'Fess up!

Free entry writing competition news

This competition is for fiction or non-fiction 'that respond to the entangled social and ecological challenges of our contemporary world. ' Top prize is €1,000. Winners and honourable mentioned will be published in a virtual exhibition.

Here's another free to enter competition found by Fiona. They're asking for 'essays' on 'The worst writing mistake I’ve ever made.' The competition is open to anyone anywhere, over the age of 16. Prize is £100. It doesn't actually state is must be true, but I guess that's what they want. Shouldn't be a problem though, as there can't be many of us who haven't messed up somehow!

Anyone fancy confessing to one (or more!) of the daft / funny / downright weird ways they've gone wrong in connection with their writing? 

I have (more than once) intended to submit a single short story and accidentally attached an entire file of stories, not just the one I meant to send. On both occasions the editor concerned found the correct one and very tactfully informed me what I'd done.

Calls for submissions

Myslexia are looking for fiction and poetry on the theme of 'blue'. They pay for everything they publish.

Womag / competition news

Thanks to Pamela Gough for providing the details to the Best short story competition, in a comment on last week's post – The Best comp is for a Summer romance, max 1200 words. 1st prize is £500, 2 runners up get £200. Closing date is 20th July. Send your entry, with name, address and phone number to bestfiction@hearst.co.uk, with 'Summer romance fiction 2025' in the subject.

The People's Friend have slightly amended their word count requirements. The biggest change is that it's no longer acceptable to go over any stated word count. Full details here.  Thanks to Eirin, Alyson and others for checking I'd seen the news - it's easy to miss these things.

My news

Most of my time is currently taken up with processing photos. This post contains a random selection - although only this last one is particularly appropriate for the blog!

From Fiona!

Thanks to Fiona for sending me the link to this short story competition. As Fiona says, it's one for Dr Who fans. You could possibly get away with watching a few episodes as research, but my guess is that being a regular viewer would be an advantage. There are detailed instructions on the website. You're asked to send a proposal for a 5,000 word story and the prize is to have that commissioned.

Btw, in case you missed seeing the comment last week, Fiona took part in a writing project run by Philip Holyman with Birmingham Uni last autumn. Her poem, True Voyage, Returning, made it into the anthology and a podcast. It’s read by actress Beth Organ in Podcast 10 (1hr 13 minutes in!) you can listen here https://philipholyman.com/true-voyage-is-return

And here's another one from Fiona. This one is for those who live in the Milton Keynes area. They want fiction, factual pieces and poems on the theme of friendship. The prize is to read your piece at a Zoom event, for which you'll get free entry (others pay).

I know it's frustrating to see an interesting competition and not be able to enter because of restrictions such as the area you live – but if you do happen to be eligible, they're a good opportunity. This event is to mark the international day of friendship on 30th July. I imagine there's likely to be more competitions with the same theme.

To show my appreciation, I've included a few flowers for Fiona.

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!)

Here's the rest...

These are the things I didn't get the chance to include in Saturday's post. My life hasn't got any less busy so, although I'll try to post each Saturday, be prepared for some randomness!

The photos were taken at Bodnant Gardens in Wales a few days ago. It's looking magnificent!

Womag news

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd and others for alerting me to the fact that My Weekly are advertising for a new fiction editor. The details are here, in case you fancy applying. I don't yet know what difference, if any, this will make to submitting fiction to this magazine, or what is happening with Kirstyn – something nice, I hope.

Free entry competition news

Thanks to Fiona for all the following ...

This competition is for UK authors who have been published at least once. You'll need to send a proposal, first three chapters and a statement about how your work 'contributes to the sustainability discourse'. First prize is £15,000.

This one is for true, 50 word stories on friendship. The details state that entries from those resident in Scotland will be considered for a book, but it seems you can still submit something if you live elsewhere. Unpublished authors only.

You definitely have to be resident in Scotland to enter this 'Gothic Aberdeen' short story competition. Having been to Aberdeen several times, I can see why the organisers consider it a suitable location for a gothic tale. Prize is £300.

Are any of you resident in Scotland? If not, I won't continue to post details of competitions with that restriction.

My news

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for reminding me I'm the People's Friend writer of the week. I'm sure I was told the date the interview would appear, but had completely forgotten about it.

One for the poets

 Thanks to Aly Rhodes for the details of this poetry competition.

Tuesday top tip - do your tax return

 We're already a month into the new tax year. This is the perfect time to send in your return (if you're required to do so). You need to do one if you earn more than £1,000 from your writing. That's income not profit.

I know it's not a fun thing, but it won't get easier or more enjoyable if you put it off until the last minute. Doing it early saves stress, and means that if you discover there's something missing from your records you have time to sort it out without risking a fine for being late.

In case you didn't realise, the date you send in your return has no impact on when you have to pay.

NB the above applies to the UK - other countries may have different rules.

What the editors want

Thanks to Babs Trevitt who sent me the following which she spotted on Twitter. I no longer use that platform, so hadn't seen it.

Obviously these are the requirements for The People's Friend submissions. If you have guidelines from a different publication with different instructions, then you should follow those for that particular publication. Otherwise, I don't think you'll be going wrong by adopting the above for all submissions.

Btw, I don't use Word to write. Before submitting I 'save as' a Word document and that works fine, so don't worry you'll need to buy Word if you don't already have it.

If anyone is concerned / confused about submission guidelines (for any publication) then contact the editor concerned - but feel free to mention it here. If there are queries about a publication where I have a contact, I'll attempt to get an answer.

To any magazine editors who may happen to see this - I'm always happy to post any guidelines / tips / requests / super exciting gossip you may wish the share! Same thing goes for organisers of free to enter writing competitions.