STEP 1: Story Writing guide

Know your goal

Writing a story may require time, perseverance, commitment, and dedication. If you start writing without a clear purpose in mind, you may waste all that effort. The first step to writing a story successfully is to understand our goal clearly. With The Voices in The Shadow, we want to “Give Black women and young Black girls the empowerment they need for them to feel that there is a place for them to flourish professionally.”

Know your audience

Knowing the audience you’re writing to is closely aligned with understanding the purpose of your writing. It will influence every aspect of your story, such as the tone you take. Remember! Your focus is on Black women and young Black girls. Therefore, since we will primarily focus on young women, you might want to make your writing easy to digest. 

Watch this video

Deadline: 30th June 2022

Click here to upload your story, bio and photo

1. When you click the link above, create your folder FIRST and save it under your first name and surname
2. Then upload your story, your biography and your photo(s)
3. Story maximum: 500 words or 2500 characters. Respect the maximum as your story will be automatically
4. Click here to access the example

Know how to tell your story

First, you should get your planning process down to fine art: find inspiration, get out of your house, nurture your voice and get to know yourself better. Before you begin writing, we recommend you put together an outline to organise your thoughts. This will allow you to have a clear structure (we advise you to craft a strong headline). 

When you finally start writing, be enthusiastic and straightforward about it. Start by grabbing the reader’s attention and concentrating all of your energies on keeping them interested. Ask yourself questions, starting with Who? What? Where? And Why? You can highlight important life events, learning experiences, and/or relationship experiences to have personalised content. Connect your information to real people or real events so that the reader can relate to you. 

But don’t get too carried away… you must follow a format. Your story can take up to 1 A4 page in font Arial 12. Make sure to write your story in 1st person and to keep a personal but objective tone. Use powerful vocabulary: We advise you to use thesaurus.com or grammarly.com. 

Share your story

Have someone proofread your writing to avoid any mistakes.

STEP 2: YOUR PHOTO

First, you should get your planning process down to fine art: find inspiration, get out of your house, nurture your voice and get to know yourself better. Before

Good photo 

• Low contrast 
• Clear background 
• Clear view of the face

Not acceptable photo 

• Busy background
• Face is unclear  
• High Contrast
• No full body shots

STEP 3: YOUR BIOGRAPHY

Click here to access a bio example to upload.

Deadline: 30th June 2022

Click here to upload your story, bio and photo

1. When you click the link above, create your folder FIRST and save it under your first name and surname
2. Then upload your story, your biography and your photo(s)
3. Story maximum: 500 words or 2500 characters. Respect the maximum as your story will be automatically
4. Click here to access the example