Education How Not To Win Short Story Competitions

Having run Short Story competitions for the past few years I feel I am somewhat qualified to guide eager story writers along the path to prizes by avoiding those major pot holes that so many hopeful entrants fall into. Here are four points to consider before popping your entry into the post. POINT 1 - Don't Read 'The Rules'. As soon as I take a story out of its envelope I can tell if the writer has read 'The Rules' or not. If the pages are not numbered when I've said number them; if the story title is not at the top of each page when I've said do it that way; if the text is not double spaced or the font size needs either a magnifying glass or has to be read from the far side of the room I know they haven't read 'The Rules'. Competition organisers say how they want your manuscript to look for a reason - usually it's so that the story can be read comfortably, without straining the eyes trying to decipher some incredibly curly font. Then again, if 'The Rules' request that pages be numbered and the story title appear at the top of each page, this is so that if the judge should hurl a batch of stories across the table in sheer frustration at the number of incomprehensible story lines, the resultant mess can be sorted out fairly easily - if 'The Rules' have been followed. And another thing: not following 'The Rules' makes a bad impression on the judge. He may take the view that if an entrant can't be bothered to send in a good looking manuscript then, depending on how the organisers go about rating your story, he/she (the judge) may well mark you down for it. Don't fall into the trap of thinking "My story is so good they'll ignore little things like font size and so on". Don't you believe it! It's even possible that some mean minded judges will put an entry straight into the bin if 'The Rules' have not been followed to the letter. Lesson: If you don't want to win the competition - ignore 'The Rules'. POINT 2 - Don't make your story a story, instead make your entry an article or a monologue. What's the difference? Simple. A story unfolds in real time with dialogue, emotion and description, whereas an article recounts a series of facts by an impartial observer, and a monologue is one person talking about their experience(s). These latter two are not the same as a story. If your story sounds like an excerpt from your personal journal, it's an article. Here's one definition of a monologue: "A monologue is an extended uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama." Does your story read like that? If so it's a monologue. When I say that "a story unfolds in real time" I'm not saying it should be written in the present tense. It may well be, if you have good reason to do so, but either way the reader, in our case the judge, should be told the story in proper story-telling fashion. Remember you are trying to win a prize and unless the competition organisers have asked for something more cerebral, then stick to a true story format. Here's Wikipedia's definition: "A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format." Lesson: If you don't want to win the competition - send in an article or monologue rather than a story. POINT 3 - Don't stick to the theme. If the organisers ask you to write a story around a particular theme, then do it. Make it clear to the judge shortly into the story that you have embraced the theme. Sticking it in right at the end as if it's an afterthought may not impress. In my experience some entries appear to be stories that have come out of the archive drawer regardless of theme, bunged in an envelope and sent off. Job done. Lesson: If you don't want to win the competition - ignore the specified theme. POINT 4 - Don't use the spell or grammar checker. It only takes a couple of minutes and will ensure you don't lose marks by having 'there' instead of 'their'. If you don't have or don't like using these checkers, get a reasonably literate friend to read your story through and who can point out spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. The thing to think about here is that the competition organisers may well want to include winning stories in an anthology or maybe publish them on their website. To use a story that has spelling mistakes, bad grammar, words missed out, words duplicated and so on is not going to do their street cred any favours. And remember it's not their job to proof read and copy edit submissions. You the author is supposed to do that. Lesson: If you don't want to win the competition don't get it spell or grammar checked or read by a friend. Take care that the competition you are entering is genuinely looking for quality material. buying essays cheap