The standard of entries was so high last year, it feels a bit unnecessary to be offering you any advice! The biggest challenge, of course, is keeping to the word limit. It’s essential, I’m afraid. Any entries which exceed the limit will be disqualified. Remember that tiny actions and snippets of dialogue can convey an enormous amount of character and location. Temperature of fur and colour of leaves will instantly set the time of year, for example.

You can take the story in any direction you like: funny, tragic, sad, hopeful. Perhaps the mysterious cat’s mysterious words aren’t even a prophecy? They can relate to the smallest, least significant event, or something momentous in the history of a Clan. I genuinely don’t know who the mysterious cat is, so feel free to make your own decision.

Cinderpaw and Yellowfang don’t have to feature in your story. If you choose to set your scenes in the past or future, other cats will be involved. You can use characters from the Warriors cast lists, or make up your own. The prophecy doesn’t have to be explained and resolved if you’d rather end on a cliffhanger – though I would like to see a clear connection with Yellowfang’s dream encounter.

My top tip is to write the story that you want, then edit it down. And down, and down, and down until the bare, dazzling bones remain. It is surprising how much you can say with so few words! I find it often helps to read a manuscript out loud, because that makes it easier to spot words that don’t work as well as they should. “Write lightly” is something I often used to tell Kate and Cherith; it means, don’t get bogged down in the details. Let your fingers dance over the keyboard, sit tall and straight so that you can breathe to the bottom of your lungs, let the action play like a movie behind your eyes.

The Erin team and I are here waiting with our popcorn, ready to be pulled into your fabulous worlds.

Good luck!
Vicky