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Category Archives: Competitions

Bouncebackability – when you (yet again) don’t make a longlist

02 Wednesday Mar 2022

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Sarah

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cathy Rentzenbrink, Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Thomas Hardy, WriteMentor

‘Bouncebackability’ first entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2005, after football manager Iain Dowie coined it to describe Crystal Palace’s ascent from the edge of relegation to promotion through play-offs. What happened to his team in the 2003–4 season is, apparently, not uncommon. In 2018, Richard Foster wrote that, ‘the best preparation a team can have for a play-off final is the experience of losing one the year before’ (The Guardian, 25th May, 2018). He backed this up with an amazing statistic: ‘Of the 10 beaten finalists who have returned to the same fixture the next season, nine have succeeded second time around – and the only exception made amends a year later.’

Surely a near miss for writers could have the same effect? The problem is we never know how close our work gets to being longlisted; if it’s not there, it’s not there. The WriteMentor folk addressed this problem recently (as much as it can be addressed) when they published additional lists of ‘Very Close’ and ‘Readers’ Favourites’, alongside their official competition longlist. Those who found themselves on these lists tweeted how hugely encouraging it was. Inevitably, though, there were more omissions than inclusions and I was one of the omissions.

I haven’t had much success lately – and I’ve ended up in a bit of a slough. I’ve been researching a new novel for a year but can’t quite bring myself to write it.

There’s a ton of advice out there to help writers like me who feel discouraged: you should ringfence a slot every morning to write whatever comes into your head; join a writing group; take a course; go on a retreat/workshop; get a mentor, etc.

But what works for one person might be unhelpful to another (assuming it’s even affordable). Stephen King – whose book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is a favourite of mine – says he is ‘doubtful about writing classes’, though ‘not entirely against them’, which I found pretty interesting. In case you’re tempted to stop reading right here, perhaps the following (re his view on workshops/retreats in which would-be writers do daily critiques on each other’s work) will resonate more:

‘The pressure to explain is always on, and a lot of your creative energy … is therefore going in the wrong direction. You find yourself constantly questioning your prose and your purpose when what you should probably be doing is writing as fast as the Ginger-bread Man runs, getting that first draft down on paper while the shape of the fossil is still bright and clear in your mind.’

Getting your first draft down before you lose that vital spark appeals to me. (Elsewhere, he says, ‘If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind – they begin to seem like characters instead of real people.’) He also advocates reading widely. That, of course, has to be right. At the end of last year, I came across an insightful tweet from literary agent Jennifer Laughran (@literaticat):

‘The best advice if you want to write for kids is, GO TO THE LIBRARY AND READ 100 BOOKS PUBLISHED IN YOUR CATEGORY IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS. Put your favourites in a special pile and buy your own copies of those so you can write in them. Tear them apart. Why and HOW do they work? If you do this: CONGRATULATIONS, you just did much of the work for a master’s degree without having to pay for it. While you’re at it – make a spreadsheet of those 100 books, noting WHO PUBLISHED THEM, and agent/editor if they are listed in the acknowledgments. Note patterns! If you do THIS step: CONGRATULATIONS, you just got a crash course in publishing and are armed with the knowledge of “who publishes what” that you will need as you begin your querying/publishing journey.’

I’m thinking this advice is transferable to anyone writing for adults, too, though reading 100 recent books might be a stretch.

I’ve also discovered that outings connected with my subject are really helpful (though this probably isn’t startling news to anyone else!). Towards the end of last year, I had an overnight stay in Dorchester and walked to various places connected with Thomas Hardy. Google Maps took me across fields to the church where Hardy’s father first saw his mother, then to the nearby house (what remains of it) where she was in service, and finally, along the road, to the cottage where Hardy was born. I came back feeling more hopeful and inspired than I had for months!

Ditto after a trip to Charles Dickens’ house in Doughty Street, London, last week.

I’ve also found writers baring their souls about failure and insecurity immensely encouraging. In Cathy Rentzenbrink’s new book Write It All Down, she says:

‘It is pointless to worry whether the work is any good or whether you are any good. It’s all about learning to tolerate the gap between our aspiration for the finished thing and the current dog’s breakfast that we see before us. With each of my five books I wasted aeons of time fretting about whether it was rubbish and I was useless and would everyone laugh at me and had I bitten off more than I could chew …

‘A sea change came when I had a talk about it with my agent, Jo. We were sitting on a wall outside the London Book Fair, and I was crying because I felt so adrift and miserable and unable to finish the next draft of what would become The Last Act of Love. I told her that I just didn’t think I was good enough. “Look,” she said kindly, “self-doubt is intertwined with creativity. I don’t understand why, but all the creative people I know spend a lot of time believing they are useless. You just need to not listen to it.”

‘That was a life-changing moment for me …’

Bouncebackability is about the state of your morale, the ability to shut out negative voices. The reason I remember when the OED first included it is because a boy in my son’s English class decided to celebrate by inserting it into an essay on Romeo & Juliet as often as possible! For example, Romeo, he said, showed bouncebackability when he moved on from his unhappy adoration of Rosaline (‘I have a soul of lead’) to joyous devotion to Juliet (‘Did my heart love till now?’) I don’t know how else he applied it but it must have made his teacher smile (a bit) and I’ll never think about bouncebackability without doing the same. It helps me lighten up.

Competitions to Enter in September

02 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Maggie, Poetry, Short stories

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I’ve always been fascinated by doorways, wondering what or who lies through them. Old ones can really get my imagination seething… So why not hunt one down that fires YOUR imagination? Write a story. Open a door for your reader…

Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2018. To celebrate 100 years since women won the right to vote this year’s competition is entitled: Women’s Writes. Open to all genders over 16 years of age, entries should be in the form of a short story, with entrants free to write about whatever they wish, but each story must feature a strong female protaganist. The winner will receive £100 and their entry will be published on their website and shared via various social media outlets. The runner-up will receive £50 and there will be two commendations of £25. Max. word count is 1,500 and the deadline 15 September. Details: http://www.valeriewood.co.uk

 

 

 

Do you live in London? London Short Story Prize. Win a first prize of £1,000 in the annual competition from London writer development agency Spread the Word, which is designed to publish the best new stories coming from the capital. They are looking for unpublished stories up to 5,000 words and the winner will not only receive £1,000, but also have a meeting with an agent. Two runners-up will each receive £250 and a meeting with an editor. Highly commended entries will be published in the London Short Story Anthology 2018. Entry is £8 per story. Deadline 17 September. Details http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk

Mere Literary Festival Write in the Week timed Flash Fiction Competition. On a theme to be announced in 14 September, deadline 22 September. Prizes: £60, £30, £15. Entry fee £2, with £1 for each subsequent. Details: info@merelitfest.co.uk

Hammond House International Literary Prizes 2018, run by the University Centre, Grimsby, are open for entries on the theme: ‘precious‘. The 2018 Short Story Competition is for fiction between 2,00 and 5,000 words. The first prize is £500 and there are second and third prizes of £100 and £50. The top 25 entries will be published. The entry fee is £10. The 2018 Screenplay Competition is for ten-minute screenplays. The winner will receive £25 and their screenplay will be professionally produced and submitted to the Aesthetica film festival. Entry fee £10. The 2018 Poetry Prize is for a single poem, with prizes of £100, £50 and £25. Entry fee is £10 for each poem. Deadline is: 31 September. Details: http://www.hammondhousepublishing.com

Erewash Writers’ Open Short Story, for short stories up to 2,500 words. Prizes: £100, £70, £30. Entry fee: £3, £5 for two, £2.50 thereafter. Deadline 27 September. Details: erewashwriterscomps@hotmail.co.uk

The Imison Award for original radio plays by writers new to radio. Prizes: £2,000. Entry fee: £30. Deadline 29 September. Details: http://www.societyofauthors.org/imison-award

Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2018 for stories up to 6,000 words. Prizes: £1,000, or a year’s editorial support. Entry fee: £10. Deadline 28 September. Details: info@galleybeggar.co.uk

Bedford International Writing Competition for stories up to 3,000 words, and poems up to 40 lines, on any theme. Prizes: £300, £150, £100 in each category. Entry fee: £6, £12 for three. Deadline 30 September. Details: http://www.bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk

Manchester Fiction Prize for short stories up to 2,500 words. Prizes: £10,000. Entry fee: £17.50 Deadline 14 September. (PLEASE NOTE: ON CHECKING THIS TODAY, I FIND THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN CHANGED FROM 29 SEPTEMBER!)  Details http://www.manchesterwritingcompetition.co.uk/fiction

Caterpillar Story for Children Prize. Short stories up to 2,000 words for children aged 7-11. Prizes: 500 Euros, plus a two-week stay at The Moth retreat; 300 Euros; 200 Euros. Entry fee: 12 Euros. Closing date 30 September. Details: enquiries@thecaterpillarmagazine.com

Chorley & District Writers’ Circle Annual Short Story Competition, for stories on the theme of natural justice. Prizes: £100, £50, £30. Entry fee: £5. Deadline 30 September. Details: http://www.chorleywriters.org.uk

Grindstone Literary Services Novel Prize for an opening chapter, maximum 3,000 words. Entry fee £20. Prizes: £1,000; £100; publication. Discount on Curtis Brown online writing course. Deadline 28 September. Details http://www.grindstoneliterary.com/competitions.

The 2019 International Beverly Prize for Literature is for an original, unpublished manuscript of fiction, non-fiction, drama, memoir or criticism. The winner will receive £500 and publication with Eyewear Publishing. The entry fee is £20 and the closing date 15 September. Website: https://store.eyewearpublishing.com/

My apologies for being a bit late with this list – blame editing fever. As always, I rely on you double-checking any competitions you’re interested in, since terms and conditions, or entry dates, can change at the last minute. See my note above, on the Manchester Fiction Prize. 

All that remains is for me to urge you to give something a try. And to remember Samuel Beckett’s famous words:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

 

 

Synopsis? What Synopsis?

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Maggie, Mslexia, Synopsis Writing

≈ 4 Comments

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Cat's tails, Mslexia's Women's Novel Competition 2017

I’m almost purring with pleasure as I put the final tweaks in place for my entry to Mslexia’s Women’s Novel Competition 2017. Why? Not because I expect to win – though squeezing onto any long list would be awesome – but because THEY DON’T REQUIRE A SYNOPSIS. Thank you, Mslexia! I always knew you were great people.

This is almost unheard of, and most welcome. Writing a synopsis is worse than cleaning the oven after a blackberry and apple crumble has erupted and left a pumice-hard lava flow.

If you don’t have your own entry poised to go, you still have until 18 September. Plenty of time, especially as there’s no synopsis to agonise over.

Must go and wash my whiskers now, before having another tweak.

(The picture above, incidentally, is of Gizzie, our newish rescue cat – who spent most of her second day with us up a chimney. With a tail like that, maybe we should start a chimney sweep business…)

 

Competitions to Enter in April

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Maggie

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I think we can safely say that ninevoices have proved that entering competitions is worth doing. So here are suggestions for next month:

Bath Novel Award. First 5,000 words and synopsis. Fee: £25. Prizes: £2,000 plus Minerva trophy; £500 voucher from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. Deadline 24 April. Details: bathnovelaward.co.uk

Exeter Story Prize. 10,000 words. Fee: £10. Prizes: £500, plus trophy; £150; £100; £200 Trisha Ashley Award for humorous story. Deadline: 30 April. Details: http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk

Ver Poets Open Competition. 30 Line poem. Fee: £4. Prizes: £600; £300; £100. Deadline: 30 April.Details: verpoets.co.uk

Grey Hen Poetry Competition, postal entries only, for women poets over 60. Up to 40 lines. Fee £3 per poem, or £4 for 10.  Prizes: £100; £50; £25. Deadline 30 April. Details: http://www.greyhenpress.com/poetry-competition-2017-entry-rules/

Historical Novel Society New Novel Award. Prize: £3,000. Entry: $35 (yes, that is in dollars!). Deadline; 1 April. Details: http//historicalnovelsociety.org

The RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award 2017. Short stories up to 4,000 words. Prize: A reading by a special guest at an evening at the Royal Academy of Arts. Entry: FREE. Closing date: 23 April. Details: pindrop@pindropstudio.com

RW First Chapter Competition. Submission package: three chapters, synopsis, leter. Prize: Submission review by literary agent Laura Williams. Entry fee: £15. Closing Date: 30 April. Details: http://www.retreatwest.co.uk

Harpers Bazaar Short Story Competition. Up to 3,000 words on the theme of ‘the anniversary’. FREE ENTRY. Prize:publication and a weekend break. Details: shortstory@harpersbazaar.co.uk

As ever, we advise checking all details before entering. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

More Good News to Share

17 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Exeter Novel Prize, Maggie, Spotlight Adventures in Fiction

≈ 10 Comments

At the beginning of the month we shared the wonderful news that Sarah had been shortlisted in the Exeter Novel Competition. A tremendous achievement, and well-deserved, since Sarah is not only talented, but spends long hours making sure her work is always spot-on.

Some of our followers may have picked up that I, too, entered that competition, though I failed to make even the long list. I am proud of the fact that, rather than retreating to my lair with some long dressmakers’ pins and an effigy of Sarah, I ran around my house (almost) whooping with joy. An achievement for one of ninevoices is always an achievement for us all.

Today I have learned that my novel The Gingham Square has been shortlisted in the Spotlight Adventures in Fiction Competition. Great news.

Both of these competitions were featured in our monthly Competitions to Enter posts – so do look out for future opportunities. We have proved that they CAN be grasped.

Competitions to Enter in March

26 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Maggie

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crimefest

Here are some competitions to enter in March – some with early deadline dates, so be warned.

Flashbang Contest for 150 words. Entry fee: £2. Prizes: two weekend passes to Crimefest 2018; one weekend pass; special Crimefest delegate bag; shortlisted entries will be invited to Crime Writing Day on 19 May. Details: flashbangcontest.wordpress.com

Crime Writers Association Margery Allingham Short Story Competition for a 3,500 word story written to ‘Margery’s definition of a mystery’. Fee £12; Prize: £500 plus a selection of Margery Allingham-related books. Details (including her definiation of a mystery): thecwa.co.uk/debuts/shortstory-competition

Mslexia is inviting entries for a new women’s flash fiction competition, which is running alongside its short story competition. The new Women’s Short Fiction Competition 2017 – Flash Fiction is for stories up to 300 words and will be judged by Kit de Waal. There is a first prize of £500 and three other finalists will each win £50. All the winning entries will be published in Mslexia. The entry fee is £5 and all stories must be by women writers. Their Women’s Short Fiction Competition 2017 – Short Story is for stories up to 3,000 words and will be judged by Deborah Levy. The first prize is £2,000, plus an optional week-long writing retreat at Gladstone’s Library and a day with an editor at Virago Press. Three other finalists will each win £100, and all four winning entries will be published in Mslexia. The entry fee is £10 per story and, again, you need to be a female writer. Deadline is 20 March. Details: http://www.mslexia.co.uk/competitions.

Visual literary journal Short Fiction is inviting entries for the Short Fiction Prize 2017, for stories up to 5,000 words.The winner will receive £500 and there is £100 for the runner-up. The winning and runner-up entries will be published in Short Fiction. The third-prize winner will receive a place on a Short Fiction online masterclass. Entry fee is £7 and the closing date is 31 March. Details: http://www.shortfictionjournal.co.uk

The Play’s the Thing. The Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing is open for entries to the 2017 competition, which is intended to encourage new writing talent. The competition is for original, unpublished and unperformed one-act plays no longer than thirty minutes by amateur playwrights. Three scripts will be selected to be performed at the Windsor Fringe Festival in October and the overall winner will also receive £500. Scripts must be for no more than six actors and suitable for staging in a studio theatre. Only one script per author will be accepted. There is a £10 entry fee and the closing date is 5 March. Details: http://www.windsorfringe.co.uk/drama-awards-2017-apply-now/

Submissions are invited for the inaugural Saltash Short Story Competition on the theme of ‘community’. Original stories of up to 1,000 words are wanted and winners in each category (adult, young person 12-17 and child up to 12) will receive book tokens worth £100. Winners and runners-up will also have their entries published in an anthology. Entry fees are £5 adults, £2.50 young person, £1 child. Closing date 31 March. Details: http://diverse-events.com/events/saltash-may-fair-2017.

Making Waves is a new competition for spoken word poetry from Falmouth Poetry Group amd has a first prize of £600. There is a second prize of £250 and a third prize of £150. To enter send digital sound files of short spoken poems, up to 200 seconds. Entry fee is £6 and the closing date is 31 March. Details can be found at: https://cornwallcontemporary.wordpress.com/making-waves-spoken-poetry-competition/

Fish Publishing Poetry Contest for a poem of 300 words. Online fee: 14 Euros; postal fee: 16 Euros. Prizes: £1,000 Euros; week at Anam Cara retreat. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com

 Please remember to carefully check all details before entering.

Remember that New Year’s Resolution you made – to write more, enter more competitions – now’s the time to surprise yourself and follow through!

Competitions to Enter in February

30 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Maggie

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cimg0226

Lucy Cavendish College Prize 2017. The winner will receive a cash prize of £1,500, together with the offer of a ‘guaranteed’ contract with Peters Fraser Dunlop.   A longlist of twenty will be published in March/April, with a subsequent shortlist of five invited to a dinner in Cambridge on May 25th, when the winner will be announced. In addition, all shortlisted entrants will receive a half-hour consultation with Judge and literary agent, Nelle Andrew, who will give editorial feedback and discuss the marketability of the work submitted – something that money can’t buy! Deadline is noon on February 10th, with an entry fee of £12. One vital point: you must be a female author, aged 21 and over.(Sorry, Ed!) Details and entry: http://www.lucy-cav.cam.ac.uk/fictionprize/

Writers & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition. 2,000 words on an open theme. ENTRY IS FREE, but you must be registered on http://www.writers-andartists.co.uk. The prize is an Arvon residential writing course of your choice, plus online publication. Deadline: February 13th. Details: http://www.writersand-artists.co.uk/competitions.

Exeter Writers Short Story Competition. 3,000 words on an open theme. Entry fee: £6. Prizes: £500, £250, £100, plus £100 for a Devon writer. Deadline February 28th. Details: http://www.exeterwriters.org.uk

Bath Flash Fiction Award is for 300-word entries. Prizes: £1,000, £300, £100, plus fifty long-listed entrants offered publication in an anthology. Entry £9. Deadline: February 12th. Details: https://bathflashfictionaward.com/enter/

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

Kelpies Prize – novel for children. Are you based north of the border? This prize is for a children’s novel ‘set wholly or mainly in Scotland’. Entry is FREE. Prize £2,000, plus publication. Deadline 28 February. For details, including suggested manuscript lengths for different age categories: http://www.florisbooks.co.uk

Nottingham Writers’ Club Short Story Competition. 2,000 words on the theme of ‘food and/or drink’. Prizes: £200, £100, £50, plus runners-up prize. Non-professional writers only, please. Entry fee: £6 for one or two on-line entries; £5 each for three or more. Deadline: February 28th. Details: http://www.nottingham writersclub.org.uk

And finally – because the deadline is March 1st –  the CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition. 3,500 words, but see website for Margery’s definition of a mystery. Prize: £500, plus a selection of Margery Allingham-related books. Entry fee: £12. Details: cwa.co.uk/debuts/short-story-competition 

DO PLEASE CHECK OUT ALL DETAILS BEFORE ENTERING. Good luck!

You will see that the typewriters are getting older. Next month we will feature a quill pen…

Competitions to Enter in the New Year

31 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Maggie

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four leaf clover

If you really apply yourself, 2017 could be your lucky writing year.

The Exeter Novel Prize. The deadline for this is midnight on January 1st, so you’d need to get your skates on, but the first prize is £500, plus the opportunity to catch the attention of agent, Broo Doherty, of DHH Literary Agency. Five runners-up will receive £75.  Entry costs £18, with a critique included for £80. Check details from: http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk

The Mogford Prize for a 2,500-word themed short story on ‘Food and drink’. Entry is £10 and the prize is a handsome £10,000. Deadline is January 15th. Details: http://www.oxford-hotels-restaurants.co.uk/the-mogford-literary-prize/2017-mogford-literary-prize-information.

Fish Short Memoir Prize. Memoir of 4,000 words. Non-fiction. Fee, online 16 Euros; postal, 18 Euros. Prizes 1,000 Euros; a week at Casa Ana Writers’ Retreat in Andalusia and 300 Euros travel expenses. Deadline January 31st. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com

Bath Flash Fiction Novella in Flash – 7,000-18,000-words. Prizes: £300, 2x£100. Entry fee: £16. Deadline January 31st. Details: novella@bathflashfictionaward.com

Dundee International Book Prize. Unpublished novels by debut novelists. Prize: £10,000, plus publication. FREE ENTRY. Deadline: January 31st. Details: http://www.dundeebookprize.com

Fiction Desk Ghost Story Competition. Stories between 1,000-7,000 words. Prizes: £500 and £100, plus publication. Deadline: January 31st. Entry fee: £8. Details: http://www.thefictiondesk.com

Plymouth Writers’ Group Open Competition for short stories of up to 1,500 words. Prizes: £250, £50; anthology publication. Entry fee: £5. Closing date: 31 January. Details: http://plymouthwritersgroup.co.uk

Arundel Festival – Theatre Trail Writers’ Competition. Short plays between 30 and 40 minutes. Prizes: £250, £150 for each shortlisted; performance. FREE ENTRY.  Deadline: January 31st. Details: http://www.dripaction.com

Please remember to check all details before entering: sometimes the goalposts get moved!

 

 

Competitions to Enter in December

03 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, Maggie

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December is a month when writing probably goes on the back-burner, but maybe you have an old story somewhere that can be dusted off and re-submitted? Tanya did just that, back in the summer, and won a competition with it.

The Magic Oxygen Prize is inviting entries of short stories and poems for MOLP3. The theme is open and there are prizes in each category of £1,000, £300, £100, plus two highly-commendeds at £50. Winning and shortlisted entries will be included in an anthology. Stories should be up to 4,000-words, and poems up to fifty lines. Entry is £5 and for each entry a tree will be planted in Bore, Kenya. Details:www.magicoxygen.co.uk

Presence haiku magazine is inviting entries for the Martin Lucas Haiku Award 2016. The competition is for an original, unpublished haiku, with a first prize of £100, a second prize of £50 and two third prizes of £25. The winning and commended haiku will be published in the magazine. The entry fee is £5 for five haiku and the closing date is 31 December. Details: http://haikupresence.org/

Soundwork, which is a not-for-profit online resource for free-to-listen-to short stories, monologues, poems, audio plays and monologues is inviting entries for its Short Story Competition. Sadly, there is no monetary prize, but the winner WILL have their story recorded and posted on the Soundwork site. Entries (which may have been published/broadcast elsewhere) should be up to 2,000-words and entry is FREE. The closing date is 31 December. Details: infor@soundwork.co.uk.

Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Contest is for a novel for children between 7 and 18. They need the full manuscript, synopsis and covering letter. The Fee is £15, but the prize is a contract with Chicken House and a royalty advance of £10,000. Deadline is 18 December (so SOON) and details can be viewed: http://www.chicken-housebooks.com

Mearns Writers’ ‘New Beginnings’ Short Story Competition. 1,000-3,000 words. Deadline 31 December. Fee £7. Prizes: £250; 3x£50. Details: mearnswriters.simdif.com

AND – for the New Year – two further competitions:

The Exeter Novel Prize. 10,000-word opening of a novel, plus a synopsis. Fee: £18. Prizes: £500 and a trophy. Five runners-up will receive £75 and a trophy. Details: http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk Deadline 1 January 2017.

The Mogford Prize for a story of 2,500-words on the theme of ‘Food and Drink’. Fee is £10. Prize £10,000. Details: http://www.oxford-hotels-restaurants.co.uk/the-mogford-literary-prize/2017-mogford-literary-prize-information Deadline is 15 January.

Please double-check details before submitting.My apologies for this being posted later than usual – blame it on seasonal confusion, plus our central heating not working for the past three days!

A helpful rejection

02 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by ninevoices in Competitions, rejection, Sarah

≈ 3 Comments

Some ‘generic’ rejections are a lot more constructive (and encouraging) than others. Mslexia Magazine’s recent letter to writers not longlisted for their children’s novel competition was, I thought, particularly helpful and (with their permission) I’ve reproduced it below. In case you don’t have time to read the whole thing, I was particularly struck by their saying that many more women than men give up submitting their writing after just one rejection:

Our judges commented on how challenging they found the challenge of whittling down submissions for the longlist. ‘My “yes” pile kept growing and there were far too few on my “no” and “maybe” piles, so I ended up having to eliminate a lot of good material,’ one told us. ‘There were so many “nearly there” manuscripts,’ said another. ‘So I hope those that weren’t longlisted won’t feel too dejected.’

Most submissions featured female protagonists; often feisty, or geeky, or bullied or with some kind of superpower – sometimes all four! One judge suggested a more complicated central character might have been more effective. And those written in first person, with a strong and idiosyncratic voice, often grabbed their attention. Where a boy was the main character, he was usually ‘rambunctious’; so, again, a bit more complication would have been welcome.

Another comment concerned the depiction of magical, fantasy or dystopian characters. Our judges wanted to stress that it’s not enough for someone to have a strange name and a special power – a believable personality is far more important.

Many of the novels were set in the familiar terrain of school or home. Where the story was also set in the past, or the future, this worked well. But by and large the more unusual settings were the ones that stood out, especially those in which the setting was integral to the plot. ‘Historical stories tended to be better explored, more original,’ was one comment. ‘I liked it when the writer seemed knowledgeable about the strange world they were creating,’ was another. These comments suggest to me that a light rewrite with a fresh setting might be something you might consider.

A lot of novels began with a prologue, which often consisted of a dramatic and intriguing scene. Unfortunately this was sometimes followed by a rather ponderous Chapter One, occasionally with a different set of characters – so ‘the momentum of the beginning was lost’. Our judges wondered whether the writers could eliminate the prologue altogether and substitute a first chapter that catapulted the reader immediately into the story. ‘Mysterious openings worked from the word go,’ one told us.

I am so sorry not to be able to give you specific feedback on your entry, but I hope that these comments, general as they are, will be of some help if you decide to redraft your novel – which I hope you will. I’m sure you’re aware that the vast majority of published novels are the result of a huge amount of rewriting – changes to the order, the tense, the narrative voice, the main protagonist… What feels like a finished draft is often just the beginning.

That’s not to underestimate what a huge achievement it is to complete an entire manuscript – a survey we conducted a few years ago found that only 24 per cent of women who start a novel have managed to finish it. So we salute you for getting this far.

We also found out recently, in another survey, that many women – many more than men – give up submitting their writing after just one rejection. I do hope that this letter won’t have that effect on you, and that you will see it as an almost inevitable part of the writer’s life. And that, when the dust has settled, you will let us see some more of your work.

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