January's Competition Monthly

A new year, a new start. Francesca hopes you'll find something familiar, or even better, something outside your comfort zone in this latest selection of competitions.

When I first attended Adult Education creative writing classes I'd written several short stories and poems, but not a lot else. Our tutor (author Elaine Everest), encouraged us to try our hand at all sorts of different writing. We had a go at scripts, several forms of poetry, articles, flash fiction, tips and fillers, leaflets, non-fiction books, novels and a few more things besides.

One of the most valuable aspects of these classes was that we were also encouraged to submit to all sorts of markets. Between us, we've ended up with a whole heap of different genres and types of writing published in different arenas. This success is largely due to us being pushed to write and submit outside of our comfort zone. Today, now running her own classes, Elaine still encourages us to try new things, giving us challenges that we might not normally tackle.

It's a new year, so why not try a competition outside of your comfort zone? Or dig out work you've abandoned in order to write something else. The selection this month includes short stories, novels for adults and children, script writing, poetry, flash fiction and two humour competitions. Perhaps you fancy yourself as a Ben Elton or Carla Lane? Perhaps the new Mike Leigh? Have a go and see what new doors you can open.

Good luck to you all, and don't forget to let us know of any successes you have.

Kelpies Prize 2018

Theme: Children's novel set in Scotland for either 8-10 or 12-15 year olds.

Prize: Winning author, £2,000

Closing date: 28 February 2018

Entry: Free

Details

Bridgend Writers' Circle Short Story Competition

Theme: Open. 1,500 – 1,800 words

Prize: £200 / £50 / £30

Closing date: 1^st March 2018

Entry: £5 / £7.50 for 2

Details

The International Windsor Fringe Award for New Drama Writing

Theme: Plays of 30 minutes max, 6 actors max. Only amateur playwrights.

Prize: 3 winners selected for stage performance.

Closing date: 5 March 2018

Entry: £10

Details

Brittle Star Short Story Fiction Competition (also poetry)

Theme: Open, 2,000 words max.

Prize: £250 per genre / £50 pg / £25 pg

Closing date: 14 March 2018

Entry: £5 / £3.50 each subsequent

Details

Writing Magazine Humour Short Story Competition

Theme: Humorous short story, 1,500 – 1,700 words.

Prize: £200 plus publication in magazine / £50 plus publication online

Closing date: 15 March 2018

Entry: £5 / £3 for subscriberss

Details

Edge Hill Short Story Prize

Theme: Single author collection of short stories, published between 1^st Jan & 31 Dec 2017 (not self published)

Prize: £10,000 / £1,000 reader's choice.

Closing date: 23 March 2018

Entry: Free

Details

Retreat West Flash Fiction

Theme: 'Forgetting'. 500 words max. No children's stories

Prize: £200 / 2 x £75

Closing date: 25 March 2018

Entry: £8

Details

The International Rubery Book Award

Theme: For international and self published books.

Prize: £1,500 plus read by top literary agent. Catergory winners £150 each. No publication date restriction. All genres.

Closing date: 31 March 2018

Entry: £36

Details

Twisted Mysteries Writing Competition

Theme: Read the brief, but basically what lies beneath the surface in 1933.

Prize: £100 / £50 / £25 plus all winners published in an eBook anthology.

Closing date: 30 March 2018

Entry: £5

Details

Scottish Arts Club Short Story Award

Theme: Open. Max 1,500 words. Unpublished writers only (novel and short story)

Prize: £1,000 / 2 x 100 / Scottish prize £500

Closing date: 31 March 2018

Entry: £10

Details

Writers Bureau Short Story Competition

Theme: Open. 2,000 words max.

Prize: £300 / £200 / £100 / £50 plus a WB course for all winners

Closing date: 31 March 2018

Entry: £5

Details

Writers' Forum Fiction Competition (also poetry)

Theme: Open. 1,000 – 3,000 words

Prize: £300 / £150 / £100

Closing date: Rolling.

Entry: £6 / £3 for subscribers

Details

(Writers' Forum also have a flash fiction competition each month, but the duration for each is short and you'll need to look for the current theme)

Bristol Poetry Prize

Theme: Open. Up to 100 lines.

Prize: £600 / £300 / £100

Closing date: 31 March 2008

Entry: £6

Details  (scroll down)

Wergel Flump Humor Poetry Contest

Theme: Humorous poem up to 250 lines

Prize: £1,000 / £250 / 10 x £100

Closing date: 1^st April 2018

Entry: Free

Details

Looking Ahead:

First Novel Prize

Theme: Novels over 50,000 words

Prize: £1,000 / £250 / £100

Closing date: Open February 1^st - 31 May 2018

Entry: £25

Details

Francesca Capaldi Burgess has been placed or shortlisted in a number of competitions including Winchester Writers' Conference, Twyford Writers, Chorley & District Writer's Circle, Retreat West, Cordelia.net, Meridian Writing, Flash a Famous Phrase, Wells Festival and Writing Magazine. She's had stories and a serial published in magazines worldwide and in three anthologies, including Diamonds and Pearls and 100 Stories for Haiti  plus a few articles and a poem. She is a member of the RNA New Writers' Scheme and the Society for Women Writers and Journalists. Francesca runs a writing blog along with RNA member Elaine Roberts called Write Minds.

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Liz Taylorson: Write better, you will, with a mentor…

Today, we welcome Liz Taylorson to the RNA blog.

When I was offered the chance to take part in a novel writing group run by Writers’ Block North East (based in Middlesbrough) part of the experience was individual mentoring sessions from a creative writing tutor. I’d never been mentored before, and I didn’t know what to expect. In my imagination, my mentor was going to sit next to me as I wrote, encouraging me when it was going well and sympathising when it was going badly, as well as deducing exactly what I should do when I got stuck. Perhaps an occasional cup of tea and a cake would be involved along the way too? I envisaged someone who would be a cross between Yoda, Miss Marple and Mary Berry.

Laura Degnan, my mentor, looked nothing like Yoda, Miss Marple OR Mary Berry. Before we began, she asked to see the first few pages of my current work in progress and a summary of the plot, chapter by chapter. This meant that I had to write a proper summary of the plot that could be understood by somebody other than me… and suddenly, before I’d even had a single mentoring session, I was beginning to see the weaknesses and flaws in my plan for myself, the places where I hadn’t considered how I was going to get from event a to event b, the parts where I was telling, not showing and the bits where, frankly, it was a bit dull. The first mentoring session had effectively taken place before we’d even shared a single cup of tea!

When I did get to sit down with Laura, we met in the tearoom of the local art museum which was a perfect setting. It was casual enough to feel like two friends chatting rather than a teacher/pupil setting, but had ample space to work at a table and plenty of light to work by – and plenty of tea! I opened my notebook, took up my pen and waited for Laura to tell me what to do next with my novel; how to brighten up the bits where it felt a bit dull – only she didn’t actually tell me anything. She asked me questions. Lots of questions. Questions like: “Why does your story have to take place in this place and time?” “What else is your heroine prepared to do to succeed – how far could she go?” or “What are the dramatic consequences of her reading those letters?”

Instead of the truthful answer which was: “Well, the dramatic consequences of her reading those letters are that I get to put in a nice historical parallel to her situation in Chapter 4,” I suddenly began to realise that perhaps the answer should be more along the lines of: “Well, the dramatic consequences are that this is when she realises that the priceless painting in the library is a forgery AND I get to put in a nice historical parallel…”

Without giving me a single idea of her own, or actually telling me to do anything at all she encouraged me to raise the stakes for my own characters and suddenly my story started taking off in several different directions at once. Instead of talking about a problem to a third character, the protagonists were fighting about it; instead of worrying endlessly about what she should tell her ex-boyfriend, my heroine was telling him the wrong thing only to have him turn up and confront her about it; instead of looking at a beautiful house in the distance and wishing they could visit, my characters were exploring it.

So, in my experience, being mentored didn’t mean I was told what to do (or even what not to do), it meant being guided to discover what to do for myself. It was a wholly positive experience, I enjoyed every minute of it and came out of my sessions buzzing with new ideas. Yoda, Miss Marple and Mary Berry had better watch out …

*****

Liz's debut novel, The Little Church by the Sea is available now.

Isolated and unwelcome in the picturesque seaside village of Rawscar, Reverend Cass Fordyce has lost her faith and her home. Christmas is coming, and she isn’t looking forward to it. Then she meets attractive local man Hal - twice divorced and with a reputation as a ladies’ man he’s everything that a celibate vicar like Cass should avoid... especially as Hal is hiding secrets of his own, including his past with the mysterious Anna.

Can Cass ever find her way in Rawscar? What secret does Hal have to hide? And is there ever such a thing as a truly fresh start?




Find out more about Liz here:

Liz has always surrounded herself with books. As a child, she was always to be found with her head in one and she still has a bookcase full of her childhood favourites to this day. (She once read The Lord of the Rings thirteen times in a row, cover to cover!). All through childhood and adolescence she wrote - mainly historical romances involving impossibly perfect heroes. All this reading and writing led to a degree in English Literature (and another book-case full of books) and then a job as a cataloguer of early printed books for a major University Library. 

Children (and then cats and chickens) interrupted her bibliographic career, and having given up library work Liz started writing fiction and hasn’t stopped since, joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme to try to learn how to write novels properly in 2015. She has also written some short stories, with one "The Second Princess" winning a competition in Writing Magazine which led her to think that maybe publication wasn’t a pipe dream after all.

The publication of her first novel, The Little Church by the Sea, published by Manatee Books in November 2017 is a dream come true.

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Thank you for your very interesting post about your experience with a mentor, Liz. Has anyone else had experience of working with a mentor? How did you go about finding yours?

Rosemary Dun - Here’s to all us Madonnas (or Helen Mirrens)

Today we'd like to welcome Rosemary Dun to the RNA blog!

I’m delighted to be here, following the publication of my debut novel The Trouble With Love. Some may ask, why did it take you so long – seeing as my age is close to Madonna’s. I say – it’s a long story . . .

I guess, like many of us, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t tell stories. My childhood being full of books, imaginary ponies, fairies, princes and goblins. I wrote my first novel when I was nine. But when I was at school writing was just something you were good at, not a career. And so, I became a physiotherapist, and then a health researcher.

Fast forward and my first baby is just 3 weeks old when everything changed for ever. My darling brother had a freak motor cycle accident leaving him severely brain damaged. That was when my writing – like a long-lost friend - found me. I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. I’ve not stopped writing since.

I went on to be short listed for the prestigious Ian St James Awards, where I met my first agent Maggie Noach, who arrived with Lene Lovich (yes, she of Lucky Number fame). I had my second baby clamped to my chest in a baby sling when Maggie turned to me and said, ‘Do you have a novel?’ Well, yes I did. And the rest might have been history, if Life hadn’t thrown yet another curve ball my way.

I’d finished my MA in Creative Writing, was close to securing a deal with a major publisher, when I was struck down/ completely floored by a neurological chronic illness. It rendered me bed bound, and my vocabulary dropped to around 200 words. My dream appeared shattered. But still, my writing did not abandon me. As I clawed back some health I wrote short pieces (all I could manage with limited brain stamina): poetry and short stories; I even performed poetry where I could – not once letting go of my dream to be a published novelist, come hell or high water. I began to realise it would take me longer than I’d hoped. Slowly improving, I began to teach creative writing online for the Open University, and returned to an abandoned story about Polly and Spike and their family of friends. In the midst of all of this – sadly Maggie passed away, my marriage broke up, and (I won’t lie) finding a new agent was tough.

So, where am I now? I have a new agent - Kate Hordern - and a debut novel published with Sphere –yay! It may have taken me longer, I may be older than I hoped I’d be – but then I suppose I wouldn’t have had all that fun performing poetry, gained such experience, or been honoured to inspire students.

There have been false starts along the way, I’ve certainly been tested, but I’ll always be grateful that - when I needed her most - my muse, my writing, my whatever, came back to me like a small ghost child, placing her hand in mine, and leading me to here.

It’s not over, I know – this is just the start of my new journey. I shall continue to reinvent myself and my new mantra, should I falter, will be to - Be More Madonna!

Rosemary Dun is a lover of words and a performer of poetry – she’s been known to whip out her ukulele (unless you ask her very nicely not to!) The Trouble With Love is her debut novel with Sphere, Little Brown, and she couldn't be more delighted. She’s also a creative writing tutor, mother to two grownup daughters (how did that happen?) and she lives close to Bristol’s historic harbourside with her bonkers labrador Tallulah.

The Trouble With Love (Amazon) 
Rosemary's Website
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Many thanks to Rosemary Dun and we wish you all the best.

If you'd like to feature or be interviewed for the RNA blog, then please contact the blog team via elaineeverest@aol.com.

This blog was compiled by Louisa Heaton.

KATE LONG: Something Only We Know

We are delighted to welcome Kate Long to the blog today. Kate shows how one character, invented during a creative writing lesson, led to her latest novel.

Kate Long

Helen Crossley stepped out of my head and onto the page during a creative writing lesson I was teaching. The class had been considering ways to flesh out characters, and we’d all done an exercise together. My own attempt had produced Helen, and though at first the only two aspects I could see were her anorexia and her striking red hair, she quickly began to fill me in on the detail of her life.

She was thirty and still living at home. Her mother was understandably over-protective, and her father baffled by her illness. Her sister Jen, eight years younger, seemed distant and busy. Helen’s best support – the man who’d got her through the very worst of the illness and the bleakest times – was stable, patient, loyal Ned, who’d spent the past twelve years helping her recover.

And yet she nursed a shameful secret. For all Ned’s devotion, she remained obsessed by her first boyfriend. She could not stop imagining where he might be now, if he’d married, whether he was happy. What’s more, she understood that before she could move on and get out into the world as an independent adult, she’d have to address the past – whatever damage it might inflict on those around her.

So that was Helen. But then I thought, was it actually her story? Somehow I felt it wasn’t. It seemed more interesting to me to look at the issue of anorexia from a bystander’s point of view. I began to think about Jen, and what it might be like to grow up with such a fragile, enigmatic older sister. Helen was beautiful and ethereal, and always the focus of attention. Their mother’s eyes were on her continually. Ned (lovely, lovely Ned) was at her beck and call. Obviously Jen loved Helen; sometimes, though, she couldn’t help feeling pushed aside.

And when you threw into the mix her other problems – a bullying boss, a career going nowhere, a thoughtless, uncommitted boyfriend – then it became clear that in her own way Jen was as vulnerable as Helen.

I knew the sisters would have to unite to help each other, but that there’d be a cost. If Jen enabled Helen to confront that first, painful romance, there was a terrible risk the eating disorder might be triggered again. At the same time there was the problem of Jen’s friendship with Ned growing ever closer and confused. I wanted to explore the psychology of manipulation and collusion that exists within so many families.

In the end, Something Only We Know grew into a novel about how you balance what your heart desires against the duties you owe to family and sisterhood. Do you hurt those closest to you to get what you truly feel is yours? Or do you keep your mouth closed, and sacrifice it all? Is a sister more important than the man you know is right for you? Only Jen and Helen together can find the answer to that one.

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Thank you, Kate. Another great book to add to our ‘to be read’ pile.
 

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