As you will know, if you’re on my mailing list or regularly visit Writing to Inspire, there have been a lot of changes recently with the services I’m offering online. I believe the official words are solidifying and diversifying? Or does one of them cancel out the other, I can never quite remember with the business jargon.

Either way, because of that I’ll be posting less here, but more on my Facebook Fanpage - Writing to Inspire – and providing more ongoing support and events through the Writing to Inspire website. While I understand this may put a few people out, I hope that it will actually provide a lot more relevant support to writers everywhere.

For example, the ability to post short stories, book reviews and writing prompts online, and then receive comments on them, will definitely fill a need I know exists. The short story competitions have already proven popular. But these are just a couple of ideas in the process of becoming tangible.

So for this reason, I hope you will forgive my absence from this blog for a while, but I hope you will join in on all the other exciting things going on at Writing to Inspire and, of course, the Facebook Fanpage.

Well, I finally did it – and with not as much swearing as I thought!

I’m delighted to say that the Writing to Inspire site is now set up for writers to post their work online. What’s more there’s also a facility that allows readers, other writers, friends and family to offer comments and feedback. How exciting is that?

At the moment it’s dedicated to stories that were inspired by the site’s Daily Writing Prompts, but hey if you’ve been to the site you know how many prompts there are and how many stories they could start. So if you want to post a story, but haven’t yet used one of the prompts now might be the time to try it.

I can’t wait for somebody to use the option. So if it appeals, please don’t let the thought of being the first deter you. Have a go.

Tags: critique, feedback on writing, publish your stories online, short story, submitting, writing advice, Writing to Inspire (my business site)

I’ve just updated the Writing to Inspire site, including adding an option for people to write book reviews and share their favourite writing prompts. I’d love to know what you think of the changes, or better still why not be the first to load a book review or writing exercise.

Fancy a writing challenge?

If so, why not enter the Writing to Inspire Short SHORT story writing competition?

As before, there are a choice of three provocative first lines to pick from, but this time the story’s limit is only 500 words.

Want to know more? Visit Writing to Inspire.

Tags: 2011, Elizabeth Bezant, First Line, first line competition, writing competition, Writing to Inspire (my business site)

Hi People, I’ve a simple question for you this week, what age did you start writing? Not what age were taught, but when did you start taking your writing seriously?

I have this theory that many women don’t start seriously writing until they are in, or around, their forties. I don’t know if this applies to men. I think for them, taking in my coaching experience, it’s often around fifty. I know I’m generalising, but I’d be interested to know – please feel free to prove me wrong.

Well, the winning stories for Writing to Inspire’s recent ‘First Line’ Short Story Competition are now online. Click here to read them.

I’d love to hear your comments on them.

Tags: Elizabeth Bezant, First Line, first line competition, writing competition, Writing to Inspire (my business site)

How do you feel about your work once you’ve submitted it for publication or to a competition? Are you anxious, waiting to hear back? Do you just forget about that piece of work and move on to the next? Or are you somewhere in between?

I’ve always been of the belief that my role in this business of writing and publishing is simply to create the best piece of work for the market (whatever that market may be). That involves understanding the reader’s and the publisher’s needs of course, but basically my job is only to write. I have no control over whether my work is picked over anybody else’s or if it fits the criteria of what a publisher is looking for on any given day; that’s somebody else’s job.I have no control over that aspect at all.

This means that once my submission has left my desk, it’s well and truly delegated, and (in most cases) forgotten – at least until a contract, cheque or form letter arrives in the mail.

But I know not everybody feels or thinks the same way.

Over the years, I’ve found it interesting see how attached writers are to their work. Hence today’s question:

How do feel about your work once you’ve submitted it?

Tags: Elizabeth Bezant, submitting, writing advice, writing for publication, Writing Question, Writing to Inspire (my business site)

I was writing up the Writing Tips for the Bodhi Tree newsletter today and it got me thinking on the old question of how many words do we know and how many do we actually use.

I know that in everyday language we use significantly less than we know, primarily because we become comfortable and lazy. But what about when we write? I have no doubt that most of us go through on a second draft and change words around to add variety and to lessen repetition, but do we need to do more than that? Do we need to learn more words and increase our vocabulary just because we are writers?

This is what I’ve been contemplating this morning over my cuppa, and I’ve decided that (for me at least) the answer is NO.

Why?

Well, here’s my logic.

1. I had a decent education, read a fair bit, enjoy Scrabble and crosswords, and come from a family who use a wide vocabulary. Therefore, even if I don’t use them when speaking, I know a fair stack of words.
2. Since I write for the everyday person or not highly educated articles, my language suits my style of writing. I don’t want to include words that cause my readers to falter as they try and recall what the word means.

Having said that though, learning different words is a good practice as is being aware of new words, even if it’s only so that I can get a better score in Scrabble and figuring out the final word in a crossword. But I think in most cases, as writers, we just need to use more of the words we know and avoid falling back on the ones that always come to mind first.

What do you think?

Also while sipping at my cuppa and doing some research, I came across this article from the BBC in the UK on words. If you’re interested in vocabularies, dictionaries, and how we are changing in relation to them, you may find it interesting.

Tags: Elizabeth Bezant, new words, vocabulary, word choice, Words, writers, writing advice, writing coach

First off I wanted to thank everybody who entered our Inaugural ‘First Line’ Short Story Competition. I was suitably impressed with the response, enough so that I will hold another, but more of that later.

Having read and reread entries I think I can safely say I have, for the moment, had my fair share of spreading crimson puddles of wine, blood and tomato ketchup, and the journals of those recently departed. But it was entertaining to see how everybody took the selected first lines on different journeys.

In fact this was my first deciding factor in the judging. To me a strong story is everything; even if you have perfect writing skills it won’t help a weak or implausible story. However, in my mind, if you have a strong story, occasionally lapses in writing techniques can be overlooked.

I was looking for the unexpected in the plot, something that delighted or surprised me, something that flowed seamlessly, had impact or perhaps something that reflected so closely to humanity that it caught my breath. This is where the pile of possible winners really shrank dramatically.

There was a wide array of storylines and it was a wonder that there were no similar stories, especially considering how so many went in similar directions. The diversity of the creative mind has always kept me guessing.

Anyway, once I had selected my favourite plots from there I went through focusing more closely on the writing techniques, although in most cases that simply came down to the quality of proof-reading. It’s a line that’s so often repeated in Judge’s Reports that I was almost loathed to mention it, but I decided I would for future reference – please proof read your work or get somebody else to, it does make a huge difference.

My other comment for future reference is: please read and follow the submission guidelines. Since this is our first competition and the request was different from most other competitions I wasn’t too strict on the ‘print on both sides of the paper’ but next time I’m afraid I will. I’m a greenie at heart and wherever I can feasibly save trees I will.

So I guess you want to know what won and why?

FIRST PRIZE

‘Hell’s Kitchen’ by Susan May

I chose this one because it was topical with a smooth twist that was unexpected and clear. The vocabulary was diverse and varied, without having to resort to unusual or clunky words. The character and his emotion was strong: I was there with him fighting to save the Beef Bourguignon. What’s more all the clues were there to imply the ending but they were all woven in so well I didn’t realise until I read the final paragraphs.

SECOND PRIZE

‘Truth be Told’ by Sarah Jovanovski

This was a story that struck me because of the characters and the believability of the behaviours. The honesty of Noah’s feelings, thoughts and behaviour stayed with me long after I had finished the story. While I was hoping for a stronger ending, the fact that it wasn’t there and that there wasn’t a twist made it even more realistic and believable.

THIRD PRIZE

‘Secret Words’ to Susanna Freymark

Again, this is a story that tells of the pain and emotions that we live with when communicating with others. But what I liked about this one was how it showed one simple gesture and move can change the whole energy of a friendship and the way we look at the world around us. This was one of the few stories submitted that strongly implied hope for the future, if not the classical happy ending. It is a story that I believe any parent of a teenage child will associate with, and maybe also teenagers.

—

I find it interesting now that I look over the prize winning stories to see that they are all simply stories told with a strong voice and through strong characters. Perhaps another aspect to heed for next time.

Thank you again for entering the competition. For those that are interested in reading the winning stories I will endeavour to post them here shortly after the winners have been notified. And for those who are interested we will be announcing our next exciting competition very shortly.

Tags: Elizabeth Bezant, first sentences, Judges report, short story, writing, writing competition, Writing to Inspire (my business site)

If you’ve got a spare couple of hours on your hands and you’ve decided you want to write something – but aren’t working on any project – how would you start writing? Do you have a favourite starting point for writing? Do you have a writing exercise that you do for fun or to see how you’ve progressed?

• Many people enjoy writing a stream of consciousness, where they just start writing about whatever is in their mind and refuse to lift their pen from the page until a certain amount of time has passed.
• Others might start by describing a particular item placed in front of them and expanding from that in whichever way their writing goes.
• You might choose to visit a website for a writing prompt  (and we all know an excellent site that has daily ‘first line’ writing prompts, don’t we?)
• How about taking an already finished piece of work and rewriting it from a different perspective or a different genre?
• Perhaps you’d rather lean back in your favourite comfy chair and summon up a character to write about?

There are so many options, and who knows maybe you’re never short of something to write about, but I thought I would ask anyway, you know how curious I am.

Let me know what you think.

Tags: Elizabeth Bezant, writing exercise, Writing Question, Writing Tips