Over the last couple of weeks I’ve come across a few free opportunities for writers.
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Firstly, Indie Novella is offering a nine week online writing course free to successful applicants. It starts on 30th January 2024 and the deadline for applications is 29th January 2024. It is a self-paced course with learning material and writing exercises posted each Tuesday. Participants will have until Sunday night to complete each short assignment and interact with other writers on each exercise. Participants will have access to the learning materials for the entire course and beyond. At the end of each week Indie Novella editors will provide their feedback on a handful of assignments. Applications can be made now via the Indie Novella website.
Secondly, author, Freya North, is running a series of Instagram Live chats with writers on a Wednesday at 1 pm. Seek Freya out on Instagram, where she is @freya_north_author and find out who she’s talking to next.
Thirdly, here is an opportunity for new writers that has been bouncing around social media for the last couple of weeks. The Peoples’ Friend magazine is offering one lucky writer a £10,000 writing bursary! Unfortunately for me, entrants must be amateur, unpublished writers.
To enter, submit a short story of up to 2,000 words in the genre of either romance, thriller or comedy. The closing date is Monday 5th February 2024.
As always, read all the terms and conditions before entering.
Finally (and unfortunately this is not free!), those interested in cracking the short story market might find the short story collection, Hit or Miss?, useful. It contains a range of short stories and invites the reader to play magazine editor and competition judge in order to work out which stories were successful in print or competition and which didn’t quite hit the mark.
Sally Jenkins 