July 2024

Writing Magazine

The BIGGEST and bestselling writing magazine - all your writing needs

Writing Magazine1 min read
Dear Reader
You can do a lot with words, and the contents of this month’s WM are a case in point. Words are transformative: they can change the way people see things. Make things happen. Make money. Make a difference. June is Pride Month, and we’re proud of this
Writing Magazine6 min read
Creative Content
Most writers dream of making a living from their work. Only a tiny proportion do. In fact, barely 19% of published authors earn all of their income from writing according to the Society of Authors. In 2022, a published author’s median earnings were £
Writing Magazine7 min readCrime
Serial Offenders
The series is a cornerstone of crime fiction. Who isn’t tempted, time and time again, to read the next investigation that requires the skills of a favourite detective or PI, and be drawn into their worlds? In this special feature, we’ve rounded up so
Writing Magazine7 min read
A Sense Of Ending
I have a confession. When I first started writing what would eventually (after many, many iterations) become my first novel, Wild Ground, I had no idea what the ending would be. Yes, I had a starting point. Granted, I had a vague sense of where the s
Writing Magazine5 min read
On Message
Imagine this: You’ve just killed someone. You’re the only one who knows the whereabouts of their body. You will do anything to get away with the murder. A big problem is that there’s a phone in the dead man’s pocket, tracking his location. But… but w
Writing Magazine7 min read
DOLL’S HOUSE dynamics
Families, in life and in fiction, are a mine of complexity, drama, and emotion. Erica James, the award-winning author whose uplifting, immensely readable family dramas have made her a repeat bestseller, began writing family dramas when her marriage f
Writing Magazine2 min read
Novel Ideas Dream Not Screen
Do you remember what I said about dreaming time? We should sit and stare into space at least once a day. Daydreaming is good for you. Ideas arrive when you’re not concentrating on anything else. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, sends out an emai
Writing Magazine12 min read
The Long Slow Universe
The first article I have ever written – that I can think of, anyway, that wasn’t for school or a personal project – is this article, right here, and I find I have no idea how to begin. The prompt from the (very lovely) publicist is about as wide as t
Writing Magazine4 min read
Unathi Magubeni
Unathi Magubeni’s debut novel, The Star Child, achieved bestseller status in South Africa in 2019. It has now been translated into English and is published by Legend Press. I asked Unathi about his writing process. ‘It usually starts with flashes of
Writing Magazine5 min read
Emma Bamford
My perimenopausal memory must be totally shot because I can’t for the life of me remember what made me want to write my first manuscript. I’ve always loved to read but, unlike many writers, I don’t recall a childhood dream of becoming an author. The
Writing Magazine3 min read
REAL LIFE, Great Stories
Last month I suggested you make a distinction between you, the author, and you the protagonist in your memoir stories because, with the benefit of hindsight, you are able to portray people (including your younger self) and events in a more nuanced an
Writing Magazine6 min read
Help! I’ve Got A Saggy Middle
Whether you’re writing a short story or novel, you’ll need to spend time ensuring you get your opening paragraphs right. You may even agonise over them, striving for that killer hook. After all, we’re told time and time again how important it is to g
Writing Magazine6 min read
Your Writing Critiqued
Linda Barnsley is a psychotherapist living in Staffordshire. She has written a few short stories, but not had any of them published. She has attended a few workshops in York with Sue Cooper that she found very useful. After retiring from Keele Univer
Writing Magazine5 min read
Jessica Moor
My newest book, Hold Back the Night, came about while we were still living with the dregs of lockdown. We were waiting for our doses of vaccine, every day was groundhog day, and on my daily walks in the park I had started to see ghosts. I don’t mean
Writing Magazine7 min read
The Building Block Of Character: Part ONE
So far, in our meandering through the Building Blocks of Creative Writing, we have taken a look at the Building Block of Structure and the Building Block of Setting. We will now examine another of the fundamental Building Blocks of Creative Writing:
Writing Magazine4 min read
The World Of Writing
I must admit to being a little apprehensive. I’d never attended one of these events before. I’d convinced myself everybody attending would be a far better writer than me and would look down upon me as an imposter trying to worm my way into a circle t
Writing Magazine1 min read
No Full-stop Signs!
North Yorkshire council has decided to stop using punctuation on road signs because geographical databases can’t cope with them, a situation guaranteed to infuriate all writers of sound mind. And one which seems a strange move, given Cambridge’s city
Writing Magazine2 min read
Volumes Of Victory And Truth
To mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the sculptor Hans K Clausen has been having people send him print editions of the novel, aiming for a total of 1984 copies. The volumes will form the foundation
Writing Magazine4 min read
In The Spotlight: Your Writing Faux Memoir
It has been a treat reading the submissions for the call for writing Faux Memoirs. We’ve been delighted with the ingenuity with which the WM writers created imaginary lives and characters, set them into specific historical and/or cultural contexts, a
Writing Magazine6 min read
Subscribers’ News
In the spirit of not burying the lead, I’ll start at the end: three big-name authors liked my book! writes subscriber Yvonne Walus. Karen Dionne, who wrote the number one bestseller The March King’s Daughter (yes, it’s a movie now), kindly provided
Writing Magazine1 min read
We Want Your Writing
Each month in WM, we feature creative writing by our subscribers. Selected pieces will be published in WM and we pay £50 for prose and £25 for poetry, and provide a minicritique explaining what made the pieces stand out to us. This month’s call is in
Writing Magazine3 min read
Get The Write Idea
Explore how these pots will help you germinate new writing. Think about people turning their attention to the plants they’ll be growing in the months ahead. What would you, or a character, do with your pots? What would be planted and how would it nee
Writing Magazine6 min read
A Tempting Starter
‘Welcome That’s how and on in!’ I want my reader to feel when they open up a Jo Thomas novel. ‘Pull up a chair at the table and pour yourself a cup of tea. Make yourself at home. Kick off your shoes, help yourself to biscuits.’ I want them to feel im
Writing Magazine5 min read
The human FACES OF WAR
June 2024 brings the commemoration of eighty years since the D-Day landings, the largest ever sea invasion that started Europe on the path towards the end of the second World War. The brave troops involved and the civilians at home are now thin on th
Writing Magazine5 min read
Holding Out For A Hero
Ahero? What about a heroine? Surely it’s important to mention heroines, too? Yes, of course, and I am certainly going to talk about heroines. But, for the purposes of this feature, hero will cover both male and female, because (as fellow grammar nerd
Writing Magazine6 min read
EMPTY Space
TO READ THE STORY https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/ghosts-and-empties This month’s story, ‘Ghosts And Empties’ by Lauren Groff, is a complex character study with lots of smaller character studies refracted through the eyes of the main c
Writing Magazine5 min read
Edward Wilson
American-born novelist Edward Wilson writes the bestselling William Catesby series of spy thrillers, and it’s intriguing to learn that his British hero Catesby has plenty in common with Edward himself. Catesby is a rough kid from the Lowestoft docks,
Writing Magazine7 min read
Keep It In The Family
Last month we looked at family set-ups and how they could be explored and used in your children’s stories. This month we look at families in terms of characters and plot. Characters should feel authentic, as fully rounded as possible, and perfect for
Writing Magazine6 min read
Have you HEARD?
If you think back to your childhood, and your early encounters with horror, one thing that might come to mind is the urban legend – those stories that spread on the streets or around the halls of school, all told with a (seemingly) earnest belief and
Writing Magazine6 min read
Find Your Way As A Freelancer
My first published magazine piece was a word-search puzzle in 1989. They sent me a postal order for £3.50 as payment. (It was a long time ago!) Although I was experimenting with other forms of writing during my late-teen years, this was the first tim
Writing Magazine4 min read
Survey Monkey
Surveys are a handy technique if you want to collect factual information about individuals, their views, experiences, habits and self-reported behaviour. Although they’re more commonly used by nonfiction writers, they can benefit fiction writers too:
Writing Magazine3 min read
Successful Submission
As director of the Scouting Programme at Cornerstones, some of our best manuscripts are referred to me, and I read submissions as an agent would. I can then offer feedback to an author in a way they’re unlikely to receive from a publisher or agency,
Writing Magazine3 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
Get Published
Based on recordings obtained by the New York Times, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, last year considered buying the publisher Simon & Schuster, one of the famed ‘Big Five’, to acquire access to its catalogue so as to us
Writing Magazine3 min read
Fiction Opportunities
Whisper House Press is pleased to announce its first call for submissions for an anthology with the working title Costs of Living, writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. Submit stories, 500 to 4,000 words of ‘carefully constructed horror stories with a focus on
Writing Magazine1 min read
Small Press Opportunities
Common Deer Press is on a mission to find and publish extraordinary and enduring books for children and teens, writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. The team aim to publish ‘uncommon and exceptionally well-written literature for children and teens,’ and seek ch
Writing Magazine2 min readCrime & Violence
Behind The Tape
If you have a query for Lisa, please send it by email to lisacuttsenquiries@ gmail.com Julie Smythe via email A The amount of information stored on the average smart phone would take months to trawl through so the investigating officers would need
Writing Magazine1 min read
Scriptwriting Contests
The competition from the Comedy Film and Animation Festival is inviting entries of 23-30-minute sitcom scripts plus a one-page pitch by new comedy writing talent (ie who have not had a sitcom commissioned or broadcast in the UK or US). Shortlisted wo
Writing Magazine1 min read
Litmag Opportunities
pictura journal is a new journal that wants work which ‘offers a vivid snapshot of the writer’s world.’ The team ‘want to see the mundane rendered with clarity and quiet moments given room to breathe.’ Submit one to five poems and prose in the forms
Writing Magazine3 min read
General News
Europol has arrested nine people from Georgia for being part of a ring stealing rare books from academic libraries and institutions across Europe, writes Gary Dalkin. Volumes stolen include first editions by Gogol and Puskin, from the University of
Writing Magazine2 min read
Awards Round-up
In May the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, the 78th Edgars, honouring the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction published in 2023. The winners were, Best Novel, Flags on the Bayou, James Lee Burk
Writing Magazine1 min read
Writing For Children Competitions
Win £5,000 in the annual prize for children’s and YA writers. The international £5,000 annual prize is for unpublished and independently published writers for children. The winning author will receive £5,000 and all shortlisted writers will receive f
Writing Magazine5 min read
Non-fiction Opportunities
Afar is a US based ‘travel media brand’, which is to say it publishes a quarterly print magazine, website, plus podcasts and videos about travel, all intended to make a positive impact on the world through storytelling that inspires, empowers, and en
Writing Magazine2 min read
The Right Impression
Like many published writers I am sure, over the years I have written across several different genres and for many different editors, both regarding books, articles and online publishers. Some you get to know and they get to know you – if they have co
Writing Magazine3 min read
Poetry Competition
The contest is for poems about the experience of racism in the workplace or in childhood. Now in its fourth year, the Black in White Poetry Competition is inviting entries of original, unpublished poems of any length. There are prizes of £250, £125 a
Writing Magazine2 min read
Short Story And Poetry Comps
The annual international contest has a £1,500 first prize for both short stories and poetry. The story category of the Bedford Competition is for original, unpublished short fiction up to 3,000 words. The winner will receive £1,500, and there are sec
Writing Magazine3 min read
Breakfast Chat
Imagine you are a waitress or a waiter. Let us say serving in the restaurant of a large resort hotel. It offers a buffet breakfast so, whilst there is plenty to do (mainly clearing up) the welcomes given to people are important and there is time for
Writing Magazine4 min read
500 Words
Blind Summit by Cathy Cade I huddled inside my fashionable coat. It wasn’t designed for bus stops. Andrew’s language that morning had been colourful. Ice dusted his fingers as he scraped the windscreen. He’d cursed again when the courtesy car coughe
Writing Magazine6 min read
Crossing the Road
Every day I would see them without seeing them, head down, caught in my thoughts. Dregs littering the pavement, a loser’s life in your face, the kind of blank hopeless eyes you want to avoid, skirting a wide path and holding your breath to avoid inha
Writing Magazine3 min read
Part Of The Union
When Bill Clinton fought and won the 1992 Presidential election his political strategist James Carville put up a sign in campaign headquarters which said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid’. It became the slogan for the whole campaign and is remembered to th

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