Happy Monday WEbookers!

It's the beginning of another week and another month, and while you're all deep into the groove of writing your subs for March (because of course you are, aren't you?), we've been deliberating over the winner for February's subs...

February's challenge was (another) difficult one. Stories rely heavily on the characters that inhibit them, and by giving you characters and their traits to work with when crafting your sub, we intentionally removed one of your most valuable tools: the ability to sympathise with and understand your own characters.

The comments and chatter around the February Challenge portrayed a sense of uncomfortableness about having to work with pre-determined characters. And, there appeared to be a overarching agreement that in order to write a good story, you've got to be come up with the character on your own. You're not fan fiction writers, for goodness sake! Yet within the confines of a challenge that intentionally removed the malleability of your characters, there emerged a focus on the development of scene, intent, structure and a complexity of background.

While this was a hard challenge, those of you who did enter achieved some great results. In removing the emotional attachment a writer naturally has to their own characters, many subs were able to successfully invest this emotion into the other elements of the stories - and ultimately, that's what created the winners.


Remember that a challenge is just that; something that should take you out of your comfort zone. If you naturally recoil from a challenge brief, you should question why that is. What can you do to make this challenge work for you? Why does this approach make you feel uncomfortable?

Each time you explore a new approach to writing, you diversify yourself as an author. Your writing ability develops and you are able to deliver a stronger final product in your writing as a whole.

A huge thank you to everyone who entered the challenge in February. We really enjoyed reading all of your interpretations of our characters! It never ceases to amaze us how many different directions the same brief can take us in. While we had six characters to begin with, there were so many more at the end - because you had made them your own characters, in their own stories, living their own lives. Each Sarah may have loved blue, ribbed sweaters. But, no Sarah loved them for the same reason.

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