WSW Competitions
Tracy's Flash Fiction Competition
Members are invited to submit a 300-word flash fiction story. Our judge, as last year, will be Tracy Fells. Many of you will recall the excellent talk on Flash Fiction that Tracy presented at the end of 2017. Tracy's flash pieces have been published by Litro New York, Retreat West, Flash 500 and National Flash Fiction Day amongst others. In case 2017 is now too far in the past, here are some top tips straight from our judge.
Tracy’s 5 Point Plan for Writing FLASH FICTION:
FIND your theme:
Write about something you care strongly about, perhaps an issue you want to highlight or a strong memory from childhood that you can fictionalise.
LIMIT your world:
Keep your cast list simple with as few characters as necessary. Start at a moment of conflict – the Flash Point – or zoom right into the heart of the story as quickly as possible. Aim to tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and ending.
ASSAULT the reader:
Aim to surprise and/or delight the reader. Make them feel an emotion when reading. Make your reader: laugh, cry or squirm, or even better all three.
SLASH your prose:
Make every word earn its keep. Consider cutting opening/ending sentences of the story to see what happens. Don’t forget to COUNT total words – don’t go over the limit!
HAVE fun:
Experiment, write outside your comfort zone, try a new genre, mash-up genres, go wild, go weird!
You can read more about Tracy's work at http://tracyfells.blogspot.co.uk/.
The competition opens January 10th and closes at midnight on February 28th. Winners will be announced at the March meeting. There is no set theme and the title is not included in the word count. The winner will receive the WSW Diamond Anniversary Cup and Tracy will provide a mini-critique on each piece entered. Entry is free. Please email entries adhering to the standard competition rules to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Poetry Competition Results
Poems Inspired by History
Thank you to all who entered the competition set by our November speaker Zoe Mitchell. Zoe’s summary comments and the results are below.
Judging this competition was at once one of the most fun and one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in my writing career - fun because of the wealth of talent and the wonderful poems I had the privilege to read, but difficult because it was hard to put them in any kind of order. The winning poem I felt was timely, vivid, imaginative and incredibly moving with an impressive use of language and form. Those in second and third place shared the same traits, and also demonstrate the importance of recording history and giving voice to experiences. The range of history covered and approaches were imaginative and, in many cases, very moving. The poems in the highly commended section took in key moments of history, harked back to another era of poetry and addressed the importance of remembrance. Overall, I was struck not just with the creativity and strength of writing throughout all the entries, but also the sheer humanity bursting through from the poems. I would recommend that everyone who entered the competition looks to submit their poems to literary magazines as they have written of moments and stories that should be heard in haunting ways that grab hold of you and never let go.
Zoe Mitchell
http://www.writingbyzoe.com/
Results
1st place: Jocasta Speaks – Audrey Lee
2nd place: Just Another Summer Day – Lyn Jennings
3rd place: Amy Locked In - Liz Eastwood
Highly commended:
Epithalamion – Audrey Lee
In the beginning – Caroline Collingridge
Mining for history – Mary Jones
Sand holds history – Lyn Jennings
The Gravity of Water – Roger Shadbolt
You can check the rules for WSW Members' competitions here.
Below are the results of our past members and national competitions