You must not previously have been published in Woman's Weekly.
Send entries to WF/Woman's Weekly Contest, PO Box 6337, Bournemouth BH1 9EH.
Closing date 14th January 2009.
As with the People's Friend competition a couple of months back, Sue Moorcroft will do the first round of judging and then pass the shortlist on to Gaynor Davies, the Woman's Weekly fiction editor, who will choose the winner. No guarantee of publication, but all of the shortlist will be considered for the Fiction Special.
You can request a critique from Sue, for £3. Cheques to Sue Moorcroft and enclose an A5 SAE.
One story per entrant, and state the word count on the cover sheet.
It's worth buying this issue of Writers' Forum for this article - lots of insight into what Woman's Weekly look for in a short story (note to self, STUDY this!)
Main pointers are:
- character-led
- avoid cliches in plot and language
- include dialogue
- believable
- make the reader laugh or cry
A word on the critiques - a lady in my evening writing class (hello, V!) sent a story in to the WF/People's Friend competition and asked for a critique. She was delighted by the feedback. She read the story out at our class, we gave feedback, and then she read Sue's feedback. Interestingly we'd all picked up on some of the points Sue had, but Sue had gone further and pointed out something more. I don't remember the detail (it was a couple of weeks ago) but I was definitely impressed, and V should be able to edit this story and turn it into something PF just might buy. Well worth the £3.
And a note on the length - 3% either way is normal so aim for between 970 and 1030 words. That's closer to the target length than I've suggested before on this blog. But now we know!
Good luck to all who enter.
16 comments:
I've only tried WW once, but got a lovely letter with the rejection, so wanted to try again...
Well, this is perfect as opportunities go, so thank you for passing it on!
"Make the reader laugh or cry", hey, that's a snap, right?
*sigh*
£3 is a bargain for a critique from a professional editor. Definitely will take them up on that.
Thank you again for your note on my blog!
At 6 days to 60, I decided to enter my 7th decade trying to blog. And I have met some absolutely wonderful friends around the world!
I was very pleased with Sue Moorcroft's critique too.
She pointed something out, I re-wrote the end of the story and submitted it to PF direct.
Unfortunately, they rejected it in less than a week (with a long, explanatory letter), but I've now sent that story somewhere else and am working on an entry for the WW comp - trying to write something 'suitable'after studying stories they've already published.
I found some of the stories in the last WWFS quite odd though. Is it just me?
I really should try to get my act together and have a go at this one!
I'm going to get my act together and have a go at this one! WW success has eluded me so far, and a critique would be great :o)
Writers' Forum is so much better than it used to be!
I should give it a go too. I need to get a move on though and think of something to write.
I might just have a try at this one. The critique exercise sounds like it's good for pointers in knowing where may have gone wrong.
Thanks for posting it.
Is this in teh January WF, Womag? I've scoured my December mag and haven't found it :-(
Am making this my Christmas project...
I put a story in for PF and Sue's criticism was spot-on and I shall definitely be paying £3 for the WW spot as that's another market I've never been able to crack. £3 very well spent! It's a great idea as it seems very rare to get feedback direct from the magazines.
I submitted a story to them at the end of August 2008 and I've yet to hear anything. I'm wondering if this competition is holding it up!!
Would it be too soon to send a reminder/enquiry letter, do you think?
Heather - that's five months ago. I would wait six before querying politely. I've had a story accepted (by My Weekly) after a nine month wait.
Thank you for your advice, Womag, it's difficult to be patient! I shall wait and keep busy. (By the way, thanks for this site, I keep coming back for your (and everyone else's) insights!)
I've found WW never reply at all, even though I always send SAE's. I asked for guidelines last year and got nothing, sent a story last Oct - nothing, and asked again for guidelines last month, and if they'd received my Oct story - still nothing... Is it me?!
Hi Anon
Do check the address you are posting to - it changed a year or so ago. The posts here have the correct address.
They can be slow to reply to subs, but if it's over six months I think it's ok to query it. Try clare_cooper (at) ipcmedia.com
Note they do not take emailed submissions however (except from their regular contributors) but I would think it's ok to use that email address to query.
Hi
Just wanted to say what a great website this is. Well done everyone. Had a great weekend as on Saturday I saw my story "The Long Goodbye" was published in this month's WW Fiction Special and on Sunday another of my stories called "Do My Wings Look Big in This?" is published on Writing Magazine's website. Mind you, the lovely Tessa Krailing used to say you are only as good as your last rejection and on Monday - you guessed it - I got 3! Oh well, rejection goes with the job, I suppose.
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