December Newsletter

Hi all,

I’m writing this from Caffe Nero on a rainy afternoon – is there anywhere better to be on a rainy afternoon than a coffee shop, especially when you’ve got a seat by the window? Anyway, here’s some news about my 2025 workshops as well as some tips for writing competitions (and a list of competitions to enter).

Time to Write at Koru

I’m continuing my monthly workshops at Koru Pizza in Gosforth, but with a limit of eight places per session as this allows everyone plenty of writing and feedback time. These workshops run between 11am-1pm on the last Sunday of the month – upcoming dates are 29 January, 23 February and 30 March. Tickets are £20 per session - contact me to find out more and book.

Gather Online Writing Group

There are a few places left for my online writing group, Gather, which is meeting this Thursday (5 December) between 6.30pm-8.30pm on Zoom. Tickets are £10 for lots of writing inspiration (including prompts and resources to use afterwards). If you’d like to join us, please contact me.

Biscuit Factory Workshops

I’ll be back at the Biscuit Factory Gallery in 2025, starting with Enjoy Creative Writing on 19 January (11am-2pm) which aims to help you rediscover the joy of writing without worrying about the end result. Then, on 16 March (11am-2pm) Character Creation will focus on how to create and develop memorable fictional characters.

Gift Vouchers

If you’re looking for a special present for a writer, how about a gift voucher for my Gather or Time to Write workshops? Or my mentoring and critique service? I’m also happy to provide something more personalised such as a private workshop for a small group. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

Bluesky

Like so many others, I’ve stopped using X and moved to Bluesky which feels reassuringly like the old Twitter. I haven’t used it much so far apart from to discuss a particularly good episode of Backlisted about David Niven’s The Moon’s a Balloon. Anyway, I’m @amandaqwriter on there (and Instagram) if you’d like to follow me.

Jesmond Library Creative Writing Competition

I was delighted to be asked to give out the prizes for the Jesmond Library Creative Writing Competition last month, especially as some of the winners had previously attended my courses there and elsewhere (not that I’m claiming any credit – they’re all brilliant writers). I wasn’t involved in the judging, but have judged competitions before which gave me an insight into what kinds of stories and poems are more likely to be successful. So, if you’re looking to enter a competition, here are a few things to think about:

• Try to interpret the theme in an original way. Competition judges are likely to see lots of similar entries, so think about how to make yours stand out. Try drawing a mind map of ideas or challenge yourself to think of 20 ways to write about it (including different structures or forms).

• Impersonate the judge. Read your story quickly as if you were the competition judge and had a huge pile of entries to get through. Would yours stand out from the pile? Would anything be confusing or hard to understand? Does the first line make you want to read on? Does the ending work? You could also ask someone else to read it with those questions in mind.

• Look carefully for mistakes. It can be harder to spot these on a screen so print your entry out to do this. Reading it out loud or temporarily changing the font can also help you spot things you might have missed.

• Read and follow the rules to avoid your entry being rejected straight away. It’s a good idea to re-read the rules just before you send in your entry as it’s easy to forget them while you’re writing your piece.

• Try again. Judges often have to choose between lots of good entries. And there are many other reasons why a good piece of writing didn’t win – reading the winning entries can sometimes give you a clue to why you didn’t succeed. But it often comes down to luck, so keep trying.

Themed Competitions/Publication Opportunities:

With that in mind, here are some upcoming competitions:

Submissions are now open for the 2025 National Flash Fiction Day anthology. Submit flash fiction of up to 500 words on the theme of seasons. Free for one entry/ £2.50 for two entries/£5.00 for three entries. Or enter the 2025 Microfiction Competition for stories of up to 100 words on any theme. £2.00 for one entry/£3.75 for two entries/£5.25 for three entries. For both opportunities, the deadline is 15 February 2025.

The Arts Richmond Poetry Prize is looking for poems on the theme of changes. Entry fee: £5 per poem/£12 for three. Deadline: 17 January.

The Tom Grass Spirit of Adventure Prize is for prose fiction or non-fiction by emerging writers (unpublished or with no more than one major publication credit, usually considered to be a full-length work) of between 1,500-3000 words that capture a spirit of adventure. Free to enter. Deadline: 31 March.

Writing Magazine is running a free to enter competition for stories of up to 800 words about someone who resolves to make a change in the year ahead. Deadline: 28 February 2025. Also see their writing competitions page for details of other themed competitions for subscribers and non-subscribers.

The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition is open for short stories of up to 3,500 words that follow Margery’s definition of a mystery: ‘The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it’. Entry fee: £18. Deadline: 28 February 2025.

The theme for the free to enter 2025 Writers’ and Artists’ Short Story Competition is wonder. Submit stories of up to 2,000 words by 14 February 2025.

And finally, don’t forget that submission window two of the Northern Writers’ Awards for writers in the North of England is open until 6 February 2025 with awards for new and established writers of fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry and young adult fiction.

Happy writing!

Amanda