It is simplistic to say that a good opening line assures a writer of success - there is much more to it than that and there is a place for slow-burn beginnings - but there can be no doubting that a writer who captures the attention from the first words is onto a good thing.

Having said that, I have read, over the years, some stories that started superbly but lost their way - perhaps the pace was slow, the story was weak or the ending fell flat on its face.

The winners of all competitions are the ones who get everything right.

John Dean

Our judge, Fiona Cooper, said of the story: “It is quite an accomplishment to start with an apparently unsympathetic character and then subtly to arouse one’s readers interest and compassion, which is exactly what happened in this story. The style is elegant and economic and the pace is sustained throughout.”

We had joint second places, both of which receive £25. One story was Saving Summer by Cheryl Rogers, of West Swan, Western Australia. Fiona said: “Lovely engaging story, this one, you can see, smell and taste the place, and the writer manages to make a surprise of the ending. Delicious.”

Sharing second place, and also receiving £25, was Chris Connolly, from Dublin, Ireland, with Ten Dollar Trick, of which Fiona said: “A darkly atmospheric treatment here, where emotions are chewed up and spat out without compromise. The utter despair, suppressed rage and sense of being trapped are compelling.

Shortlisted were:

Ellie Smith, Parnell, New Zealand

Bud Craig, Hurworth Place, UK
Chris Gange, Alton, Hants, UK

Dorothy-Jane Daniels St Ives, Australia

Nigel Envarli Crowe, London, UK

Ibrahim Salim, Birmingham, UK

Petra McQueen, Wivenhoe, UK
Bernadette Klubb, France
Alexander Walters, Diddlebury, UK
Jon Acker, London, UK

Ernestine Shargool, London, UK.

Well done to you all. Still time to enter for October!

John Dean

John Dean

John Dean

Humour also works well with novels because a relentlessly heavy theme in a story can benefit immensely from the odd break for something a little lighter.

There is another good reason for using humour in your writing because it reveals things about your character and can show another side to them that the reader might not have seen before. Or it can reveal in a brief conversation the depth of two people’s relationship.

And it does not need to be side-splitting humour, that is not the intention: it has other roles to perform.

Shakespeare knew that. Indeed, I read a piece recently examining Shakespeare’s use of humour in portraying his characters, which said: “Humour is a tool that allows us to see the subtle details of their minds; a glimpse at the inner workings of each character’s personality. It is through the humour that Shakespeare employs that we are able to see “roundness” in characters that could be otherwise doomed to exist as “flat” characters. Shakespeare uses humour to give his players new life, to help them expand beyond the bounds of mere characters and turn into real people.”

Now, I reckon that this Shakespeare lad could do well quite well with a bit of encouragement. He’s definitely got potential. Still haven’t seen an entry from him to our competition yet but there’s still time.

Talking of entries, we have had quite a few this time around but less than last month so why not get your story in? You never know.

John Dean

The argument goes like this: for you to truly engage your reader, you must make them feel that they are there when the action is happening.

As I have developed my own writing, I have focused more and more on that theme because in some of my early work, I had a tendency to distance the reader from the action. Now, I hope that the reader feels part of what is happening right from the start.

And it matters because if you fail to draw your reader into the story, your tale will lack something, an immediacy, a sense of drama, a sense of narrative.

How do you do it? I think it comes back an image that I use time and time again when I teach creative writing classes: reach out a hand to your reader and say ‘come into my world, walk alongside me.’ Do that and they are hooked.

It’s a fairly slow start to October’s competition but there are quite a few UK stories in this time: come on the rest of the world, give them a run for their money!

John Dean

John Dean

John Dean