Error in submission to a writing competition, aargh!!

[Frazzledmummy123]

I write short stories in my spare time and recently entered a short story competition.

However, despite proof reading several times and running it through an online grammar checker several times too, I read over it tonight to discover a word has been changed 😫😫. It is clearly an error as the sentence doesnt make sense (though it's easily guessed what the right word is).

Have I blown my chances, or do you think judges might overlook one error? I am so annoyed as I have no idea how this happened.

Obviously I know only the judges of the actual competition can really say, but just wondered if anyone could advise?

If it were in the title or opening sentence, I think it would look bad. One mistake in a story by a non-professional writer, I think they'll give you leeway.

I have a writer friend who makes loads of mistakes but still won a competition and has 2 books with small but real publishers coming out this year.
I didn’t see her entry but I very much doubt it was flawless, her creativity and the liveliness of her writing will have outweighed the proofing errors that were doubtless there.
If your story is good enough to stand out it will stand out, they won’t automatically disqualify you for a single mistake. A really sloppy piece with loads of errors would find it harder to break through.

I expect they're judging it on how gripping or moving the story is as a whole, how well it's structured, how subtly emotions are conveyed, how tightly it's written - that kind of thing. Not the correctness of every individual word. Don't worry!

It’s not a spelling test!