Anyone want to join a Jan Feb competition thread?

[Peasnbeans]

I know that people say they are not a good thing but I do find they give me a boost and some needed validation that I'm not writing into a void.
I've set myself £150 to spend this year (2024) on entries when I have to pay. Some I refuse to enter for different reasons.
I've just sent off to Exeter Novel Prize - it's expensive but I was longlisted last year so it's worth another go with new work.
Anyone out there willing to be a virtual writerly friend?

Edited to say - removed, posted on wrong thread 😊

Anyone enter Cheshire novel prize and waiting to see the first round of snippets today? 20 snippets from the top 100 entries will be posted on twitter for the next 5 days. It feels pretty torturous tbh.

@GhostImposter me! I was sure I saw mine in about 3 snippets last year... but still going back to watch this time round. Good luck ☘️

Thanks. This is my first time entering so I'm honestly bamboozled by it? There was a post an hour ago saying to use the hashtags to find snippets but there is nothing there. I don't know if they haven't been posted or my twitter inexperience is foiling me.

They started posting them at 2 and will post 20 a day. Hopefully you've found them now!

They're much less vague than in previous years. Some look really intriguing!

Yeah, I see them now. I think that's 20 and none are mine. It wasn't what I was expecting, I thought it would be 2-3 sentences from the submissions rather than brief synopses. So I suppose it saves me from trying to work out if a short passage was something I wrote or not!

Hi all,

I’ve just received the email from the Borough Press team about the memoir competition and the winners/runners-up (of which I am not one, lol).

I’ve just looked up all three authors mentioned in the email. All are either published writers, work in connected industries or have some sort of academic post. Tbh I’m a bit disappointed. It might have been that my work was crap, but I thought the idea was that new and undiscovered writers would be chosen - not writers who are already published or work in very closely related positions to the publishing world. Did anyone else think that? Be interested to hear everyone else’s pov.

I have noticed similar in other competitions. It's not every person who lists in every competition but there are certainly some competitions in the short time I've been paying attention to them that have been won by people who work in the industry.

I've noticed that too. Journalists, publishers and people with creative writing MAs. I know you get better at your craft by studying it and using it, but without the means for a career change or a masters, how do you find the way into that club?

Hi - anyone heard from the Bridport re their long list? I didn't hear from Bath, but still have hope!

Nothing here but they said they'd share their longlist on 24th July so maybe you're still in with a chance?