Happy new year...and a writing competition!

Enter to win a critique of your synopsis and first 10k words!

Hi everyone, HAPPY 2026!

I hope everyone had a restful Christmas break and that the New Year brings with it positivity and gratitude. I always find the festive period quite taxing but I like January, there’s something about the blank page that can feel quite exciting!

This is a special post for Paid Subscribers only; I ran a similar competition about six weeks ago and thought it would be a nice way to kick off the new year. I really want to keep the newsletter as helpful as possible so the Paid posts won’t be frequent, but I also want to give something back to those who do help support the Substack.

Anyway so, for all you Paid Subscibers, you have the chance to enter this competition! All you have to do is share the post and comment below with “happy 2026” to be in the running. Only Paid Subscribers will be able to comment and if you don’t comment, I won’t know you’ve entered, so make sure you do.

Next week I’ll choose a winner - by midnight GMT on Tuesday January 6th. If you’re not a Paid Subscriber but you’d like to be, you can sign up below. But there really is no obligation and the majority of posts will continue to be free.

You need to have a synopsis and 10,000 words ready; my background is commercial fiction, so I’ll be better at assessing that, but can look at other genres if helpful.

Happy writing and I hope 2026 makes all your dreams come true - or at least some of them! I am mid-edit on my sixth book, aiming to send it back to my agent in January, wish me luck…

Lots of good interviews coming up on the Honest Editor this year too, and I have a great list of new topics from you all that I want to cover, so please share with your friends!

Phoebe x