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WELCOME

Thanks for dropping in. I hope you find my website useful. More years ago than I care to admit, I took a degree in English Language and Literature. Even though I really wanted to be a writer, my father convinced me that teaching was a more reliable profession, and most of my career has been spent lecturing in English at sixth form level. Although I love education, the hankering to write has never gone away, and a few years ago I took a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. It was the best thing I ever did!

At long last, I understand both ends of the writing process: the planning and editing required to produce a text, and the reading and analysis it takes to appreciate it. I’m finally fully joined up! Along the way, I’ve learned a lot about the habits of good writers. I try to put these into practice in my own writing, and it occurred to me that my hard-won knowledge might be useful to other writers – hence this blog. If it can save you some of the mistakes I’ve made, then it’ll be worth it.

Each section consists of a different aspect of writing – style, characterisation, description etc – and each blog entry draws your attention to a writer or writers that demonstrate skill in this area.

I do hope it is helpful.

Kind regards

Gill Thompson

 


WRITING AWARDS

2012 Winner, Flash fiction prize Winchester writers’ festival for The Six Ages of Woman.

2015 Runner up, University of Chichester Thresholds short story feature writing competition for Katherine Mansfield: A Woman of Words

2015 Long-listed, Mslexia novel writing Competition for White Stock

2016 Runner up, Words with Jam/ Triskele Books novel competition with White Stock.

2016 Highly Commended Winchester Writers’ Festival First Three Pages of a Novel competition for White Stock

2017 Short-listed Evesham short story competition for Finding Herself

2017 Short-listed Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Prize for White Stock


PUBLISHED Stories and articles

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Spectator: Running Magazine 1996

Using Quotations: emag February 2009

Using Maths in English: emag April 2010

The Christmas Wish List : Yours Magazine December 2011

Textual Hybrids: emag February 2011

The Curious Voice of ‘The Curious Incident’: emag April 2011

The Six Ages of Woman: The Best of 2014 (Winchester Writers’ Festival)

Leonie Speaking: emag December 2016

Finding Herself: Best Stories from 2017 (Evesham festival of words).