(Bluesky/Instagram: @madeleinefwhite)
As we come into March – one of the most important months in my personal calendar, linked as it is to women’s empowerment – it seems fitting that this is the final month we reflect on Choices. If, like me, you use words to make sense of the world, then our choices are not only lived; they’re shaped, examined and, sometimes, redeemed on the page.
I’ve been thinking about this a great deal since the recent visit by their Majesties, King Charles III and Queen Camilla, to Barking. At the end of the Pen to Print presentation, I was introduced to the Queen, curtsied, and we spoke briefly. I shared my own origin story; the one that led, ultimately, to the creation of Write On! magazine.
Later, I found myself searching online for proof that I’d really been there, as though a photograph might anchor the moment in something tangible. Not because I doubted it happened, but because part of me still recognises how easily experiences can slip away, unrecorded and unheld.
So I wrote a reflection on my phone instead. By doing so I realised that coming to England at ten and surviving family trauma by losing myself in stories, has directly led to the work I do now. Building editorial spaces and trust frameworks is rooted in that early experience. I know what it is to feel unseen, what it costs to write yourself into being… So I build systems that catch stories before they vanish.
Perhaps that’s why March feels so significant. It holds the start of spring, along with other special days that remind us of connection, resilience and possibility. International Women’s Day, World Wildlife Day and the International Day of Happiness contribute to this — all wonderful for sharing writing inspiration. Our editors are certainly making the most of it.
On Write On! Audio, you’ll find writers’ tips from our Associate Editor and former Woman’s Weekly deputy fiction editor, Clare Cooper. Meanwhile, in Write On! Extra, Jilly Henderson-Long uses Thursday Connectors to give the National Year of Reading a well-deserved spotlight. Just a taste of our vibrant digital pages, where we continue to showcase new writers alongside old favourites.
And, of course, we’re preparing the spring edition of Write On! for you. Issue 28, sponsored by Hay Festival and featuring multi-million bestseller, Alison Weir, is out on 16 April.
In the meantime, do take a moment to explore all our previous issues here.
As ever, it’s your work and ideas being featured: co-creation in action. So please do see our submissions guidelines here. and submit around our new theme (from April): Borrowed.
Write On! Audio, the podcast ‘For Writers Everywhere’ connects emerging and established writers to each other, the publishing industry and a wider audience in an audio celebration of diversity, originality and excellence. 
