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Got home last night to find Writers' Forum had returned my story for a second time - and worse still this time round I'd scored even less points. The comments this time include one questioning the whole story set up finding it original but unconvincing. - Now there is something in this, in my story a scientist discovers something in the jungle, but the judge said the existence of this thing was unbelievable so close to civilisation. Now I do have a scene set in a market but my main characters are in a special camp some distance away - but probably not far enough. This glitch - which I think I can easily fix - must have really drawn the reader out of my story world. They also didn't like the fact my main character Stanley is a girl but has a boy's name, saying "it adds nothing to the story." Now I could easily change her name, but I'm reluctant to as a) in my head she just IS Stanley and b) I chose the name because the story is set in the Congo (although I don't specify this in the revised version) where the great explorer Stanley went looking for Dr Livingstone a fact Stanley's mum would have liked and c) I don't think another name would add anything to the story either. Names are tricky because people can take against them for personal reasons, they might hate one name because they disliked someone called that. Unsurprisingly the judge thought my new title 'Stanley's Discovery' had room for improvement. Finally the judge questioned the pace finding it too even - now that's more worrying so I'm going to take another look at it to see if I agree. The only good news was they marked my introduction higher and my ending still rated as 'totally apt' - just the middle to work at then! The question is what to do next. Should I put the story away for a while and then give it another look? Should I give up on it altogether - will it always be flawed? Difficult that because I still love the story. I'd love to hear what you think especially if you've faced a similar situation. Should I send it somewhere else altogether? On a more positive note I finished my witch story last night and finally seem to be getting to grips with HTML coding on my website design course - hurrah.

You may have noticed but autumn has arrived - in fact at the moment it seems more like winter. It's dark when I wake up, dark when I'm going home and next week the clocks go back. Then there's the wind, rain and hailstone. I've already got my hat and gloves out. I love this time of year, I love Bonfire Night, Hallowe'en and of course - whisper it - Christmas is approaching. All very inspiring for short stories. This morning for example on the drive to work I started thinking about an idea for a children's story. I wanted it to be about a witch and soon I could hear the characters in my head - I know that sounds crazy to non-writers. I'm hoping the story will be suitable for The People's Friend's childrens page but the problem is it's too late to send it in for Hallowe'en - or much too early. Although I suppose I could make it less dependant on the actual event. I've also had a couple of ideas for Christmas stories but again it's too late for this year. You need to submit seasonal stories at least three months in advance according to the advice I've seen. My question to any writers reading this is how do you get round this? Do you write spring stories in Autumn? Summer holiday stories in January? I can't imagine writing about lambs and daffodils in between my Christmas shopping. Or do you hang on to stories? I sent my People's Friend (writers' Forum) competition story off this morning having decided on the title and fixed a typo. I'm also trying to keep a proper record of what I've sent where and when, I thought I had a good track of my story submissions until I couldn't remember where I sent one! Luckily I found a note in the back of one of my many notebooks.