Most of us find ourselves stuck for words at one time or another; so thanks, Karen, for sharing your tips on how you kick-start your writing.

The shortest of short novels

This week I came a across a term I’d never heard before – Keitai novels. Apparently, these short (very!) novels are sent out in instalments using a mobile phone. As you might expect, it’s a literary form pioneered in Japan. Personally I don’t think I’d find a lot of satisfaction in something so brief, but for the current multi-tasking, phone-addicted generation it obviously has its plus points.

Twitter your short story

Incidentally, if you want to see a fantastic example of how to get a story across in the least number of words, check out the winner of our ‘Twitter’ Halloween Spooky Story Competition. And while you’re there, you may be tempted to enter the November ‘Caption’ competition. It’s worth having a go as there’s a Freelance Journalism course on offer for the best suggestion.

£10 a word for your writing!

Talking of very short stories, Reader’s Digest currently has a competition running that asks you to write a compelling story in just 100 words. There’s a £1000 prize for the winner and two runners up will get £100 each. In addition there are two school categories (one for 12 to 18 year olds and one for under 12s). The winner in each will get £500 of high street vouchers to spend plus £500 for their school. It might be worth tipping off your local school about the competition – full details are available on the Reader’s Digest website.

Guest Bloggers Welcome

As you’re reading this blog, I suspect many of you may already be writing your own blog or are planning to do so. If you want some professional advice on your posts we currently have a 10% discount for this on our Review and Appraisal service. Also, if anyone would like to provide a guest post for me (on a writing-related topic, of course) I’d be delighted to hear from you. And if you’d like me to guest on your blog, in return, just let me know.

And coming full circle, if you’re a Writers Bureau student and feel that one of our courses has given your writing the ‘kick-start’ it needed then why not take part in our Student of the Year competition? There’s £250 to add to your earnings for the entry we deem best and four runners up will receive £50 each. An entry form can be downloaded from our website and if you’re brave enough you can even put together a YouTube clip for our delectation!

Until next time…

As a children’s author one of the most frequent questions I get asked is “where do you get your ideas from?” I don’t usually struggle to think of an idea, I have a notebook full of them! But just in case I get stuck, I have some tried and trusted ways to kick start my writing and thought I’d share them with you:

1) For me, the character always comes first. I have to know who my story is about before I can write it. So if I’m stuck on a character, I flick through a magazine and find a picture of someone that interests me; a child, man, woman or animal. Then I really think about that character, what sort of person they are, where they live, what they like, dislike, who their friends are, etc. I write a short paragraph about their main personality traits and by the time I’ve finished I’ve usually got a story idea about them buzzing through my head.

2) Alternatively, you could try looking through a magazine of newspaper and find a picture of a house that interests you. Imagine what sort of person lives there, what their life is like. What sort of problems would they have? How did they get the house? Was it left to them in someone’s will? Did they win the lottery? Are they a secret millionaire? Use your imagination and you’ll be amazed what ideas you’ll come up with?

3) Do some freewriting. Write whatever comes into your head, without thought of whether it makes sense or not, don’t even think about grammar and spelling. You could start off by giving yourself the opening line of a story. Remember, write the first thing that comes into your head. The very first thing. Even if it’s something like ‘I opened the curtains and saw a huge crater where my front lawn should be.” Carry on freewriting for a while then read through it and you might be surprised to find that you’ve got a gem of an idea.

4) Close your eyes and imagine a scene. It can be anywhere you want, the beach, a rainforest, a snowy mountain. Use your senses and imagine what you can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Now put someone in that scene. Who are they and what are they doing there?

I hope these ideas help. If you’ve got any different ways you use to ‘kick start’ your writing then do let me know!

Short Bio

Karen King has been writing children’s books since the mid-eighties. She’s written for many children’s magazines too including Sindy, Barbie, Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine. Some of her short stories were featured on Playdays BBC and some of her poems on the BBC One Potato, Two Potato website. She writes for all ages and in all genres. Story books, picture books, plays, joke books, she’s written them all!

She tutors for the Writer’s Bureau and runs writing workshops in schools.

As you can see, I’ve been having something of an easy time with two guest bloggers following each other. First, thanks to Amanda for her blog. As I mentioned three weeks ago, she has now taken over as editor of Chapter and Verse – so you’ll be hearing more from her over the next few months. Read the rest of this entry »

First, thanks to Sue for her good advice last week on finding topics to write about and then the best ways to go about researching them. Read the rest of this entry »

First, thanks to Jayne for last week’s blog. I must admit that I’ve never kept a diary, but know that for many writers it’s both therapeutic and provides a fund of useful anecdotes and memories that they can use in their work.

New Words get seal of approval

The latest edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary has just been published and I’m always interested to see what new words have been included. This time, mankini (yuk) and cyberbullying feature for the first time, amongst others. I’m all for ensuring that good grammar and punctuation conventions are maintained (especially the correct use of the apostrophe!) but I find it reassuring that our wonderful language is continually changing and evolving.

Cash in on your trip

I noticed recently that The Daily Telegraph is still running its travel writing competition with £200 for the best ‘Just Back’ article each week plus £1000 annually for the overall winner. It could go some way towards funding your spending money for your next trip.

On the move…

I’m writing this blog sat at my desk, surrounded by cardboard boxes, waiting for the removal men to come and empty my office. After many eventful years at Sevendale House, Writers Bureau are on the move. Some staff are already up and running at our new premises and we’re all looking forward to settling in. It’s exciting – the start of a new era. But it will still be sad when we turn off the lights here and lock the doors for the very last time.

My guest blogger next week (while I unpack all my stuff and get organised) is Writers Bureau tutor, Sue Wilkes. So thanks Sue, for giving me breathing space.

PS Correction to my blog a fortnight ago: despite working closely together, the petition to save Radio 4’s short story output was started and is being run by National Short Story Week, not the SOA.