Archive for category Competitions
CheerReader Humourous Short Story Competition 2012
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions on January 30, 2012
Here’s a nice contrast to the competition I mentioned last week about death and dying.
Brian David from the CheerReader website has asked me to give their quarterly short story competitions a mention – and they want stories that will make the reader laugh.
The theme for each competition is – anything, as long as it’s funny. 100 Euros is the prize on offer for the winner in each of the 4 competitions. The winner plus commended stories will be published on the website.
The maximum word count is 1500 and the entry fee is 5 Euros (payable via PayPal). The closing dates are March 15th 2012, June 15th 2012, September 15 th 2012 and December 15th 2012. Winners will be announced 2 weeks after each closing date.
There are plenty of stories on the website to give you an idea of what goes down well with the organisers. Have a look here.
The full competition details are here.
5 Word Challenge – The Answer
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Writing on January 18, 2012
The 5 word sentence, where each of the 5 words is identical is:
Image via Wikipedia
Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
The meaning is:
Buffalo buffalo (i.e. buffalo that live in Buffalo) buffalo (i.e a verb meaning to intimidate or fight) Buffalo buffalo (i.e. buffalo that live in Buffalo).
This is also explained here and a longer more complicated version is here. One day this knowledge might make you the winner of a pub quiz!
Whilst we’re on the subject of short pieces of writing, here are a couple of flash fiction competitions:
- Early Works Press are offering £75 first prize plus two runners-up prizes of £10 for a 100-word story. Entry is £3.50 and the closing date is 31/8/2012. Full details here.
- Multi-Story want 600 words and offer prizes of £300, £100 and £50 for an entry fee of £5 (or £8 for 2 stories). It’s an open theme and the closing date is 29th February 2012. Full details are here.
Valentine’s Day Short Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions on January 5, 2012
Gail Lawler has asked me to give a mention to the Valentine’s Day short story competition that she is running through the website www.5minutefiction.co.uk. Entries should be on the subject of ‘Love’ and must be between 100 and 1,500 words in length.
The entry fee is £1 per story and the prizes are Amazon vouchers to the value of £30, £20 and £10 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes respectively. These 3 winners, plus up to 20 additional entries, will be considered for publication in an e-book anthology and will receive a share of the royalties. The rules also state that ‘all entries will receive feedback’.
Entry is via email and the entry fee is payable via PayPal. Closing date is 5th February 2012 and the winning stories will be published on the website on 14th February 2012.
I’m sure that most of us have written a story at sometime on the theme of love, so with such a reasonable entry fee, now is the time to dig it out, polish it up and send it on its way!
But first check out the full terms and conditions here.
New Year’s Resolutions…or maybe not
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Writing on December 28, 2011
I don’t like New Year’s resolutions for two reasons – both related to the fact that they have to be made public. Firstly, when you say aloud something that you really want to do, it can sound impossible to achieve or just stupid – and that is a bad way to start. Secondly, once everyone knows that you’re training for a marathon or writing a novel, they will keep asking how you are doing. This is fine when things are going well but it’s awful to have to own up if you’re struggling. So I am going to keep my own aspirations to myself this year and instead I’ll just share a few mini-goals that I’ve put on my ‘Writing To Do List’ fot the first part of 2012:
- Enter all 4 of Eddie Walsh’s Emerald Writing Workshops 500 word story competitions plus the 4 sentence story. I intend to send them all together in one envelope (saving money on stamps!) before the first closing date of 28th February 2012. I’ve already drafted most of them – I just need an idea for the story set on a train…
- Enter Della Galton’s competition for a 250 word story about a New Year’s resolution that went wrong. The prize is a copy of her new book ‘Moving On’. Closes 10am Jan 4th.
- Enter The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2012 competition. Stories on the theme of ‘Identity’ of up to 2,000 words. Closes 14th February 2012. I really fancy the prize – £500 plus an Arvon course.
- Enter the Swanwick 2012 competition for a story or article on the theme ‘A Sense of Duty’. First prize is a week at the Swanwick summer school. Closes 30th April 2012. I fancy there will be fewer entrants in the article section but at the moment I’m struggling to come up with an idea.
Finally, (following yet another rejection from Take a Break’s Fiction Feast) I am going to stop banging my head against a brick wall on markets that my writing is obviously not suited for.
Happy New Year to you all – and thanks for sticking with me through 2011!
NAWG Short Story Competition 2011 Critique
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Writing on December 14, 2011
A couple of months ago I entered the National Association of Writers’ Groups short story competition and I paid £3 extra for a critique by Linda Lewis. The story I sent had already been in 2 competitions (without success!) but I am fond of it and decided it deserved one more chance.
Again, it came nowhere but this time I found out why. Linda was very gentle but constructive in her comments. She explained that the story didn’t include enough information about the heroine to enable the reader to care what happened to her. Essentially I was writing about a lonely old lady in hospital but I didn’t explain why she had no visitors or what she’d done with her life (all rather obvious stuff when I look at it now). Linda also said that this kind of story had been written many times before (and I thought my idea was original!).
So now I know where I went wrong. I still like the story so I’m going to add some background information and try to think of a twist to make it a bit more unique. Then I’ll look for somewhere else to send it.
Linda writes a regular column in Writers’ Forum magazine and is offering a critique service through her website (don’t be scared – she knows how to phrase things kindly!).
Alan Sillitoe Open Poetry Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Poetry on December 1, 2011
When entering a competition it’s always nice to know where the entry fees are going. The Alan Sillitoe Open Poetry
Image by wynlok via Flickr
Competition is raising funds to commission a statue of him, in Nottingham (£50,000 is needed). Alan died in 2010 and was one of Nottingham’s most distinguished 20th century writers.
Poems can be on any subject but must be no more than 40 lines. Entry fee is £3 (or £10 for 4 poems). Entry is by post only. The closing date is 10th January 2012 and winners will be notified in February. Full details are here.
If you are a fan of Sillitoe’s work (Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner etc.) you can make a donation to the statue fund here and be mentioned on their ‘Wall of Honour’.
Win ‘Write Copy, Make Money’
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions on November 24, 2011
Work Your Way have 2 signed copies of ‘Write Copy, Make Money’ by Andy Maslen to give away.
- What are the 7 essential personal qualities you need to be a successful freelance copywriter?
- What is the single biggest mistake most freelance copywriters make when quoting fees? (What should you do instead?)
- How do you go about winning that all-important first copywriting job?
This book, written by one of the UK’s leading and most successful freelance copywriters, has the answers and much more more.
But you’ll have to be quick because this competition closes tomorrow (25/11) but it’s easy to enter. Just like Work Your Way on Facebook, and leave a nifty bit of copy on their wall to finish the following sentence: “Work your way for…..” For example “Work your way for … a better work life balance.”
Have a quick look around the Work Your Way website to get some ideas.
Snapshots of History
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Markets on November 21, 2011
Do you have an interest in history? Have you ever written a story set in the past? Have you ever heard of the publication Snapshots of History?
Snapshots of History is a quarterly journal dedicated to all aspects of historical short story writing. It was set up in 2010 and comprises an ongoing serial, short stories, a members’ corner for information of interest plus a quarterly competition. The best entry receives £15 and is printed in the magazine. Runners up may also be included in the journal. There is a £3 entry fee for non-subscribers. Stories should be between 1,000 and 2,500 words and be set no later than the end of the Second World War – and historical accuracy is important.
An annual subscription to the magazine costs £7.50 or individual copies can be bought for £2.00.
Full details are available here.
Don’t forget that some of the women’s magazines also take historical short stories. Writer Joanna Barnden penned a guest post on the subject for the Womag Writer’s Blog. It contains general advice plus some market tips. Read it here.
Reflected Glory
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Successes on November 17, 2011
Sometime ago on this blog I mentioned a competition run by the West Country Writers’ Association to win a weekend away at their Annual Congress in 2012 (see here). This is a competition they run every year (and I was the lucky 2011 winner).
Well, I’m pleased to announce that the 2012 winner is Tracy Fells – who found the competition on this blog (hence my reflected glory!) and left a comment to let me know of her win. Congratulations, Tracy!
Tracy also heard about 2 other successes on the same day as this win – visit her blog to read about them.
If anyone else has any successes from anything I mention on this blog, please let me know so that we can all share it. I find it spurs me on to know that ‘ordinary’ people are winning things and getting published – if they can do it then so can the rest of us!
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