Thursday 22 October 2009

WRITING4ALL - SHORT STORY TIPS ESSAY

Writing4All is a resource for Irish writers of all shades and persuasions.They call themselves 'a creative writing community where Irish writers can share and develop their work'. In fact, as it's web-based, their general info is open to all.

They have sections on events, competitions and writing news, and there is a forum you can join. They are also running a short fiction competition with a first prize of €1000.

Their Getting Started section has advice-essays from Carlo Gébler (the novel) and Gabriel Fitzmaurice (poetry) and now I have one there too, on the short story: 'Tips on how to get started as a short story writer'. You can read it here.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderfully put-together essay, Nuala. Especially liked the bit about not censoring yourself and that readers "don't mind discomfort" - good to keep in mind!

Group 8 said...

Cheers Eimear, thanks for reading!

Niamh B said...

That was a brilliant article - thanks for sharing your expertise.

Group 8 said...

I dunno about expertise Niamh but thank you ;)

Ossian said...

Thanks for that lucid essay. There is a theatrical variant on that make 'em laugh, etc. quote that goes "make 'em laugh, make 'em cry and scare the "£$"$ out of 'em".

I like the website there as well.

Padhraig Nolan said...

Great. Clear, concise and helpful. That's going to my writing group. Ta. :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Nuala,

Very coherent and well put together article. Particularly like the points about the short story being instinctive and about taking a risk. Have been blogging a bit recently about 'incubation' where the subconscious mix of ideas brew and finding the space and place where those ideas bubble to the surface (whether in the bath! or the washing line) so your advice about accessing inspiration rang very true.

Group 8 said...

Ossian - is that scare the money out of them or the shite??!!

PJ - I'm honoured.

Alison - thank you. I'm off to your blog now for a read!

Ossian said...

scare the money out of 'em would be good for writing sites, i think. not. heh. i tried to make one of those *%^£"!" expletive deleted things but i didn't try hard enough. story of my life.

i joined the site but once inside it seemed a bit garish. it's not easy to get just the right setting for a writing site. lots have tried with varying degrees of success.

that's one of the better efforts though. the initial impression is cool.

Kar said...

Brilliant essay, informative and inspiring, great advice too, thank you for sharing it