Hello everyone!
I’ve spent the month working through Retreat West’s Novel Editor course and it’s been hard work but so beneficial to my book. Writing a novel as a flash writer is such a challenge. I had chapters of real importance, weighing in at 450 words. When someone pointed this out and suggested I added another 1-2,000 I nearly wept. Do that many words even exist?
While I’m very proud of what I’ve managed now I have found the extra thousands of words, I have really missed my short fiction. So while I haven’t been writing my own tiny tales, I’ve been getting my fix over at the Retreat West Community.
Alison Wassell’s amazing A Stupid Rubber Dinosaur can be found in Fictive Dream.
Two community members, David X. Lewis and Isabelle Hichens, had their work published in Writing Magazine.
Janine Muster has a beautifully rendered fairytale in All Existing Literary Magazine.
The Pitch to Win longlist was announced last week. Huge congratulations to everybody to who made it.
Alongside a plethora of other longlistings, shortlistings, and competition wins, it’s all very impressive and inspiring!
For anyone like me, who is in a bit of a flash rut, try this prompt. Hopefully it will encourage something wonderfully weird.
Choose an animal and place it in a very human setting; could be a hospital, a school, a business meeting. What is it doing there? How does it interact with this unusual space? Does it encounter any people? Is an idea for a metaphor emerging?
Good luck!
Deadlines
Opening Lines Contest
Do you have a complete draft of a novel and not sure what to do with it next? In our Opening Lines contest you can win a review from a professional editor to help you take it to the next level.
Entry Fee: £10
Closing Date: 30th April
Ready to enter? Click here.
WestWord Journal
WestWord submissions are open! We are looking for Short Stories (up to 3,000 words), Flash Fiction (up to 1,000 words), and Micro Fiction (up to 350 words) exploring the theme CIRCUS.
Submission fee: £5*
Closing Date: 31st May
* Four free submission slots are available, details on how to access them and submission guidelines are available here.
Read the amazing current issue of WestWord here.
Courses
Flash Focus
There are only a few places left for next month’s Flash Focus. The course is split into distinct weeks of creation and critique. You'll use stories that have won prizes as the inspiration for the craft discussion, analysis and prompt, to help you take your flash fiction writing to the next level.
Fee: £100
Start Date: 6th May
The Novel Creator
Our year-long, fully mentored course will show you the tools novelist use and help you write, edit and pitch your novel. Includes eight modules on plotting, characters, world-building and more, plus monthly Zoom sessions, detailed editorial feedback on the draft you write and literary agent introductions. Full details can be found here.
Fee: £1,000*
Start date: 16th September
* Or monthly instalments of £110
Zoom workshops
Monthly Micro Workshop
Hone your micro fiction writing skills with Debbi Voisey in the Monthly Micro workshop. In the first half of the session, Debbi will dissect prize-winning micros and set writing exercises. Then that month’s prompt for the Monthly Micro competition will be revealed ahead of it going live on the website the next day and you’ll have time to write and get started on your entry!
Fee: £6
Date: 5th May, 7:30 - 8:30 PM BST
Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Reflections on Fairy Tale Retellings
Join Ingrid Jendrzejewski as she explores retellings of fairy tales, fables, and folk tales. Making use of traditional tales can be an engaging and effective method of questioning the past, reframing the present and imagining the future. It can also be deliciously fun.
Fee: £10
Date: 12th May, 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM BST
Creating Fiction From Fact
In this workshop with Debbi Voisey, use personal experiences and learn the skills you need to change them up enough to become fictional. We will be talking about what “writing what you know” really means and about how to apply techniques to distance yourself from it effectively.
Fee: £10
Date: 26th May, 4:00 - 6:00 PM BST
Friday Flashing
Don’t forget our weekly writing hour, a reading, a prompt and time to write. Every Friday, 11 AM - 12 PM (BST) and if you’re a Retreat West Community member, it’s free!
Other Opportunities
Top-tier lit mag, Chestnut Review, is currently open for submissions. They are looking for poetry, prose and art. They pay $120 for each piece too.
And if you’re feeling very brave, The Paris Review, is only open until the end of April for its current subs call.
If you’re a writer of colour working on children’s novels and picture books then the Faber FAB prize might be for you. You have until 30th June to enter.
Full House Literary, the publishers of some truly weird and wonderful stories, are open for your more experimental work.
There’s still a month to prepare your entry for the Bridport Prize, they accept short stories, flash and poetry alonside their longer fiction prizes for novels and memoirs.
For those of you who want flash fiction on the go, then season four of Micro podcast launches soon.
Happy writing!
Martha