Featured writer week 15

I’m really proud of the little community that has sprung up around the Wednesday Write-in over the last 15 weeks. It’s really inspiring to see the same people coming back week after week, and to watch their writing improve as they practise. I just want to thank you all for taking part and for commenting and keeping the community alive.

I do however want to remind everyone to be honest and critical in their responses, wherever possible. This doesn’t mean you have to be rude; an encouraging, constructive critical response will be infinitely more useful to the recipient than lavishing praise. Also, if you don’t often comment – and I know many of us are busy – try and make the time for just one. The more you reach out to other writers, the more you will get back in return.

As a guide: if you have something critical to say, try and pick out at least one thing you enjoyed, and something you think the writer could do better. Be encouraging.

 

And now, without further ado, time for our Featured Writer!

Week 15

Untitled by Fallible Opinions.

Fallible always has something very interesting to say in his stories, and I really enjoyed the tension in this piece. The descriptions are incredibly vivid and put you right there in the seat with the protagonist. And then, like all the best short stories, it finishes on a really fascinating turn and leaves you wanting more.

Please take a moment to readand leave him some feedback.

Featured writers weeks 13 & 14

Once again, an apology. NaNoWriMo kept me very busy, but I managed to hit the 50,000 word target on Tuesday! So now I’m back and have time to update the featured writers every week.

Today I am posting the winners of weeks 13 and 14 – I will post week 15’s winner tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled.

Week 13

The Cheat by Elaine McKay.

The piece is a beautifully observed and sensitive look at a relationship that isn’t quite working, but with the added complication of a child caught in the middle. Elaine has a great grasp of people and you can tell that she really feels for this character.

Please take a moment to read The Cheat and leave Elaine some feedback.

Week 14

Grey is grey is grey by Patrick Prinsloo.

This is another really touching piece about a close relationship, and the tensions between the two characters involved. Patrick has a great sense for character and creates really strong voices, which is evident here.

Please take a moment to read Grey is grey is grey and leave Patrick some feedback.

 

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the winner of week 15!

Wednesday Write-in #15

Welcome to the Wednesday Write-in!

CAKE.shortandsweet runs a write-in every week to writers to practise their skills, and get chatting to each other about their work. Everyone is welcome to join in, and the more people you tell, the more everyone will get out of it.

Don’t forget to join our CAKE.writers group on Scribophile.

 

Prompts

shock  ::  pancakes  ::  dust  ::  tremor  ::   instrument

Guidelines

There are no hard and fast rules, but here are some brief guidelines:

• You can use the prompts as inspiration or try to work them into your story somehow. Use as many as you want.
• When your story is done, post it online (your blog/twitter/in a comment here), tag with #wednesdaywritein and comment with a link so we can read it. You can write as many stories as you like.
• Please take the time to read and comment on as many other stories as you can.

Featured Story

We’ll feature our favourite story on the blog with a review of it and links to the author’s blog/twitter/facebook if relevant.

Posts will generally go up at 9am(ish) on Wednesday – stories are due by 10am Thursday (UK) to be considered for the featured story. You can keep posting your work after this, it just won’t be featured.

The winner will also be eligible to publish on our special CAKE.shortandsweet genre through Ether Books.

Rewards

We’ll keep track of who takes part in the write-ins, and you earn points for different things.

• Take part in a write-in = 1 point.
• Comment on other people’s stories = 1 point.
• Share/reblog this post = 1 point.

When you reach ten points the editing team will give detailed feedback on a story of your choice. This only counts for separate sessions—so if you write five stories for one write-in, that counts as one, and if you share on both facebook and twitter, that’s one.

 

Please look for us on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with the write-ins, or click the follow button to get blog updates!

Don’t forget to read our Previous Issues and check out the Submissions page if you’d like to be a CAKE.author!

 

Any questions? Otherwise, have fun writing!

Wednesday Write-in #14

Welcome to the Wednesday Write-in!

CAKE.shortandsweet runs a write-in every week to writers to practise their skills, and get chatting to each other about their work. Everyone is welcome to join in, and the more people you tell, the more everyone will get out of it.

NaNoWriMo is blazing onwards – how is everyone getting on?

 

Prompts

dizzy  ::  spit  ::  replacement  ::  grey  ::  campfire

Guidelines

There are no hard and fast rules, but here are some brief guidelines:

• You can use the prompts as inspiration or try to work them into your story somehow. Use as many as you want.
• When your story is done, post it online (your blog/twitter/in a comment here), tag with #wednesdaywritein and comment with a link so we can read it. You can write as many stories as you like.
• Please take the time to read and comment on as many other stories as you can.

Featured Story

We’ll feature our favourite story on the blog with a review of it and links to the author’s blog/twitter/facebook if relevant.

Posts will generally go up at 9am(ish) on Wednesday – stories are due by 10am Thursday (UK) to be considered for the featured story. You can keep posting your work after this, it just won’t be featured.

The winner will also be eligible to publish on our special CAKE.shortandsweet genre through Ether Books.

Rewards

We’ll keep track of who takes part in the write-ins, and you earn points for different things.

• Take part in a write-in = 1 point.
• Comment on other people’s stories = 1 point.
• Share/reblog this post = 1 point.

When you reach ten points the editing team will give detailed feedback on a story of your choice. This only counts for separate sessions—so if you write five stories for one write-in, that counts as one, and if you share on both facebook and twitter, that’s one.

 

Please look for us on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with the write-ins, or click the follow button to get blog updates!

Don’t forget to read our Previous Issues and check out the Submissions page if you’d like to be a CAKE.author!

 

Any questions? Otherwise, have fun writing!

CAKE on Sunday

Thanks to those who braved the icy temperatures today to join us in Nexus Art Café for some writing and cake pops!

We had a lot of fun today and some of us even got some NaNoWriMo written. Jon has written up a quick rundown of what we did and posted the lovely stories he wrote at the meeting. You can read them on his blog here.

We also released a preview of our upcoming short story collection, which you can download and read here!

download the .pdf to read!

Wednesday Write-in #13

Welcome to the Wednesday Write-in!

CAKE.shortandsweet runs a write-in every week to writers to practise their skills, and get chatting to each other about their work. Everyone is welcome to join in, and the more people you tell, the more everyone will get out of it.

 

Prompts

shatter  ::  wasp  ::  fresh bread  ::  sorry  ::  singed

Guidelines

There are no hard and fast rules, but here are some brief guidelines:

• You can use the prompts as inspiration or try to work them into your story somehow. Use as many as you want.
• When your story is done, post it online (your blog/twitter/in a comment here), tag with #wednesdaywritein and comment with a link so we can read it. You can write as many stories as you like.
• Please take the time to read and comment on as many other stories as you can.

Featured Story

We’ll feature our favourite story on the blog with a review of it and links to the author’s blog/twitter/facebook if relevant.

Posts will generally go up at 9am(ish) on Wednesday – stories are due by 10am Thursday (UK) to be considered for the featured story. You can keep posting your work after this, it just won’t be featured.

The winner will also be eligible to publish on our special CAKE.shortandsweet genre through Ether Books.

Rewards

We’ll keep track of who takes part in the write-ins, and you earn points for different things.

• Take part in a write-in = 1 point.
• Comment on other people’s stories = 1 point.
• Share/reblog this post = 1 point.

When you reach ten points the editing team will give detailed feedback on a story of your choice. This only counts for separate sessions—so if you write five stories for one write-in, that counts as one, and if you share on both facebook and twitter, that’s one.

 

Please look for us on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with the write-ins, or click the follow button to get blog updates!

Don’t forget to read our Previous Issues and check out the Submissions page if you’d like to be a CAKE.author!

 

Any questions? Otherwise, have fun writing!

Featured writer week 12

Featured writer week 12 – our shortest featured piece yet!

Congratulations to Craig for working in all five prompts in just 39 words. This tiny piece of microfiction speaks worlds about its main character, conveying an awful lot of backstory in a beautifully concise manner.

So, will you all be writing microfiction next week?

Wednesday Write-in #12

Welcome to the Wednesday Write-in!

CAKE.shortandsweet runs a write-in every week to writers to practise their skills, and get chatting to each other about their work. Everyone is welcome to join in, and the more people you tell, the more everyone will get out of it.

We hope everyone is getting on well with NaNoWriMo, those of you brave enough to try!

 

Prompts

carpet burn  ::  disagreement  ::  woodsmoke  ::  melt  ::  tie pin

Guidelines

There are no hard and fast rules, but here are some brief guidelines:

• You can use the prompts as inspiration or try to work them into your story somehow. Use as many as you want.
• When your story is done, post it online (your blog/twitter/in a comment here), tag with #wednesdaywritein and comment with a link so we can read it. You can write as many stories as you like.
• Please take the time to read and comment on as many other stories as you can.

Featured Story

We’ll feature our favourite story on the blog with a review of it and links to the author’s blog/twitter/facebook if relevant.

Posts will generally go up at 9am(ish) on Wednesday – stories are due by 10am Thursday (UK) to be considered for the featured story. You can keep posting your work after this, it just won’t be featured.

The winner will also be eligible to publish on our special CAKE.shortandsweet genre through Ether Books.

Rewards

We’ll keep track of who takes part in the write-ins, and you earn points for different things.

• Take part in a write-in = 1 point.
• Comment on other people’s stories = 1 point.
• Share/reblog this post = 1 point.

When you reach ten points the editing team will give detailed feedback on a story of your choice. This only counts for separate sessions—so if you write five stories for one write-in, that counts as one, and if you share on both facebook and twitter, that’s one.

 

Please look for us on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with the write-ins, or click the follow button to get blog updates!

Don’t forget to read our Previous Issues and check out the Submissions page if you’d like to be a CAKE.author!

 

Any questions? Otherwise, have fun writing!

CAKE.book announcement

Some of you may remember us putting a call out several months ago for writers to contribute to a book.

This has been bubbling along in the background of all the issues and write-ins, and we’re delighted to announce that our first official CAKE.shortandsweet collection will be published in the new year. It will feature brand new short stories by Sarah Grace Logan, Naomi Racz, Jacky Hillary and Helen Dring.

We will be sharing excerpts from the book at our special writer’s circle meeting on Sunday 18th November. If anybody would like a review copy before release, please let us know!

CAKE.writers celebrate, literary style

If you have some time on Sunday 18th November and you’re lucky enough to be located in or near Manchester, you should come and join us for a special bumper Writers’ Circle meeting.

We’re going to celebrate both NaNoWriMo and National Short Story Week in style with some workshops, some friendly discussion about our writing, and some free cake!

We also have another exciting announcement coming in the next few days, which you’ll be able to hear much more about at the meet up.

You can find out more and RSVP here on the facebook event page. Or download the flyer here.

CAKE.writers meet from 1 – 3 pm every first and third Sunday at Nexus Art Café on Dale Street in the Northern Quarter.