Crime Writing Course and Your First Novel

Two  interesting courses in The Irish Writers Centre.

Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Tel: +353 1 8721302
Email: info@writerscentre.ie

Crime Writing with Arlene Hunt Sat 17th & Sun 18th November, 10.30am-4.30pm €150 / €135(members)   This weekend course offers a practical approach to crime fiction writing. Over the two days we will discuss how to develop characters, plot and atmosphere. Hone your criminal mind as we create scenes of murder, revenge and ask whodunnit and why? Police procedural v Private Eye, which offers more scope to the author? And POV: can first person delivery stunt plot development or does it take the novel to another level?

Your First Novel - The Halfway Stage

with June Considine

Sat 17th & Sun 18th November, 10.30am-4.30pm €150 / €135(members)

Have you taken that important step and started writing your first novel? Are you at the halfway stage or beginning your second draft? Are you encountering problems with structure, character development, dialogue, backstory, location, timeline or other issues that only became apparent as you progressed? If so, Your First Novel - The Halfway Stage,  can help to bring your novel to conclusion.

Participants will be encouraged to discuss their work, to explore the theme of their story, the interaction between characters, the use of dialogue, the development of plot, the importance of location and time frame, and the style and genre they have chosen. How to present a finished manuscript for publication will be covered, along with current publishing opportunities and market trends. Writers are invited to submit one chapter of their novel in advance of the class.

The Bridport Prize 2012

International Creative Writing Competition

Fay Weldon CBE, Novelist and Bridport Prize Patron:
“Mention the Bridport Prize and the eyes of writers everywhere light up. It’s not just the money – though that’s not to be sneezed at – it’s a prize really worth fighting for in terms of prestige and genuine literary accomplishment.”
The Bridport Prize is one of the richest OPEN writing competitions in the English language – with £5000 first prize for a short story (of up to 5000 words); and £5000 first prize for a poem (of up to 42 lines). The category of Flash Fiction attracts a first prize of £1,000 to be won for the best short, short story of under 250 words.
The Bridport is also known as a tremendous literary stepping-stone – the first step in the careers of writers such as Kate Atkinson, Tobias Hill, Carol Ann Duffy and Helen Dunmore.
Anyone can enter – so long as the work is previously unpublished. It costs £8 per story, £7 per poem or £6 per flash fiction and the NEW closing date is 31st May 2012. Entries can be made by post or online:
www.bridportprize.org.uk
Postal entry forms are available online or by sending an SAE to: The Bridport Prize, PO Box 6910, Dorset DT6 9BQ, UK

Creative Thinking/Creative Doing: Prime the Pump

Creative Thinking/Creative Doing: Prime the Pump: Prime the pump---I had to explain this saying recently, but I think it is a good analogy for getting yourself ready to create especially ...

Flash 500 Fiction Competition

Welcome to the Flash 500 Competition! When it comes to prizes, it often seems as though flash fiction is the poor relation of writing competitions. From the first quarter 2012, we have increased our first prize to £300, making this a flash fiction competition where the prize money truly reflects the skill required to encapsulate an entire story in just 500 words.

Now in its third year, this quarterly open-themed competition has closing dates of 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December. The results will be announced within six weeks of each closing date and the three winning entries each quarter will be published on this website.

Entry fee: £5 for one story, £8 for two stories

Optional critiques: £10 per story

Prizes will be awarded as follows:

First: £300 plus publication in Words with JAM

Second: £100

Third: £50

Highly commended: Choice of The Writer’s ABC Checklist or Bad Moon Rising (e-book)

Payment options and entry instructions can be found on the Competition Entry Page

                                                                 

Shore Writers' Festival at the Ocean Sands Hotel, Enniscrone, County Sligo

Shore Writers' Festival at the Ocean Sands Hotel, Enniscrone, County Sligo

The first Shore Writers' Festival takes place on the first weekend of November at the Ocean Sands Hotel, Enniscrone, County Sligo. This most innovative festival is particulary aimed at young writers and is the brainchild of Elizabeth Reapy.

Galway writers Kevin Higgins and John Walsh will be in conversation with each other on the Saturday afternoon of the festival (2.30pm, November 3rd).

Later that evening there will be a reading by Doire Press writers and Susan Millar DuMars will launch the anthology 30 under 30, published by Doire Press, which showcases the work of thirty fiction writers all of whom are under thirty years of age.

You can see the festival's Facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/ShoreWritersFestival 

and the full programme of events for the weekend here  http://www.wordlegs.com/shore-schedule-web.pdf

John MacKenna's new collection of poems

Where Sadness Begins

John MacKenna’s

new collection of poems

Where Sadness Begins 

will be launched

 by writer and director Richard Ball

on

Thursday November 8th

7.30pm

Bagenalstown Library, Co Carlow 

All welcome

Published by Salmon Poetry 

The Risk, the Reward of "Writing What You Know" by Natalie Sypolt in The Glimmer Train

The Risk, the Reward of "Writing What You Know" See Natalie Sypolt's article in The Glimmer Train. Natalie Sypolt lives and writes in West Virginia. She received her MFA in fiction from West Virginia University in 2005 and currently teaches writing at WVU.
Write what you know. Most writers have been told this at some point. Craft books say it, instructors instruct it, but what does it mean to truly "write what you know"?

' There wasn't an epiphany but a gradual understanding that to really be a writer, I had to get beyond my fear and write the truth. I don't know that I've accomplished this yet, but I am trying.'

'As teachers of writing, when we say to our students, "Write what you know," we should not be referring to occupation, vocation, even location. That limits the scope for fiction and isn't really getting to the core of the matter. When we say, "Write what you know,"

.....we should be talking about the interior. The crevices and courages of people. The frailties, weaknesses, heartbreaking beauty. This often will make people uncomfortable. It might also reveal something soft and tender about ourselves that we'd been hoping to protect, but that's the only way to get to the realness, what we truly know. The end result will be something golden, complicated, and lovely.