Well, the competition is really starting to hot up now and it’s becoming a challenge between the writers of the UK and New Zealand at the moment.

As mentioned in my last blog, New Zealand writers have started to enter the competition and the number is growing every day.

Not to be outdone, the UK writers are also vying for the £100 prize for our first monthly competition, which closes on the last day of December.

There’s still a month to go - we gave this inaugural competition six weeks to help it get established - and then we can crack one with our next one in January.

I mentioned in an earlier blog the importance of a good start to a story but what else makes a good tale? Well, a strong idea is important but so is the ability to tell it with the minimum of fuss, with every word doing its job.

Good writers cut out what is unnecessary and leave in only what matters. Every word, every line, is a tool with a job to do.

So, if you find yourself writing padding, it’s time to find that delete word button!

John Dean

Well now we can truly say it. We are indeed on our way to being global.

In addition to the UK entries we have received in the early days of our first competition, we are now starting to receive stories from elsewhere, starting with New Zealand.

We know there is a thriving short story writing scene in New Zealand and we are delighted to welcome some of its writers to our new venture.

As I have mentioned before on this blog, this inaugural competition is being given a longer lead-in time than normal, and the deadline for this one is the last day of December.

That means that our days to judging counter on the home page will zero itself on December 1: once that happens you have 31 days to get your entries in.

The standard of stories submitted is already high and, as ever, I am constantly impressed by the quality of writing out there.

John Dean

The entries to our competition are starting to come in, which set me musing on what makes a good story. That is something I will address over the next few weeks and months but for a start, what about the start?

Well, personally speaking, and writing is all about subjective opinions, one sure-fire way of starting a good short story is to pose a question in those first few lines, something that makes you want to read on. Why is the person in that situation, what are they nervous about, what are they about to discover, what ordeal are they about to experience, why is there a rhinoceros in their living room?

Or perhaps it is a few lines about a character who immediately intrigues us. We have all walked into a room and found our eyes drawn to one person in particular and found ourselves wondering what they are like. Writing is like that and a good way of starting stories is to draw the reader‚s eyes to your character in a way that makes us want to read more.

Or perhaps, neither of the above fits your writing style. Perhaps it is simply a piece of descriptive writing that is so wonderful, so evocative, so beautifully crafted that your reader simply has to experience more of it.

Whichever option you choose, there is one golden rule on which we can all agree. Don‚t bore us in those first few lines - grab us at the start and you‚ve won the first battle.

John Dean

OK, it‚s time for an admission. Talk to me about the power of words and I can rabbit on happily, but talk to me about technical things and I run into problems. That‚s why I leave the clever stuff to the likes of my colleagues who built, and manage, this site.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I suspect there may be some of you out there who are little daunted by entering our competition on-line. So, we have decided that we will take postal stories as well.

Simply send them direct to my home address, at 18 Milbank Court, Darlington, Co Durham, England, DL3 9PF, or to the Certys office at Livingstone House, 29 High Northgate, Darlington, Co Durham, England DL1 1UQ, marked Global Short Story Competition, and containing a £5 entry fee, with cheques made out to Certys Limited.

Oh, and because this is our first competition,we are setting a closing date of December 31 to give everyone time to get their stories in.

We have already had some entries and a quick glance tells us that our judge, the North-East writer Fiona Cooper, is going to have her work cut out when it comes to picking a winner. I know she is looking forward to reading your creations.

So please do keep sending your stories in: if nothing else, it means I won‚t have to worry about finding the on switch on the kettle!

John Dean

Welcome to a new competition with a single aim - to seek out the world‚s best undiscovered writing talent. A modest little aspiration (!) but in many ways a realistic one!

You see, in addition to being a published novelist, we have been working with all sorts of writers for a number of years and are constantly impressed with the quality of their creations.

Very often, I sit in the writing classes and mentoring sessions that I take and marvel at the words I am hearing - and wonder why these people have not been published.

That is why we set up this competition - to find a way of discovering that talent and helping to encourage some of the world‚s new voices, not just by paying them money for winning but also putting their winning stories on our site.

And by running it every month, we can showcase as many winning writers as possible.

Just a word about the counter on the home page. Each time a new competition begins, it will automatically zero. Because this first competition runs over six weeks, it will be a little bit out of kilter for a week or two and you really have until the end of December to enter.

Anyway, we are up and running. Hope you feel ready to test your abilities against the world! Oh, and do not hesitate to get in touch with us through the site. We welcome your feedback.

John Dean

November 19, 2007