Anyone entering any of the comps?

[Hobbiestwriter]

I've submitted for Bridport, now umming and ahhing at the Blue pencil agency one. Never submit to bath as the bombared me with emails every year about it, and the same sort of things seem to win every year there. Anyone else?

I write poetry but get very disheartened after paying to enter competitions but getting nowhere..

I applaud you, well done. My DD is 10.5 so I still struggle to get that evening/weekend time & lunch breaks are out the question (because I don't get them). My daily word count goal is 50 words. I am slow anyway on top of life's pressures but I'm building up to 100 words a day.

On a separate note, I overthink a lot and battle with imposter syndrome and fear at not being good enough. Doesn't stop me doing it though but takes a lot of headspace.

This is so lovely, well done you

My DD 13.5 now.

I found reading some books on how to write (there are smaller ones that focus on key things such as show dont tell, and POV) really useful. And posting snippets for critique on writing forumns beneficial. But these do sometimes stress me out, because you need to find time to critique back.

I can relate to everything said here about competitions. I struggle with motivation and imposter syndrome. I want to polish my manuscript and start querying but then I think of the odds of being successful and feel it’s not ready etc.

When I enter competitions and don’t get anywhere, I have doubts about my work. Like a previous poster, I often compare the shortlisted entries to mine and wonder why theirs got chosen and mine didn’t. It’s so subjective. I did part of my degree in creative writing and looking back, I don’t think creative work should be graded and marked. It can really knock your confidence and at the end of the day it’s just someone’s opinion. I think completions are similar for this.

I feel the same and I'm often shocked when I read the exerpts from the shortlist. Not understanding why the stuff that wins actually wins makes it so much harder.

I remember reading the winner from a short story competition (Maybe the Bridport actually) and being bowled over as it was so so good. I'd entered and it was the only time I've been like yes, fuck yes you had to choose that one. But the novel competition winners often seem rehashes of books that were out previously or have some sort of 'right on' topic or are clearly a book cynically written around a 'hook' but are not that well written and it leaves me so confused. How can I improve if I can't see why they are picking what they are picking?

Makes me feel like it's a scam, that the winners are someone's stepdaughter or someone from a course they liked etc. which I know is silly. Or maybe it is subjective and they just aren't to my taste, but I would say I have pretty mainstream taste. I like the big sensations and the classics, and I usually read the booker list etc and love it all. I would never ever buy a supermarket 99p book written around a hook. So If I'm an average reader and I don't like them, who does? Maybe my work is't a good enough standard and they are the best of the lot, I don't know.

But thinking about it, the only way to prove them wrong is to focus on my book, get it out there and then pour scorn on the competitions in interviews when I'm famous 🤣

Entered Bridport in poetry and flashfiction categories. Shortlists to be announced on Thursday I believe. Does anyone know if/when rejection emails will be sent. I am checking submittable religiously, just to be met with the elusive 'in progress'. I had a good feeling about these two pieces but reading them back I am unconvinced. I entered as I needed a break from the longer format, as I am in the midst of writing a novel. Can they just rip the plaster off already. I just hate the not knowing...
sorry rant over. I hope I am not the only one feeling this way

I entered poetry into Bridport too! I like my piece, but I'm not expecting to place.

Ahhh, glad to know I am not alone! I don't think I will either, but as someone else expressed, somehow these things still bloody sting!

Gods, I didn't know about Submittable. I have a Noverly one in there too. Hmm. I suspect they don't update until after they send out emails?

In relation to the 'how on earth did that win?' feeling about competitions (which I can relate to!), there is obviously an element of subjectivity, but big competitions will have multiple sets of eyes on any entry, so there will be something of a consensus about the winners. The competition for which I have been a reader is one with very high entry numbers and a track record of winners going on to be published, and it has three stages, with every entry that makes the shortlist being read by at least 6 people, sometimes more. Entries that don't make it past the first stage are read by at least 2 people before being rejected.
I've looked back through my email discussions with my various reading partners, and we had a lot of back and forth about the various entries, with some of us rereading stories we'd marked low after the other reader strongly advocated for them. There was also a fair bit of discussion about the criteria we were using to mark, eg some pairs found they were marking very differently, and adjusted accordingly, and some readers had to tweak their marks after they realised they were putting too much weight on certain criteria when compared with other readers. So there was a big effort to be fair and balanced and give everything as much of a chance as possible.
In terms of the things that informed our decisions, obviously I can't be too specific, but some things that attracted low marks were:

• Very poor grammar and structure - constantly shifting tense and viewpoint came up over and over.
• Stories with no obvious point, eg description and no plot, or character studies with no movement or purpose. Some were nicely written, but left us asking 'what was it for?' Some were just straightforward blow-by-blow descriptions of very mundane things. I am sure some of the writers intended them to be metaphors for something else, but no hint of what that might be ever made it onto the page, leaving it feeling entirely pointless.
• Racist/sexist/straightforwardly unpleasant - without any dark humour/satire/metaphor etc. There were a surprising number of these. I think the writers were going for the shock factor, but badly missed the mark.
• Stories that set out as one thing and turned into something else entirely, eg a twist ending that wasn't set up in any way, or a very literary, quiet, character-based piece that suddenly introduced aliens or a police raid, out of nowhere.
• Extremely bizarre content that didn't fit into any of the more surreal genres, with no obvious point to it, eg someone who can turn into a giant frog going on a rampage and menacing a convent before becoming prime minister and marrying a princess. Not a real example but less bizarre than some stories I read!
• Weak endings that felt unsatisfying. Lots of stories had abrupt endings, suggesting the writer had run up against the word count and not known how to pare the story back while keeping the structure.
• Weak openings, where it felt as though the writer was clearing their throat and taking a long time to get to the point.
• Stories that were obviously attempts to replicate something the writer had seen do well in other high profile competitions. One year, I saw three very thinly veiled versions of the story that had won the Bridport the previous year.

From the discussions in my emails, few of us prioritised 'pretty writing' over good structure, clear theme, impactful ending etc. Stories did better if the writing was solid and the content interesting and well-structured than if the writing was dazzling but not really about anything that felt important. I don't know if any of that helps!

I don't know if it would make it worse or better to know how many readers read your entry and what the score was! Gods, imagine if everyone voted low.

That's useful. Of course, I think non of that bar one potentially applies to mine! Eg opening starts out as an invasion but is actually a game between siblings in a dystopia world which is revealed on page 3.

That makes for interesting reading, @InfiniteTeas I know you're not at liberty to say, but I'm imagining this is Bath, not Bridport? I would be angry if it is Bridport and want my entry fee back! Seeing as it is marketed as being for unfinished novels with a synopsis word allowance of only 300 words (nigh on impossible to do justice to a dual timeline lit fic novel in that!). To put such emphasis on the plot, and particularly, it seems, the ending, is misguided in my view; surely the writing is more important? It certainly is to me when I read a book.

I remember a few years ago when Bath was tweeting the reader's snippets, and there was a lot of noise around one submission in particular that had a very dramatic opening. It got nearly all of the 'golden votes' and yet, it didn't even make the shortlist, let alone win.

I console myself with the thought that the recently published novels that I admire most wouldn't have got anywhere in a competition, because they are quiet and all about the writing. I'm probably sounding bitter here! But from my perspective, it feels like the publishing industry is slowly eradicating beautiful, thought-provoking writing in favour of 'stories'. To me, a great novel is not a 'story', it is so much more.

It's a short story comp!

@InfiniteTeas That makes sense! I thought you were a reader for one of the novel comps!

I'm not reading this year, but I've always done short stories. I was asked about novel reading but I didn't have time that year.

I quite like that there's been more of a range of genres represented on the shortlists of the bigger comps in recent years. Given that the competitions often have agents involved, I think some of them are giving more weight to the things agents and editors look at when reading submissions, eg an opening that makes you want to read on, a synopsis that shows a clear narrative structure etc. I would say that the Bridport still leans towards literary novels, while Cheshire was more about commercial fiction. Bath is somewhere in the middle - possibly more inclined towards high-concept novels. Lucy Cavendish tends to be towards the literary end. The ones run by publishers or agencies or magazines are more likely to lean towards the commercial. It's opened up more opportunities for genre writers.
In some ways, I think short story comps are more useful as a gauge of where you are in terms of writing quality. They're cheaper, so you can do simultaneous submissions, and you can try out different things. Comps are most useful in terms of building a writing CV for when you start submitting. If you can say in your covering email 'I've had short stories shortlisted for Bristol and Manchester,' it's an indication of a level of competence that might bump you up an agent's reading list. A listing is also a nice boost.

It does worry me that there is now a preference for action and early hooks, inciting incidents. I prefer character led, less plot heavy. I wonder whether readers have less attention nowadays? Too many movies?

It's interesting. I'm in a book club and I read a lot. We have all said how often modern novels feel like they're written for adaptation, as in there'll be a big opening and several (sometimes overly) described scenes that feel like the pivotal points in the film or TV series, then the linking passages feel like links rather than a rounded piece of writing. For example, Mexican Gothic really felt like this. I miss the novels where not much happens but the writing is beautiful. I wonder how they would do now in today's market. Do we think Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them would get representation today? A stunning novel that I'd highly recommend but much more focus on the novel as a piece of art in and of itself. It concerns me that more and more, writers are following the advice to write for the market and have the big hook, the twist, etc. And it ends up with a homogenised fiction market where no one will take any risks on anything different. We don't want novels to end up being 2D scene setting pieces...

Another rejection from Bridport, this time for poetry. Similar email to the other.

Same here @EveInEden

I wish I hadn't looked at their previous short list because it is rather long! I really thought this poem would make it. Gosh, hope sucks 😂. Maybe I'm aiming too high with Bridport.

I haven't entered for a few years, but the Bridport always used to be notoriously unpredictable. I know a lot of very successful short story writers, and the majority of them have never made a Bridport shortlist. It used to be a running joke that our shortlist emails had got lost under the doormat again. The same names used to pop up on the shortlists of most of the biggish comps, but you hardly ever knew anyone on the Bridport lists. The one time I remember someone in local writing circles getting listed, we all went on about it for months. 'Ooh, get her, all fancy on the Bridport shortlist.'
The other notoriously unpredictable competition always used to be Frome for some reason.

How's everyone doing/feeling?

@EveInEden I’m feeling good but a bit conflicted about the Cheshire Prize. I’ve entered 2 years in a row but wrote a new entry for this year. I just wrote the first few chapters, edited and entered them because I wanted the feedback to see if it has potential. I’m not expecting to be long listed (I know it gets so many entries) and that’s why I haven’t written any more. I’ve also kind of lost interest in the project over the time I’ve been writing which doesn’t help. But now I’m thinking I should continue just in case…I know one of the writers from last year had a mad rush to finish the book when she got shortlisted last year so I think it’s common.

Does anyone else feel a very intense creative spark/ hyper focus when they begin a writing project, then find it fades as you write it? That’s exactly what happened with this. I was so into these characters and the plot a few months ago. It was in my head every day. And now my mind is thinking up new characters. It’s frustrating!

I think I’ll feel a sense of relief when the longlist is announced or I get feedback because it does drag on for a long time and I just want to know if they liked it or not.

Did you find the feedback from Cheshire useful or discouraging? I don't care for winning. I just want to longlist!

I've been obsessed with my novel for 4ish years. I really want to move on to the second book in the duology. I feel like I'm fiddling around too much with the manuscript. I've also found the perfect agent who is after what I am writing according to their TikTok update a month ago, but I am worried about submitting to them because no one gets accepted on their first querying attempt. So, do I submit elsewhere first? I did pay for an agent 121 with her, and she was very encouraging.

Have other ideas too, that I want to start writing.