Monthly Archives: January 2022

To Writers on Burns Night: ‘Sláinte Mhath’

Sleekit (also spelt ‘sleeket’) is my word for January 25th, Burns Night. When we asked some of our favourite Scottish writers for tips for Burns Night stories, Ian Rankin  came straight back to us with this:

And what a word it is, redolent with meaning; not just ‘having a glossy skin’ but, in its true Scottish sense, ‘artfully flattering, ingratiating, crafty or deceitful.’ Perhaps that might inspire a politically-themed story? After all, Burns himself was not just an 18th Century romantic poet but a covert radical, an advocate of the freedom of the press and a supporter of the French Revolution.
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Interview with K L Jefford, our first prize winning author in 2021

K L Jefford

Congratulations again on your wonderful story, ‘In Bed With My Sister’, which was awarded a very well deserved first place in our 2021 competition. Could you tell us a little about the story’s journey; how it started out, whether it changed much along the way?

Thank-you. This story is very important to me and I’m overwhelmed that it won first prize in this wonderful competition, and proud to be in such talented company in the anthology.
In Bed With My Sister is a fictional narrative that was seeded in scrawled notes I made at a time when someone close to me was in crisis. I’ve always been curious about the roles we take up in families and other relationships – who looks after who – and the tensions between personal and professional, especially what happens when those in the so-called ‘caring professions’ become patients.
Returning to these notes months later, I began to imagine and sketch out ‘scenes’ which formed the basis of the narrative. I always take drafts of stories to my writing workshops – I’m part of two with writers I met on the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck – and use their feedback to inform the editing process. The story struck a chord in the workshops immediately, described as both ‘painful’ and ‘compelling’. Editing involved much re-shaping and tweaking, improving specificity of detail, pruning back prose to facilitate emotional impact, and paying attention to the balance of humour and darkness. Time management and chronology have always been big challenges for me and much of my editing involves chopping up and moving scenes around.
I worked on the story – alongside other stories-in-progress – for around a year before considering it ready to submit to competitions.
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Unique Angles on The Short Story

Our Award ends on April 11th. In 13 weeks time. Want to write a short story with an unusual angle that stands out from the crowd? Join one of these very affordable short courses at The Crow Collective organised by dynamic writer and story teller, Sage Tyrtle. Continue reading

A new year, a new story?

January is a wonderful month (no it is, really) and one of the best parts is cracking open a brand new notebook and filling it with fresh words. Let’s not call them resolutions (not a fan, they can so quickly turn to disappointments and we use them against ourselves) but rather hopes and dreams; let’s take a gentler approach to writing and ourselves as writers (and humans!). Continue reading