Are there any situations when you feel it’s acceptable to embellish a true-life story with fiction, and then pass it off at what actually happened?

‘Could have benefited from another read through.’ ‘Needs more work.’ Competition judges often use both of these phrases. In fact, I don’t think that

As a Writing Coach, I see on a daily basis the importance of having a writing ritual, especially for those people who need to write daily. It’s as if sometimes our brains need that little trigger to put us into our ‘writing zone’.

When a competition is announced it can be tempting for writers, especially new ones, to simply flick through their supply of stories and select one that seems to fit the requirements. Then, with little more than a cursory re-read, they put it in an envelope and send it off.

I always find this an interesting question. Several years back when I asked the question, a high percentage of people (especially those over 65 years old) answered that they wrote by

Well, the CBCA has just announced the books that have been short-listed for this year’s awards. If you’re a

Follow the guidelines – This sounds like a really basic statement, and in reality it is, but I expect most readers would be shocked if they heard just how many stories don’t get put in front of a judge purely because this point is ignored.

It’s not that I keep forgetting to ask a question on Fridays, it’s more due to the fact that I forget Fridays are Fridays. I can’t help wondering if it’s some weird form of jetlag, because before I went away my brain was functioning pretty well, but now

It occurred to me yesterday that since I’m holding the 2011 ‘First Line’ short story writing competition, with it’s deadline in June, now might be a great time to cover some writing tips relevant to entering competitions.