We haven’t been able to announce a new country among our entrants for a few weeks so it is a delight to say that we have our first entry from Germany.There has always been a strong storytelling tradition in Germany so it is good to see one of that country’s aspiring authors having a go at our competition.
John Dean
Four days left to enter our latest competition and the stories keep coming in. Quite a few from America, which is gratifying, as mentioned in previous blogs.
Always fascinating to see the range of topics which our entries cover, everything from ghost tales and crime yarns to gentle humour and biting satire. The beauty of the short story is that it lends itself to just about any subject. It really is a terrific genre.
As I have mentioned before, there has been a tendency in some quarters to dismiss the short story as less important than the novel. Almost as if short stories do not matter.
The quality of writers who have excelled at short stories would seek to differ, as I am sure would the writers who have entered our competitions - a glance at our winning stories on the site should suffice for that.
Apologies for the delay getting August’s winners on the site, it will be done over the next two or three days.
John Dean
About a week to so to go to the closure of our September competition and plenty of good entries coming in. Australia is making a strong showing this time. Indeed, Australia has enjoyed success in our competition before, with five winning stories, including one that took the top prize for one of the months.
Don’t forget that when we complete our first year of operation, in January, our judging panel will select the best winning story of the previous twelve months to award our first annual prize.
John Dean
I am giving a talk about crime writing this afternoon, addressing a group comprising writers and readers at a library in the north of the county where I live.
I love such events - libraries are something to be treasured - and developing the themes for the talk brought me back time and time again to the same idea, that the characters I create have to be REAL. That is certainly the case with my central characters, the people with whom I spend so much of my life.
For me, they are real - if John Blizzard were to walk into the room as I am delivering the talk this afternoon, it would not surprise me. He is that real.
And I know they are real to my readers. One admonished me because Blizzard had been rude to one of his colleagues and suggested that he should learn better manners! Brilliant stuff.
Actually, I hope he does not walk into the room this afternoon because, knowing the curmudgeonly old baggage as I do, I imagine he would snort in a derisory fashion, mutter something about ‘poncy writers’ and stalk out.
Still, you can’t please everyone!
John Dean
During my blogs over the months, I have referred to our sense that we are establishing a worldwide writing community. It lies at the heart of a lot of what we do.The reason for mentioning the idea now is that, although we do receive a lot of stories from people entering for the first time, we also have a growing number from people coming back to the competition.We love seeing those entries - and we have had people winning having re-entered - because it shows us the range of people’s work. That is fascinating because a writer may send in one type of story then their next one is a different genre or a different style.
It shows the versatility of many of the writers entering our competition.
John Dean
I have judged our August winners in Fiona’s absence and have selected as my first place Jeff Taylor, from Hamilton, New Zealand, for his story Lookaway. I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of a man infatuated by a drug addict. It‘s simply written, powerful and with a growing sense of tension. And because it tells the story of a respectable man breaking all the rules as he spirals into a desperately difficult situation, it works even better. Jeff, who was also shortlisted for another story during August‘s competition, wins £100.
Second place, highly commended and winning £25, went to My Dearest John, by Fay Norton, of Leeds, in the UK. I love stories written as letters, in this case one to a dearly loved one. This story is simply told, full of emotion but not milked to within an inch of its life. And it’s one of those stories where you kind of guess the end but the story is none the worse for it. It’s a story for our times. I have selected one commended story, by Paddy Butler of North Devon, in the UK. Like Jeff Taylor, Paddy had two stories on the shortlist: it’s the first time we have had writers getting two stories onto the list.
I love Paddy’s story Morgan’s Birthday, which earned its commendation because it is full of humour yet serious at the same time. The theme of a normal person plunged into extraordinary events makes for a truly entertaining story. A perfect example of a writer asking ‘what if?‘
I’ll try to get the winners on the site later this month so you can enjoy them as much as I did.
The other writers on the shortlist were:
Meris Shuwarger, US,
Cain Smith, UK
Paul Duffy, Ireland
Andrew Jones, UK
Dion Dhorne, UK.
Fiona says she will be back judging our September competition and there is still plenty of time to enter.
John Dean
It’s good to see a growing number of American writers entering our competition now.We’d seen the odd ones before but over recent weeks, more and more from the US have been sending in their stories. We welcome them all.
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, the creative fiction world has much to thank the US for, because it is credited as the home of the short story. The name of the guy who made it so was one Nathaniel Hawthorne, of Salem, Massachusetts, whose book Twice-Told Tales was published in America in 1837 and is seen by many as the birth of the modern short story.
What much American writing has is one of the most important elements of short story writing, of any writing, indeed, that of getting the dialogue right.
I talk to many writers who say: ‘I can write but I can’t do dialogue.’ For those struggling, here’s an experiment. It’ll make you feel self-conscious but it could be worth the embarrassment. Sit down with a group of friends and chat about whatever you fancy. Get one of you to take notes and come up with the rules of dialogue.
You will find, when you analyse those findings, that a lot of the time, we do not speak in correct sentences, using short, sharp phrases instead, that we interrupt each other, we assume the listener knows a lot about us, we use dialogue to impart information, we can tell a lot about a person in a short snap of conversation and we use body language, talking with our hands, the shape of our body etc. And our dialogue tends to be in character - a person who swears a lot will, by and large, always swear a lot, a person who uses timid non-assertive language will tend to do that in most situations. When they divert from that, the impact could be all the greater.
If you bear in mind those rules, then writing dialogue should become easier. There is another rule, one which relates to the biggest mistake writers make when it comes to dialogue. Do not pack it with extraneous information eg “Good Tuesday morning, William, although everyone calls you Bill, my neighbour of ten years in Acacia Avenue, London, are you your normal glum self, to which we - that is my wife, Gladys, and I - have grown accustomed over the years since your wife, 29-year-old Ellen, left you for a younger man and filed for divorce or has the darkness which seems to routinely enveigle you over the last few days lifted at last, may I ask?”
Ok, over-the-top but it makes the point. If you need to slot in information, find a way of doing it in a subtle way. Back to poor old Bill again: “Saw Bill this morning. His usual gloomy self. The divorce really has knocked him backwards.”
I once taught a class when a writer was trying out radio - a very difficult medium - and the scene was one in which one sister telephoned another to tell her that she had murdered her husband and he was lying on the floor, covered in blood. What opening line would you go for: “I’ve killed him!’ “Something terrible has happened!’? She went for ‘Hello, this is your oldest sister, Hazel.” People do not talk like that. Best make sure that your characters do not do so either.
John Dean
Some nice entries already this month and a number of them illustrate one of the most important elements of a short story, in fact, any story. The beginning.I have sat through many a judging sessions down the years, on various competitions, and seen how different judges’ approach the task. They all think differently, look for slightly different things, but one thing unites them. They want to be drawn into a story from the very first word.
That could mean a line that intrigues or one that gives you the impression that you, as a reader, have arrived in the middle of something, that you had better sit down quietly and let events unfold.
For me, the best writers are the ones who reach out a hand to you, the reader, and say ‘come on, join me on the journey.’ The stories we have had so far this month do that and some of them do it very well indeed.
Here’s to the journey!
John Dean
I recently visited Iceland on holiday and was fascinated to discover while out there about the growing importance of crime writing on the island.
As a crime novelist myself, I was interested to see how the genre is developing rapidly in Iceland and how many of its authors use their work to make serious points about the state of their homeland.
This brings me back to the reasons why people write. There are all sorts of reasons but one is to shine a light on the world in which we live. That is certainly one of my motivations, is the motivation of all writers, I suspect.
Yes, I write to entertain but I also want to make people think about some of the themes upon which I base my novels. Whether I set a story in an ailing school or on a rundown housing estates, whether I write about a traumatised victim of war or an anguished parent terrified about the effect of drugs on their child, I hope that people will feel that the stories reflect, in a small way, their experiences. For me, that is what makes stories come to life, the sense that they are REAL.
Coming back to our competition, I hope that some writers from Iceland see fit to enter their work - I reckon it would make for really interesting reading and we have not any from that part of the world yet.
The entries are coming in for our September competition and already I can see one or two that will give our judge Fiona Cooper plenty of food for thought. Food for thought? Really must do a blog on the importance of avoiding tired old clichés.
John Dean
Our August competition has now closed - plenty of stories for me to go at and I hope to announce the winners within a fortnight.
Our September competition is now open for entries. We are looking forward to reading them.
John Dean