Writing Magazine

The saying goes that “everyone has a story in them” and it’s the mission of Writing Magazine to help you get yours out. Brought to you by real experts who know what it takes to improve your writing or get published, this monthly magazine is a must-have for all writers. Whether you write fiction, poetry, drama, children’s books, non-fiction or anything else, each issue features tips, practical exercises and real-life advice, that will not only help you get all that creativity onto the paper but also, get your name and profile out into the industry. With writing masterclasses from professionals, industry news, events listings, competitions where you can submit your work for fantastic prizes and real paid writing opportunities, Writing Magazine has everything you need to hone and improve your talents.

DEAR READER

Inviting you in • Novelist Rupert Dastur looks at the way characters reveal themselves, if you let them

Characters: WRITING FROM DUAL PERSPECTIVES • Novelist Sairish Hussain explores writing characters whose perspectives are different to your own

Attract & REPEL • Author Holly Watt looks at how to write the magnetic characters that readers love to hate

UNSILENCING Sycorax • Nydia Hetherington talks about writing through pain and chronic illness in the process of finding her way into the story of Shakespeare’s unseen witch

REAL LIFE, great stories • This month, Jenny Alexander explains why it’s necessary to kill your darlings

Going beyond GENRE • When you’re a commercial writer, readers have expectations about genre. Bestselling Irish author Carmel Harrington sets out how she ensured readers stuck with her stories as she explored different sub-genres

TIME WARP • Acclaimed screenwriter James Alistair Henry talks to Tina Jackson about fusing cop caper and alternate history in his mind-bending debut novel

Your writing critiqued • James McCreet applies a forensic micro-critique to the beginning of a reader’s manuscript

TENSE AND POINT OF VIEW: PART FOUR • Author and tutor Ian Ayris looks at what happens when you write from outside the story using Third Person PoV

RACHEL BOWER • The debut novelist describes how she expanded the theme of coercive control in her acclaimed debut from a short story that won a competition

Staring into space • Mindful staring is an investment for writers says Lynne Hackles

LIZZIE DAMILOLA BLACKBURN • The romantic novelist offers her own love letter to the books that helped to make her a writer

The world of writing • What goes through a writer’s brain? Readers’ letters and dispatches from the wide world of writing

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: YOUR WRITING • The starting point

Subscribers’ news • To feature in Subscribers’ News contact: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

TALKING dolls • Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf talks about telling the story of an eccentric recluse through the voices of the dolls she collected in her T. S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted debut novel Top Doll, which fuses poetry and prose

Layers in the lines • Alison Chisholm explores the multiple strands of meaning in a short poem

BRING OUT YOUR BADDIES • Margaret James wonders how far writers should go when they’re creating the villians in their stories

5 Five quick questions

THE WINDS OF CHANGE • Helen Walters explores using symbolism in your fiction, with an example story by Katherine Mansfield

BIG FEELINGS FOR LITTLE READERS • Learn the vital art of engaging emotions to make your picture books relatable, with advice from Amy Sparkes

BRANCHING out • Alex Davis explores the world of writing interactive fiction

TOPPING UP THE creative well • Without creativity, we have no writing business. Simon Whaley...