Skip to main content

Writing World

Just a brief post this week as I am feeling a bit under the weather (again) but as usual, not too ill to find another useful writing-related website.

This time it is http://www.writing-world.com/ which describes itself as "a world of writing information for writers around the world" although it appears to be based in East Sussex.

As well as lots of useful articles and other information covering many writing genres, what I particularly like about the site is that you can very easily subscribe to a pretty substantial free newsletter. This is issued on the first and third Thursday of each month and comes in the body of an email so that you can either print it out as hard copy or save it on your desk top if you care about the planet.

Although the newsletter seems more geared to American writers, the articles are fairly universal in their content. The current issue has an excellent article on E-book publishing which I found really interesting, especially as it answered a question about E-books that has been bothering me for some time. (Do they spell the end of good quality literature now that every Tom, Dick and Harriet can publish one?)

The newsletters also recommend books, websites, blogs and competitions for writers and the editorial stance seems to be that freelance writing should be seen as a "proper" job with a decent wage, something I am always keen to promote.

So far, subscribing to the free newsletter has not resulted in my in-box filling up with unwanted emails so why not give it a go? After all, the October 20 issue recommended Simon Whaley's blog (http://www.simonwhaleytutor.blogspot.com/) so it can't be bad!

  

Comments

  1. Anonymous6 November 2011 at 06:51

    Thanks for the suggestion. I'll go and check it out. I only fear that it will encourage me to spend even more time on the Internet when I should be buckling down to the writing...

    Sorry you're still not feeling well and hope you get it sorted out soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melissa Lawrence6 November 2011 at 22:20

    Thanks for your good wishes, Vanessa. Let me know what you think of the site/newsletter and don't feel too guilty!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Portfolio Career

I have been telling everyone recently that I now have a "portfolio career". Most people don't know what I mean by this (someone even said they'd have to "Google" it!) but it's really just a fancy way of saying that you have fingers in several different pies. I have been a "professional" writer since 1995 although I have always been a writer of some sort, ever since I was at school. During this time, I have stuck pretty religiously to writing and only occasionally had flights of fancy about getting a "proper" job. (And I still do. Only this time last week, I found myself offering to manage a jazz band!!) However, for various reasons, I've recently been seriously exploring other freelancing options that I can do alongside writing and have now decided to "rebrand" myself as a writer, a crafter and a musician. I also plan to carry on working on community newsletters and do something in the spiritual healing/growth area a...
4 comments
Read more

Shortlisted in the Writer's Toolkit Flash Fiction Competition

Hi everyone. A good writing week this week, despite the distractions of the cricket and the tennis, possibly because my portfolio career has been suspended, pending further enquiries (don't tell my patrons!) and I've been at my desk every night. Long may it continue! I said in my last post that I was recently shortlisted (top ten) in the Writer's Toolkit flash fiction competition. The competition brief was to write a short story of 150 words or less on the theme of 'Secrets'. My story actually came out at exactly 150 words because at the last minute, after I'd sealed the envelope, I suddenly panicked and decided that the wording of the rules could mean that the story had to be exactly 150 words. Mine was 149 if I remember correctly and it was surprisingly difficult to add that extra word! Apparently the competition attracted 182 entries (which I must admit was quite a surprise) and entries came from several European countries as well as the UK. I was particu...
6 comments
Read more

Setting Quotas

Does anyone else set quotas for how much work they send out every week, month etc or is that just me? I decided a while back that I was probably never going to send anything out if I didn't set a quota and for various reasons I decided that six items a month was right for me. Like lots of ideas, it is probably good in theory and so far I have managed to keep to my quota. Unfortunately, the theory seems to fall down when I find myself (usually on the last day of the month!) desperately scratching around trying to find somewhere to send something in an effort to meet my quota. A few weeks ago, while in this predicament, I came across Healthy  magazine in a well-known health food store. I noticed that they offered fifty pounds worth of vouchers to spend in store for the writer of the star letter. Desperate to fulfill my quota and hopeful of winning the top prize, I duly sent off a letter. The email was returned by the "postmaster" for some reason, so ...
4 comments
Read more