Happy New Year!

So, how was 2011 for you?
I've had a good year. Getting engaged was obviously the highlight, but I've also had success with my writing. I've had more stories published than in any previous year and I won a poetry competion. It might no be just coindence that this year I've written and submitted more than in previous years.

What plans do you have for 2012?
I'll be getting married, working harder than ever at my writing, baking lots of cakes, taking pictures, travelling, gardening and getting geeky. That should keep me busy.

There's just time for one last competition this year if you're quick. Oh all right, I'll make it two.

Best wishes for 2012!

Technology is the future!

One of my resolutions for 2012 is to make better use of geekery - and I've started already! Gary gave me a snazzy camera for Christmas and is teaching me to use it (don't think he's fed up with taking pictures for my blog, do you?) This is my first ever attempt at a panoramic photograph.

'And this is connected to writing how?' I hear you wondering. Well, I'll be able to illustrate my blog more easily, but mostly it's a marvellous way to procrastinate - and we all know how important procrastination is to a writer.

Have you made any resolutions? 

Here's a chance to win a very geeky computer.

Something to keep you going

D'you like my cakes and pies? We haven't eaten everything yet but they won't last much longer.

Here's a competition with a £200 prize - a sad theme though and it looks as though they want non fiction.

On a lighter note, Della Galton wants stories about New Year resolutions that go wrong for this competition. The prize is a copy of her new book 'Moving On – Short Story to Novel'.

 And finally, Alex has a book give-away here.

Happy Christmas!

Huzzah! It's the end of my mad Advent Blogfest of Competition Winningness.

Step 24 is to celebrate. I'm hoping some of the interviews, tips and links I've posted will help give some of my blog readers a cause to celebrate soon.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Be Proud

Step 23 (in competition winningness) is to be proud of your successes.

Please do tell me about any success resulting from competitions you see here (or even elsewhere) I'd love to be able to share in your good news.

I'm not sure The Sphere has any pride - have you seen what he's got on his head? Can't think who he can have borrowed that from!

Here's the chance to win an eReader.

Check - Cheque

Step 22 (of competition winningness) is to keep a record of the competitions you've enterred and when they close. Check the results. Sometimes only prize winners are informed of the results and it's possible for a mistake to be made and the winner not notified. Don't forget to chase up any prizes that might be due to you if they don't arrive in a reasonable amount of time.

A computer is handy for record keeping. Here's a chance to win one. Here's another.

Were you relieved I've stopped all that sphere nonsense or would you like to see him again before Christmas?

Be Prompted

Step 21 (in this competitions madness) is to use competition guidelines and themes to write even when you can't, or don't wish to, enter that particular competition. It's a useful exercise that might well lead to a publishable story that you wouldn't otherwise have thought of writing (at least, that's been my experience)

Prompted by Frances, I suggested to The Sphere that he have a smiley face and this is what he came up with. D'you think he's trying to say it's cold in the garage?

This isn't a competition, but they do pay for comedy writing. Some people say I'm a bit funny, so maybe I should try this?

Get lucky

Winning a competition or having a story accepted for publication isn't just about skill and persistence (although both are very important) There's also a certain amount of luck involved. Results will depend on the personal preferences of whoever is judging, the quality and subject of other entries recieved and all sorts of other things. For example something might occur that suddenly makes your story topical or that renders it obsolete.

Step 20 (in winning competitions) is to harness the power of The Sphere - or anything else which might bring you luck.

To make up for yesterday, I've found extra links for today. Here's a website that sounds as though it's offering cholate, but is really giving away free books. I couldn't find any actual chocolate, but there are some sweeties on offer here.

More real books are being given away by Mary Ellen. If you prefer the electronic version you can try for a Kindle here and here's a book to read on it. Don't worry if your luck hasn't kicked in yet as the lovely people at Coventry Writers are making it available to anyone. If you don't have an e-reader that's no problem either as you can see it online here. If reading for yourself is too much trouble, Dan will read to you here. (Not that I'm suggesting my blog friends are all as lazy as me you understand)

Cheers!

Well it's day 19 of my crazy Advent Blog of Competition Winningness and I was going to post a really amazing tip that'd almost guarantee you prizes, publication, fame and free chocolate for life ... but the lads have invited me for a Chinese meal and a small glass of white wine* so I've got to go and get ready.

You'll have to make do with this competition link instead.

*Which is how they refer to several large glasses of white wine. And what a surprise - I was able to find a picture of my hand clutching a large glass of white wine ...

5 a day

Don't panic, I'm not suggesting we need to write and enter five new pieces every day. What I want you to do is move away from the computer occasionally, get some fresh air and take time for proper meals instead of coffee and cake at your desk.
 
Step 18 (of competition winningness) is to look after yourself.

Here's a competition in which you're asked to work the name of a fruit into a spoof title for the chance of winning a T-shirt. My attempt is 'The good, the bad and the ugli' although thanks to my lack of twitter skill I'm not absolutely sure I've entered.

ps, Have you tried typing 'let it snow' into Google? 

No Waiting

Step 17 (in my Advent Blogfest of Competition Winningness) is don't sit around waiting to see if you've won - get on and enter more competitions. The same applies to submitting work to markets. If you have lots of stuff 'out there' then each rejection or failure to get placed will still a little less because you'll know the next post or email could bring you better news.

Here's one, with a £300 prize you could try while you're waiting to hear back about the ones you've entered over the last couple of weeks. You have entered one or two, haven't you?

If you fancy something easier then here's a draw to win £300 worth of book tokens. Of course, you could try both.

AB of CW day 16

Step 16 in winning competitions is to check the small print and find out what you can about the competition and its organisers before sending in your entry.

Some competitions, such as this one, require you to give up your copyright when entering. As the prize is so good, the winner will get great publicity and they only want 100 words, maybe you won't mind that.

Other competition organisers have a reputation as vanity publishers and might well offer every entrant a wonderful opportunity to have their work published and to pay for that privilege. Not that I'm accusing the organisers of this poetry competition of doing anything wrong. It's free to enter, the winner will get £1,000 and if you don't want to buy an antholgy you don't have to.

AB of CW day 15

Step 15 (in winning writing competitions) is to tell people you're going to enter. That puts pressure on you to actually do it - and if you don't enter, you can't win, can you? Also if you saw the competition here and tell me you're having a go, I'll be encouraged to find more competitions for you to try.

Talking of telling people stuff ... You know I've interviewed Della Galton and Jonathan Telfer? Well, now I know what I put them through because somone thought it would be a good idea to interview me. If you'd like to read that, or be interviewed yourself, take a look at Shaun's blog.

Here's a chance to win an Amazon giftcard. If you fancy actually doing some writing then here's somewhere you can submit poetry.

Della's Here!

The lovely Della Galton has kindly agreed to answer some of our questions - thanks, Della!

You judge lots of competitions, do you see the same mistakes on a regular basis and are there things entrants do which drive you to despair?

Nothing that drives me to despair as such but I often see the same stories  or very similar stories - especially when there is a theme. I don't mean literally the same but stories that aren't original or have a similar feel to ones I've seen before.  The same twists, the same plot lines etc.

Susan Jane Jones would like to know how to make a story stand out without being crazy.

A story will stand out if it's beautifully written and well crafted with characters that leap off the page.

If a competition calls for stories 'up to 2,000 words', is it a good idea to get close to that word count, or does any length story (that stays within the rules) have the same chance of winning?

I think it's a good idea to get close to the length - don't be too short. Anything above 1500 words is fine. 

Maggie May wants to know if you'll write her stories for her? I'm almost certain she was joking and really just needs a push to get started on her own entries.

I have enough of a struggle to write my own, thanks Maggie May ;-)

How important is the title of your story?

It's not important if you've written a brilliant short story - but if there are two brilliant short stories and one of them has a brilliant title and the other one doesn't, guess which one will win!

Enid says - I'm sure, like me, you have stories that have not been accepted (well not as many but maybe a few).  What do you do with these?
Keep them for future markets. My record so far is, a story that I sold 18 years after I wrote it ;-) 

Is there anything you'd like to add?

I think going to workshops or weekly classes is a great way to get feedback and improve your craft. I still attend a weekly class as well as teaching two in Bournemouth.

You've written two books to help writers, would you like to mention them?

How to Write and Sell Short Stories, published by Accent Press, is out now and costs £9.99

Moving On - Short Story to Novel also published by Accent Press is out any day and costs £9.99

You can order either of these books via my website and I will sign them for you!

or email dellagalton@yahoo.co.uk They make great Christmas presents for writer friends.

She's right about that, I got the short story one from Gary last year and was very pleased with it. I'd be just as pleased to get the novel writing one (she hints, none too subtly)

Della's just started blogging and can be found on twitter and Facebook. She also runs occasional writing workshops. I've been to a couple of these and found them fun and inspiring.

ABofCW Day 13

Once you've thought up and written out your brilliant idea, you'll need to get on and write the story. I'll skim over that easy step and move onto what happens once you have a draft you're happy with. It's a good idea to get feedback. It's hard enough spotting our own typos, but other things are quite impossible to work out for ourselves. Will your reader understand what's going on? Will they guess your clever twist in paragraph one?

Step 13 - get a little help from a friend.

For this help you can either team up with a writing buddy or several, or join a group - either real world or internet based. You could try here, here or here. If you belong to, or run, such a group and are open to new members, please do mention it in the comments.

A good book can feel like a freind, so here's you chance to get some paper pals.

Day 12 (AB of CW)

Step 11 Take a day off occasionally.

Sometimes it's good to take a break from writing and do something else instead (the something else I'm doing tonight involves a few Royal Marines and plenty of mulled wine, but I'm sure you don't want all the details).

Here's a chance to win an iPad (I'm pretty sure you can write competition entries on them so I'm just about sticking to the theme) Don't want you to think I'm shirking with this whole advent blogfest thing, so here's another chance to win an iPad. And here's one more for luck.

And here's a chance to get an Amazon giftcard.

Size isn't important

Small quirky competitions with wacky prizes won't make you rich and famous, but are still worth entering. There are likely to be fewer entries which improves your chances, often they are fairly quick and easy to enter and winning would still be a huge boost to your confidence.

Hugely publicised competitions with prize funds to match shouldn't be ignored. Yes, loads of really talented people will enter and your chances of winning are slight - but someone will win. If you've come up with an original idea, written it well and kept to the rules, why shouldn't it be you?

Step 10 (in winning competitions) is don't worry about the size, just get it in! ('it' being your competition entry, of course)

Here's a biggie,  this one's not so big and this is a little un.

Don't leave it too late (& day 10)

It's easy to forget competition deadlines and leave it too late to send in your entry. This is especially annoying when you've written the piece and think it's pretty good (I know because it's happened to me more than once)

     SORRY WE'RE .CLOSED         

Step 10 (in winning competitions) is send your entries in good time.

Here's a competition I've told you about before, but you may not have got around to entering. Here's another and another and another and another and another and another. I haven't entered all of those myself yet - better get on with it, hadn't I?

And here's a chance to win some children's books.

Jonathan's Here!

As promised Jonathan Telfer, editor of Writing Magazine & Writer's News, is (virtually) here to answer our questions. He says he feels he may have gone on a bit of a rant but I know you'll forgive him for that as he's done it just to help us. (Step 9 of competition winningness is read what Jonathan has to say!)

Can you give us an idea how many the magazine runs per year and how many others feature?
Our programme includes 24 short story competitions each year (12 for subscribers and 12 open to all), 9 poetry competitions (3 for subscribers and 6 open to all). We also feature news of 20-30 competitions organised by other people in each issue of the magazine.

Many Writer's News (and other ) competitions seem to have a theme - how closely should we stick to that?
I'll start to answer that by going off at a bit of a tangent! What you want your story to do, whatever the competition, is stand out. Obviously there are various ways to do that.
When you're thinking of what to write to meet a theme, be aware of how easily the idea comes to you, and don't assume it won't come to other writers too. Taking a straightforward approach, or writing the first idea that comes to you, has two possible outcomes: your story will either blend into a flood of entries tackling similar themes in a similar way, or your handling of it will be strong, and the writing so good, that it blows the competition out of the water. The former, sadly, vastly outnumber the latter.
The next imaginative step up is to twist the theme slightly (for example the clichéd man getting dressed and nervous before a wedding turns out to be the vicar). Again, if the idea came to you easily, it will have come to others.

To illustrate these first two approaches, consider the recent subscriber-only "Unlikely couple" competition in Writing Magazine, in which we asked for stories about a 36-year-old college lecturer and 20-year-old delivery van driver. The majority of entries were a love story of some kind, which we'll call the straightforward approach. But the slight twist also yielded a very healthy showing, with a large number of entries in which the two characters were mother and the son she gave up for adoption 16 years ago. And in nearly all of those entries, the pair were thrown together by chance.
Now, I'm not suggesting that any of those entries or approaches are wrong; in isolation they could both yield strong short stories that could well be accepted for publication. But in competition, the judges are looking for the entries with something extra that separates them from the rank and file, which – forgive the repetition, but I really want to emphasise this – could be as simple as just the quality of the writing.

Another approach would be to take a "radical" approach, which ensures your entry will stand out from the pack but has to work hard to justify itself in a theme. And a conservative judge might discount it altogether.
You don't want to be so radical or tenuous that judges and readers have to solve a virtual cryptic crossword to understand how your story fits the theme, so the very best entries are those that find a fresh approach, weave that back into the 'core' theme seamlessly... and display outstanding technique.

Maggie May said "I think I'd like to know from Jonathan if we should write from the heart and then see where it fits. The women's mags are very strict about style, length etc and this can get in the way." What do you think?

What is that the guidelines get in the way of? I'm afraid this looks to be attempting to reconcile two distinct approaches, unless I've missed the point. If you want your story to be published, the worst thing you can do is not to follow their guidelines (this would be true of any fiction market, and probably most non-fiction ones too). If you are aiming to write a story for the joy of writing it, ignore any and all guidelines and just do it the way you want to, but you shouldn't then expect to be able to get it placed.
By all means write from the heart and wait to see where it fits, but you might have a long wait! Or at least a complicated editing/rewriting stage. Imagine your 2,500 word short story is just perfect for an upcoming comp with a 1,000 word limit; or your word count is just right but the theme is slightly off. In both of those cases, I'd suggest starting from scratch would be a much more sensible option.
Which brings me to another thing to avoid for competition themes - shoehorning! Don't take an existing short story that works in its own right, add a brief mention of whatever you need to graze the theme in the first paragraph and assume that's sufficient. Your story is probably still a good one, but it's not meeting the theme so however outstanding it is, it doesn't stand a chance against the best of the ones that weave the theme throughout the story. For example, a theme of baking. You can't have a first paragraph about how "Samantha loved baking", then trot off into a holiday romance story about Sam finding love with a waiter in Brighton.
Have her winning over a customer with the love she pours into her buns; have her using a pizza oven to very slowly turn her murdered husband's bones to ash; even have her finding love with a sunbed rental guy on holiday by baking herself to a crisp in the sun while she tries to catch his eye. These are not necessarily particularly good ideas, but any one of them would do better in a themed comp than that first example.

Kitty is baffled by a complete lack of shortlisting prowess. Do you have any tips for helping her (and me!) make sure our work isn't rejected at the early stages?
Are there any dreadful mistakes we should avoid?
Write well, edit thoroughly, check, check and check again. Follow the rules or guidelines.
You would be amazed how many entries fall at the first hurdle. If the word count is 1,500-1,700 words, 2,500 will not "do". Nor will 1,705, or 1,400. Other reasons for instant dismissal include no entry fee, no contact details, sent in on 39 individual postcards, sent three months after the closing date. And yet they all happen, again and again (okay, maybe not the postcards one).
Bad spelling and grammar are an instant turnoff - if you haven't made the effort to get all this right before you submit, you're not rereading and rewriting enough... Clunky dialogue ("But that was before I decided to undergo that particular operation you spoke of, my darling.")... purple prose... dialogue as exposition ("You know I can't walk on that ankle since the motorbike accident in Malta in 1973.")... intrusive punctuation (too much ellipsis, awkward dashes, any brackets at all)... incomplete sentences...

Meet the theme, write as well as you can, and keep at it. The right conditions for your win will come along eventually.

Do some competitions have less entries than others and if so, would entering those improve our chances?
Generally, we find the more specific a theme, the fewer entries. Very popular ones for us are: crime, ghost, love, etc. (Possibly because a lot of writers have a story tucked away that naturally fits the theme.) Obviously, therefore, competition is not so fierce in some of the other competitions, but they might also be more of a challenge to write for. Get your writing style up to scratch and think hard about the theme and your plotting and you'll be well on the way.


Do you have a top tip for those considering entering a writing competition?
Read it back as if you're the reader; edit ruthlessly; be honest with yourself about what works; slaughter your darlings, repeatedly.



Thanks so much, Jonathan for taking the time and trouble to answer these questions and offer us your advice.


Don't forget to visit the Writying Magazine & Writers' News Website where you'll find more advice, competitions and details of how to subscribe to this excellent magazine!

Uphill Struggle (& ABofCW Day 8)

Winning a competition or getting published can seem an uphill struggle, I know. Step 8 (in my mad competition advent guidelines) is to have a go - and keep trying.

If you like what you've written then send it in. If you don't get it done on time, or aren't happy with it then at least you have a first draft you can work on later. If you enter and don't win,  or submit and aren't selected you have a story or poem you can try elsewhere.

To increase your chances you might wish to target publications and competitions which are likely to have fewer submissions - the following either don't pay, are new or don't take mainstream fiction.

Here's somewhere you can submit poems (I'm tempted to just because I love the name) Here's somewhere that wants religious stories that are as unreligious as possible. This new market is interested in stories which are socially aware.

Competition Blogfest Day 7

Yesterday, I said to win competitions you need to think of something to write about. Now I'm telling you to forget that idea. If it's the first thing that occurred the chances are it also occurred to many other people. Being different won't guarantee success but it will stop the poor judge going mad from boredom. Step 7 (in competition winningness) Look at the theme in a different way.

Here's a competition that illustrates the point. I thought of alien abductions, but they don't want those ... I'm going to have to think of something else if I want that very snazzy looking trophy.

If you can't think of any ideas maybe you need to read more. £500 of book tokens will help with that.

Don't forget that Della will be popping in to answer our questions, so if there's something you'd like to ask her, please comment on yesterday's post.

Advent Winningness Day 6

Step 6 (in winning writing competitions) is one of those really annoying ones as it sounds so simple. It goes like this - 'think of an idea to write about'.

I was recently shortlisted for a Brighton Cow competition which had the themes, 'Autumn Leaves' (they're having problems with the website, so no results are displayed and you'll just have to take my word for it). I set the story in a forest in autumn. Job done?*

Can you come up with any magical ideas for here? Maybe getting your hands on these would help.

Coming soon The lovely Della Galton has kindly agreed to answer some of our questions. She judges A LOT of competitions, so her advice should be very useful. What (apart from the address to send the bribes) shall we ask her?

*I'll come to that in step 7.

Competition stuff Day 5

Step 5 (or more accurately just a suggestion) is not to think just in terms of winning a prize or losing a competition. There's more you can get out of it. For example some competitions give feedback to entrants (often for a small fee) and this can be very useful, particularly if you intend to enter more competitions run by the same organisation. You might be shortlisted or be made a runner up and this can be a big boost to your confidence and is something to be proud of.

I've just heard I was shortlisted in this competition. No prize sadly, but my story is published and if you scroll down after reading it, you'll see the judges' feedback. (Jolly nice they were too!)

This poetry competition offers a first prize of $1,500 down to $400 for third. Don't despair if you're 'just' an honourable mention though as you'll still get $75. Guess who's thinking of entering?

Advent thingy Day 4

Step 4 In winning competitions is to check those entry dates and make a note of them. Don't think a date far away in the future means you don't have to do anything yet though. Ideally write your story, or poem, or even two or three of them and put them away for a while. Closer to the date you can pick the best one and edit it.

This competition has a fairly close closing date, but that's no problem as they're after something you prepared (and had published) previously. The prize is $500 so, after I've double checked the rules to make sure I'm eligible, I'll be having a crack at this one.

This one's a bit confusing. There are three competitions a year and you must submit on time, but no dates appear to be mentioned. Not sure it's for me, but if you fancy giving it a try there's a 'contact us' button toward the bottom of the page, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get clarification.

I did promise some chocolate, so here you go.

Competition Winningness Day 3

Step 3 in winning competitions is to check you're eligible. Some competitions require entrants to be under or over a certain age, to live in a certain area, to be female (I've never seen one that only allowed male entrants) or to be unpublished. It might be tempting to break the rules, but if you win you'll almost certainly get caught out. For example, I could enter a d.o.b. suggesting I was only 16, but I couldn't pass myself off as that age to collect my prize.

Here's a competition you could try. Rule 1 states "The contest is open to all writers of any age and at any stage of their writing careers" so we should all be OK there. It runs monthly with a different theme each time. You can enter fiction, non fiction or poetry and there's $50 prize each month.


Coming soon ... Jonathan from Writer's News has kindly agreed to answer a few questions on competition entries for this blog. I thought it would be interesting to hear from someone who sees our efforts after we've licked the envelope or pressed send. I'm planning to ask how we can improve our chances of reaching the shortlists - is there anything else we want to know?

Advent Blogfest of Competition Winningness Day 2

Step 2 (of competition winningness) is to search out as many different competitions as you can - the more you find, the more you can attempt. Local papers and magazines often run writing competitions. You might see them advertised in libraries, on company websites or even junk mail. Keep your eyes open - there are writing competitions all over the place. (If you do find any free to enter ones then please consider letting me know - thanks very much!)

Talking of all over the place, I have another story up on Cafelit and also one in the 17th December issue of Woman's Weekly (very purple cover!) And here's a picture of me in the House of Commons yesterday evening, just before my poem was read by Peter Wishart MP (formerly of Runrig and Big Country). Yes, there do seem to be a lot of wine glasses in front of me...

In Step 1 yesterday, I said following my blog can help you win competitions. I can't (yet) prove that but Maggie May should be able to confirm it does help people enter. You can read (and vote for if you like) her competition story 'Finding Paddy Pig' here. Please do vote for your favourite. Companies run the competitions for publicity - show them it's worth doing this by visiting the site and getting involved.

Here's a haggis hunt - it has no connection with writing, but I know you'll like it and yesterday, in 'the house', we had a huge handsome haggis.

Advent Blogfest of Competition Winningness Day 1

I'm delighted to be kicking off this madness with the news that I've won a poetry competition! Yes me and yes, poetry. Good eh? I mentioned the competition here. I hasten to add the poem you see there wasn't the winning one; you can see that here. There were over 150 entries (I asked).

Thank you to the lovely people at Scotscare for the good work they do, for running this competition and for picking me as the winner.

The photo shows where I'm having dinner tonight as part of my prize. Good eh? (I said that already, didn't I?)

From now until 24th December I'll be explaining how I managed to win and giving links to other competitions you can enter, advice on doing well in these competitions, random draws and including as much chocolate as I can squeeze in. (Sorry if the punctuation is a bit off and this post rambles - I'm typing whilst trying to put my hair in a snazzy up do before battling through wind and rain to the train station).

Step 1 (in winning this or any competition) is to actually know about the competition. Obviously the absolute best way to do that is to follow my blog.

Not only will following me help keep you informed, it'll make me happy and if I'm happy I'll search even harder to find free to enter competitions and I'll be more likely to give you chocolate.

Here's today's competition. They want a short story by March. The winner gets $1,000 publication of their story in an 'enhacanced novel' and on its own, plus they'll consider publishing your novel. Good eh? (Forgive me - I'm excited).