Sharyn Swanepoel

Attention Romance Writers

Even if you are just starting out as a writer, like I am, I’d encourage you to check out writing competitions with Romance Writers of Australia.

It was through entering the Sweet Treats competition in January 2020 that I had the first news that my short story was going to be included in their annual anthology! All of their competitions come with feedback, which is so vital in improving.

This gave me the encouragement I needed to take a few bigger steps with my writing, and before I knew it I had stories in three different anthologies, all published within weeks of each other. Such a surprise, not to mention motivation to keep going with my writing.

Not only that, being a part of RWA is how I found ‘my tribe’. A group of writers all at a similar stage to me, who now meet (online) once a week to critique each others work. Though this group I have not only grown immensely as a writer, but we are working on producing our our anthology too, to be released in 2021.

I am a former journalist and have always been a reader. I had always said I would love to write my own book one day, but is only in the last few years I have started to think it could be a reality. For years I have attended various writers workshops, and interview many fabulous authors, but it was only after one of my short stories was selected to be in an anthology that I had the courage to push further on my writing dream. I've since had over a dozen short stories published, and getting closer to my goal of having my own book.

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