of a two-parter, Amy Sparkes offers advice on openings and pacing

DIY Dracula

Count Dracula is one of horror’s most iconic characters, appearing in countless incarnations of the undead since Bram Stoker’s classic was published in 1897. Alex Davis looks at updating and adapting The Count in your own fiction

JADE SCOTT

The author of a book about Mary Queen of Scots’ correspondence in captivity tells Lynne Hackles about fitting in writing round her life as an academic

JASMINE ELMER

The classicist and TV personality describes finding her message and following her flow to write her debut work of non-fiction

Puzzle it out

Writing a novel has a lot in common with doing a jigsaw puzzle, say Lynne Hackles

MOLLY GREEN

The saga author provides a timeline of her writing career via five significant books

The world of writing

What goes through a writer’s brain? Readers’ letters and dispatches from the wide world of writing

DEFEND THE BOOKS

Writing on LitbHub, the historian Kenneth C. Davis

OCTOBER IN NOVEMBER

The October Country by Ray Bradbury is

BOOK-BASED BARBIE

The American toy company Mattel produced a limited

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: YOUR WRITING Unexpected

The best writing always has a spark

Subscribers’ news

To feature in Subscribers’ News contact: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

Get the write idea

Explore the dramatic potential of negative people and unhappy situations with these writing prompts

Christmas cheer

Alison Chisholm applauds the winners of WM’s Christmas Competition

KING OF HEARTS

HAPPY ENDINGS

TRANSLATION TRANSACTIONS

Parlez-vous Français? Sprechen sie Deutsch? Could translating your self-published books bring in more readers and cash? Simon Whaley explores the business of translation.

IN-DEPTH interviews

Tarja Moles offers tips to conducting successful inter views as par t of your research process

Behind the tape

Expert advice to get the details right in your crime fiction from serving police officer Lisa Cuttsts

Laura Macdougall

Simon Whaley chats to Laura Macdougall of United Agents about improving LGBTQ+ representation in publishing and what publishers are looking for

Travellers’ tales

Patrick Forsyth offers tips for giving writer’s talks about your travels

Pitch-perfect pacing

Pacing is key to keeping readers engaged with the story you’re telling. Cornerstones’ Monica Chakraverty has advice on varying the tension and getting it right

GET PUBLISHED

You’ve read the advice – now get into print! Find the most up-to-date calls for submissions, writing competitions to enter and publishing opportunities to suit you and your writing in our easy-to-navigate news pages

NON-FICTION OPPORTUNITIES

Today I Found Out Today I found Out

SMALL PRESSES

Broken Sleep Books Broken Sleep Books is a

POETRY COMPETITIONS

The Happiful Poetry Prize 2025 The free-entry competition

INDIE MAGS AND WEBSITES

The Malahat Review The Malahat Review welcomes submissions

SHORT FICTION COMPETITIONS

Anthology Short Story Competition 2025 The international Anthology

NON-FICTION COMPETITIONS

The George Eliot Fellowship Essay Prize 2024 Win

INDEPENDENT PRESSES

Bard Books Bard Books is an independent publisher

Mind the gap

Editors have more to worry about than you, says Patrick Forsyth

NOVEL COMPETITION

Discoveries 2025 The writer development programme from The

BOOK PRIZE

The Rubery Book Award 2025 The annual international

MULTIMEDIA COMPETITION

The New Media Writing Prize 2024-5 The prize

LITMAGS

Bourbon Penn Bourbon Penn is a US

GENERAL NEWS

Hope after Helene In the days after Hurricane

Human relationships

A literary agent can be so much more than just a business operator, says Piers Blofeld