Issue 151

Get Published

29th January 2007

January's almost over, but eleven months of the year still have that shiny new feel about them, and it's as good a time as any to get into good habits. For many university students the ambition of becoming a writer 'when I grow up' is a useful way of dreaming of the glowing reviews and country cottage lifestyle, without actually getting off your arse and putting pen to paper.

However, with countless competitions such as the EDS Dylan Thomas Prize encouraging writers in their teens and twenties to impress, and with scarily small writers like Christopher Beale, the six-year old author making the news, there's no time like the present to start working on that masterpiece.

Get Reading

Everyone knows avid readers make the best writers, but as well as dreamily reading your favourite bestseller and thinking 'I could've done that', take a look at the myriad publications that are looking for work from writers just like yourself.

The best way to inform yourself about magazines or even websites that you could find a voice in is to subscribe to as many as you can. Poetry Wales is a great place to start, published quarterly and featuring work not just from Welsh writers but on a global scale. Visit www.poetrywales. co.uk for more information.

Search out magazines that specialise in your particular interests - if you're knowledgeable about motorbikes, Edwardian history or rearing llamas, get hold of every magazine or journal you can. Once you've read a few copies and can suss out the style of writing they use, submit your own articles or creative work.

Remember, paying attention to the editor's guidelines on submissions is a must. Starting small and being persistent could mean that by this time next year you have a few published pieces that you can mention when contacting larger publications, making editors really sit up and listen.

Enter a Competition

Entering competitions can be a great way of gaining recognition or even some spare cash for your talent. Visit www.societyofauthors.net to get your search for suitable competitions underway.

Stick to well established contests and use your common sense, avoid paying large entry fees and check out the rules to avoid signing away something important, like the rights to your spangly new novel, or your first born child. Grants and bursaries can help out if the necessity of working is eating up your writing time. Again, check the rules of eligibility carefully, but apply for anything sounding kosher.

Remember, you can't be granted anything if you don't apply.

Get Started

It's all very well making resolutions to get writing and get your face in every llama-rearing magazine in the Western world once the semester's over, or once Neighbours has finished, or once the dishes are done, but you know yourself, it'll never happen.

Consider joining writing based web-boards for great community spirit and support with problems like writer's block. Getting into the writing community in every way possible is the best way to find out about all those juicy opportunities that pass most people by.

Start a diary. Everyone says it, but a writer is constantly meeting inspiration, and by jotting down what you see when you see it, or sticking in newspaper articles or photos that have sparked your imagination, you'll avoid forgetting it all during a twohour lecture and make writer's block a rarer occurrence.

Make use of the utilities available at uni, speak to the writing fellows in the English department in Keir Hardie room 217 for advice and attend the Creative and Media Writing research seminars, advertised in the Media and English departments.

Get writing for Front or Waterfront! The culture section happily accepts and publishes articles about Swansea culture or short stories and poems - just email them to Kate and Holly at waterfrontculture@ hotmail.co.uk or pop up to the Waterfront Office in Fulton House to speak to our very friendly editor, Andrew, about joining in. Remember, the only thing stopping you is yourself.

Holly Thomas