Freelance Writing

Just back from a couple of days in Edinburgh, where I was adjudicating a General Short Story competition for the writing group there last night. Good to see the capital again, even though hubby walked me off my feet, as usual. Spent a lovely morning wandering around the National Gallery admiring the art and sculpture. I love paintings, but there is something so appealling about figurines made from bronze or marble - they are so intricately fashioned and I can imagine they were created with great passion.

Really enjoyed reading all the stories for the competition as the standard was high and there was a great variety of themes. I even got to talk about short story writing and tried to cover structure and 'show not tell', always a stumbling block for newer writers. However, I reckon it's essential for a story writer to read as much published work as possible to see how it's done. I do wish I could have commended many more of the stories but it's a bit unfair to the ones which stand out in a smaller competition. Hopefully the critiques will be helpful and many of the writers will get their stories published eventually.

Now it's on with the final decision about the SAW stories - just the order of the winners and commended to decide!

Rosemary