about how many will take part in this year's short story competition with no particular theme?
Replies
Hi again, John!
Did you know that you get a postage-paid, free book from Bloomsbury if you reach 200 points... and that you get 5 points just for thumbing up or down somebody else' comment?
I'm not aware how many you get for red-flagging. Perhaps you can tell us? :D ;P
I think that W and I both feel - and should have made this clearer in earlier posts - "What's the point in entering writing competitions where true originality is castigated?"
Just as I have no intention of studying the kind of short stories that X Magazine accepts in order to write a clone ( more advice that is often given to beginning authors), I have no intention of reading the jury's total output in order to write just like them. Even for a £1,000 prize.
At La Gr@not@, we WANT our socks knocked off by writers' and illustrators' originality. If they're poking fun at us at the same time, we all 3 enjoy a good laugh - even at our own expense.
(That does NOT mean that we'll accept xenophobic stories for our refugees book. But then, being xenophobic about refugees is hardly original.)
Hello, I managed to press the correct button this time. Apologies again for my flag error. I do agree with you on your point that some people only join the site to enter the competition and it does cause me a little frustration, but I suppose that one has to accept that this is the way it is. If you take heed of some advice and blogs on short story competitions then you would read a selection of the judges work and produce something like that, which does not encourage the sort of creativity that I, and I think, you are striving for .But please don't get me wrong. What I am fearful of is simply being barred from the exercise unless I post and reply indiscriminate stuff just to go up the ratings, which I know was not your whole point (I did read it all Emilie), but it was the point that concerned me. The website needs a way of attracting users, and to let people enter without at least joining is to take on a lot more work for no gain. Unless, of course in reality they simply bin 70% of the stories unread. Who knows.
I didn't enter the one where the picture was supposed to inspire because I didn't find it inspiring at all. Perhaps an inner monologue from a lonely artist might have be ok, but it would have been dull to write, let alone read.
Hi again, John!
Did you know that you get a postage-paid, free book from Bloomsbury if you reach 200 points... and that you get 5 points just for thumbing up or down somebody else' comment?
I'm not aware how many you get for red-flagging. Perhaps you can tell us? :D ;P
I think that W and I both feel - and should have made this clearer in earlier posts - "What's the point in entering writing competitions where true originality is castigated?"
Just as I have no intention of studying the kind of short stories that X Magazine accepts in order to write a clone ( more advice that is often given to beginning authors), I have no intention of reading the jury's total output in order to write just like them. Even for a £1,000 prize.
At La Gr@not@, we WANT our socks knocked off by writers' and illustrators' originality. If they're poking fun at us at the same time, we all 3 enjoy a good laugh - even at our own expense.
(That does NOT mean that we'll accept xenophobic stories for our refugees book. But then, being xenophobic about refugees is hardly original.)
Hello, I managed to press the correct button this time. Apologies again for my flag error. I do agree with you on your point that some people only join the site to enter the competition and it does cause me a little frustration, but I suppose that one has to accept that this is the way it is. If you take heed of some advice and blogs on short story competitions then you would read a selection of the judges work and produce something like that, which does not encourage the sort of creativity that I, and I think, you are striving for .But please don't get me wrong. What I am fearful of is simply being barred from the exercise unless I post and reply indiscriminate stuff just to go up the ratings, which I know was not your whole point (I did read it all Emilie), but it was the point that concerned me. The website needs a way of attracting users, and to let people enter without at least joining is to take on a lot more work for no gain. Unless, of course in reality they simply bin 70% of the stories unread. Who knows.
I didn't enter the one where the picture was supposed to inspire because I didn't find it inspiring at all. Perhaps an inner monologue from a lonely artist might have be ok, but it would have been dull to write, let alone read.
Let me add Helen Jones' name to that list. Isolation? Her story has it in spades!