Even if they don’t expect to win — When you’re new to writing it can feel as if you’re writing in a vacuum. You might also be writing for a college professor or tutor, a friend or your peers, a parent or a writer’s group, but there’s nothing quite like writing for strangers or having your work read…

And do something fun with the earnings — Submitting work is a numbers game. It doesn’t matter whether it’s short stories or screenplays, manuscripts or magazine articles because if you keep writing and keep submitting, something will stick. The more work you put out there, the better the odds it’ll find a home. The problem is that the…

But I’m not a convert just yet — I was running last week and my headphones broke. I was gutted. I hated the thought of running without them. People who swear by it can often get a little evangelical like those who insist on the power of being at your desk at 5 am or putting spirulina in…

I’ll probably still hate morning pages — It turns out that I’ll do anything to avoid actually writing. I’m about to take a deep-dive into The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a book offering a ‘spiritual path to higher creativity’. Okay, so it sounds a bit hooey, but I did try it for couple of weeks last…

Depending on how far you’re running — I was five days away from running my first half-marathon when I got sick. It was just a regular cough and cold but I felt terrible, and I couldn’t believe the bad timing. I’m certainly not an elite athlete but my training had gone from a standing start (quite literally)…

Paul isn’t dead in this one — Editing your work is hard. Our brains get used to reading our mistakes and our eyes can easily miss grammar and punctuation errors. I always put a piece to one side for a day or so before doing a final edit. …

Because they’re small but mighty I’ve been meaning to read more short stories. It’s ridiculous, right? I’m a short story author. I write short fiction regularly, and I enter competitions and submit work to websites and journals. I should be reading a lot of short fiction both to learn something…

And does it matter? — I’m pretty new to Welsh so I’m coming at this from a beginner’s perspective. At the start of the Say Something in Welsh course (which I’d highly recommend), you can choose to do either a Northern or Southern Welsh course. I chose North because my Nana’s family lived in Blaenau…

Mainly it’s telling GET STARTED ALREADY! — I’m a better runner than I am a novel planner. It’s not that I’m a particularly talented runner. It’s just that I regularly run even on the days I don’t want to. I set an alarm, I get out of bed, put on my running shoes and I go. Want…