THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET

In days of old, a gauntlet-wearing knight would challenge a fellow knight or enemy to a duel by throwing one of his armoured gloves onto the ground. The opponent would pick up the gauntlet to accept the challenge. This month I’m throwing down a gauntlet.

Are you up for a challenge?P1220130

I am.

One of the courses I took at this year’s Swanwick Writers’ Summer School was…

Writing Original Poetry

I greatly inspired by our teacher Alison Chisholm, a successful poet, and a regular contributor and competition judge for Writing Magazine. In the bookshop at Swanwick there was a selection of her books, which I spent some time browsing. I already own one of Alison’s collections, and this year I bought a narrow volume called ‘The Poet’s Workbook’, a guide which gives me ten projects for creating new poems of my own.

Here I am at the start. Project One, a tercet.

A what? Can’t we start with something easy?

A tercet consists, apparently, of three line stanzas – tercets – ‘built up to recreate a memory with plenty of imagery to animate the situation.’ This may be free verse, or any number of rhyming patterns.

P1220155No, I will not let myself shut the book and put it back on the shelf. Neither will I listen to that inner critic telling me I’ll never do it.

My tercet will be about my first day away from home. The day I arrived at Brighton Teacher Training College. The building still exists, on the sea front, at Eastern Terrace. Outside the breeze was often full-on and chilling, but inside there was an immediate sense of the past – big rooms and a wide staircase, and the smell of polished wood.

In my imagination, I stand at the entrance, and look along the sea front. Alison’s voice whispers in my ear. Use all your senses. Make a start.

The wind flaps at my skirt

Line by line, verse by verse. First time. First draft. First tercet.

Why not set yourself a fresh challenge this month?

Will YOU take up the gauntlet?

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Frog: (Squeakily)

What do you mean? Something that might be within the realms of possibility? Why didn’t you say so? And no, I cannot get down without help.

 

NOT ALWAYS BLACK AND WHITE

Welcome to Elizabeth Ducie

SONY DSC
Elizabeth Ducie

Elizabeth Ducie is an author with a history! She used to work in the pharmaceutical industry, and the shocking facts she discovered there led her to write her latest book Counterfeit!. This month she shares some of the inspiration behind her novel.

Not Always Black and White

by Elizabeth Ducie

Before I started working with pharmaceutical companies around the world, I spent ten years working in factories in the UK. We had a well-defined system of guidelines and within reason, there was sufficient finances around to buy the right equipment, pay for the appropriate tests, make sure the product was safe before it hit the market.

DrugsIn fact, if I’d been just ten or fifteen years older, I would probably have realised that the situation hadn’t been like that for long. Drugs manufacture in Europe in the 1960s and early 1970s was much less well regulated. But memories are short. As far as I was concerned, the situation was black and white; there was just one way to do things; the right way.

But then I started working in the former Soviet Union and in Africa. And I learned very quickly not to judge people on first impressions or by my own standards.

When I found an engineer in Russia hanging a noticeboard on a straightened-out paperclip, I thought he was being lazy, when in fact he was being resourceful in a country where everything, including nails and screws, was in short supply.

When I saw factories using out-dated and far-from-hygienic equipment to make supposedly sterile injections, my first instinct was to recommend closure. But when I realised this would result in 40% of the injections in the country being removed from the market, I had to think of an alternative approach.

In my new book, Counterfeit!, the regulator, COUNTERFEIT_FRONT_150dpiSuzanne Jones is shocked when an African government Minister tells us he can’t afford to worry about quality; it’s quantity of medicines that he needs. And although the main storyline in the novel is fictional, that conversation was real. And when I heard those words, I too was shocked. But gradually I realised he was not being cruel or wicked; he was merely pragmatic and doing the best he could in a terrible situation. Life isn’t always as black and white as we would like it to be.

Counterfeit! Out in July 2016: the new thriller from Elizabeth Ducie; available for order from: http://geni.us/ROFm

 

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Frog: (snootily)

The world’s green. Everyone knows that.

 

NOT DREAMING, BUT PLANNING

A friend of mine tapped her head and said, ‘I’ve got a book in here.’

That’s fine, if you’ve got a hundred and one other things to do. It’s also fine if you don’t want anyone to ever read your book, or your story, or anything else you write.

For people like me, and, I suspect, you, the dream isn’t enough. Is there something important you want to say, a social issue you wish to highlight? 10Do you want to take your readers’ minds away to a village in the Cotswolds, or India, or Planet Zonk? Realism or escapism. There are so many exciting and inspiring things to write about.

So this month

  • Keep up to date with your notebook and reread it to get some inspiration

  • Set aside an amount of time for writing, even if you can manage only half an hour a week

  • Work on a flash, maybe. Read it aloud. Edit it. Send it off somewhere.

  • Believe in yourself. You can do it.

FLASH COMPETITIONS

EXETER FLASH COMPETITIONP1210545
Prizes: 1st £100; 2nd £50
Entry fee: £4
Word limit: 250 words, excluding title.
Deadline: August 31st
For more info, see http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk/

BRILLIANT FLASH FICTION
Quarterly comps: closing dates last day of January, March, June, and September
SPECIAL DELIVERY WRITING CONTEST: Prompt: “It came in the Mail”
Prizes: 1st 50 euro (or equiv.); 2nd 25 euro; 3rd 15 euro
Entry: FREE
Word limit: 500 words, excluding title.
Next deadline: September 30th, 2016                                                                                               For more info see https://brilliantflashfictionmag.wordpress.com/
Submissions: email to brilliantflashfiction@gmail.com

19THE RETREAT WEST FLASH FICTION PRIZE 2016
JUDGE: David Gaffney 
Prizes: 1st £250; 2nd £150; 3rd £75; Shortlisted £15 

All winning and shortlisted stories to be published in an annual anthology

Entry fees:10 for 1; £18 for 2; £25 for 3

Word limit: 500 words, excluding title.
Deadline: September 30th

For more info see http://www.retreatwest.co.uk/competitions/the-rw-flash-fiction-prize/

 

 

Frog: (proudly) I’ve been put on slug watch. P1210554

See one coming, I’ll be there in a flash!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIFTEEN MINUTE FLASH DASH

Bank Holiday Monday is a traditional time for a break from routine, a day out, doing something unusual perhaps, or heading for the nearest park or beach.P1170698

An ideal day to carry your notebook and jot down a few observations.

 

P1170704Why not try a bit of flash writing when you get home?

 

 

Contributing to Trip Advisor can

  • help you write concisely and imaginatively, (but not fictitiously, in this case)

  • make you more aware of choosing the right word

  • make you think about detail

  • give you a focus for developing as idea for a story later on

Never tried Trip Advisor?

Put Trip Advisor in your search engine.

Go to Trip Advisor reviews, then to Write a review.

Next select City or destination. You might type Devon, for example. Choices will pop up. Select the most appropriate one.

Now type in the box marked Hotels, restaurants, attractions. For example, Coleton Fishacre. P1170724This should then pop up, and you’ll find a place to rate this, a few questions to answer, and the opportunity to describe your trip or experience.

If your chosen attraction doesn’t seem to be there, try rewording it, or find the section for adding something new.

P1170684You can also upload helpful photographs to the site.

You have to certify that your review is based on a genuine travel experience by selecting the check box, then press the Submit your review button!

If in doubt, Google How do I write a review-TripAdvisor?

Your views can help other travellers, holiday-makers, and day-trippers to choose their destinations.

 

FROG: (just a little bit grumbly) P1210470

I asked for a magic carpet ride. Use your imagination, they said.

IN IT TO WIN IT

There are some fantastic prizes for writers of flash fiction out there at the moment.

Here’s a selection of three.

NUMBER ONE: A 6-night stay at Arvon’s new writers’ retreat in Shropshire, from 6th-12th September

Imagine it. Six nights at The Clockhouse, in the grounds of Arvon’s Shropshire writing centre and former home of playwright John Osborne. Everything there is planned to help you focus on your writing, away from day-to-day distractions. 562_2016_Arvon_ClockTwr_original-475x300[1]You’ll have your own apartment, with bedroom, study-lounge, and bathroom, and all food will be provided. The Hurst is set in inspirational grounds with 29 acres of woodland and a spring-fed lake.
Here’s what you do to be in with a chance.
Write 500 words, fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, on the theme ‘retreat’. Entry if FREE. Submit online by 4th July at
https://www.writers-online.co.uk/writing-competitions/open-competitions/writers-competitions-wro-wro-jun16-arvon/
For more information about The Clockhouse and Arvon’s other writing centres see the website at www.arvon.org

 

NUMBER TWO: Prizes £100; £50; £25 in the Rhyme and Reason Writing Competition

Write  story of 400 words, or a poem of up to 20 lines, on the theme Magic and Mystery. There are 3 prizes for stories and 3 prizes for poems. Junior prizes too.
Entry fee £5 (£4 for 3 or more entries; junior entries £1) These fees help to pay for the prizes and any extra goes to a charity called the Rennie Grove Hospice Care, which offers a hospice at home service in the Bedfordshire/Buckinghamshire area.
If you don’t win, you still have the chance to see your work in the 2017 desk diary.
Submit online by 1st June at
http://www.renniegrove.org/support/community-initiatives/rhyme-and-reason

 

NUMBER THREE: A prize of £75 for the best flash story by a woman writer in the Hysteria Competition.

Also prizes of £150 for the best short story, and £75 for the best poem.

Hysteria 2016 is a competition for previously unpublished stories of up to 2,000 words, flash fiction of up to 250 words and poetry of up to 20 lines on almost any theme related to women. You are invited to submit an entry in ANY GENRE except horror or erotica.
Entry fees are £5 for short story entries; £3 for flash fiction entries, and £3 for poetry entries.
The competition closes at 11.59pm on 31st August 2016.
Go to http://www.hysterectomy-association.org.uk/hysteria-writing-competition/ for full details.

You have to be in it to win it!

Why not give one or more of these competitions a try?

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Frog: (patiently)

Sit there and guard the baby broad beans they said. I’m letting ideas grow as well, you know. Multi-tasking, I call it.

SARDINE TIN STORIES

SARDINE TIN STORIES…….. small yet packed to the brim with flavour

A joke is a type of flash fiction. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has characters, and conflict. It catches the attention, and gets us wondering. What’s going on? Can we predict the punchline.

On the other hand…. flash fiction isn’t a joke.P1190490

 

The Bridport Prize website offers the following advice to writers.

Flash-fiction often contains the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, obstacles or complications, and resolution. However, unlike a traditional short story, the limited word length often forces some of these elements to remain unwritten – that is, hinted at or implied in the written storyline.

 

All that in a limited word count. Mission Impossible?

Not if you

  • Confine your story to no more than two characters. (Rules are broken sometimes, of course!)

  • Write about one incident or occurrence

  • Stick to one point of view.

HINTS FOR BEGINNERS

  • Make your story stand out from the crowd by adding a touch of mystery, something puzzling that keeps the reader guessing.

  • Brainstorm plot ideas, and pick the most unusual, the most moving, the most scary……

  • Don’t worry about writing too many words. Edit down later.

Try entering a competition to hone your skill. Here are three of the many current ones.

Brentwood Writers’ Circle
For stories of exactly 75 words
Prizes £40; £20; £15
Closing date 30th April
Entry fee £2
http://www.brentwoodwriterscircle.org/
Bridport Prize
For stories of up to 250 words
Prizes £1000; £500; £250; plus three of £50 each
Closing date 31st May
Entry fee £8
https://www.bridportprize.org.uk/content/flash-fiction-entry
Rhyme & Reason Writing Competition
Theme: Magic and Mystery
For stories of up to 400 words
Prizes £100; £50; £25
Closing date 1st June
Entry fee £5 (£4 for 3 or more entries; junior entries £1)
http://www.renniegrove.org/support/community-initiatives/rhyme-and-reason

I’D LOVE TO KNOW IF YOU WIN A PRIZE

P1200903FROG: (Mournfully, and, I might add, ungratefully)

I came here for inspiration, and all I got was daffodils.

A SHINING MOMENT? A REVELATION?

The choice is yours…

Flash fiction is a short, sharp, focussed look at something — it could be a person and their problem, or a situation that is getting worse, or better.

Whatever the subject, every word has to count.

One of my favourite flashes is My mother was an upright piano by Tania Hershman.

The beginning is immediate and intriguing.

‘My mother was an upright piano, spine erect, lid tightly closed, unplayable except by the maestro.’
This is such a stunning metaphor, the reader has no choice but to go on reading. Here’s the next line.
‘My father was not the maestro. My father was the piano tuner; technically expert, he never made her sing.’
I love it.
Sometimes a photograph can inspire a story.
The man below is going to cut coconuts. He’s climbing the tree with the help of special tree-grippers attached to his shoes.
What about the woman? She has to pick up the coconuts and carry a basketful on her head. Let your imagination loose on a picture, and very soon there’s a story there waiting to be told.

 

P1200640It helps to read a lot of flash. Study it. Are you drawn in? Gripped?

 

 

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What makes the story work? Note the economy of words.

 

It will come as no surprise that Tania Hershman was the Grand Prize winner in the Binnacle 2009 Ultra-short Contest with My mother was an upright piano. This is now the title of a collection of stories available on Amazon. For more info on Tania see www.taniahershman.com and there are a couple more of her stories to sample at http://www.taniahershman.com/thewhiteroadflash.htm
There are daily flash stories on the web at http://flashfictionmagazine.com and you can sign up to have a fresh story sent every day. You might even want to join in.

Frog: (seriously)P1200844

One, two three, four, five…… I’m making every word count.

TOLD IN A FLASH

What is flash fiction?

Flash fiction is a story told in very few words. A brief glimpse of something memorable or meaningful. It might be 100 words, or 300; anything, in fact, under 1000 words can fall into the category of flash fiction.

How can you make yours compelling and memorable?

  • Write about something you really, really want to communicate, for example, the futility of war; unrequited love; how a homeless person feels.

  • Start well into the story. Make the reader imagine what has gone before. Get straight to the heart of the matter.

  • Give your reader an ending they’ll remember. Make them say, ‘Wow,’ or make them pause in silence. Make them want to read your piece again.

A prestigious prize for a story of 300 words is the Fish Flash Fiction Prize

Summary Fish Flash Fiction Prize
Judge: Nuala O’Connor Closing: 28 Feb 2016 Results: 10 April 2016 Anthology published: July 2016 Max length: 300 words
Prizes Flash Fiction Prize
Ten stories will be published in the 2016 Fish Anthology.
First – €1,000
Second – online writing course with Fish
The ten published authors will each receive five copies of the Anthology and will be invited to read at the launch during the West Cork Literary Festival in July ’16.

http://www.fishpublishing.com/flash-fiction-contest-competition.php

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FROG: (cheekily)

FISH FLASH, you said.

Is there a FROG FLASH too?

(I know. The photograph is not related to Frog’s remark in any way!)

 

 

 

 

Advice from Oscar Wilde

THREE PIECES OF ADVICE FROM THE DYNAMIC OSCAR WILDE……

which I am determined to heed when planning new plots this year.

1 ‘Memory is the diary we all carry around with us.’

(From The Importance of Being Earnest)

We can use our memories to fleshNew Yrs Day Looe (4) out characters, to visualise scenes, to relive emotions. Looking at photographs can help us recall things. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is to keep a notebook. Jot stuff down. I’ve divided mine into two parts. PLACES, including the natural world of plants and animals, and PEOPLE. There are things in my notebook I would have forgotten if they weren’t written down. I include cuttings from newspapers, useful phrases that slip into my head at odd times, etc. Make your own categories. Take time to read through your entries.

2 ‘It is not the perfect but the imperfect who have need of love.’

(From An Ideal Husband)

I think Oscar is telling us that the people we write about, need to be real. The dashing hero, the beautiful woman, they all need flaws in their characters, things they would rather no-one spotted, or dwelt on. And conversely, even the vilest of our characters must have some saving grace, even if it’s the smallest iota of compassion, or a rare glimpse of a positive quality. Very important this, otherwise our readers will simply stop reading.

3 ‘Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest of motives.’

(From The Picture of Dorian Gray)

If New Yrs Day Looe (7)your readers understand a character and his motives, especially if these are ‘noble’, there is a good chance they will keep on reading. This is where ‘show not tell’ comes into its own. We should try and get inside the heads of our characters, and show our readers everything they need to know – their love of animals, their concern for their children, their amazing violin-playing, and so on, as well as how selfish they can be, how forgetful, or how mean. Let’s aim to make our characters real people.

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GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR WRITING IN 2016.

 

 

Bring on a little happiness

IMG_7040WHY NOT? IT’S COLD OUTSIDE…

 A friend of mine was recently judging a short story competition. ‘The trouble was,’ she said, ‘there were too many depressing stories. Awful things were happening, and so many endings were tragic. In the end I craved something more positive.’

This doesn’t mean you have to make everything hunky-dory all the way through your story.

Problems are good in stories. Your hero can tackle his difficulty, maybe not solve it entirely, but definitely leave the reader with a feeling that things have changed, or are changing, for the better.

Do you agree that readers like positive outcomes?

CHRISTMAS – A TIME TO CELEBRATE HOPE. A TIME TO PRAY FOR PEACE.

01 May 2010_0022

 

 

 

 

Could you write a story or poem that leaves the reader feeling hopeful?

Try this:

Choose a character and give her a name.

Now imagine answers to these questions:

Why did she lose her temper?

Was it justified?

Who took the brunt of this?

What happened next?

How was the issue resolved?

Frog:(Cheerfully): My friend says, if it snows, P1170368will you please make a frogman in the garden? That would be a really good outcome.