The world of writing

Supporting, commemorating, challenging, mocking or ranting – anything goes in the wonderful world of writing

A WORD TO THE UNWISE

Which linguistic abuses or mispronounciations (yes, we know)

LETTERS

STAR LETTER Simple and effective I very much

Editorial calendar

Strong forward planning will greatly improve your chances with freelance submissions. Here are some themes to consider for the coming months

Cut the hassle

Make yourself easy for editors to deal with, says  Patrick  Forsyth

Novel Ideas

Small moments matter

Widen view

TRAVEL WRITING KNO W-H OW

Second-hand royalties

Martin Reed of the SoA looks at making the most of your writing income with ‘secondary use’ earnings

Clause unsheathed

Piers Blofeld uncovers a contractual matter that highlights an essential difference between authors and publishers

Pressing concerns

Helen Corner-Bryant highlights some of the questions put to her on a panel at the London Book Fair

Recording research findings

Tarja Moles helps you organise your research records

Behind the tape

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

DEFINING memories

How writing her memoir helped Sarah Aspinall reach a better understanding of her mother and their relationship

SARAH’S TOP LIFE-WRITING TIPS

• Don’t ever feel that your life isn’t

Lockdown lit

With a constantly changing situation, many of us will want to make sense of Covid, or life in lockdown, through our writing. We’ve put together some ideas and points to consider

Earwaves

Producing a podcast could mean the birth of your book, just not in the way you expected, suggests Rosalind Moody

What’s best for your book?

Indie author DJ Bowman-Smith discusses the choice between publishing wide, or exclusively with Amazon

Driven to disconnect

Jane Wenham-Jones advises a writer worrying that spending time on social media is getting in the way of completing her novel

Under the covers

The other side of success

Banking on your writing skills

How can writers bring home the bacon? Margaret James has some useful suggestions for generating income from writing

I wish I’d known

‘The biggest regret I have is that I

COVERING UP

When it comes to book covers, is DIY worthwhile, or should you commission an expert? Simon Whaley explores the options, with insights gleaned from working with a professional

THE EGO-BUSTERS

Lorraine Mace finds she’s not the only writer whose friends and family seem determined to prick her balloon

POLISHED Gems

Tense and intense, Lisa Jewell’s novels are a masterclass in domestic noir. Tina Jackson finds out how she writes them

Imran Mahmood

The author and practicing barrister describes how the story he absolutely had to tell about justice became his debut novel, and a BBC/Netflix drama

Shelf life

The multi-award winning sports author Duncan Hamilton shares the books that get his top scores

DUNCAN HAMILTON

Duncan Hamilton is a three-time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. His novel, Injury Time, is published by riverrun this month

CIRCLES’ ROUNDUP

If your writing group would like to feature here, whether you need new members, have an event to publicise or to suggest tips for other groups, email Tina Jackson, tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

SUBSCRIBER NEWS

Local books for local buildings ‘I have just

Jeevani Charika

Margaret James talks to the author about juggling two different writing identities

Rebecca Schiller

The author tells Lynne Hackles about writing her memoir during lockdown and through a breakdown

A job well done

Treat writing as a craft so you don’t leave work unfinished or incomplete, says Adrian Magson

Your writing critiqued

Author James McCreet is impressed by some prose from second-century North-African Christian theologian Tertullian

A stroke of luck

Helen M Walters uses a short story by Mark Twain to explore incorporating luck in your creative writing

TRUE STORIES

Amy Sparkes talks to author Clare Helen Welsh about writing narrative non-fiction picture books

THE ROOTS OF HORROR

Alex Davis looks at what writers can learn from the genesis of the genre

Just passin’ through

FIRST PLACE £200 Having been in the print

Never Lonely

Read the judges’ comments at http://writ.rs/ wmsep21 Tracey-Anne

MAKE DO AND MEND

We’ve all got discarded scraps of writing. Patch it up in these writing group exercises from Julie Phillips

Don’t dilly dally

You won’t want to put off Jenny Alexander’s procrastination-related creative writing exercises

Today Will Be A Good Day

WINNER £100 FIRST PLACE Sara Parkinson ‘T ODAY

Lingering memories

Alison Chisholm explores the way a longer memoir poem conveys the past

Poetry in practice

Look close to home for ideas for your next poem, suggests  Doris  Corti

Love to write romance

Win a publishing deal in the Love to

SF winners

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the winners

Child’s play

The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2021 is inviting

GLOBAL NON-FICTION MARKET

Chronicle Books

Turf out your bottom drawer

The Totally Free Best of the Bottom Drawer

Be more Morley

The Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour

Look Both Ways to get a Carnegie Medal

The 2021 CILIP Carnegie Medal for best children’s

FLASHES

The Adventures in Fiction New Voices Competition awards

GLOBAL NON-FICTION MARKET

Excite with science

Have the edge here

Publishing writers from around the world, Leading Edge

Welsh crime writers, get clued up

The Crime Cymru First Novel Prize from Crime

Daggers drawn

The CWA Dagger 2021 winners were announced at

UK BOOK MARKET

Ride the punches with Guts

FLASHES

Word-of-mouth recommendation app Chorus Voices invites submissions of

UK ENVIRONMENTAL MARKET

Reckoning awaits

It’s all Greek

Win a holiday in Greece in the international

Have your play published

Publishing plays from writers around the world, Ilminster,

UK ARTS MARKET

Brevity important

Dream Foundry calls for specfic beginners

The Dream Foundry is a US non-profit organisation

Competition matters

The 2021 Exeter Story Prize and Trisha Ashley

FLASHES

Marking the fifteenth anniversary of Muriel Spark’s death,

More fool poets

There is a first prize of €1,000 and

UK BOOK MARKET

A labour of love

GLOBAL NON- FICTION MARKET

Brewing up ideas

Question sanity

The ‘Sanity’ contest from literary journal MONO has

Mass appeal

En Bloc is a British magazine publishing fiction,

A new Twist

The Charles Dickens Museum, located in the author’s

GLOBAL BOOK MARKET

Owl Hollow Press

New horizons

This year’s Horizons competition from Save As Writers

FLASHES

The Indigo International Wild Nature Poetry Award 2021

UK MAGAZINE MARKET

Consciously writing

UK CHILDREN’S MARKET

Maverick Books for children

Positive steps for poetry

A ‘Poems for Positivity’ interactive walking trail has

INTRODUCTIONS

Writing Magazine presents a selection of current submission calls from hobby publishers. We strongly recommend that you read back issues, familiarise yourself with their guidelines before submitting and check websites for submission details

GLOBAL NON-FICTION MARKET

Chicken calls

FLASHES

This year’s Beechmore Books contest is for creative

GLOBAL BOOK MARKET

Team work

US MAGAZINE MARKET

Laughter is the best medicine

Let’s get digital

The 2021 New Media Writing Prize is inviting

UK BOOK MARKET

Diversity matters

Advice for an alien

Oliver Jeffers announced the winners of Transform Trust’s

FLASHES

Periscope Literary is holding a Flash Fiction Competition

GLOBAL AGENCY MARKET

Find the right group

GLOBAL LITERARY MARKET

Coffee time

Help for writers

If you have had at least two works

A very big win

US author Susan Choi has won the £30,000

INTERNATIONAL

ZINE SCENE

FLASHES

The Wild Atlantic Writing Award has a €1,000

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL MARKET

The environment for all

GLOBAL HORROR MARKET

Things that go bump

Another Interview with the Vampire

Formerly the basis of a 1994 blockbuster cinema

GLOBAL SPECFIC MARKET

Find the right blend

Storytellers crossing formats

The Storyteller Series is a podcast with a

WM writers give freely

When This Is All Over, a charity anthology

FLASHES

The Lancaster One Minute Monologue competition invites entries

UK LITERARY MARKET

Eyes on the flies