The week ahead at EssentialWriters.com
This week at EssentialWriters.com we’re examining the changing times for writers and writing, from freelance opportunities with social media consultancy services to writing residencies that only allow applications from certain sectors of society. What have you noticed changing around you? How have you changed with the times?
How to write children’s books
Geraldine McCaughrean is the author of more than 120 children’s books, including A Little Lower Than The Angels, Gold Dust and Not the End of the World, each of which won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award. Here she shares her 10-step guide to writing well for children, beginning with aiming to entertain adults too.
The week ahead at EssentialWriters.com
This week we’re filled with the joys of springs, with an energy that can only be converted into words. With job and competition news, there are plenty of opportunities to get your words out there. We’re feeling particularly inspired by Geraldine McCaughrean’s imaginative writing, so don’t miss her guide to writing children’s books.
Nine days that transformed Bath – the annual literature festival
As Bath Literature Festival 2010 draws to a close, Judy Darley enjoys some of the highlights, and looks at how the festival transformed Bath, just for a short while, into a place where poems appeared like high-brow graffiti on random walls and some of the world’s finest writers and thinkers walked the city’s streets.
What makes a poet?
Joanna Butler is a poet, songwriter and creative writing instructor. She describes her day-to-day life as a poet and reveals how life’s ups and downs can lead to missed deadlines and inspiration in equal measure. Here she shares with us her own personal viewpoint of the vital ingredients that make up a poet.
Words by the Water literature festival is set to make a splash this March
Words by the Water is an annual ten-day literature festival hosted by Theatre by the Lake at Keswick, Cumbria. This year the festival will run from March 5th to 14th, and speakers will include Melvyn Bragg, Fay Weldon and Ken Bruce. The varied programme of events will cover politics, social issues, science, philosophy and art.
The week ahead at EssentialWriters.com
This week at EssentialWriters.com we’re celebrating birthdays, so please excuse any cake smears on your screen. In between all the cake-scoffing we’ll post news of a journalism job, a writing festival, and a short story contest, plus an interview with novelist Laila Lalami, and Joanna Butler’s feature on life as a poet.
Writing tips: how to edit your own writing
My first published story was in ‘Your Cat’ magazine (don’t laugh… we all start somewhere). The editor said she liked it and would publish it, but that I should cut it by a third and tighten up my style. What emerged was a story far better than the original. I was a sculptor, chipping away at unnecessary bits, shaping what was left.
