Competitions and Writing
Blog: 01 August 2019: Competitions and Writing
This month we are are entering two fiction stories into The Best of the Net but first a look at The Sunday Times 10-Word Competition held at the beginning of July and how we didn’t even get close:
The Sunday Times 10-Word Story Competition
At the beginning of July The Sunday Times ran a 10-Word Story Competition that you could enter via Twitter. Needless to say I not only entered but I also supervised an online Tips/Feedback Thread to try out stories and get advice and comments from other readers.
The prize up for grabs was 12 audio books, so not to be sniffed at, and since entry was free it was worth the little time required to write a 10-word story.
Straight away I described the arc of a story:
The story I thought of writing is about a little girl whose goldfish dies and she is initially devastated but gets over it very quickly when she gets a replacement. HOW can I fit all that into 10-words? Don’t know yet, don’t know if I can, but I do know the goldfishes name is Jaws.
I count that as 56 words! A 56-word synopsis for a 10-word story!!! That just made me Laugh Out Loud… This is the first time I have ever fully defined a story before sitting down to write. I usually have some general idea and let it evolve as I write. How could I condense and pack all that into 10-words? I decided it couldn’t be done. It was such a good story idea, showing how children can be fickle, I decided to save it for a longer form. Then someone else also said it couldn’t be done. So, ever one to take up challenges I had another look, started to write and this is what I eventually came up with:
Jaws floating, little Sarah devastated. New pet Fluffy, goldfish forgotten.
During it’s formulation someone did suggest using Nemo instead of Jaws. Only “old” people know about Jaws, and Nemo will appeal to the young (and their parents). This is a really good suggestion and very true, but, in the end I plumped for Jaws. The argument I used was for those that don’t know about Jaws the movie, there might be a sub-text that it was a single goldfish that ate all his friends…yuk, and tenuous.
But, I didn’t win. The winning entry by Ray McGrath can be found here, and reproduced here for convenience (competition sponsor Audible UK):
He squeezed her hand; then some more. She was silent.
What?
As per normal most literary type stories, just leave me cold, and this was no different. Alas, I only tend to get “surface stories” whilst layers below just pass me by. But, I read it again, and used the logic that it MUST be good to have won the competition, and looked harder for meaning. All of a sudden it occurred to me what it is about. Well, more correctly, my interpretation of what it is about.
Understanding stories like this is hard work (for me) but is rewarding when you spot something that is hidden and “get” another layer of meaning. It makes the story BIGGER and more enjoyable. (Link to my understanding of the meaning.)
Now I know what it’s about, I think it’s genius! Also, I’m trying to work out how my story differs to this winner, in the hope I can learn something and perhaps even win next time around? Well, that’s what we all strive for — to be better.
The Best of the Net 2018
As a publication on the internet we here at Adlers Writing have the ability to enter stories into the competition Best of the Net 2018. All original fiction stories published between July 1 2018 and June 30 2019 are eligible and listed below in date order.
col 1 — number of fans
col 2 — date of publication
col 3 — story title
- 16 . . 29/07/2018 . . The Job
- 7 . . .28/07/2018 . . Picture Perfect
- 25 . . 02/08/2018 . . Chopsticks
- 24 . . 03/08/2018 . . Deadheaded [reprint]
- 4 . . .28/08/2018 . . Peer Pressure
- 13 . . 26/03/2019 . . Run
- 13 . . 30/03/2019 . . Dreaming
- 19 . . 02/04/2019 . . Nice Pair
- 20 . . 07/04/2019 . . The Beginning is Near
- 14 . . 12/04/2019 . . Preemptive
It is the original date and original journal of publication, so reprints are not eligible.
To keep things simple I decided to enter the 2 stories that have the most fans as at 14 July 2019 (when I counted) and an author can receive only one nomination from us.
Apart from a couple of formalities to complete (I need your email address), the two selected to be nominated are Chopsticks by Hannah Whiteoak and The Beginning is Near by Chris Hall. Please join me in wishing these two authors the best of luck. [Hannah is no stranger to entering and winning competitions as she has just won the 2019 OWT Short Fiction Competition — congratulations.]
This competition allows for up to six poems, two stories, and two works of creative nonfiction for consideration. We don’t publish poetry, but do publish the occasional creative non fiction, and will also be entering
Ten Things You (probably) Didn’t Know About Me by Stevie Adler (me).
Looking at what we have published in the past year has reminded me, again, that I have not published any of my own fiction for an entire year!! Has it really been that long? Since Christmas I have been trying to get published in journals outside of Medium. So far I have had one accepted for a printed anthology. I won’t tell you yet which one it is until it is actually published, as I am superstitious. My plan is to get published elsewhere then “reprint” in Adlers Writing. The theory is to get greater exposure for each story, as I don’t write that much fiction.
Microfiction on Medium
Number of stories tagged Microfiction on Medium, over the past year:
— — — — — — — —ToT — —Pay — —Free
June. . . . . 2018 . . . . . 42
July. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 . . . . 25 . . . . 41
August . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 . . . . 38 . . . . 46
September. . . . . . . . . . 56 . . . . 20 . . . . 36
October . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 . . . . 16 . . . . 19
November . . . . . . . . . . 61 . . . . 18 . . . . 43
December . . . . . . . . . . 28 . . . . 15 . . . . 13
January . . 2019 . . . . . 55 . . . . 16 . . . . 39
February . . . . . . . . . . . 62 . . . . 43 . . . . 19
March . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 . . . . 46 . . . . 14
April . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 . . . . 66 . . . . 60
May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66. . . . .41 . . . . 25
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 . . . . 43 . . . . 17
July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81. . . . 60 . . . . 21
— — — — — — — —ToT — —Pay — —Free
There seems to be an uptick in July, but as I was counting I did note a fair few foreign language stories tagged as Microfiction (8–10), so, perhaps they don’t count, so it’s not that much of an increase.
There are some 1.4k stories tagged Microfiction on Medium. To put into perspective, the tag Fiction has 98k, Poetry has 268k and Life has 330k.
The Ten-Word Story Competition was a lot of fun reading other writer’s attempts, and giving and getting advice. I’m looking forward to the next Twitter Story Competition, whenever it is. Good luck again to Hannah and Chris and Stevie(me),
‘till next time,
Stevie
