Dressed

Dressed is the past tense of dress or dressing.  Most of these words are connected with putting things on – a person wearing clothes is dressed, as is a salad sprinkled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Gardens can be dressed with compost or fertiliser, a Christmas tree with baubles, or a graze with a plaster.

We can get dressed up in our smartest clothes, or give a dressing down to those who didn't make the effort. If we really want to get things right, we may even have a dress rehearsal.

Stone and meat can both be dressed – in these cases it means trimmed to get them ready for cooking or building.

Lots of things can be dressed up in an attempt to make them seem better. Probably best not to try that with our writing though. Editors, publishers and competition judges will soon see through a dressy font, pretentious wording and fancy formatting. If you try either this monthly free short story competition, or this one, or even this one, put your efforts into what you write, not how it looks and you could win a cash prize.

My latest short story collection is called Dressed To Impress. Here's the blurb –

We choose our clothes to help us stand out, make a statement, or to hide inside. They may show who we really are or be our disguise. Perhaps they'll help us play a part, get the job done, or be a means for revenge.

Clothes can warm, comfort and reassure us. We might buy or borrow them, damage or repair, give them away or have them taken. The items in our wardrobe might bring back memories, express hope for the future, or offer a surprise.

From glasses to shoes, fancy dress to fancy dresses, designer wear to charity donations, the clothes we wear all have a story to tell. This book contains 24 of them.

What kind of dressing do you like best?

Industry

Industry is a type of trade or manufacture, it can refer to trade and manufacture collectively. Those things will often happen in an industrial environment. Industry may also mean great activity or diligence. Those who demonstrate this are industrious.









Publishing is an industry. We don't always like to think of it that way, but it is. In common with most other industries money is the main driving force. It's often not the only one, but it's very important. If (for example) a magazine doesn't sell enough copies to buy more paper, it can't print the next issue.

If a publisher doesn't think our book will sell, they can't risk paying for an editor, cover designer, print run etc, or they won't be able to pay the royalties earned by their existing authors – and that wouldn't be fair, would it?




This month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question is – There have been many industry changes in the last decade, so what are some changes you would like to see happen in the next decade?

I'd like to see things level out a bit more. Instead of a few authors making vast fortunes and the rest struggling to make any kind of profit, I'd like more of us to earn at least the minimum wage. But then I'd like that for those who work in all other industries too.

Things could be worse though. There are opportunities for 'ordinary' writers. Free to enter writing competitions are part of that. They offer the possibility of winning some money, improving your craft, building confidence, perhaps even getting noticed by someone in the industry. (Which is one reason I blog about them so frequently.)

This one from Nottingham Writers' Studio is for up to 5,000 words of fiction or non fiction to be included in an anthology titled Black Lives. The top prizes if £250. All published entries will earn at least £30.

For the Perito prize, you're asked to write between 1,000 and 2,000 words of fiction on the theme of accessibility and inclusivity. The top prize is £500. There's an anthology involved there too.

This competition from Southampton University is for children. They're asked to write books on sustainability, for which they could win £200. (It's the 3rd competition down – you'll find others on the site for adult writers.)

Literary lady?

Literary means – of, constituting or occupied with books or written composition. Suppose that means I'm literary to some extent, as I'm often occupied with reading or writing.

To prove it, here are photos of me in libraries and bookshops.







You can also be described as literary if you're well informed about literature. Words or phrases which are used mainly in works of literature or other formal writing are considered literary.

I won't be doing another book signing for a while, but you can get your hands on my books here. (There are a couple of short free ones.)

This competition from Fitzcarraldo is for 'a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers around the world.' Entries close 1st July. The prize is publication and an avance of $10,000. 

There is no entry fee.












Even though I don't reckon it's what I write, I don't really know how to define 'literary fiction'? What does that phrase mean to you? What's the alternative?













Are you literary?

Tradition

A tradition is an ongoing custom, belief or opinion, often passed on for generations. 

Atristic and literary principles and methods which are based on experience and common practice are also considered traditions. It's traditional for romances to have happy endings.

A traditionalist is someone who has respect for traditions, perhaps to an excessive extent.

Which traditions do you follow and enjoy? A lot of my favourites involve food – I like to pour brandy on the Christmas pudding and set fire to it and try the traditional foods in places I visit, such as Welsh cakes, Cornish pasties and Scottish shortbread.

The first Wednesday of the month is traditionally Insecure Writer's Support Group day and March is no exception. As well as the monthly blog posts, the IWSG offers free support to insecure writers in lots of ways. If you think you might benefit, click on the link to take a look.

This month's optional question is –

Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

I don't think I ever have, although it's possible I've done so not realising a custom isn't as universal as I'd supposed. How about you? 

As I do it in almost every post, and I've been blogging for years, does it count as tradition for me to mention free to enter writing competitions? 

The University of Southampton are offering a range of free competitions with good prizes. They all have a 'green' theme.

This one is for sci-fi, fantasy or horror. Top prize is $1,000.

Here's a free poetry competition.

Nice

Nice generally means pleasant, kind or satisfactory. It can also be used to show fastidiousness, a subtle distinction or something requiring careful thought.


This free to enter competition is for short stories of up to 600 words. The prize is a £30 Amazon voucher and publication on the site. It sounds as though they want entries to be nice so here are some pictures to get you in the mood ...

Talking of nice, it was Alyson Faye who kindly sent me the link to this competition.
















(I'm featuring a different free to enter writing competition every day from the 8th December until Christmas Eve.)

If you know anyone 25 or under who is or was in care and is resident in the UK, be nice and tell them about this free writing competition in which they could win shopping vouchers.

Idea

An idea is a concept or plan formed by mental effort, a mental impression, an intention, vague belief or fancy ... and what you need to start every piece of writing.

A Year of Ideas: 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises is a book by me! You can try to win yourself a kindle copy by telling me, in 50 words or fewer, which day you'd like a writing prompt and why. Your answer can be true, funny, silly – whatever you like as long as you specify a date and give a reason.

Entry is by comment on this blog post only.

Closing date is midnight on the 18th December.

The winner will be announced on the 20th. Sorry, the prize can only be redeemed by those in the UK.

If the winner already has this book, then they may choose one of my novels or a short story collection instead.

(I'm featuring a different free to enter writing competition every day from the 8th until the winter solstice.)

Philology

Philology is the science of language. Keen as I am on English, that doesn't make me a philologist, as I don't do anything scientifically. However an alternative definition is the love of learning and literature, so I probably am a philogian, or at least partly philological. How about you?

Btw, there's still time to enter the mini competition to win an ebook. Just leave a comment which includes one of the M words here, before midnight tonight.

Threshold

A threshold is a point of entry, either real or metaphorical. Traditionally new brides were carried over the threshold of their marital home. A scientist could be on the threshold of an amazing discovery. Threshold can also mean a limit. It's said women have a higher pain threshold than men.

Originally a threshold was a raised strip of wood or stone. It was placed at the entrance to rooms such as kitchens and pantries where rushes, often scented with herbs, were strewn on the floor – as a kind of temporary carpet. Once dirty or wet, they could easily be swept up and replaced.  The rushes were known as thresh and without the threshold to hold them in place, would have been spread throughout the house.

If you're on the threshold of completing something which involves new media, get it finished and enter it into this free competition to be in with a chance of winning one of 5 prizes ranging from £500 to £750.

Censor

A censor is an official who studies books, films, plays and the like and suppresses any parts they feel shouldn't be made public. This could be because they're illegal, obscene, a threat to security or anything else their employer doesn't want let 'out there'. They may decide a work is acceptable only to a limited audience – those over 18, or with security clearance for example.

Censor also means to make the changes the censor decided need to be made. That generally means removing the offending section. If that happens to your work, you've been subject to censorship.

We can also mentally censor ourselves. Often that's a good thing as it prevents us blurting out secrets or making inappropriate comments. I don't think it's something we should do when writing – at least not in the first draft. Get it all down first, then you can start censoring (or editing if you prefer the term) by removing anything you feel shouldn't be there.

Thanks to Kath Kilburn for passing on details of this free to enter writing competition, with the theme of The Censor. You can submit a short story or a piece of creative non-fiction. The best dozen or so will be published and the authors will receive two copies of the anthology, plus £150. The overall prize is £2,000!

Rhyme

A word is said to rhyme with another when the sounds at the end are the same. Round rhymes with sound, time rhymes with mime (and rhyme). Half rhymes are words which nearly, but not quite, rhyme. Orange and lozenge is an example. Eye rhymes are those words which look as though they'd rhyme, because the endings are spelled the same, but don't. For example tough and through. Lost rhymes are words which used to rhyme, but due to changes in pronunciation, no longer do.

A rhyme can also mean a verse or poem which contains rhyming words. These generally come at the end of lines. If they're elsewhere they're known as internal rhymes.

Rhyming slang is a way of speaking which replaces a word or phrase with another which rhymes, although the actual rhyme may be omitted. In 'taking a butcher's' the word butcher's refers to a butcher's hook, which rhymes with look, and therefore means have a gander or a shufty.

Thanks to Bea Charles for passing on the details of this free entry poetry competition. The winner will get a personalised £100 book token with their poem on and £300 worth of poetry books. The judge is Pam Ayres. I like her. (The rules don't state that the poem must rhyme.)

Home

We're back home after ten weeks away in the campervan! (The photos are all of homes, or former homes, we saw on our travels.)

Here's a free to enter writing competition. Be sure to include your home address on the entry, so they know where to send the £100 prize, should you win.

The word home is usually used to mean the place where we live, but it can be used in a wider sense to mean the area, or even country we, or our family, originate from. It can mean our wider family and background, an institution, the end of a race, a position in sports and games ... It's where someone, or something, belongs.

To me, home means either the house, or the van, depending on which I'll be sleeping in that night. It's where Gary is, where I cook and eat, the place I read and write.







What does home mean to you?

Zoomorphic

I really wanted 'grotesque zoomorphic corbels' as the word of the week, but as Gary pointed out, that's more than one word. Still, I can use them as the illustration, can't I? These are on the Castle Acre priory.

Something which is zoomorphic has, or represents, an animal form.

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for passing on the details of this free to enter poetry competition. It's open to UK residents only (dead or alive!) and there's a £100 prize. If you can work zoomorphic into your winning entry, I'll be really impressed!

Lin, win and In(secure)

Has your writing ever taken you by surprise?

That's this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question. (If you'd like to join the group you can do so here – but you don't have to be a member to join the discussion.)

My answer is YES! I don't think I could keep writing if that wasn't the case. When I start writing, I don't always know the direction the story or character's will take. I don't know if that story will sell, win a prize or be one of those which doesn't quite make it.

Competitions wins have surprised me – I had a poem performed in the House of Commons and a novel published as the result of winning competitions. As a result I'm always on the look out for free to enter competitions, such as this poetry one, which I regularly share on this blog.

The biggest surprise though has been the change to me as a writer. I started off 17 years ago, writing just for fun, imagining it to be a short term hobby I'd quickly abandon when a new enthusiasm took over (that's happened before). Today I'm a full time writer. I even present workshops to encourage other writers, such as this one in Nottingham next month.

Another thing which can surprise me is the English language. I'm always learning new words (which is why I post my regular word of the week). Today's is lin. A lin is a 'collection' of water – it can mean a pool above or below a waterfall, but is generally applied to the waterfall itself, or to a ravine through which water is forced, producing a torrent.

The photos are of The Lin of Dee (apparently Queen Victoria's favourite picnic spot) and The Black Lin (centre). On our current trip we've also seen The Lin of Quoiche and The Lin of Tummel (my favourite in terms of names). They're all in Scotland.

Artificial

Artificial is something made by people, rather than occurring naturally, especially that which is a copy of something natural (eg artificial sweetener).

Artificial can also be used to describe insincere or affected behaviour.

I'm not keen on things which are artificial or false – I much prefer the real deal.



Can you think of any examples where the artificial version is better than the natural one?

Thanks to Alyson for sending me the link to this free short story competition. The theme is Artificial Intelligence and the prize is £500.

There's still time to enter last week's Friday Freebie and win a signed copy of Gail Aldwin's The String Games.

Excursus

An excursus is a detailed discussion of a particular point in a book, often placed in an appendix, or a digression in the narrative. It comes from 'excursion', which makes sense.

How do you feel about books which sometimes stray off the main point? Do you enjoy the excursion, or prefer to stay on track?


The photos are from one of our excursions in the van – I'm not digressing from the writing theme of this blog by posting them, as I'm writing a story set in this location.

If you won the $1,000 prize in this free to enter writing competition, you could afford a lovely excursion – where would you go?

Medicine

Medicine can mean the science or practise of diagnosing and treating or preventing disease. It's also any drug or preparation used to treat disease – I think that's what most of us immediately think of when we hear the word. Medicine can also describe a spell or charm thought to cure disease.

Taking your medicine means to put up with something unpleasant, whereas having a dose of your own medicine means to endure something you've inflicted on others.

A medicine man is someone with powers of healing within themselves, rather than a dispenser of drugs. A medicine chest is any container which holds drugs or medication.

Herbal medicines are traditional remedies, some of which work extremely well. Next time you have a sore throat, try gargling with sage tea. Tastes awful, but does the trick. Talking of traditions, you might like this free to enter short story competition from On The Premises, which has that theme. First prize is $220.

Am I the only person who doesn't trust any medicine which tastes nice?

Ongoing

Ongoing means in progress, under way, continuing, being worked on. I have a novel that's been ongoing for years and now looks as though it will be more than one book (the big project I mentioned last month).

The amount of work involved, and not knowing if it will be a success at the end of the process, was making me feel a little insecure. Thankfully several members of the Insecure Writer's Support Group did what they're there for and offered support and encouragement. Amongst the helpful suggestions was a common theme – just go for it, do a bit at a time and don't put obstacles in my way. Since then I've added more words and am feeling just a little less daunted.

Other meanings of ongoing are progressing, advancing and growing. The story is doing that, albeit slowly. They're the aspects I'll try to focus on, rather than how much more there is to do and what might happen when I eventually finish.

This ongoing competition from The Third Word asks for just 80 words, which can be a complete story, scene or extract from a longer work. I won once and that was with a novel extract.

Napper

Napper is an 18th century slang word for the head. Did you know that, or did you, like me, think it was a word for people who take naps?

Don't get caught napping and miss this free competition. If you use your napper and come up with something good enough to win, you'll have it recorded by a professional actor and made available on their website. Previously published work may be entered.

And here's a free to enter poetry competition.

And this is for Dr Who fans.

Elbow

Elbows are of course the joint halfway down our arms which allow them to bend. They're very useful to writers!

A piece of piping shaped into a right angle, or any similarly shaped bend or corner can be known as an elbow bend or elbow joint. 

If you jostle your way through a crowd then you can be said to be elbowing your way into a space, and those displaced in this manner are elbowed out. Once you have sufficient space around you, you'll have plenty of elbow room. 

If you give something elbow grease, you've put effort into it. Giving a person the elbow is to dump them. Being out at the elbows (either a person or item of clothing) means to be tired or ragged.

Find yourself some elbow room, apply creativity and elbow room and enter this free poetry competition. If you win the £100 prize you'll be able to replace something you own which is out at the elbows. You'll also have your work published and illustrated and will receive a copy of the book.