Click here to read Issue 2 of Write On! Magazine. This was published online in December 2013.
You know that the aim of Write On! is to be a magazine that engrosses and surprises and delights. Before anything else, it has to be a great read or there’s no point to it. But right from the very first ideas about it, we wanted Write On! to show young writers what it’s like working on a magazine. So we have deadlines, for instance, and my job has been to accept and reject pieces exactly as I always have with any magazine I’ve edited.
There was the one difference that if I rejected your piece, I did explain why. Sometimes it’s a straight no and I’ve discussed with you why the piece didn’t fit or – and I enjoyed this much more – I’ve worked with you on developing the pieces further. I already know that issue 3 will have some great pieces because they were very good when they came to me now and they’re going to be even better after the writers and I have worked on them.
But in all this focusing on the pieces you read and the pieces you write, there was a reminder for me. There’s an unwritten and unofficial rule about magazines that editors are never taught yet which we all learn quickly. It’s this: some writers will contribute once and never come back but, if you’re lucky, there will be a small core set who you can rely on to return and to be tremendous. Writing professionally needs you to keep on writing and to keep on writing very good pieces.
So I was immensely, just immensely pleased that Issue 2 welcomes back a small set of writers who had been stars in the first edition. Much as it is a treat to find a new young writer, it makes me professionally proud to see ones demonstrating a commitment to writing as well as a talent.
Writing is an art but it is also a craft and the best young writers of the West Midlands are here to show you both. I envy you reading the magazine now: you’ve got all these terrific pieces ahead of you. I hope you enjoy them as very, very much as I did.
William Gallagher – Write On! Magazine editor
Write On! Magazine is part of our Midlands Young Writers Programme, an initiative jointly managed by Writing West Midlands and Writing East Midlands and generously funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.