The Wicked Writing Blog

Welcome to the home of writing award ideas and practical advice for story contest success. Fun and sheer tomfoolery are never far away. Feel free to add your comments. (To comment on a post, or see the comments there, simply click on its title. To see all the comments to date, click on the buttons 'Best' or 'Community' below each post.)

 

Showing Tag: "structure" (Show all posts)

A Practical 4-Step Way to Turn a Short Story into a Novel

Posted by Liese Sherwood-Fabre on Friday, August 3, 2012, In : Guest Posts 
So you've written a fine short story. You know it has the potential to grow into a great novel. But a novel is not just flash fiction with extra padding. Is it? So what, exactly, do you do? Novelist Liese Sherwood-Fabre faced that challenge and in this week's guest post she reveals the four careful steps she took to turn 800 words into a 10,000-word novella.

In his book Stein on Writing, Sol Stein describes the editing process as “liposuction,” removing the flab from a story. But what do y...

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A Secret Way to Win a Story Writing Contest

Posted by John Yeoman on Monday, August 29, 2011, In : The Writing Craft 
What's the secret tip that will help you win a top story writing contest? It can be expressed in just one word...

But wait!

Before the secret can be yours, you must first undergo a Trial by Ordeal. Simply become the judge of a writing competition. You should then appraise with critical rigor, every three months, more than one million words of stories - that's Pride and Prejudice eight times over.

All of a sudden, the secret will so illuminate your mind that henceforth you will be spared the expe...
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John Yeoman

Dr John Yeoman, MA Oxon, MPhil, PhD Creative Writing, FSRS*  is a UK university tutor in the short story. He has 42 years experience as a successful commercial writer, newspaper editor and one-time chairman of a major PR consultancy.

He has published innumerable works of humour, some intended to be humorous.

* Founder, the Society for the Rehabilitation of the Semi-colon