Writing Competitions to Enter in July

 

Summer is upon us and, with it, some new competitions to enter. If George Gissing could write 23 weighty novels and 111 publishable short stories in under thirteen years (see Valerie’s recent post about him on this blog) four weeks should be ample time to come up with a thousand words or so…

The Aurora Prize 2020 from Writing East Midlands is a national creative writing contest in two categories: poetry and short fiction. In each category there are first prizes of £500 and a session with Society of Authors staff. There are second prizes of £150 and third prizes of a one-day writing course of the winner’s choice from Writing East Midlands. Enter original, unpublished stories up to 2,000-words and poems up to 60 lines. The entry fee for the first entry is £9 and £7 for any further entries. Closing date is 8 July. Details from: https://writ.rs/auroraprize2020

Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition for stories up to 1,200-words on an open theme. Prizes: £200; £100; £50. Winning entries may be published in an anthology. Entry fee: £5. Closing date: 15 July. Details: http://www.wrekinwriters.co.uk

Ilkley Literature Festival Short Story and Walter Swan Poetry Competitions for stories 1,000-2,000-words; poems up to 30 lines. Prizes: £200 for short stories, £200, £100, £75 for adult poems, £100, £75, £50 and 18-25 year olds’ poems. Entry fee: £5. Deadline: 31 July. Details: ilkeleyliteraturefestival.org./uk

HISSAC Annual Open Short Story Competition for stories up to 2,000-words; flash fiction up to 500-words. No connection to Scotland needed, either by theme or entrant. Prizes: £200, £75 and £50 in both categories. Entry fee: £5; £12 for three; £18 for five. Deadline: 31 July. Details: http://www.hissac.co.uk

The Fiction Factory Flash Fiction Competition is looking for a maximum of 1,000-words on any subject, though they are not excepting children’s stories or YA. Prizes are: £150, £50 and £25. Entry is £5 for a single entry, £8 for two, £12 for three. Deadline is 31 July. Details from their website http://www.fiction-factory.biz

 

Norwich Writers Circle invite entries for the sixth Olga Sinclair Prize, its annual open fiction short story competition, inspired this year by the word ‘News‘ and celebrates the Norwich Post, which in 1705 became the first provincial newspaper to be published outside London. The first prize is £500, with two runners up prizes of £250 and £100. The top ten shortlisted stories will be later published in a 2020 Anthology and a gala prize-giving evening held in Norwich, circumstances permitting, on 3 November. The entry fee is £9 for the first story and £7 each for two or more stories. The deadline is 31st July. Details: https://norwichwriters.wordpress.com A member of ninevoices was shortlisted for this a few years back and although she didn’t win, did go on to revise the story and have it published in an anthology.

Do you live in Surrey? The free Surrey Life magazine and Guildford Book Festival invite original, unpublished short stories up to 1,000-words by unpublished Surrey residents. Shortlisted writers will be invited to the October festival launch, when the winner will be announced. Entry is free and the deadline 31 July. There is no mention of a monetary prize, but there is always La gloire and an opportunity to see your work in print. Details: https://writ/rs/surreylifecomp.

Because of our current situation, the British Czech & Slovac Association Competition for short stories and non-fiction, up to 2,000, exploring the links between Britain and the Czech/Slovak Republics at any time, has extended its deadline from the end of June to 31 July. Prizes: £400, £150, together with publication in the British Czech & Slovac Review and an invitation to a dinner – moreover, ENTRY IS FREE. The suggested, but optional, theme for 2020 is sporting. Surely some of you have humorous memories of sporting events that you have attended, or viewed on television. A batchelor party in Prague? Or maybe romantic lingerings on the wonderful Charles Bridge in your youth? Do get writing. Details: http://www.bcsa.co.uk

Finally, the Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition is looking for stories up to 3,000-words on an open theme. Prizes: 2,000 Euros, week-long retreat at Aman Cara Writers’ and Artists’ Retreat; Euros 500, Euros 250×4. Entry fee: Euros 18. Closing date: 31 July. Details: http://www.munsterlit.ie

Please take special care at this unsettled time to check entry details, since some events may have been cancelled or had their entry dates altered.

Remember that reading is good for depression and uplifting for those in isolation. So it is up to writers like ourselves to grab those notebooks, cudgel our brains and keep providing fresh material.

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Writers – Is Your Work Autobiographical?

Tags

Agatha Christie, Eighteenth century, Henshaw Short Story Competition, Hilary Mantel, Martin Amis, The Servant

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A good question. Clearly Agatha Christie was never accused of murdering anyone. Nor did Hilary Mantel have first-hand experience of the Tudor court. Yet both convey a convincing reality through a research and skillful storytelling.

In writing about the squalor and hardship of nineteenth-century London in The Servant, nobody would suggest I wrote from personal experience. I live in a broad-minded welfare state, where women have access to education, to reliable birth control, and take for granted that they deserve to be treated as equal to men. And yet. The glass ceiling still exists, the fear of university debt prevents many getting the education they might wish and powerful men can still get away with taking advantage of female employees. So it was not an impossible step to imagine how the women who went before us lived their lives.

And personal experience has a place.

I lived for twenty years in a house built in the middle of the English Civil War. Our cottage (above) was at one time called Speldhurst Farm and in earlier days was thought to have belonged to a yeoman farmer. How could I not make use of it as the home of dairy farmer Thomas Graham in my story? How not call on my knowledge of creaking elm plank floors, lime-washed walls, beams as thick as a man’s thigh, and sparking inglenook fireplaces?

In addition, my husband had a much-loved mare called Calypso, and though she was a grey rather than my farmer’s bay, when I wrote of a horse’s ‘warm breath on my stroking hand‘ I did, of course, write from personal experience.

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Two Christmases ago, a neighbour’s handsome English bull terrier came to visit and was swiftly inserted into my story as my hero’s dog. Woody (re-named Hector for plot purposes) could not, sadly, be described by his breed, since a quick spot of research discovered that the bull terrier, as such, did not exist until the following century, but I allowed myself poetic licence and merely avoided naming the breed. I am, after all, a storyteller rather than a historian.

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I’m convinced all writers draw on personal experience and feelings to some extent. Certainly I do.

However, I should make one final point on the subject. Some years ago I was fortunate enough to win a Henshaw Short Story Competition. The piece, Till Death Us Do Part, told of a cheating wife and how she killed off her husband. Let me reassure you that my own husband, the same one then as now, is still very much alive.

The Stress-Free Way to Attend a Literary Festival

I’ve never been to a literary festival, though I have often meant to do so. Yesterday, however, a neighbour drew our attention to fact that the 33rd edition of the Hay Festival, usually held in Powys, is being broadcast free online this week.

This meant that last night we were enthralled to share in a discussion with Maggie O’Farrell about her recently released, and much applauded, Hamnet – an imagined take on the death of Shakespeare’s young son and how it might have affected the playwright’s life and work.

DO PLEASE GO AND TAKE A LOOK: hayfestival.com/wales/bbc

There are many other other treasures to share: poetry readings, ballet, discussions on the science of corona virus. Stephne Fry being erudite about Ancient Greece. All free – though the festival organisers do hint for a donation. But Maggie is probably the highlight for anyone with an interest in historical fiction or, for that matter, quality fiction of any kind.

I was particularly taken by her tale of the difficulties of writing a fraught emotional scene while sharing a household with noisy and intrusive family members. Her solution? To spend two hours hidden inside her children’s Wendy House, accompanied only by her her cat. It worked a treat, apparently.

Being confined at home with one’s family can, of course, be challenging. Young children will need to be home-schooled or entertained. Older ones found space where they can continue to be gainfully-employed on-line. Partners will need to be placated at being abandoned in favour of a laptop and fistful of editing notes. But, as Maggie proved, a way can always be found.

And for those creative people who are completely isolated from their nearest and dearest, just remember that the artist Lowry once confided to a friend: ‘Had I not been lonely I would not have seen what I did.’

Put your isolation to creative use. And find something to watch from the Wye Festival.

 

 

Writing Competitions to Enter in April

Tags

Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, Bath Short Story Award, Bristol Short Story Prize, Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition, Grey Hen Poetry Competition, Grindstone Literary Prizes, Hastings Writers Room 'Misrepresentation' Stories, Mairtin Crawford Awards, Manchester Metropolitan University QuietManDave Prize, Momya Press Short Story Competition, Red Planet Prize for new TV Series drama scripts, Retreat West Micro Fiction Competition, Royal Academy & Pin Drop Short Story Award

Annie, adored granddaughter of ninevoice’s Christine

 

In these difficult and troubling times we thought we would treat you to a small, but precious ray of sunshine. This very young lady was born on 18th March, and is therefore rather young to enter writing competitions – but she has absolutely the right genes, so give her time. 

Welcome to our world, lovely Annie! 

In the light of my most recent post, I expect you all to be encouraged to enter one of the following competitions.

Because I entered the HWA/ & Sharpe Books Unpublished Novel Competition last September my book – The Servant -will be published some time next year. And because I entered another competition, I got as far as the Exeter Novel Award longlist. On top of which, another member of ninevoices has TWO Exeter trophies in her possession – because she did the same. ‘Nuff said…

Red Planet Prize for new TV Series drama scripts. Prizes: Script commission and masterclasses with award-winning writers. Entry is free. Closing date April 3rd. Details: http://www.redplanetpicture.co.uk

Manchester Metropolitan University QuietManDave Prize for flash fiction. 500 words maximum. Prizes: £1,000; £200; £50 in each category. Entry fee: £5. Deadline 17 April. Details: http://www.2.mmu.ac/qmdprize

Bath Short Story Award for 2,200 words max. Prizes: £1,200; £300; £100; £50 local prize; £100 for unpublished writer. Entry fee: £8. Deadline 20 April. Details: http://www.bathshortstoryaward.org

Bristol Short Story Prize. 4,000 words max. Prizes: £1,000; £500; £250; 17 x £100. Entry fee: £9. Deadline 30 April. Details: http://www.bristol-prize.co.uk/rules 

Grey Hen Poetry Competition for a poem of up to 40 lines. Rules: for women poets aged 60-plus. Prizes: £100; £50; £25. Entry fee: £3, or four for £10. Deadline: 30 April. Details: www. greyhenpress.com/poetry-competition-entry-rules

Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize for prose up to 2,500 words on the theme of ‘Forgiveness and Retribution’. Entry is free. Prizes: £10,000; £3,999; £2,000. Closing date April 1st. Details: alpinefellowship.com

Retreat West Micro Fiction Competition for 100 words exactly, to a prompt posted on the website at the start of each month. Prizes: 50% of total entry fees received. Entry fee: £4. Closing date: 12 April, monthly. Details: http://www.retreatwest.co.uk

RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award, up to 4,000 words. Prize: A reading by a special guest at an evening at The Royal Academy of Arts. Entry is free. Deadline 15 April. Details: http://www.royalacademy.org

Momya Press Short Story Competition for stories up to 3,000 words on the theme of ‘Outsiders’. Prizes: £110; £55; £25. Entry fee £11. Closing date: 15 April. Details: momyapress.com

Grindstone Literary Prizes for short stories, up to 3,000 words, and poems, up to 40 lines. Prizes: £500, £200, 4 x £50 in each category. Entry fee: 8. Closing date 28 April for short stories, 28 May for poems. Details: http://www.grindstoneliterary.com

Mairtin Crawford Awards. 3-5 poems; short stories, up to 2,500 words. Prizes: £500 and invitation to read at the Belfast Book Festival. Entry fee: £6. Closing date: 29 April. Details: http://www.crescentarts.org/about/book-festival/mairtin-crawford-award

Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition for stories up to 1,500 words; quarterly. Prizes: £150; £75; £30. Entry fee: £5, £3 for second, £2 for third. Closing date: quarterly, 30 April, 31 July, 31 October. Details: https://crankedanvil.co.uk/shortstory/

Hastings Writers Room ‘Misrepresentation’. Short stories, up to 1,500 words, on the theme ‘misrepresentation. Prizes: Gold and Silver memberships of Retreat West. Entry fee: £6, £10 for two. Closing date: 30 April. Details: http://www.hastingswritersroom.org/competitions 

There is a fair amount of choice there, so why not enter more than one?

As ever, please take care to check details, especially deadline dates. And good luck…!

 

The Rejection Diaries – and Why Persistence Might be More Important than Talent

Tags

Fish Publishing, Getting Published, HWA & Sharpe Books Unpublished Novel Award

A writing competition spurned my entry last week. Well, they didn’t spurn the thing – they were too nice for that – but they gave it a firm thumbs down. No place on their shortlist; no place on their longlist. Not even a commendation. 

But do I care? I do not, for reasons you will find below.

Rejections are normally the occasion for private breast-beating and lamentation, however much we put on a brave front to family and friends. I recently received a rejection from an agent who added that they offered professional advice to ‘beginner writers’. As someone who has slaved not only over computer keyboards but, once upon a time, actual typewriters, that made me want to heave a brick through someone’s window.

But let me tell you a story. Back in 2015 I visited London’s Foundling Hospital for the first time. It is an incredibly emotive place and I couldn’t get the stories it told out of my head. So I did what writers do. I drafted a short story, The Gingham Square – about the tokens those tragic mothers left in the hope that they might one day be able to retrieve their precious child. The story was entered into a Fish Publishing competition and, while it failed to earn a prize, their senior editor said that she felt it had the potential for a book.

Reader, I wrote the thing. Not with either ease or expedition, because considerable research was needed and I had never tried to be a historical novelist before, but a year or so ago I started showing the result to agents and entering competitions. Many drafts had been taken apart at ninevoices‘ meetings. Many discussions had ensued about whether a ‘happy ending’ would dilute the story’s force. Many red pencils had crossed through purple prose and lamentable grammar. It went through four different titles.

I also sent it back to Fish for a professional critique by the editor whose vision had made it all happen. It was a sound investment, for her suggestions made it a better book.

This month I received the wonderful news that I had won the HWA/Sharpe Books Unpublished Novel Award and that my book, The Servant, will be published next year. I have actually signed a contract.

I am always nagging people to enter competitions and do not intend to stop since acting on such advice has, amazingly, worked for me. That, and being a member of a tremendously supportive writing group. So when you see my next Competitions to Enter post, I suggest you do not dither. Winning IS possible. And even if you don’t win, be inspired by Sylvia Plath’s famous quote: I love my rejections. They prove that I am trying.

What are you waiting for? It CAN happen. 

Oh, yes. A poem, for which I had high hopes, was also rejected in the middle of the week – and my longlisting for the Exeter Novel Award did not translate into a shortlisting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, yes. A poem I had high hopes for was also rejected in the middle of the week.

Love One Another…

 

We live in difficult days. We should count our many blessings, enjoy the beautiful daffodils outside our windows and read and write to our heart’s content.

But, most of all, we must help one another get through this.

Don’t Get Hung Up on Your Beginning – Again

Tags

Bring Up the Bodies, Joyce Carol Oates, the importance of a first page, Wolf Hall, Writing Historical Fiction

 

I have just started reading Hilary Mantel’s long-awaited third book and am not disappointed – though it highlights my own insecurities about trying to write quality historical fiction. 

After collecting The Mirror & the Light from Waterstones, I referred back to something I posted on this blog back in March 2015 about learning from the opening pages of a masterpiece like Wolf Hall. Thoughts triggered by a quote from Joyce Carol Oates: ‘The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written‘. She was talking about not getting hung-up on your beginning.

I hope you will agree that the post quoted below still has relevance:

                                                        ******

Recently I read Wolf Hall for the second time. I didn’t mean to, not quite so soon after my initial head-long rush through its pages, but I casually opened the book and Hilary Mantel hooked me in once again. But at least the second time around I was able to look at it with more of a writer’s eye.

‘So now get up.’

Felled, dazed, silent, he has fallen; knocked full length on the cobbles of the yard… One blow, properly placed, could kill him now…his left eye is blinded, but if he squints sideways with his right eye he can see the stitching of his father’s boot is unravelling. The twine has sprung clear of the leather and a hard knot in it has caught his eyebrow and opened another cut.

What an opening. Our hero is in jeopardy. And from his own father. Hilary Mantel has drawn a vivid picture of that cobbled yard and the battered leather boot. The reader can imagine how easily that rough knot would lacerate tender flesh.

Three paragraphs later Hilary Mantel continues:

Inch by inch. Inch by inch forward. Never mind if he calls you an eel, or a worm, or a snake. Head down, don’t provoke him.

When digesting this the second time around it dawned on me that not only is the prose powerful, not only does it push the story urgently forward, but that here on the first two pages Hilary Mantel is foretelling Cromwell’s progress at the Court of Henry VIII. The tortuous, careful advance. The need to ignore hurtful insults. The danger inherent in provoking a man with total power.

Those first pages were surely the last that she penned – and the lesson to us must be to soldier on, to finish one’s book and then go back to craft that vital opening. So, no more delays trying to find that elusive opening sentence. It’s almost certainly too soon. Finish your book, then perfect the opening. Another Wolf Hall is too much to aim for – but one can dream.

Maggie

Writing Competitions to Enter in March

Tags

BBC National Short Story Award, Bridgend Writers' Circle Open Short Story Competitionr, Fowey Festival Short Story Competition, Harpers Bazaar Short Story Competition, Short Fiction Short Story Prize, The Caterpillar Poetry Prize, The Henshaw Quarterly Short Story Competition, Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing, Words for the Wounded Georgina Hawtrey-Woore 1st Chapter Award

 

STOP PRESS:  JUST LEARNED THAT THE WORDS FOR THE WOUNDED COMPETITION HAS BEEN CANCELLED BECAUSE OF ILLNESS.

 

Bridgend Writers’ Circle Open Short Story Competition for stories between 1,500 and 1,800 words on any theme. Prizes: £100, £50, £30. Entry fee: £5 for one, £7.50 for two. Closing date 1st March. Details: http://www.bridgendwriters.org

Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing. Unpublished and unperformed one-act plays (30 minutes or less, no more than six actors) by amateur playwrights. Prizes: Three winning scripts will be performed at the Windsor Fringe Festival, with £500 for an overall winner announced on the last night. Entry fee: £10. Closing date: 5 March. Details: http://www.windsorfringe.co.uk

BBC National Short Story Award for stories up to 8,000 words. Prizes: £15,000, plus 4 x £600. FREE ENTRY. Deadline, 9 a.m. on Monday, 9 March. Details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nssa

Words for the Wounded Georgina Hawtrey-Woore 1st Chapter Award. First chapter of a novel on any theme, up to 4,000 words, plus synopsis. Prizes: £200 plus chance to appear in Frost Magazine. Entry fee: £10. Closing Date: 14 March. Details: http://www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

Fowey Festival Short Story Competition for stories up to 1,500 words on the theme ‘Not After Midnight’. Prizes: £100, £75. Closing Date: 16 March. Details: http://www.foweyfestival.com

Harpers Bazaar Short Story Competition for stories up to 2,200 words (not the 2,500 quoted in Writing Magazine!) on the theme of ‘Summer’. Prize: a two-night stay at the historic Grantley Hall in Yorkshire, plus the chance to see your work published. Deadline 13 March. Details: shortstory@harpersbazaar.co.uk

The Henshaw Quarterly Short Story Competition for March is for a story up to 2,000-words. Prizes: £200, £100 and £50. Entry fee: £6.  Deadline: 31 March. Details: http://www.henshawpress.co.uk

Retreat West Quarterly Flash Fiction Prize for a maximum of 500 words on the theme: Abandoned. Entry fee: £8. Prizes: £200; 2 x £100. Deadline: 31 March. Details: http://www.retreat-west.co.uk/competitions/quarterly-themed-flash

The Caterpillar Poetry Prize for a poem for children – no line limit. Prize: 1,000 euros. Entry fee: 12 euros. Deadline 31 March. Details: thecatterpillarmagazine.com

Short Fiction Short Story Prize for stories up to 5,000 words. Prizes: £500, plus publication; £100. Entry fee: £6. Closing date 31 March. Details: http://www.shortfictionjournal.co.uk

Not a vast list, but plenty to keep you out of mischief while sheltering from the rain and icy winds.

Remember to check EVERYTHING before entry. And don’t worry too much about that browsing history.

In Love With Mr Darcy (and others…)

Tags

Coping with Rejection, In Love With Mr Darcy, Jane Austen, Mr Darcy's Love Letter, Pride and Prejudice, Superman, Val Wood

I must have been thirteen or fourteen when I fell in love for the first time – with Elizabeth’s Darcy. Warm feelings that have not greatly changed in the decades that have passed since.

For that reason I couldn’t resist entering last year’s Val Wood challenge (details of which you may have seen in our September blog): to write an imaginary love letter.

I learned in the fullness of time that my effort failed to either win or be shortlisted, though I was able to comfort myself that the ultimate winner had submitted a series of letters, with an unfolding story, which gave her more scope. Undaunted by this, I’m concentrating on the pleasure I had in composing Darcy’s imaginary words and the break that it provided from the hard graft of editing my novel. No writing is wasted. It’s like sketching is for an artist, the exercising of skills.

If you share my soft spot for Fitzwilliam Darcy, you might like to read my effort at putting myself into his shoes, and breeches…

Dearest, Loveliest, Elizabeth, 

You know – who better? – the difficulty I have always had in expressing my feelings. So, I take up my pen again, on this our first anniversary, to try and do better – and to explain how having you as my wife has transformed my life.

To begin with, I am no longer the man I was. Had my mother lived, she might have prevented me from becoming the self-satisfied prig you met at the Assembly Rooms at Meryton. She might have taught me that a living, breathing woman is so much more than a pair of fine eyes (entrancingly fine though yours are) and that knowledge of the fair sex should not be limited by lack of imagination.

When you promised to become my wife, it gave me pleasure to think of all that I could give you. Time, however, has shown me how obtuse that thought was – and what, instead, you have been able to gift to me. For you have become the teacher, and I the pupil.

Jealousy, of Wickham – and even of my excellent cousin, the Colonel, – helped to open my eyes to the value of things not material. And although I began by despising that opportunistic adventurer (an easy mistake, I fear), those feelings have changed to pity, for Wickham has always chosen pinchbeck over silver. Brass over gold. Transitory pleasure over lasting joy.

While you, my dearest, darling Lizzie, have taught me to be a man of sense and sensibility. Have taught me how to laugh. At your perceptive wit. At the nonsensical habits of society. At myself, and the fools we men so often make of ourselves.

When I now consider the marriages of my friends and acquaintances, I see too many wives transferred from the charge of their fathers into that of their husbands. The partnerships seem contented enough. But how blind they are to what might be – an alliance of equals, a communion of souls and bodies, a joint fortress against the vicissitudes of life.

For whenever I have my arms around you, my dearest heart, I am whole. You are the star in my night sky. My birdsong in the morning. And now that the two of us are so soon to become three, I cannot but observe that while my dear friend Bingley habitually smiles, I want to laugh out loud.

Your devoted husband,

Fitzwilliam

If, like the Val Wood judges, you weren’t seduced by my Darcy letter, you may prefer something in a more modern style, as composed by another member of ninevoices…

From: veb@bott.co.uk

To: wbrown@rcomptonchambers.com

29 February 2020 21.34

Superman

That’s what you’ll always be to me. Superman. I don’t suppose any of us would’ve thought that you would grow up to become a human rights lawyer. Getting that awful unelected, manipulative toad convicted was just so brilliant. Superman.

But then to me you were super boy, always taking on the world with your colander tin helmet and wooden sword, righting wrongs. You were the leader. The Outlaws followed wherever you led them. Outlaws, that was ironic, seeing that you became an upholder of the law.

I wanted so desperately to join your gang. I don’t blame you for not letting me. Thanks to Mummy I was never appropriately dressed for games in the woods. You were always kind to me and I like to think that was your genuine good nature and not because I was the brat who threatened to make myself sick by screaming. Actually, I couldn’t. You probably knew that. You were so clever. And obviously you still are.

A human rights lawyer. My hero. You know Hubert Lane is a hedge-fund manager. Fitting. We could’ve forecast that one, but did you know he wanted Daddy to register his company in the Caymans? But Daddy was having none of that. ‘I pay my taxes, he said, ‘besides I have my work cut out planning how to reduce the sugar content in Bott’s Table Sauce.’

I think my early hero worship of you was the basis of what became my love for you. I should be more like your sister Ethel and wait for a man’s proposal. That’s what this is, dearest Willyam – I always think of you like that because that’s how you used to say it. Look at the date, my darling. Please don’t make me wait another four years to take advantage.

Darling, I’m not asking for a ring, a white dress and all that pomp. We’re a modern couple and don’t need it. Sweetheart, isn’t it time that you and I moved in together? You could come to the Mayfair apartment Daddy bought for me. I somehow think that is not for you though. I’d be happy to come to yours in Islington.

What do you say, darling, darling Superman?

Yours for ever, Vi

If any of our followers fancy sending us their imaginary love letter, either for Valentine’s Day or as a celebration of Leap Year – just for the fun of it, no prizes, unfortunately – we’d love to see them. Sometimes we need to be reminded that writing is what we do to enrich and enliven our days. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

 

 

Competitions to Enter in February

Tags

CWA Debut Dagger, CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition, Exeter Writers Short Story Competition, Fiction Factory Short Story Competition, Fish Flash Fiction Prize, Flash 500 Short Story Competition, Kelpies Prizes for Writing and Illustration, National Flash Fiction Day Micro-Fiction Competition Story, Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition, Spotlight First Novel Competition, Spread the Word's Life Writing Prize, Writers & Artists Yearbook Short Story Competition

 

 

Here is my picture of Jane Austen’s tiny writing desk at the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton to inspire you.

Unagented writers yet to publish a full-length work could receive £1,500 an Arvon Course and mentoring in Spread the Word’s Life Writing Prize 2020. Send up to 5,000 words which may be a complete work or the beginning of a longer piece. In addition to the first prize, two highly commended writers will receive £500 and a mentor. The competition is free to enter, and the closing date February 3rd. Details: http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/projects/life-writing-prize/   (Please refer to entry rules, since this writing must reflect ‘someone’s own life journey or references…and is not fiction.’)

Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition for a 2,00-word story. Free entry, but you must register on http://www.writersandartists.co.uk Prize: Arvon residential writing course worth £1,000, plus publication. Deadline 13 February. Details: http://www.writersand-artists.co.uk/competitions

Spotlight First Novel Competition for a one-page synopsis plus the first page of an unpublished novel. Prize: mentoring package and website showcase. Entry fee: £16. Closing date: 14 February. Details: http://www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk

National Flash Fiction Day Micro-fiction Competition Story: up to three unpublished flashes of 100 words. Deadline 15 February. Entry fee: £2; £3.75 for two; £5.25 for three. Prizes: £100; £50; £25. Details: http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/competition

CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition, for stories up to 3,500 word, fitting Margery Allingham’s definition of a mystery story*. Prizes: £500, two passes to CrimeFest. Entry Fee: £12. Closing date: 29 February. Details: http://www.thecwa.co.uk/ShortStory/rules.html (*Note: “Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.”)

CWA Debut Dagger Award for crime novels. Submit 3,000 words, plus 1,000 word synopsis. Prizes: £500. Entry fee: £36. Closing date: 29 February. Details: http://www.thecwa.co.uk

Exeter Writers Short Story Competition. 3,000 words. Entry fee: £7. Prizes: £700; £250; £100, plus £100 prize for writers in Devon. Details: http://www.exeterwriters.org.uk/p/competitions.html

Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition for stories up to 2,000 words. Entry fee: £10. Prizes: £1,000; £500; £250; Deadline: 28 February. Details: http://www.storyawards.org

Fiction Factory Short Story Competition, maximum 3,000 words. (No children’s/YA stories) Entry fee: £6 (with optional critique £10). Prizes: £150; £50; £25; publication. Deadline 28 February. Details: fiction-factory.biz

Fish Flash Fiction Prize, maximum 300 words. Entry fee: 14 Euros for one; 8 Euros for subsequent entries. Prizes: 1,000 Euros; 300 Euros; online writing course; publication. Deadline 28 February. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com/flash-fiction-contest.

Flash 500 Short Story Competition, 1,000-3,000 words. Prizes: £500; £200; £100. Entry fee: £7 for one story, £12 for two; £16 for three; £20 for four, plus optional critiques. Deadline: 28 February. Details: http://www.flash500.com

Kelpies Prizes for Writing and Illustration – Novel for children. Send the first five chapters plus synopsis: 11000-3000 words using a given sentence start. Writers must be Scottish and aged 18+. Prize: £1,000; mentoring; publishing contract with Floris Books; writing retreat or Picture Hooks 2020 Conference ticket.Deadline: 28 February. Details: discoverkelpies.co.uk

Please remember to check all details before entry in case we’ve misinterpreted or misread anything.

There’s plenty of potential here to let those imaginations run free – and I thought the Margery Allingham definition really helpful for almost all kinds of fiction writing…