How to use this Page

By strange coincidence the latest copy of Writers' Forum magazine has an excellent new monthly competition for women's magazine's short stories starting with The People's Friend. It's definitely worth tracking down a copy of the November issue if short stories are your thing because there's lots of useful tips in it too. The challenge is to write a 1,000 word story for PF (one entry only) and the competition is free to enter and open to anyone who hasn't already had a story published in the magazine. You can also opt to have your story critiqued for ??3 by teh article's writer Sue Moorcroft. Stories must be sent to a special address given in the magazine - not The People's Friend offices. Any shortlisted stories 'of suitable standard' by Sue and the PF fiction editor Shirley Blair will be used in the People's Friend. I'm hoping to have a go at this competition, the chances are the children's story I've just submitted to them will not be decided upon for some time. There is also an advertisement in WF for a short story competition bu The Lady, England's oldest weekly magazine. You can choose from three genres comedy, historical or mystery. Again only one entry per person but this time stories must be between 2,000 and 2,200 words. Winning stories will be published in The Lady. Full competition details will be in The Lady's October 14th edition. I'm not familiar with this magazine so I'm going to try and track down a few copies so I can see if I'd like to have a go at this comp too.

When my sister and I were young my mum would treat us to a bedtime story. Sometimes this would be a Ladybird Book but more often than not it would be the children's page in the People's Friend. I loved the one page stories and remember laughing at the antics of Will and Wag the duck and dog in the cartoon strip at the bottom. The page was always introduced by Cousin Tom so I always thought he made up the stories. So when I returned to the magazine recently in researching the short story market I was surprised not only to see the page still there complete with Will and Wag but to see that the stories were by different writers. So yesterday I emailed the People's Friend to ask for their guidelines and they quickly sent back pdfs of their requirements. The magazine has been running since 1869 and may have kept its traditional look and approach but they are moving with the times at D.C.Thomson & Co! They are looking for children's stories for children of nursery and primary school age between 500 and 700 words. So I put my thinking cap on beginning by thinking of a girl's name. I chose Katie, then I had to think what her story was. Well last night I finished it, typed it up and printed it out. Of course as so often happens as I closed my eyes to sleep I suddenly had second thoughts about one of the plot elements so I fixed it this morning and reprinted it. Then on the drive to work I realised I wanted to change the ending slightly and have Katie and not her dad reveal something, oh and I wanted to change the opening too to make the payoff more set up. So I'll have to edit it again after work. I believe The People's Friend is a really difficult market to crack, there stories are some of the best I've read in women's magazines. They may not have the twists and modern approach of others but the actual writing is excellent and you can't leave a story partly read. I'll let you know how I get on. I had another rejection last night from an agent I'd written to fairly recently but this time I was left feeling more upbeat. Why? Well though they felt Dr Midas wasn't suitable for their list they also said - "We're sure you will soon find an agent with the right amount of enthusiasm for your work." Generally you get 'good luck with finding an agent' or 'keep trying' but this seems particularly encouraging - I'm just hoping they prove to be right!