Write of Passage

I’m just about coming back down to earth after the excitement and buzz of last week’s London Book Fair. So here is this week’s Monday Motivations word prompt:

The Hiding Place

And here’s this week’s picture prompt:

Last week’s Monday Motivations was a rollover, featuring a photo and word prompt. Here are your wonderful creations:

EDC Writing was quick off the mark:

They sat
She wriggled some
Gave a yelp
Jumped up and stripped
Touched her toes
He pulled splinters
One by one
By reflected light
A perfect moon

Steve Walsky wrote a beautiful piece:

Contemplation

Lights strung around, and between the trees
forming a halo above the old, worn-out bench
A bench of wood, now so less inviting
yet tempting for the tired
A place to rest within the shade
a place to contemplate one’s days

Please visit Helen Jones‘ blog to read her wonderful piece of…

This week’s market is the Evesham Festival of Words Short Story Competition. There is an adult category inviting stories of up to 2500 words. The junior competition (two categories: 8-11 and 12-16) has a word limit of 1000 words. Entry is £5 for adults and it’s free for juniors.

The prize in the adult category is £150 and the winners of the two junior age groups will win £30 each.

The closing date is 24th March 2017.

I’m taking a while to get going this Monday morning. If you’re struggling to get your writing brain active, here are some writing prompts for you:

• The letter
• Secrets
• Passion

Last week’s writing prompts were:

• Laughter
• Cold
• The Future

Here are your creative works:

Robert Griffiths has written a beautiful story:

Charlie’s bluebird        1961

“Charlie, why are you staring out of the window?” Jess asked.

“It’s that cat,” said Charlie.

“What about it?” said Jess.

“It’s in our garden again. It watches my bird, it waits for her eggs to hatch, then it will eat my chicks. I want to kill it!” said Charlie.

“You can’t, it’s Mrs Jones’s cat,” said Jess.

“Sisters are a pain, I’m going out,” said Charlie.

He walked out of his sister’s bedroom and down the stairs and out the front door. He crossed the pavement and sat down on the kerb stone resting his…

When I used to teach classes to beginning writers, it was good.  It forced me to think back to the beginning to when I first put pen to paper.  The thing is, every time we sit down and face the blank page, it’s the same.  Every time we start a new piece of writing, we doubt that we can do it again.  A new journey with no map – like setting off towards the horizon alone in a boat and the only thing another person can do to help is to wave from the shore.

So when I used to teach a creative writing class, I had to tell them the story all over again and remember that this is the first time my students are hearing it.  I had to start at the very beginning.

First up, there’s the pen on the page.  You need this intimate relationship between the…

If you enjoy writing flash fiction, you might like to enter Writing Magazine’s 750-word story competition. Stories are accepted on any theme. You have until 15th April 2017 to enter.

Prizes:

1st prize: £200 and publication in Writing Magazine

2nd prize: £50 and publication on the website

Entry fees:£5 or £3 for subscribers

To find out more, visit the competition page

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After a fabulous writing weekend away, which has inspired and motivated me, I hope to do the same for you. Here are some writing prompts for you:

• Laughter
• Cold
• The Future

Last week saw a single writing prompt: Spring. Here are your super creations:

Take a look at Steve Walsky‘s blog for four fantastic spring poems:

https://simplicitylane.wordpress.com/2017/02/16/thoughts-of-spring-in-february-poetry/

Sounds, sights, and smells are all part of  creating an atmosphere.

‘The creation of the physical world is as crucial to your story as action and dialogue. If your readers can be made to see the glove without fingers or the crumpled yellow tissue, the scene becomes vivid. Readers become present. Touch, sound, taste and smell make readers feel as if their own fingers are pressing the sticky windowsill.

‘If you don’t create evocative settings, your characters seem to have their conversations in vacuums or in some beige nowhere-in-particular. Some writers love description too much. They go on and on as if they were setting places at the table for an elaborate dinner that will begin later on. Beautiful language or detailed scenery does not generate momentum. Long descriptions can dissipate tension or seem self-indulgent. Don’t paint pictures. Paint action.’ – Jerome Stern, Making Shapely Fiction

Bringing in sensory detail is…

Here’s an excellent flash fiction competition for you. Fish Publishing’s Annual Flash Fiction Competition is open for another two weeks. They’re looking for stories of up to 300 words. 

Prizes:

1st: €1,000

2nd: online writing course with Fish

The top ten stories will be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2017

Entry Fees: €14 for the first entry, €8 for any subsequent entries

Closing date: 28th February 2017

To find out further details, visit the competition page

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