What would you treat yourself to if you won a big cash prize?
Free to enter writing competitions.
Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for sending me the link to the Commonwealth short story prize, which opens 1st September. To enter you must be a commonwealth citizen. There are regional cash prizes and a grand prize of £5,000.
I think I previously mentioned the mysterious murders competition, but when Sharon reminded me of it I wasn't sure.
Sharon says of these competitions "The cash prizes are very high, which kind of puts me off. I'd rather try and win £50 than £3,000, as I'd stand a better chance."
I'm sure she's right that the bigger competitions will attract more entries, but personally that doesn't put me off. I'll have a go at any competition where I think I can come up with an entry which fits the requirements. Lack of time is my most usual reason for not entering.
How about you? Do you like to try for the bigger prizes, and well known competitions, or keep it more low key?
Womag news
Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for sharing the the updated People's Friend word counts, in a comment to last week's post. Sharon was able to access the info via a saved link. At time of writing this post I, and others, couldn't access everything on their website. Hopefully that's all sorted now, but just in case, here they are –
For the weekly:
1, 200, 2000, & 3,000
For the PF special:
1000, 1, 500, 2,500 & 3, 500 & 4,000
Can go 10 % under, but not over.
Other magazines do allow leeway in both directions, but keep in mind that going over means the story is likely to be cut. You might prefer to do that yourself, than have the editor take out the 'wrong' bits.
31 comments:
I'm inclined to agree and avoid the 'bit' writing prizes - especially as most of them carry a large entry fee as well.
Re: People's Friend story lengths, they also need 7500 for the cosy crime slot in the specials, although I know they always have a stack of these.
Alyson
It's not whether the prizes are large or small, or whether there's an entry fee or not, that influences whether I'll enter a competition. It's whether the subject matter resonates enough for me to come up with a suitable idea.
It's really only the cosy crime long read and serial instalment word counts that have changed for TPF. Other than the requirement that you don't go slightly over, the short story word counts remain the same.
Thank you for all the information, Sharon.
If I won a large cash prize I would buy a light and airy garden studio, with an area for art and crafty stuff and a comfortable easy chair and desk for writing. But I would probably have to move to another house that had a much bigger garden. Somehow, I don’t think there’s much chance of winning that much…!
Beautiful photos. Dahlias are also good as dried flowers Patsy, as a lot of them retain their colour. Dee
Oh, I'd love a garden office! My hubby would also like an artist's studio. But like you, Dee, we'd have to move house and find a bigger garden for them...well, we can dream!
A garden summer house but one that I could store books in & maybe a wood burning stove for winter (if that's not asking too much).
Ally27
Well, you certainly know how to get our attention Patsy:) I thought you'd won the lottery.
If I were to win a significant amount of money, it would be a deposit on a house, as at this rate, I'm probably never going to get on a property ladder. Otherwise, I would love to visit Japan and do a short language course there. I've done that twice in Italy and it was a wonderful experience. I felt more immersed in the culture than simply being a tourist.
Speaking of winning money, I have recently applied for ITV's Wheel of Fortune, so do cross your fingers for me. I know that it isn't writing related but I would love to know if any readers of this blog have ever appeared on a quiz show - tv or radio.
Anyway, I'll keep dreaming ... happy writing everyone!
I only ever enter the smaller competions, the big ones scare me.
@Ally My friend's son recently won the 1% club. He was cool as a cucumber and came away with £48,000! Good luck to you!
Thank you for the photos Patsy and for the info and to all who contributes info. I have introduced dahlias to my garden for the first time this year and oh, what wonderful bold and flamboyant flowers they are. I love them! Although I suspect I will most likely forget to care for them over the winter! I only submit to competitions that appeal to me and usually avoid expensive or worldwide ones. I won a voucher last year and used it to buy a heated throw, I really know how to rock and roll :) It is however very useful for writing in the winter months. Good luck to everyone submitting to comps or like Ally27 to TV quiz shows.
My balloon went to France from some summer fete and was returned and I got £5! I reckon that's probably it (1970 something) — my quota. I, too, would like an all-weather garden studio. (I would also like a live-in housekeeper, maid, gardener..., that list isn't extensive — it could be so much longer.)
Thank you, Sharon and Patsy for all the information. With the variety of word counts, I'm sure I could do something? We'll see...
I had a not-boyfriend many years ago who appeared on Sale of the Century - shocked! And then he was on the second week running! Good luck, Ally27!
Oh my. I've just remembered a competition I won aged 18, some forty odd years ago!
This was in the good old days when slogan writing comps were very popular.
The competition was run by Rowntree's, and you just had to complete the sentence "Biting into an Aero is like..."
I finished it with "... is like sampling the lava from a chocolate volcano" and drew a picture of an erupting volcano spurting forth huge chocolatey bubbles to go with it.
As a sensible(ish) grown up, l'm now thinking that would be awfully hot and would burn your mouth!
Anyway this was in the 80s and I won £1000! An absolute fortune to me back then (well it still would be now!)
All through my uni years, whenever I claimed poverty, my lovely Dad would say "at least you've got your winnings to fall back on".
I never did tell him I frittered it all away on alcohol and takeaways.
I had forgotten all about that, so thanks Ally and Marguerite. 😊
If I won some money now I'd go on holiday to Greece, swim in the sea by day, and sit in a taverna drinking wine and writing in the evenings.
@ Alyson – Maybe them having a stack of them is why they don't mention them very often? They probably don't want to spend the time reading loads of them if they already have enough to last for a while.
@ Liz – I'm the same. If it's free, I can think of something which might suit, and have the time to write it, I'll have a go at anything. (I should make more time to try more of them!)
@ Dee – Oooh, I wouldn't have thought of drying dahlias! I've dried some lovely silver sea holly I'm planning to use for a Christmas decoration or wreath. Dried dahlias might look good with that.
@ Sharon – A garden office does sound nice, but I suspect that if I had one I'd get distracted by the garden on my way there and never get any writing done.
@ Sheelagh – It seems a perfectly reasonable request to me – especially the woodburner.
@ Ally – No lottery win for me as I don't buy tickets!
If we claim it's research, everything is writing related! You never know when one of us will want to write about a competition winner.
@ Ruth – I've never heard of the !% club, which I suppose means I'll never win it.
@ Elizabeth – I go for the ones which appeal too. I'm more likely to enter if I think I might be able to send the story elsewhere if I don't win – which is no doubt a terrible tactic!
@ Marguerite – A 'not boyfriend'???
It's just occurred to me that the mobile writing retreat could double as a sort of garden office – I write in it when we're away, so why not when it's parked outside the house?
@ Ruth – That's a new meaning of 'hot chocolate'! But £1,000 in the 80s? That was a LOT of money!
Wel done everyone and good luck on the TV quiz show, ally. Last year, I was awarded a hamper of Quorn products (a vegetarian food company) for posting a poem about their products on their FB page. I had a poem on the back of their cook book but I wasn't paid for it, so the hamper kind of made up for that! I don't generally enter normal competitions or prize draws.
Ally27
Thank you everyone for your good luck wishes regarding the quiz show application. I will be sure to let you all know if I'm successful. Who knows, if I am lucky enough to get on, perhaps my experience will provide some writing inspiration.
@Patsy - It would certainly be miraculous if you had a lottery win, given that you don't buy tickets. I try to make sure I have a ticket each week without going overboard, although thus far, the most I have won is the princely sum of £104.00, which still came in handy.
@Ruth - Wow, that's incredible that your friend's son made it all the way to the end and walked away with such a lovely amount. Well done him! I really like that show and Lee Mack is hilarious. It amazes me how quick he is with the gags. I love him on WILTY as well.
Also, well done on your win. I love slogan and caption competitions, which require you to be creative but alas, they're few and far between these days. Having said that, tiebreakers are fiendish, so I'm not a fan of those.
@Sharon - Thanks and well done on your win. I enter a lot of competitions on Facebook and often struggle with the ones that ask you to write a poem about a company's products, so that's really impressive that your poem was chosen.
Patsy - your comment on tulips struck a chord. Not sure where you live but if you are not too far away, you might like to visit the annual Tulip Festival at Arundel Castle next April. Literally several thousand tulips of all shapes and colours - reckoned to be one of the best, if not the best, displays in Europe and coaches come from all over the country specially for it. Of course, I am a bit biased as I work there a few days a month in the summer! Google it and also the Dutch Tulip Mania in the 1600's, fascinating stuff and def a story in there somewhere.
Kind regards, Sue
It wasn't a competition with Quorn. They didn't invite anyone to send rhymes in. I posted a poem on their FB page and they decided to send a hamper! I thought I'd post that on here in case anyone would like to try this with another company's FB page.
Thanks, Patsy and Sharon
I must admit that I'm put off by 'big' prizes.
🤞🤞Ally let us know!
Ruth, your Greece holiday sounds perfect.
HB
@ Sharon – I like the idea of a food hamper as a prize. Your writing literally put food on the table!
@ Ally - if you sold a story about the experience you'd be a wiiner no matter how well you did in the competition.
@ Sue – We're close enough for a day trip to Arundel, and the tulip festival has been on my wish list for a while.Maybe next spring...
@ Sharon – They must have been really impressed in that case!
@ HB – Luckily there are plenty of smaller competitions too.
I’ve just been enjoying the Best Summer stories. (Alas, didn’t recognise any of our names amongst the winners.)
When they say maximum 1200 words, I tend to use as many words as I can – so I was interested to see that one of the runner up stories was far shorter - around 800 words – and... (she says, clutching her pearls) included the word ‘crap’. 😏
Their next competition is the Hallowe’en one, closing date 28th September.
Sad news, the writer's hour on a Tuesday morning with the Friend is no more as and from today. I'm planning to sign up to Readly because other than going into the shops & checking the stand there is now no way to know when you have something published in the magazine. My resistance to Readly is that if I have something published I still want to buy a physical copy & with access to 8000 publications I may never get around to writing anything at all! Physical subscriptions from UK seem to be very hit and miss in there delivery which puts me off a bit.
I have Readly. I subscribed 2 years ago and it's great.
I would recommend it but be warned - it is highly addictive! I especially like the history mags.
They are quite pricey, at almost £6 for a monthly mag.
Writing mag is on there too, but it comes in a month late. So the August one is ready to read, not the September one.
The USA mag Woman's World is now on there, with 2 paid story slots. Anyone can send stories in.
@Sharon Thanks Sharon, yes I'm wary of the addictive nature of these subscriptions to add to my phone addiction!! But I guess its the way to go and it will save driving to the shops miles away just for a weekly magazine. On the negative I've always loved reading the physical magazine in bed & it helps me off to sleep unlike reading on my phone.
I can look for you if you don't want to commit to readly.
Thanks Sharon I appreciate that. Do you know if you need to have an iPhone or iPad to read Readly? I wanted to join and read on my laptop rather than my android phone as its too small but haven't been able to join up this way for some reason. I contacted Readly support but they haven't really been able to advise.
I can access loads, TPF, Best etc... free with my library card.
@Marguerite That sounds great, I must enquire in my local library if that service is available here.
I don't have an I pad or I phone- in fact, I don't have a smart phone. I read readly on my tablet.
It's not me who subscribes- it's in my hubby's name but the subscription allows access for 2 people.
Getting to the library is difficult, as it's not nearby. We don't have a car and there's no mobile library service any more.
If you send me your email address, sheelagh via Patsy, and your writing name, I can email you when I see your work in mags.
If you already subscribe to something, Sheelagh, that's a great offer from Sharon :) The Isle of Wight Library service does Pressreader (tho' there may be others I don't know about elsewhere) and I 'surfed' a tad and found some Irish titles as well. It would be worth finding out if the Library Service near you does what you want. I don't use a smartphone, read books on a kindle, but if I want to read a magazine, use a tablet or laptop
@Sharon & Marguerite Thank you so both so much for your responses & your kind offer Sharon. I will take you up on that & no pressure at all, its really only the occasional People's Friend as any others always let me know when something is due out. I will also investigate the library end of things here & I'll let you know how that goes. Thanks again, what would I do without my writing friends.
@ Ruth – I usually try to get close to the maximum word count too. I feel that a story with more depth might stand a better chance, but I suppose if it's a good story it's a good story no matter the length.
@ Sheelagh – That does seem a shame. I stopped using twitter a while ago, so obviously haven't taken part recently, but I know for some people it was a great way to communicate with other writers.
People are always welcome to chat about writing on here. I could set up more posts here just for that if that would be useful.
@ Sharon, I tried Readly thinking it would be great when I was travelling, but although it can be read offline on some devices, my laptop isn't one of them. I do have a smartphone, but don't fancy reading magazines on that.
I've now emailed you with Sheelagh's email address. You're right not to post your addresses in the comments, in case spammers find it.
@ Marguerite – My local used to provide access to Pressreader, but sadly lost funding for that.
In case anyone didn't already know, there's a Writing Chat group on Facebook which you'd be welcome to join. It's not a private group, but you have to be accepted in order to post.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1292419024983761
I'm sorry to see the PF writing hour go and shall miss it. I miss the chat that you used to run on X too, Patsy. I joined your FB one but have never posted/commented in it because it's public, and so anything I say could show up in other FB friends' newsfeeds. Of course, X is also public, but I have no real-life family and friends on X (or in here) as I do on FB. It's not that I have anything to hide (obviously, they know I write), but there's a huge downside to being a writer that I prefer to keep to myself, or at least only talk about with other writers.
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