Novelry - worth a go?

[Helpwhatwouldyoudonext]

Anyone used them? They have advertised a scholarship opportunity - I wouldn't pay.

Ybunp

That was meant to say bump

@Helpwhatwouldyoudonext I can't answer your question but someone on the 'waiting for agents' thread is doing a course with them and it sounds like a positive experience.

I'm just replying because I saw the schloarship too and was going to apply. I think it's worth going for every opportunity you can. I can't afford to pay for any courses and have had a few successes in getting freebies, it all helps.

Thank you @BecauseOfIndia I feel the same. I'm waiting on the Discoveries prize and Alpine Fellowship at the moment, they all come at once, don't they?
My novel was just longlisted in the Exeter Novel but didn't make the final six shortlist - and it's the only entry I've paid for 🙄
Thanks for the bump @poxxypox

Anyone else?

Congratulations on the Exeter LL @Helpwhatwouldyoudonext that is an amazing achievement!

I missed that one but am also waiting on Discoveries, but not with much hope!

Fingers crossed for both of us 🙂

@BecauseOfIndia
Absolutely. 🍀🍀🍀🍀

@BecauseOfIndia
So I'm verrry sad and having a 'what's the actual point' kinda day today - didn't make Discoveries!.

😭😂😭😂😭😂

How's your writing life?

@Helpwhatwouldyoudonext Was the longlist announced today? In that case - I didn't make it either! 😥It's particular upsetting when it's ones that are supposedly about potential, it makes you feel like you have none.

I also hate it when they have interviews with the winner / runners up and it's always - "This is the first piece of writing I've ever done! I just wrote it in one sitting the night before for this competition." (I never quite believe this to be true....)

I was selected recently for a three day workshop with a booker prize winning novelist and he appeared to love my writing and told me not to give up. He believes there will always be a place for people who can write beautiful sentences. I hope that's true.

@BecauseOfIndia that's really encouraging, to be selected for a workshop and then to be congratulated on your beautiful sentences.

Here's 🍻 to beautiful sentences and their place.

Hi, just joining in to commiserate as I also didn't make the Discoveries longlist - at least feel
I am in good company now though!

Well done on the Exeter longlist
@Helpwhatwouldyoudonext, that is a great achievement. And also @BecauseOfIndia on the workshop, and such great encouragement (am intrigued as to who workshop was with!)

With regard to the discoveries competition, it did say they had 3000 entries - does emphasise just how long the odds are on ever making it really. I am definitely having a down day about it all, still not heard anything back from several recent submissions.

Hi @Dontrocktheboat
I didn't know there were 3000 entries, I feel marginally better now!
Yes, I'm waiting on a few things too. Also had a down day, which is odd because the sun has been shining here and it's been a good day for walking on errands.
It's a full moon tomorrow, so I'm thinking it's maybe to do with that. Here's some inspiring names for the May full moon, maybe it will help us!

Many cultures refer to May’s full moon as the Flower Moon thanks to the abundant blooming that occurs as spring gets going properly.
May sees the bloom of wildflowers like anemone, wild garlic, indigo, bluebells, lupine, sundrops, and violets in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Anglo-Saxon name for May’s brightest Moon phase is Milk Moon from the Old English Rimilcemona. It means three-milkings-month in modern English because cows were milked three times a day during this time of year. The Celtic and Old English names are Mothers’ Moon, Bright Moon, Hare Moon, and Grass Moon.
The Native Americans called it Budding Moon, Egg Laying Moon, and Planting Moon.

Pretty sure it was 3000, @Helpwhatwouldyoudonext, but I just skimmed the email so
now wondering if I hallucinated it 😂 Think I will hold that thought anyway....
Hope you have a better day today (though weather looks worse) - had no idea there were so many names for the moon, particularly like the Hare moon.
I am kind of between projects at the moment, so feel I need to start something new but also
have a few things to tidy up to submit to various competitions (which I won't win....!)

@Dontrocktheboat was there an email? I didn't even get that!

Also applied recently for a bursary for the Bridport prize (I am on a really low income) and was REJECTED for that too. You just have days where it feels like the world hates you.

I was going to enter Bath as well, but I'm not sure literary fiction does well in any of these comps so it seems like a total waste of money 😕

Hi @BecauseOfIndia I got an email but not sure if it's because I entered or just because I am on a mailing list.
That's a shame about the Bridport. I was also thinking of entering Bath - what kind of novels do you think do well in these competitions? I assumed it would be literary rather than genre fiction (unless it's specifically competition for a particular genre), although also think literary fiction is a pretty wide definition!

@Dontrocktheboat I hate to say this but I think more 'formulaic' novels succeed in competitions. I've seen it so many times where they have a list of the reasons why novels weren't LL and the first one is always - 'Start at the heart of the action!! I want to be thrown right in!' whereas in my case my novel doesn't have any action, nor really do any of my favourite books.

I know someone who was LL for Bath and she writes to a set forumla - with all her plots following the same arc. It works for her obviously, but I don't write like that and I don't read books like that. I want to be challenged, as well as transported by beautiful prose.

I've mentioned on here before about the feedback I received on my opening chapters from the Cheshire novel prize - which decimated my writing. It was clear to me the readers weren't people who appreciated Lit Fic and as they seemed bewildered by both the language and form of my writing. To me Lit Fic is more about the quality of the writing than the plot, and also more about ideas.

@BecauseOfIndia that's all so interesting, I think my work might be similar to yours.
I've been following the Cheshire novel prize snippets, I entered because I was given a free entry. They are all commercial sounding, I'm quickly losing hope that one is mine.
I hadn't realised the Bath and Bridport were coming up so soon, I'll look now to see if it is affordable to enter.
These are SO expensive, and if it's not a recognisable and commercial plot I wonder if it's worth it.
😞 Feeling despondent today.

@BecauseOfIndia, I definitely don't write in a formulaic way - I think this is my problem! I also prefer to read literary fiction that doesn't appear to be written to a formula, and the quality of writing is as important to me as the story. So sounds like we're in similar positions, and @Helpwhatwouldyoudonext too. I am also feeling quite despondent - so far in my recent submissions have had 2 form rejections, one full request and 2 still out. I have been working on my bridport submission, trying to hone the word count as much as I can and tighten it up. But if it's not the kind of thing they're looking for guess there's not much I can do about it!
Hope you are feeling more positive, @Helpwhatwouldyoudonext!

I’ve done a Novelry course, it was ok. I think the more valuable aspect of their offering is the tutor sessions that are available alongside. I preferred the content of the three month CBC course but I think The Novelry has more of an ongoing offering with the membership following. But you have to like the ‘vibe’ of it and I’m not sure it was for me.

I entered the Cheshire and am dreading the feedback a bit. I’m quite used to feedback but somehow from competitions it can be a bit brutal. For instance - never enter The Grindstone unless you want to hide under a duvet for a week afterward.

@Helpwhatwouldyoudonext and @Dontrocktheboat Sorry you are both despondent - me too! Received a personal rejection yesterday saying that my writing is faultless and my characterisation is outstanding, and despite apparently 'wrestling with herself' over it, the agent wasn't going to request the full MS because the opening wasn't 'gripping enough'. This is the second time I've been told my writing is faultless but that they weren't going to take it any further. I don't have a clue anymore...

I too have been wrestling with the comps - they are so expensive. I spoke earlier in this thread about meeting a well respected writer recently and he did say that he thought Bridport was a really good one, so maybe it has less of a commercial focus? But, it is £24 to enter, which to me is loads and I was inexplicably turned down for a bursary. It also asks for a 300 word synopsis - it's taken me 3 years to get mine down to one page!! I can't see how I can shave any more off. 😦

Hi all, just checking in!
I received my Cheshire prize feedback, @BecauseOfIndia @Dontrocktheboat @WordsandSentences and guess what - they think I begin in the wrong place and should 'begin in the start of the action '!

S
No surprise there. They said the opening was weak, the first page wasn't grabby enough. Which was ironic really, as the very same opening WON the first page prize thing in Mslexia Magazine and was printed on a full page, explaining what made it good!
Feedback suggested I begin with a court case (that happens halfway through) so the reader knows who was blamed for something - completely the opposite idea of the synopsis, which is to line up three people it could have been, and watch it play out
Basically, the feedback turned it into an itv drama formula.

I got my feedback too, they told me to bring the big hook up earlier in the first chapter, I was told the opposite by CBC feedback so I don’t know. It was very nicely worded compared to, say, Grindstone, and I appreciate that. But yeah, I feel a bit despondent.

It's so subjective, it's difficult to trust in any of it!
I also write short stories. A few years ago, one feedback DESTROYED it, said it read like a poor exercise in creative writing, etc. The very next day it was chosen by Nicolas Royle for inclusion in an anthology and I was invited to read it at an event in London.
The exact same story.
Weird.

@Helpwhatwouldyoudonext It makes me so furious!! It's 'writing by numbers', so basically every book follows the same formula. A friend of mine entered it this year (I didn't bother after last time..) and it was exactly the same thing for her. She has a very dramatic event which is periodly hinted at through her MC's memories, it's something he doesn't want to face, but of course Cheshire said she should open with it - BANG! It would be an entirely different book....

It seems they think readers won't be engaged unless there's a big event or catastrophe right at the start, which leaves no place for quiet build literary fiction. Personally, I would trust Mslexia's opinion more!!

I was a bit put off too by the request to list trigger warnings in the entry form. It’s not even that I have any per se in my entry, but it just makes me feel stifled and old at the same time. Like my time has passed before it’s even begun.