What is the point?
Awards news, Summer Programme Mentees and much more
News, events, resources and opportunities
Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2025 - deadline 2nd June.
Idea Idol is BACK! Judged by Katie Blagden. Open until 30th June.
Faber Launches 2025 FAB Prize - deadline Friday 25th July.
Undiscovered Voices - deadline 8th September.
Hub Calendar (all times GMT/BST)
May
Hub catch up Monday 5th 8pm with Melissa
YA Chat Tuesday 6th 7pm with Melinda Salisbury
MG Chat Thursday 8th 7.30pm with Vashti Hardy
PB Chat Tuesday 13th 7pm with Rachael Davis
Q&A Thursday 15th 5pm on writing IP with Clare Wallace
PitchHero: Friday 16th Clare Wallace (pitch on Thursday/before 10am Friday)
June
Hub catch up Monday 2nd 8pm with Melissa
YA Chat Tuesday 3rd 7pm with Melinda Salisbury
Writer’s Toolkit: Wednesday 4th 12pm - Polish your Pitches with Florianne
MG Chat Thursday 12th 7.30pm with Vashti Hardy
PB Chat Tuesday 10th 7pm with Rachael Davis
Agent/Editor Q&A: Friday 20th 10am with Hazel Holmes, Agent at Northernlit and Publisher at UCLan Publishing
A full calendar is here: https://write-mentor.com/events/
All sessions are recorded and available to watch back, so don’t fret about being there ‘live’. This is just a few of the many sessions/opportunities that happen every month in the Hub and are all available on catch-up if you join now.
We’re also delighted to announce another way to connect with us and the whole community:
WriteMentor Picture Book and Novel Awards 2025
Here are the longlists for the 2025 awards by category:
https://write-mentor.com/2025/05/05/writementor-awards-the-longlists/
Congratulations to everyone who made it, and indeed to all of you who were brave enough to enter! You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and if not this time, perhaps next year might be yours!
Our readers noted that the standard was exceptional this year with very few entries not at a high standard - much of the judging therefore was on the basis of potential commercial appeal and taste among other factors - all subjective, so not personal in any way, so remember it’s not about you or even your story.
WriteMentor Summer Mentoring 2025
Congratulations to all those selected by mentors for our summer programme last week. A full list is here: https://write-mentor.com/2025/05/01/writementor-summer-programme-2025-mentor-mentee-pairings/
We also have drawn the submission package winners - your mentor will be in touch to send over materials to, but in the meantime, the full list of winners is here:
https://write-mentor.com/2025/05/05/submission-package-winners/
We’re sorry we couldn’t help more of you - please so apply again next year although hopefully many of you will be in a position where you perhaps don’t need it by then!
Wishing you all the Force in the world as you move forward with your writing!
The Final Word
By Stuart White
What is the point?
We all ask ourselves this question at some time or another. Some of us may even ask it on a daily basis!
But the truth is that we all have moments/periods of self doubt. Those days where we sit down for the 58th consecutive day to write yet more awful words into the never finished word document that seems to swallow more of your energy than you are capable of mustering.
So let me introduce you to my friend, Bilbo.
Bilbo was named after a rather famous literary character, by his bookworm and writer parents, and so he grew up always wanting to be a writer himself.
However Bilbo found that as life got more complicated and he needed to pay for his mortgage and children amongst many other things that he had to forgo writing in favour of a more ‘traditional’ job. He became a fireman, mostly because the many days off in between shifts gave him ample time to smoke his favoured pipeweed with his friends from the Iron Mountains.
But the writing bug never left him and one day he picked up his quill and began writing story and story, sending them off to the various important people who considered if your work was to be published.
They all said no. Repeatedly and without wavering.
And for a time, as the years passed, Bilbo began to ask that age old question - what is the point? He was giving up time with his young hobbit children, swimming in the Brandywine or throwing soft apples at the Sackville-Baggins’ windows.
And finally one day, as Bilbo sat at his writing desk, he dropped his quill, sighed and stared out of his window, where his children were playing, and he was missing out as usual, and declared ‘I am done.’
But as he stood, a familiar hand clamped him hard on the shoulder. It pressed him back into his seat.
‘Do not give up, Bilbo. There is a point,’ said a familiar, but more gravelly voice.
‘And what point is that?’ asked a grumpy Bilbo, unhappy he had been so aggressive handled in his own hole.
(sorry I did consider editing that sentence above because…well…but I think it loses impact if I did and he literally lives in a hole, so it stays)
‘One day, a child will open one of your stories and the hope it gives them will cause them to change the direction of their life. Your words will literally save them. They will never forget them, and one day they will queue for 2 hours for you to sign their book and they will tell your their story and how you saved them, and you will leave that bookstore and go home and sit in this very chair and you will know the point.’
The man with the gravelly voice was uneerily familiar to Bilbo, but when he tried to turn around and see who this stranger was, he was gone. Instead, a small sheet of parchment lay on the dusty floor.
It read:
Dearest Bilbo,
We have just spoken but I only had limited time - the spell that Gandalf had cast did not give me long, so I wrote down some of it here, to leave for you to read in your own time.
This will be hard to believe, but I am you, and you are me. 20 years apart, mind you - I remember thinking I looked old when I was your age, but how I wish I could go back and be as young as you now. Such is this mortal, aging and extremely quick existence we live.
In a few years from now, you will have a book published. In 10 years, you will have several and your books will be read by all the children in the Shire, and even some in Bree!
In 15 years, your name will be renowned as an author from the Bay of Belfalas to the Lonely Mountain. Children and their parents will queue for hours to speak to you for a few moments and to get your signature on their books.
And you will find that writing/life balance and be able to spend more time with our dear wife and our incredible younglings.
So treasure every moment of this journey - the destination is great but all these years of writing have been the real joy. You will get there, and I hope that brings you some comfort, as I know there are still many dark days ahead before that happens.
Success is the reward of those who can keep walking forward when there is no hope of ever escaping the darkness. As so many will give up and turn back, even though the light is just around the next corner, if only they’d kept the faith.
Take care of yourself, and go easy on the pipeweed - you will be grateful in 20 year’s time, trust me!
Yours,
Bilbo Baggins Esq.
So the next time you’re wondering - what is the point? Remember Bilbo’s tale. Not the There and Back again journey, but the one of faith and hope when in the moment there seems like there’s none at all.
There’s a future-YOU out there, desperate to come back to you now and tell you it will all work out, if only you keep going and chasing those dreams.
So keep at it, writers. Dream big and you never know what the future will hold.
Writing can be lonely, but it doesn’t need to be
May the Force be with you!
Stuart, Florianne and Melissa
Thanks - very helpful.