Anyone entered the Cheshire Novel Prize?

[TiroirSousLeMiroir]

It's in its third year and has just closed. It has a £29 entry fee which would normally put me off but you get individual feedback, so I've given it a go and just squeaked in under the deadline.

Has anyone else entered?

I believe there were close to a thousand entries last year. Looking at the short list from last year it seems a load of them are historical fiction.

I wonder if that is representative of the stats of the people who entered, or whether I ought to switch to that category!

Would love to hear from other entrants on here! :-)

I've entered. I got some useful feedback last year which helped me edit my opening chapters, so it will be interesting to see what they think of the revised version. I didn't get through the first round last year, when the same chapters were longlisted for another prize.

Oh that's interesting, so you are resubmitting having used their feedback? What a nice idea!

Interesting also that your chapters were longlisted elsewhere - well done! They must be good.

I suppose with a thousand entrants, it's a numbers game.

When I read entry rules, it always says first 5000 words, or something, but my first 5000 isn't the most exciting bit. This time I told myself, it has to be, so I rejigged some bits and cut a lot out. If nothing else, it was a good exercise for me.

I entered too. Of course as soon as I did, I immediately saw a couple of lines at the start that needed rejigging.😩

I think they base their decision on whether they want to keep reading so in 5000 words I'm sure a couple of lines would be fine! But yes I know that feeling only too well 😨

Oh man, they've started listing the long-long list. My anxiety is going crazy.

The five day release is excruciating.

Just seen this and I've entered too 😊 Found the Snippets posting today suitably stressful - 4 more days of it to go... Good luck everyone!

Hi both!
Yeah it does extend the agony! I've got a sinking feeling that I think is just going to get worse 😭

I was feeling really optimistic this morning (and indeed in the weeks leading up to this) but I must admit, things did not feel great this afternoon. Being resilient and upbeat is hard work 😂

That's been exactly my experience.
I'm looking forward to the feedback, but I think my first 5000 words is the best part - I'd benefit more from feedback from the rest of the of the book. Obviously not possible!

I'm not going to cope well with the four day thing! And then even if you are in the top 100, the longlist is announced Monday isn't it? So another day of torture.

I entered Bath as well and their longlist is announced on Friday evening. But I kind of hope that I don't LL for that as my full manuscript is really, really messy.

This is torture indeed.

Another day and no success. Unless that one really, really, really vague description happens to be mine.

I feel rubbish. There's a lot of talk of writing tribes and so on; I have no one. I have been writing this one book, with a couple of short stories here and there, for 20 years and I've done courses and according to the teachers I'm not bad. Of course there are still 60 to go, and anyway 1900 people entered, which is huge, but I can't help but feel a bit deflated.

I hear you, @TiroirSousLeMiroir . Hang in there - as you say, 60 more to go. At least you know people in person have read and enjoyed your work. Keep going.

@GhostImposter I had the same thought about the super vague one! In my heart of hearts I don't think it's mine but it's giving me a little energy so let's both assume we're right until we definitely see all 3 of ours tomorrow 😀

Yeah, it honestly sucks. It's not done with the entrants in mind. Rejection is really hard and the best way to deal with it is to pick yourself up and put it behind you. Instead, 1800 people are going to go through five days of it.

Which one is the vague one? I didn't think any one was vague enough to be mine. It would have to be, "story written by a woman"

They must already know which ones will make the shortlist, too. Even if a writer sees theirs in the 100, they are likely to be chopped by Monday.

I thought the one fore Commercial today was extremely vague. It was more about the beauty of the writing rather than anything much about the plot, so it wouldn't give an author much a clue if was theirs or not.

Monday is the longlist, which would definitely be decided already. The longlist entrants have to send in the next 10,000 words and it's the next chapters that will decide the shortlist.

Ahh still no.

They just put on that they have 150 favourites, so whilst they are bound to have the longlist decided, they are building the list of 100. Is the benefit of the 100 that they show them to agents?
If so, if they think 150 are deserving of being seen by agents, surely 150 should be seen by agents.

It's so frustrating isn't it?

I know what you mean re 100 Vs 150. You'd imagine an agent will just scan by genre based on what they like to represent, so I can't imagine it makes huge odds to them whether they are scanning / filtering 100 or 150. And if anything it ups their chances of finding something that interests them.

I'm finding the process exhausting today. Tomorrow will be better. I hope!

Nice to have found this thread! I have to admit, I didn’t have much hope for any of the writing competitions I entered, knowing how stiff the competition is- it’s still sad when you learn you’ve been rejected though, isn’t it!

The thing is, they said that the top100 was going up in no particular order but if they announced 48 so far and the other 52 are still unchosen out of another 102, then clearly the first two days choices are preferred by the judges.

Tbh, I feel it's pretty disrespectful to the entrants. If they haven't chosen a top 100 yet, why not just be honest about that and announce them when they are chosen? Ie, 'we're so sorry about the delay but due to the high calibre of entrants, voting is taking a little longer than usual. We will announce our top 100 next week.' The top 100 could be announced after the longlist, it would serve as a pick-me-up for those on it who hadn't made the longlist.