Here are the latest newsletters:
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Welcome to the October monthly writing news about all
that's been happening and is coming up at Retreat West!
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We had a fantastic
time at the Online Flash Fest last
month and if you couldn't make it, there's still time to get a
Recordings ticket and watch all the sessions in your own time. They'll
be available until we announce the info on the next event, which will
be coming pretty soon!
We launched our new WestWord
journal last month too with a special edition featuring stories that
came from the first two Online Flash Fests. You can read them all here. We are
opening for general submissions for the first time on 1st January 2023.
We want short stories, flash fictions and micros on the theme of
VISION. See all the submission info here.
There are lots of changes
coming up and 2022 marks the end of an era for some of our competitions
and book publishing as we move on to new and exciting writing ventures
instead. We hope you'll stay with us to keep developing your own craft
and discovering great writers and stories too.
In January 2023,
amazingly it will have been 3 years since we launched our fab online community
and we have over 200 writers who have joined us to keep learning about
writing and make connections. We've taken the difficult decision to
increase membership costs from January for the first time since we
started. So our Community Collaborator membership will go up from £25
to £35 and the Editorial Enthusiast from £50 to £60. Any existing
members on those packages get to keep the original price but all
new members will join at the higher price from 9th January 2023. This
is still great value to get writing sessions, workshops, feedback and
more included!
With love from Amanda and Gaynor x
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Change to final Quarterly
Themed Flash comp
To celebrate the end of
an era at Retreat West, we have changed the final competition to an
open theme. This is your last chance to win this contest and get
published on the website as we're no longer running it after this
year!
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2023 First Chapter
Contest launched
The new details of this
ever popular novel contest are now live. Our judge is Rachel Mann,
a literary agent at the Jo Unwin Literary Agency (JULA)
in London. You have until January to get your novel openings polished
up!
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Last chance to get in the
RW Prize anthology!
You have until the 30th
of this month to send your short stories, flash fiction, and micro
fictions to get in the final prize anthology as this contest is ending
after this year too! This will be our 7th anthology of stories from
this prize and we really want to make it a great one! So send us your
brilliant stories that make us laugh, cry, shiver and shake!
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Lots of great stuff
coming up throughout the rest of the year for our Zoom workshops. They
are just £5 or some are included with our Community Membership,
which starts at just £25 for a year. You an also access recordings of some of our past events
if you missed them and want to catch up.
Coming up we have:
October
Weds 12th - 19.00 GMT
(members only)
International Flash -
Around the World in Tiny Tales with Nora Nadjarian
Sat 15th - 11.00 GMT
Building Fiction Using
the Scaffolding of Identity with Mandira Pattnaik
November
Sat 19th - 11.00 GMT
Rework - Spark Life into
Tired Drafts with Sarah M. Jasat
Sat 26th - 11.00 GMT
What is a Flash Moment?
with Anita Goveas
Weds 30th - 19.00 GMT
(members only)
Authenticity and Voice in
Flash Fiction with Catherine McNamara
December
Sat 10th - 11.00 GMT
What's Your Story?
Uncover the Meaning Behind the Narrative with Amy Lord
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Join Amanda
for this 2-hour workshop on using conflict to develop your story
and character.
"Characters are where all my writing comes
from. I love how the conflict the story provides help them to
develop. This 2 hours of character-led fun will help you discover
how to make things hard for your character, to ultimately make
them better." Amanda
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We have some great
courses to help you develop your craft, meet writing pals and get new
words on the page.
We now have four email
courses available on our Pay What You Can Afford model, all of them
starting at just £15.
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Telling Tales with the
Tao
I am looking for 15
people to take part in a test course with me so that I can work out the
concept with your feedback. The course is going to be 10 weeks long and
focused on writing longer short stories (3,000 words plus) inspired by
different chapters of the Tao Te Ching, which is a huge interest of
mine!
You'll get detailed
developmental feedback on 5 of the 10 stories you'll create and short
feedback on the course forum on the other 5. I'll also ask you to take
part in feedback surveys to help me develop the course further for the
final version.
Will be great for those
of you who want to write longer stories and if you have any interest in
finding out more about Daoism and how its philosophy can help us write
stories with real depth and resonance.
As it is a test, the
price is just £100. We will start on the first Monday in December and
the course will run on our community platform with a private forum
space. Content will be posted weekly, with a break for festive season,
and it will be accessible 24/7 so you can work through it at any time
that suits you best.
Really looking forward to
it and I hope you'll join me! You can book on this link: https://buy.stripe.com/6oE8xffkw7Oddq05mD and
I will send more info soon.
Amanda x
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ONLY 5 SPACES LEFT!
The latest
version of Amanda's hugely popular flash fiction course. Stories
from previous courses have won/placed in competitions and been
widely published.
Starts: 31st
Oct
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ONLY 3 SPACES LEFT!
Join Amanda
for a series of Zoom workshops to take your flash fiction writing
to the next level.
Starts: 12th
Dec
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Retreat West | Apt 3735 Chynoweth House
Trevissome Park Truro
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Saturday 15th October 11am £5
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This one-hour
workshop focuses on inspiring writers to draw from their roots — from
their history, tradition, culture and heritage — to write
fiction pieces. We’ll look at uncoiling the helices of identity, and
using those strands to add layers and depth to narratives, aiming to
make our stories unique, rich in nuances and strong in details.
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Monthly Micro Competition is now live!
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It's time for our monthly micro competition!
The
prompt this month is "warning" and you can interpret it in
any way that you wish. Good luck! We're excited to read your stories
...
Find all of the information you need about our
monthly micro competition at the link below 👇
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