Mslexia-short story -how to win a competition

Workshops

From the Mslexia Workshops Collection

How to Win a Short Story Competition

by Debbie Taylor

Mslexia’s Women’s Short Story Competition 2014 is now open for entries, with a first prize of £2,000. To help you craft a winning story, here’s some guidance from some of our previous judges.

1 - Choose intriguing subject matter

One of the easiest way to make your story unique is to set it somewhere exotic, or write about a topic (ornithology, millinery, billiards) that has its own wonderful language.
‘I longed to read about something extraordinary.’ Tracy Chevalier
‘Consider writing about science, history, philosophy, politics, travel… Subject matter that will set your story apart.’ Sara Maitland

2 - Make something happen

A short story should chronicle a transformation or change; so steer clear of static scenarios and internal monologues. And make the change concrete if possible.
‘I like a story with movement rather than a snapshot in time.’ Val McDermid
‘I prefer a tale driven by events, by conflict between characters.’ Kate Mosse

3 - Don’t use an extract from your novel

Novel extracts make unsatisfying short stories. The pace of a novel is different; because the characters are on a longer journey. The novel walks, where the story needs to run.
‘A short story must go somewhere, and actually arrive in the span of its short life.’ Maggie Gee
‘Some stories ruled themselves out by dint of their sheer formlessless.’ Helen Simpson

4 - Purge those clichés

Raise your description to another level by spending some quality time with every adjective and adverb. Could you find better ones? Could you leave any out? Could you replace that simile with a metaphor?
‘I think metaphor is far stronger than simile.’ Stella Duffy
‘I always prefer writing that is brilliant but flawed to something less ambitious that’s almost perfect.’ Patience Agbabi

5 - Focus on an unusual character

If you decide to write about something you have experienced, try transposing it into the life of someone wilder, uglier, madder, badder than you are – and see what happens.
‘You don’t need to have great thoughts, just great characters.’ Deborah Moggach
‘Step away from yourself and look out into the world. You’re not as interesting as you think!' Tracy Chevalier

6 - Write in first person

A surefire way to hook a reader and get them involved is to slip inside your main character’s skin and look at the world through their eyes.
‘It’s no coincidence that the top prizewinning stories were all written in the first person.’ Jill Dawson
‘Try rewriting your story in first person; it will come alive.’ Deborah Moggach

This feature has been devised especially for the Mslexia Women's Short Story Competition, judged by Jackie Kay.

Words with Jam First Page competition now open

Our popular first page competition is back. We're looking for the most captivating first page (up to 400 words) of a story. Entries can be from a novel published, unpublished, a part written novel, or simply a first page written purely for the competition. Entries will be judged anonymously. Prizes 1st Prize - £500 2nd Prize - £100 3rd Prize - £50 Closing Date 31st May 2014 Results All three winning entries will be published in August 2014 on the Words with JAM website. All entrants will be notified via email with the results. Judge: Orna Ross In 2011, in what she describes as the best move of her writing life, Orna took her rights back from her publisher, Penguin, to republish her books herself, with the titles and treatment she had originally envisaged for them. The experience led her to launch The Alliance of Independent Authors the following year at London Book Fair. Having enjoyed a 20-year career in media publishing and creative teaching, mentoring and facilitation, she is greatly excited by how author-publishing is now democratising the business of books. Orna writes novels and poems and the Go Creative! series, which teaches the application of creative principles and practices to everyday life. “What I love most about author-publishing is the creative freedom,” she says. “You become the creative director of the book from inspiration to publication — and beyond. What I love most about ALLi is being in daily connection with such an engaged, talented, forward-thinking group of authors who are changing not only the status of writers in the industry but also, and more importantly, what we read — and how.” Orna blogs regularly on her Author Blog, on ALLi’s Self-Publishing Advice blog and for many other websites and publications. http://allianceindependentauthors.org http://www.ornaross.com/

Stinging Fly open for poetry and prose

Submissions — open March 1st 

We are open for poetry and prose submissions from March 1st to March 31st.

Work submitted to us in this period will be considered for our issue in October 2014. Work submitted outside of this period will likely be lost or mislaid, so please do submit before March 31st.

* No more than one story and/or four poems should be submitted during any one submission period.

* Short stories and poems should always be just as long (or as short) as they need to be. (In our Winter 2012-13 issue the longest story is over 5,000 words; the shortest has less than 600.)

* The postal address for submissions is: The Stinging Fly, PO Box 6016, Dublin 1, Ireland. At present, we do not accept e-mail submissions.
 

Glimmer Train seeks short story submissions

Frank Mitchell & Helga Burmeister Mitchell, c 1940.

Upcoming deadline:
• Family Matters. 1st: $1,500, and publication. Deadline: March 31.
  
• A bit of 2013 data as we report the results of the December Fiction Open: 7 of 12 of our 2013 1st-place winners were women—please don't feel bad, guys, it all goes in waves—and 8 of 12 winning stories were those authors' 1st fiction publications.
• Most submissions come in at 1,500-6,500 words, but any lengths up to 12,000 words are welcome.
• Winners and finalists will be announced in the June bulletin, and contacted directly by May 27th.

Fish Publishing open for submissions

Poetry Prize: €1,000

The ten best poems will be published in the 2014 Fish Anthology.

This year's judge, Ruth Padel, is a British poet and writer with close connections to conservation, wildlife, Greece and music. She has published a novel, eight works of non-fiction and eight poetry collections, most recently The Mara Crossing, which mixes poems and prose.

Closing Date: 31 March 2014
Results: 15 May
Anthology Published: July 2014
Max. Length: 300 Words
Submission Fee: €14
First Prize: €1,000
Second Prize: A week in residence at Anam Cara Writers and Artists Retreat in West Cork.

Over The Edge Writers gathering.Cuirt festival news

FRIDAY WEEK

Over The Edge March Writers’ Gathering at The Kitchen @ The Museum

The Over The Edge March Writers’ Gathering presents readings by visiting and Galway poets. Christopher Locke, Enda Coyle Greene, Alan Jude Moore, Bernie Crawford, Kevin O’Shea & Marie Cadden will read their work at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, March 14^th, 8pm.

Christopher Locke was born in Laconia, New Hampshire in 1968. He is the author of the poetry collections How To Burn (Adastra Press, 1995), Slipping Under Diamond Light (Clamp Down Press, 2002), Possessed (Editor’s Choice Award, Main Street Rag Press, 2005), The Temple of Many Hands (Dead Drunk Dublin Press, 2010), End of American Magic (Salmon Poetry, 2010), Waiting For Grace & Other Poems (Turning Point, 2013) and the memoir Can I Say (Kattywompus Press, 2013). Billy Collins says Locke’s poetry will have you “helplessly engaged.”

Enda Coyle-Greene was born in Dublin where she still lives.  She has published widely in journals and anthologies in Ireland and elsewhere and is also a frequent contributor on RTE radio.  The manuscript of her first collection poems, Snow Negatives, won the Patrick Kavanagh award in 2006 and was published by the Dedalus Press the following year.  Her second collection, Map of the Last, also from Dedalus, was published in 2013.

Alan Jude Moore is the author of four collections of poetry: Black State Cars (Salmon Publishing, 2004), Lost Republics (Salmon Poetry, 2008), Strasbourg (Salmon Poetry, 2010) and Zinger (Salmon Poetry, 2013). Widely published in Ireland and abroad, he has read at venues around the world including The Troubadour Club (London), Riflessidiversi (Umbria, Italy), The Nabokov Museum (St. Petersburg), The Henry Miller Memorial Library (California) and the Istanbul International Poetry Festival (Turkey). He is co-editor of the online literary magazine The Burning Bush 2. He lives in Dublin. 

Bernie Crawford won the 2013 Galway Rape Crisis Centre Poetry competition, judged by Clare Daly TD and Kevin Higgins. Bernie is one of the editors of the Skylight 47 poetry paper, probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication.

Kevin O’Shea won the 2012 Cúirt New Writing Prize for Poetry. His first collection of poetry, The Art of Non-Fishing, was published by Doire Press in 2012. Kevin is one of the editors of Skylight 47.

Marie Cadden won the 2011 Cúirt New Writing Prize for Poetry. Her satirical poem, ‘Mammogram’, is a contemporary classic. She is an editor of Skylight 47.

There is no entrance fee.  All welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748.

  

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council. http://www.overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

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Tuesday, March 4^th, 6pm @ The House Hotel 

- the 2014 Cúirt Festival programme

will be launched by Patrick Lonergan

The 2014 Wasafiri New Writing Prize is open for entries

The 2014 Wasafiri New Writing Prize is open for entries

The Wasafiri New Writing Prize is open to anyone worldwide who has not published a complete book. We are looking for creative submissions in one of three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Life Writing. To enter, simply fill in the entry form and send it to us with your entry and fee of UK Sterling £6 if entering one category, £10 for two and £15 for three categories. The closing date is 5pm GMT on 25 July 2014.

A maximum of 5 poems can be entered and the word limit for Fiction and Life Writing is 3000. Other terms and conditions apply.

£300 will be awarded to the winner in each category and their work will be published in Wasafiri.

Entry form (.doc)

To obtain an entry form please email wasafiri@open.ac.uk