This month we have expert advice from Simon Whaley on naming characters, Ten Top Tips advises on how to create the perfect poetry competition entry. Useful Websites features one for research, one to help you write poems and, in keeping with Simon’s articles, one to help generate character names. Plus, there’s inspiration as usual.

• Editor's News
• Successes
• Expert Advice
• Top Tips
• Useful Sites
• Inspiration

Hello Dear Readers,

I hope those of you who attended our Short Story Winners Event enjoyed it. If you’ve not had a chance to read the winning entries please do so on our competition page and let us know what you think of them. Keep your eyes peeled for further events in the future.

The nights are drawing in, but I have to admit, I do love autumn and its wonderful jewel-like colours. Plus, it means I’ll soon be handing out treats to the local trick-or-treating kids and then warming my hands around a crackling bonfire, eating baked potatoes and watching some fabulous feu d’artifice – that’s fireworks in French you know!

This month we have great expert advice from Simon Whaley on how to generate names for your characters, if you are still stuck after reading it see Useful Websites. Success stories will convince you, once again, that publication is possible and should make you giggle too! Ten Top Tips is for those of you entering our Poetry Competition – Useful Websites has a little help for you as well.

If you can get out and about, there’s a great workshop taking place at the Soho Theatre in London on 10th November. It’s called “The Writers' Voice and Vision: Developing your USP – A practical masterclass for scriptwriters.” The morning will cover “The Scriptwriter’s Voice”with Paul Ashton and the afternoon will be “Choosing your subject” with Nina Steiger. It runs from 10am – 3pm and costs just £40 for the whole day – bargain!

Fancy a little job? St Anns Church, Manchester is 300 years old! And, in celebration of this tercentenary, Manchester Rotary Club – who are celebrating their centenary this year too! – would like to highlight the colourful history of both the church and the surrounding city. The research should cover the history of the church and city from the date of consecration in June 1712 to the present day. You would then need to turn this research into a story which will be presented to an audience as either a play or Son et Lumiere. If you’d like to have a go please contact susanm@writersbureau.com for further details. Due to the nature of the project, we feel candidates for this position should be local to the area.

Please do contact me if you ever attend any events I detail – I’d love to know if they are any good.

Enjoy Halloween and Guy Fawkes night and stay safe!

Happy writing,

Shelley

P.S Don’t forget our Poetry Writing Competition is now accepting entries.