Saturday, 29 March 2025

Three free writing competitions.

 

Free entry writing competitions

Here's a 'micro fiction' competition. You're allowed up to 1,500 characters to write a story 'related to Africa in some way'.  There are three cash prizes, €750 for first - plus the possibility of runners up and special mentions.


The Oxford/42 New Writing Prize is for novels, stage, radio or screen plays. Experimental writing is welcome. You must be 'unagented' to enter. The prize is £1,500 pounds and an agency contract with 42 M&P


The Baen fantasy adventure award is for fantasy stories of up to 8,000 words. First prize is paid publication, $500 of Baen books and an engraved award




Regarding the AI issue mentioned in my last post, there's a petition by the Society of Authors here. It has some 'big' names on it.
Please sign even if you're not directly affected in this particular case, as if this goes unchallenged then it's likely that even more of our work will be stolen. 

Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Tuesday top tip - don't let your books be stolen to train AI

You may have seen that many thousands of books have been stolen to train AI. Not just literary classics and best sellers, but loads of self published books too, including some of mine. 

Here's a link to check if your books have been used in this way.

Here's a link for an easy way to complain, and attempt to get this stopped, if you discover your books have been used.

Please help real human authors by reading their books (and make sure to buy them from not pirate sites, or to borrow from libraries or legitimate subscription services).

Thanks to Alyson for this link from the SoA about what we can do.

This tip was brought to you by Patsy Collins. If you'd like to contribute your own tip to this blog, here's what to do.


Saturday, 22 March 2025

Wee free writing competition - and a bigger one

Free entry writing competitions

Thanks to Suzan Lindsay for reminding me about the Scottish Book Trust flash fiction competitions. Each month they ask for a 50 word story on a set theme. You've got until the 25th to write something involving a bookcase. The prize is suitably little – but Id still be happy to win. (I'd help my chances if I remembered to enter, wouldn't I?)



I confess the photos are only very tenuously relevant – I took them in Scotland last year.


Here's an email I recieved a few days ago -

 Hi everyone! I'm writing because you previously submitted a short story to the Redbud Writing Project's annual Coppice Prize competition. We took last year off to reformulate the contest, but this year we're back, thanks to a generous grant from United Arts of Wake County in North Carolina, and we'd love to see your work. Here are the details:

The contest is open until midnight on March 31.

--We accept only previously unpublished work, under 4,000 words, with identifying names and details omitted. 
--Winners receive $600 (first place), $300 (second place), and $100 (third place), plus publication and review from a literary agent. 
--Our three judges--Anise Vance, Aamina Ahmad, and Raf Frumkin--will select the winners in late April, with the winners to be announced in May.
--This year, the aim of our contest is specifically to highlight marginalized and under-represented writers. So we ask that you only submit if you consider yourself part of those categories (e.g. cultural identity, income level of your family, racial identity, gender identity, disability, or something else). We will leave it up to individual contestants to decide if they identify as marginalized or under-represented. If you’d like to talk this out with us, please feel free to reach out.

Submit your work here! As always, it's free to enter.










Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Tuesday top tip(s) - writing a series

Here are a few things I learned from writing my Little Mallow cosy mystery series. I thought they might be of interest to authors contemplating writing their first series.


(btw, book 1 in the series is currently free to download.)

1. When planning your release schedule, allow lots of time. Although it is true that books in a series are quicker to write than standalones (because you don't have quite so much world building and character creation to do) the process isn't a lot faster. Readers won't want to wait too long to read the next one, but it's far better to set a realistic timetable than an overly optimistic one you don't meet.



2. Keep notes, a database, or spreadsheet of nearly everything! It might seem tedious to record the name of every single character, their partners, jobs etc, but having those details recorded in an easy to check format will save time and/or help avoid silly errors.


3. Depending on the genre, it might be a good idea to create a timeline chart of some kind. With my latest book I needed a very precise one to be sure people's alibis did, or didn't, work properly. A more general overall one can be useful for keeping track of things such as how long characters have known each other, making sure everyone just has the one birthday a year, that you don't have fourteen month pregnancies, and that everyone ages accurately in relation to everyone else.


4. Keep any planning notes after completing earlier books in the series. These will make it easier to check what's already happened than if you need to read through the entire novel.


5. As much as possible, plan the entire series in advance. That can help you avoid backing yourself into a corner by writing something you later regret e.g. killing off a character before you've finished with them, or failing to mention something which later becomes important to the storyline. For example, in my second book the fact the verger doesn't drive is important. As it's unusual for capable, employed men in their thirties, not to drive, this information is mentioned in the first book. I also mention a skill he does posses which proves useful later on.


6. If a character will become important for a later book in the series, consider including them as a minor character in earlier books. That way readers (and you) will get to know them and care more about what happens when they become more involved.


7. Decide whether each book will work as a standalone as well as part of the series, or if the books need to be read in order for the storylines to work. If it's the latter, make that clear in the descriptions, blurb and any promotions.


8. Although you'll want some kind of resolution at the end of each book, don't feel you must completely tie off every single lose end. That can feel contrived. 


9. When publishing, consider putting you books into kindle unlimited, as series are popular with KU readers. This does require you to make the books exclusive with Amazon, which doesn't suit everyone, but you can opt out again after three months and make your books 'wide' then.



10. Consider making the first book in the series a little cheaper than the others. That's both to encourage potential readers to give it a try, and to steer them towards starting at the beginning and hopefully reading all the way through.


11. Consider creating some kind of free bonus material to promote the series. In my case I wrote a short ebook, set in the village of Little Mallow. This is available exclusively to those who sign up for my newsletter. It gives an insight into the location for the series and introduction to some characters.


12. Writing a series is a big commitment – be sure you're happy to spend time with your characters and in your fictitious world! Personally I love spending time in Little Mallow, and am very fond of the residents. I'm delighted to hear that many of my readers feel the same way.

This tip was brought to you by Patsy Collins. If you'd like to contribute your own tip to this blog, here's what to do.



Saturday, 15 March 2025

Over to you

 


Please share writing related news – successes and failures, details of free entry writing competitions, updates about the womags you submit to, any other publication opportunities, and raise any queries you may have. All these things will help* other readers of the blog, and help me** to keep it going!


* It can be very reassuring to know we're not the only person who gets rejections, finds something confusing, or has doubts. It's also very encouraging when people we've heard of and know are real people, something like us, win competitions or get published.

** It takes time to find new free competitions every single week and it's very difficult to keep track of markets I don't submit to. Your support through sharing information, and leaving comments, makes a big difference. (Never worry you're telling me something I know – reminders are welcome!)

Free entry poetry competition

Thank you to Fiona for sending me the link to this very interesting poetry competition. The challenge is to write an artfully awful poem (I can do half of that!) There's £100 first prize.

Saturday, 8 March 2025

Another free writing competition

On this blog I only share details of free to enter writing competitions (for several reasons, including the hope I won't be opening you up to scams). There are plenty with entry fees though - do you think those are worthwhile? 

Free entry writing competitions

The Fitzcarraldo prize 'awards £4,000 to the best proposal for a book-length essay (minimum 25,000 words) by a writer resident in the UK & Ireland who has yet to secure a publishing deal.' 

This is one of my favourite signposts. 

Where do you think it's directing people? Or maybe you know?


Saturday, 1 March 2025

Poetry and prose competitions

 

Free entry competition news

Thanks to Fiona for telling me about this poetry competition with a £100 prize.

The Alpine fellowship have a competition, accepting any kind of writing, on the theme of fear. First prize is £300. Entrants may be of any nationality. The also have a poetry competition with the same theme and prize.

Also

I can't remember if I've already said... This blog has a Bluesky account. For those who've not tried Bluesky, it's just like Twitter used to be, before it got choked up with adverts. If you could use Twitter, you'll be able to use Bluesky – although obviously you don't have to!


My romance novel, A Year And A Day is free until March 5th. (I've made it free in the hope of getting some reviews.)

The photo above is of Smoo cave in Scotland. Try saying Smoo out loud a couple of times – I bet you can't resist adding a few more Os!