• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Short stories competitions

The waveguide

The waveguide

Member
Hi,

I was scrolling the net and I found several competitions on short stories. One of them is the "BBC short story competition":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1210_shortstorycomp/index.shtml

I read some winner-stories:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1210_shortstorycomp/page2.shtml


Actually could somebody explain to me what is so splendid about these stories? For instance, I liked the "His daughter" story but I do not know why. May be I enjoyed the language. The other stories I did not like so much. So how do the judges think? What made them choose these specific stories?

And what do you think all these stories have in common? If one would like to take part in such a competition, do you think one can find kind of a pattern that one should follow in order to win?

Do you know about any other short-stories competitions? I've written several rather mad science-fiction stories (I would call that the "haviest metall" of the short science fiction stories) but they are just lying somewhere in my computer (collecting electronic dust :D ). May be I could send them somewhere for a competition - not for winning but at least for the spirit of it :)
 
IMHO, most of the stories are mediocre as far as writing goes and they also have major inconsistencies, such as the armless boy. First he lost his arms in an attack on him and his schoolmates, but later it says he was demonstrating throwing a soccerball when he got his arms lopped off. I'm sorry, but I don't think that's likely, when you think about it. Or the father who would never touch his daughter, but has to remind himself that they should sleep in separate beds. There are also problems with POV in some stories and some darn poor writing.

The common thread is that all the stories show "the suffering of man." The judges weren't judging the writing itself, but how the writer showed the cruelties of life. Note that all the major characters are children (or at least young) who have problems, i.e. No arms, eats soap & mother thinks father is a pedophile, is deaf, is too poor to buy hairclips, is about to be forced to marry and submit to a man. Also most tales had a rather exotic setting as far as locale. These stories weren't judged for writing, but for feeling. Remember, they were to be broadcast on radio. Imagine a person with a foreign accent telling the BBC listeners about how tough it is in Bangladesh or whereever. Poor Zimbabwean girl, they are impoverished, she must go behind a bush to pee and must please her husband or get "tingling ears and a swollen lip." And her husband might bring home "another beating or worse," which to me indicates a sexually-transmitted disease.

As the BBC (and all the entertainment industry) well knows, pity sells. Think of how reporters flock to the scene of a major disaster. If they can't interview a victim, they look for a witness, and if they can't find that, either, they just ask someone on the street how they feel about it.
"Oh, it was awful. That man who lives on the next block killed his whole family. Why, I talked to him once and he seemed a real nice guy.) Gag!

Anyway, don't mean to go on and on. Has anyone else noticed how they sell emotion, nowadays?

Take care,

JohnB
 
Just to add a different viewpoint - I read the Meryl Trussler story about the father and the girl and thought it was astonishingly good; and not just for someone who's still at school (according to the biog).

The personality of the self-loathing divorced father was nailed. The descriptions are apt but never over-the-top or flowery. The emotions are real without being sentimental. And, although not much actually happens, the story kept me reading to the end. The observations are also spot-on. E.g. "It says non-toxic but I've never been sure what that really means." Ha. Me neither.

It is very tempting to look at prize-winning stories and say, "That's mediocre." It's far more rewarding to look at them and admire the skill on display. I would be proud to write something that good now, never mind when I was 18 or under.
 
I stand corrected after a re-reading; it IS a good story I'm so used to critiquing more accomplished authors, that, reading that story, I got all hung up on POV and judged it by professional standards. Sometimes, I'm like a mule with blinders. These were amateur writers and the stories were good (writing problems aside). I wanted only to say that they weren't looking for good writing, necessarily, but heart-wrenching stories. And that is only my opinion, of course.

JohnB
 
Still, I rather felt that "His Daughter" is professionally written. The overall story is good, the construction well-thought-out and the emotions real. And many, many sentences and images in it pulled me up short (a wet rayon top that feels like "dog tongue", a laugh like a xylophone that "stuns him... actually stuns him." And this in particular:

"He thinks of how at just under four feet tall her presence is still that of some tranquil deity carved into a cliff face. How she fits here, however tall she grows."

This is the proper stuff; this is what writing is about - original, sophisticated thoughts and emotions captured with impressive economy. See how carefully the words are chosen. How precisely they are placed and arranged. If found writing like that in a prize-winning novel I would not be in the least surprised. I made allowances for the author's age but I don't think I needed to. In five years or so I will be looking for her name on bookshelves.
 
WriterJohnB said:
The common thread is that all the stories show "the suffering of man." The judges weren't judging the writing itself, but how the writer showed the cruelties of life. Note that all the major characters are children (or at least young) who have problems, i.e. No arms, eats soap & mother thinks father is a pedophile, is deaf, is too poor to buy hairclips, is about to be forced to marry and submit to a man. Also most tales had a rather exotic setting as far as locale. These stories weren't judged for writing, but for feeling. Remember, they were to be broadcast on radio. Imagine a person with a foreign accent telling the BBC listeners about how tough it is in Bangladesh or whereever. Poor Zimbabwean girl, they are impoverished, she must go behind a bush to pee and must please her husband or get "tingling ears and a swollen lip." And her husband might bring home "another beating or worse," which to me indicates a sexually-transmitted disease.

As the BBC (and all the entertainment industry) well knows, pity sells.
Anyway, don't mean to go on and on. Has anyone else noticed how they sell emotion, nowadays?

JohnB
Click to expand...

Well you helped me to find out the common line between the stories. Suffering. I could not put my finger on it, somehow. This is exactly the problem with all these competitions - no matter how great you are, if you do not hit the subject, your are out... Although I must admit that the language in which the stories were written was much above my own english level.... I enjoyed to read the words and sentences in these stories, the stories themselves somehow got lost (at least for me) inside the words.. Is it not odd?

Anyways does anybody know about any other short-story competitions? I am going for participating, not for winning... Some science fiction stories are gathering dust on my shelves... At least the jury will have to read those ;)
 
Why bother with competitions? There are many e-magazines that pay $5 or $10 for stories. To me, it means more if an editor thinks my work is good enough to pay for. Go for it.

JohnB
 
Language vs plot?

Choice of words vs pace or plot? Hotel du Lac (Anita Brookner) is not a great work - dull, boring, dull again - but it won the Booker prize 10-15 years ago. 'His Daughter' does not grip me at all and I find the language grates at times. I think that I would not be able to manage a whole novel in that style - ten pages is tops, really. I'd much rather read pace/plot and well-written than a 'literary' work which is difficult and often the result of an author's quasi-maturbatory outpourings ie pleases him/her but no-one else...unless you like to observe that sort of thing of course, erm...
 
WriterJohnB said:
Why bother with competitions? There are many e-magazines that pay $5 or $10 for stories. To me, it means more if an editor thinks my work is good enough to pay for. Go for it.

JohnB
Click to expand...

Well, what a good thought! Never crossed my mind!

Thanks a lot! Errr,hm, should I google for such e-magazines, or could you just please advise me at least one? Actually I never suspected of their existance :cool: ....
 
Reviews

There are also some sites that pay you for reviewing books - as long as the review is good/comprehensive enough. You could, theoretically, make a living reviewing - and writing short stories as Writer John suggests.
 
It's easy. Just go to http://www.ralan.com or http://gilaqueen.us, or many other listings, although I swear by Ralan's, which is a labor of love by author Ralan Conoly (sp?). It lists pro magazines, paying mags and "for the love" mags, as well as anthologies, etc. It's not just for e-publications, either, it's also print mags and anthologies. And it's an invaluable source of links for finding agents, provides writing articles and advice and many other resources. I've been going there for years and still find new stuff.

The MAIN THING is, use those writing links to find the proper manuscript format for submitting and read each mag's submissions guidelines carefully, neatness counts when you're up against other writers. But if you persist, with any talent at all, and you will become "Published," which feels good because someone values your efforts. And if you do get acceptance, please e-mail me and let me vicariously share your good fortune.

Take care,

JohnB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top