The Writing Habit is an online writing club for people who want to make more time for creative writing in their lives. Each month, I send an email to all members of The Writing Habit with a creative writing prompt, and an interview or advice from a guest expert or writer. 

This month, I'm trying something new; as well as the usual email I always send, I'm also sharing a short audio interview with our guest writer, Laura Theis. Laura recently won the eighth annual Mogford Short Story Competition with her short story, The Lift, and generously shares the behind-the-scenes of her successes and the "failures" that got her here.

You can read her brilliant story, here: https://www.mogfordprize.co.uk/previous-winners/2020-laura-melis-theis/

Listen to the audio of the story, here: http://www.thestoryplayer.com/the-lift-by-laura-theis/

If you'd like more writing encouragement, prompts, and advice, sign up for The Writing Habit newsletter, here: https://us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=009bf8fcc31e025dc22d13875&id=6fc50d0e95

Many thanks to Ketsa for the music! https://ketsa.uk/

The Writing Habit: The rejections behind success with Laura Theis, May 2020

The Writing Habit is an online writing club for people who want to make more time for creative writing in their lives. Each month, I send an email to all members of The Writing Habit with a creative writing prompt, and an interview or advice from a guest expert or writer.

This month's guest is Oonagh Moon, a Scottish writer. Author of the novelette, The Bone-Men, she was shortlisted for The Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Award, is currently querying agents with her first novel - a young adult Fantasy, set in an eerie, alternative Scotland – and is currently working on her second novel. Her writing is steeped in folklore and magic, and recently released a resource for writers called The Novel Magic Kit, an editing toolkit designed to help you polish your first draft into a query-worthy manuscript.

In this conversation we talk about the writing and editing process, Oonagh shares a great tip for figuring out endings, and she shares this month’s creative writing prompt: local folklore. 

You can find her blog, here: https://www.oonaghmoon.com/oonaghmoonblog

The Novel Magic Kit: https://www.oonaghmoon.com/novel-magic-kit-1

Oonagh's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oonagh.moon/

And listen to her read her short story, Seal Baby, for The Writing Habit: https://soundcloud.com/sophie-caldecott/seal-baby-by-oonagh-moon-read-for-the-writing-habit

If you'd like more writing encouragement, prompts, and advice, sign up for The Writing Habit newsletter, here: us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=00…&id=6fc50d0e95

Many thanks to Ketsa for the music! ketsa.uk/

The Writing Habit: The writing and editing process with Oonagh Moon, July 2020

Author Oonagh Moon reads her short story, Seal Baby, for The Writing Habit.

Read the short story via her blog: https://www.oonaghmoon.com/oonaghmoonblog/seal-baby

Listen to the interview with Oonagh that accompanies this reading: https://soundcloud.com/sophie-caldecott/the-writing-habit-the-writing-and-editing-process-with-oonagh-moon-july-2020

Seal Baby by Oonagh Moon, read for The Writing Habit

The Writing Habit is an online writing club for people who want to make more time for creative writing in their lives. Each month, I send an email to all members of The Writing Habit with a creative writing prompt, and an interview or advice from a guest expert or writer.

Suzie Jay Goldsmith is a photography mentor and passionate advocate of self-care through creativity. Her new book, The Rallying Cry: Healing the Hardest Parts of Life Through Creativity, is out now on Amazon and getting rave reviews. In this conversation, Suzie shares how this book came to be, and how—and why—making time for creativity has been a vital element of processing the grief of loss. 

We talk about the struggle so many of us experience around finding time to write, and she shares some brilliant wisdom for turning this problem on its head. She was also kind enough to choose our writing prompt for this month, and reads a beautiful extract from her book. 

Suzie's website: https://www.mylittlemuse.co.uk/
Follow Suzie on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/suziejaygoldsmith/
Buy Suzie's book via Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/RALLYING-CRY-Healing-Hardest-Creativity/dp/B08CMD9BY7/ref=sr_1_1?crid=10XOLGRD2NJI0&dchild=1&keywords=the+rallying+cry&qid=1594989380&sprefix=THE+RALL,aps,140&sr=8-1

Sign up to receive emails from The Writing Habit: https://us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=009bf8fcc31e025dc22d13875&id=6fc50d0e95

Sophie Caldecott