We need your brains. We need to open up the hard outer shell to get to the soft goo inside. We would like odd, weird or scary stories, or perhaps all three, 100 words or less for our podcast. Send the story along with a website or alternative preferred method of online contact for you which I can read out loud with my lips.
Have a listen of the podcast, which weirdly doesn’t feature any stories yet, and send them to bizartcast@gmail.com
Although based in Colchester, Essex (come to the Slack Space gallery and learn audio production if you’re in the area) Frequency Theatre are looking for scripts from all across the UK. Visit their website here to learn more. Plus here’s what they say to those with a script or thinking of writing one:
“Frequency Theatre puts new, engaging stories at the heart of our work. We want new plays by writers of all ages and levels of experience. We are looking for a refreshing voice, with a play delivered with verve and/ or wit. Plays that we’ll take notice of will utilise the medium, focusing on building atmosphere through the relationship of dialogue, sound effects and silence.
Plays should be 10 to 15 minutes long, as a guide this is between 1800 – 2700 words. Only plays around this length will be considered.
If you have a script you would like to send to us, please email it to Rich Chilver at literary@frequencytheatre.co.uk
We look forward to reading your work.”
Good luck Pumpkins!
If you make films you might want to have a look at the Random Acts section of the Channel 4 website (UK).
There’s a big variety of stuff from the pretty to the silly to the unsettling, here are a few I quite liked:
A ‘Dandy punk’ travels through fantastical worlds in The Alchemy of Light.
Warning: The Ting contains violence, inner city slang and daft humour.
A trippy nostalgic video dedicated to Margaret Thatcher, Maggie’s Last Party.
Upon my search today for a home for one of my stories I happened upon this article. If you write fantasy, magic realism, urban fantasy or any other variation this should be rather useful, have a look.
Toodlipipski!
Stumbled upon this website today, Writer’s Avenue. I shall also be adding the link permanently to my list of magically helpful links. This is what their facebook page says:
“Writer’s Avenue is a new theatre company that gives new playwrights a platform to develop their work. We hold new writing events and welcome actors and directors to get involved.
We give new playwrights a platform to develop and showcase their work. It also allows actors and directors to gain experience, polish their skills and get involved with new writing. Scripts submissions are accepted all year round from writers with all levels of experience.”
You now have your chance to write that one man show about the bloke who paints his privates green and waves them around outside.
Word Crushes, a blog for young adult writers, has posted an entry I wrote for them featuring advice for others just starting out. I love how I sound like I know what I’m talking about! This is an amalgamation of shortened blog entries in which I learned valuable lessons, just like a Hollywood film.
I’m a fairly new writer. I’ve had some articles and short stories published but I’ve still got a long way to go and I appreciate how hard it is to get started. Perhaps this sounds as though I should live in a commune but I really think it’s important for writers, especially other new and confused ones, to share what they’ve learned, so this is for you. Join my wild ride!
When I send off short stories I can spend a very long time looking through endless lists of magazines and websites that publish them, and one place I go to is The Short Story . A few of the publications are no longer with us but enough are, and there are sections full of advice and competitions as well. Some people may disagree with this but I’m quite dubious of anything asking for entry money so I tend to avoid those. Plus I have no money. Don’t forget of course to purchase The Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook, it’s invaluable.
Set up a website and join social networking. Most people already have, but if you haven’t I can’t tell you how useful I’ve found it. Through Facebook I started talking to a comic publisher, and now I’ve got a horror story coming out with them at the end of the year. If you have a website it can make you look so much more professional (or alternative, whichever your preferred aesthetic). I made a couple of comedy adverts for my site and put them on youtube, mostly to amuse myself but also to let people see my personality, which is hugely important. Just remember, if you put a photo of yourself on your homepage make sure you don’t look insane, unless that’s your intention.
I’ve heard this so many times I need to say it just to be sure you all know too: conflict needs to be set up for your character fairly early on. Beautiful description is great but readers appreciate it more when they’re dying to find out what happens. I always try to make sure the opening line of everything I write has a huge impact, even in a small way; people decide whether to continue reading at all based on those first few words.
I’m not a fan of how-to books at all but I found How NOT to Write a Novel by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark very useful and very funny. At first I was embarrassed at reading all my mistakes laid bare, but once you get over the initial cringe it’s full of great tips, and the principals mostly work for short stories too. I tend to get a coke in a pub to do research because I need noise to think – I know, weirdo – and I was laughing out loud. People were looking.
I always think getting involved with local things is a great idea. We have an arts festival in Essex and I’m doing three different performances. Sometimes you might have to be pushy and I know it doesn’t suit everyone, but you really never know who’ll see you or who you’ll get talking to. If you make a fool of yourself, it’ll at least be a memory you and your friends can laugh about.
Lastly, have other people read your stuff. Maybe even read it aloud to people – people who won’t just say ‘that’s good.’ You need to grit your teeth and let it be read by someone you know is honest. There are tons of online workshops, so join a free one. I personally use Critique Circle.
So here we are; my thoughts on getting started in writing. Hopefully you’ve found it dizzyingly informative, but if you have any helpful suggestions for me I’d really like to hear them because sharing is the way of caring. Or something.
Wait… There’s more: a few useful links:
http://newpages.com/literary-magazines/
http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines?apage=*
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/pbonline.html
http://www.duotrope.com/
http://litlist.net/online_journals
http://www.litmags.org/list.php
Recently I sent a short story to a magazine, and it was rejected. So? I hear you cry, this happens all the time. Do not sully our eyes with such pointless jibber jabber. Get thee forthwith into a nunnery, or at least next door.
What made this rejection interesting, my little slices of pepperoni, was the list of links they sent me. Websites with a range of publications that take short stories! They were: New Pages, Poets and Writers website, a list of Poetry Publishers who accept Electronic Submissions, a list of Online Literary Journals and a list of Literary magazines.
As well as that I discovered a benefit from following Neil Gaiman on Twitter other than being able to ask him directly if I can lick his face (I don’t really do that. Or do I?). The other day he posted this link, which appears to be a site called LitReactor, ‘a compendium of top advice from Contemporary Authors.’ Apparently it’s from the team that brought you ChuckPalahniuk.net, the site full of advice and workshops for cult writers, Chuck being the author of such cult classics as Fight Club.
Go on, you know you want to…
Madeleine Swann 