StoryGodmother Newsletter #18
Hello!
Happy new year! Hope you have a brilliant 2024 with lots of exciting writing time. Hello to my new subscribers – welcome to the newsletter! I hope you find it helpful. There’s been so much going on, and lots to come this year. Here’s where we are as we start 2024...
WINTER WRITING CHEER 2024
This starts tomorrow! If you write for children, keep your eyes open every Monday in January across social media for great opportunities at affordable prices, whilst raising £ for Alzheimer's Research UK!
The aim of the writing cheer is twofold:
- to help writers with affordable (sometimes free) opportunities and spread a little cheer in the writing community.
- raise £1000 a year for Alzheimer's Research UK and help to beat the cruel disease.
The last few years we have smashed our target thanks to people's generosity and participation. And I hope 2024 will be a beneficial year for both the writing community and the charity again.
More info here
You can find or follow me here and take part in Winter Writing Cheer:
Facebook: AmySparkesAuthor
Instagram: sparkes_amy
BlueSky: amysparkes.bsky.social
Mastodon: @storygodmother@wandering.shop
Linkedin: Amy Sparkes
WRITING MAGAZINE CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE UPDATE
Chapter Book category
We have just decided on the shortlist and will be making announcements and contacting people soon. We’re getting closer to finding our winners!
Picture Book category
We have nearly finished the longlisting and hope to make an announcement soon!
MENTORING
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who took the trouble to apply for the mentoring. I wish I could work with everyone! I think I have contacted everyone who applied personally, but if I missed you out, please accept my apologies, and my thanks for your application.
Decisions were particularly hard this year which is why it has taken so long to actually make them! But I am thrilled to announce I will be working with GABY ELLIS and RACHEL BURROWS in 2024.
I hope to run the mentoring scheme again in 2025, so please do keep an eye open next autumn.
EVENTS & COURSES
Story Godmother Courses
For my new subscribers, you may be new to Story Godmother courses, so here’s a quick run-through how they work. I run my sessions online to help reach as many people as possible, although I would like to run some in-person sessions around the country (watch this space...).
Sessions are fun and informal but with high-quality teaching drawn from my 17 years of working as a professional writer. Some people are surprised how affordable my courses are. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, as I work independently and not part of an organisation, I have very few overheads so the cost can be lower. Secondly, I try to keep costs as low as possible, not only to make the costs more accessible for everyone, but also because writers can spend a fortune trying to pursue their dreams, and I don’t want to take advantage of that. I’m passionate about helping writers develop their craft and realise their dreams and want to do what I can to help.
Leaps and Bounds – 4 weeks
Last year I ran a new course, LEAPS AND BOUNDS, over a weekend. The idea of this course is to give writers solid grounding in writing craft. Through my tutoring work, competition reading, coaching, etc. I’ve noticed there are several areas in lots of people’s writing which could be much stronger.
I’ve been asked to consider running it as an evening course, so I’m pleased to say this will be available as a 4-week course, running from Tuesday 27th February until Tuesday 19th March, 7.30pm and costing only £60 (plus Eventbrite admin fee). The topics covered are:
Week 1 – Hooked – how to hook your reader in multiple ways.
Week 2 – Creating Tension – in both comedy and drama.
Week 3 – Character Baggage – understanding character experience and how to include the notoriously tricky backstory.
Week 4 – Mastering midpoint – what midpoint is and how to use it effectively.
There are 25 tickets available here: Eventbrite
There will be more exciting courses coming over the year, but if there is anything special you would like to receive teaching on, please let me know at sparkles@storygodmother.co.uk
RESOURCES
As it’s the start of the year, and we’re all trying to get our brains back up to speed, I thought I would offer some writing exercises to help. Feel free to do as many as you like! And you can always come back and visit them again next time you’d like a bit of a kick-start! Enjoy!
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Desert island
The boat transporting your main characters (from whatever WIP you like!) has sunk and they have swum ashore to a desert island.
a) What does each character say or do as they take in their surroundings? What is their plan?
b) How does this reveal their character and personality?
c) Do you feel there’s much difference in the characters? -
Secrets...
Pick one of your characters and ask them to come to a safe and secret place, just with you. Nobody else. Ask them to tell you three naughty things they did when they were younger. How are they reflective of your character? Repeat with another character. -
Emotions
Pick an emotion to explore and that you would like the reader to experience. Write a few paragraphs using either existing characters from one of your stories, or just create a temporary character for this purpose. Brainstorm around the emotion.
a) Are there any strong images you could put in your reader’s mind to enhance your chosen emotion?
b) Which setting would make the chosen emotion feel stronger?
c) What action could happen?
d) What could your character be experiencing?
e) What kind of pace of writing would help?
f) Which words or phrases could you use?
Now put your writing away somewhere safe. Get it out and read it in a month’s time (make a note on a diary or calendar!). See if you feel the emotion that you intended your reader to feel. What works well? What could work better? -
Theme
Think of a theme you would like to explore. Write down as many different angles for this theme as you can think of. Does anything jump out to you?
END NOTES
If there’s anything you’d like covered in the newsletter in the Resources section, please do let me know at sparkles@storygodmother.co.uk and I’ll see what I can do.
Thanks very much!
Story Godmother.