Happy New Writing Year!. If like me you’ve found very little time for writing over Xmas and the New Year now’s the time to set that right. Now is a great time to think about what you would like to write in 2014 and to set some achievable goals. I’ll certainly be doing that today.
Over this Xmas period I’ve been involved in judging The London Magazine short story competition. If you are thinking of entering short story competitions then you might be interested in my thoughts on judging short story competitions below.
Being a judge in a short story competition puts you on the other side of the fence and teaches you more about what works and what doesn’t from the reader’s point of view. So what have I learned from judging short story competitions? Here are my very personal observations.
Firstly, cream does rise to the top BUT different judges like different stories. There is always the question of taste and this is worth remembering when your story fails to make it to the final shortlist.
Good writing is essential but it’s not enough. No matter how beautiful, lyrical, elegant the prose, if the story doesn’t work, if it fails to really engage the reader then it’s no good.
Good writing is not self-indulgent or overly complex. Writing like this fails to connect with the reader, simplicity works best
Structure is important – too many stories don’t seem to go anywhere or get bogged down in backstory. Backstory dump doesn’t work in a novel let alone a short story.
Endings are crucial. They don’t have to be clever or tricksy but they need to work in the context of the story and be well-paced. You can leave the reader thinking or needing more but something has to have changed, a resolution no matter how partial needs to take place. Too often endings let the story down.
Characters need to live and breathe – they are your key to a successful story.
There are too many stories about, old age, death and ghosts. I often find myself longing for a young voice, a surprise, or something that makes me smile.
For me the stories that work best are the ones I can visualise, where the writer brings the world of the story alive, where the characters jump off the page.
Finally as a reader I want to feel something – for me all the stories that end up in my ‘like’ pile move me in some way, not necessarily intensely but I feel them as well as see them. Mostly the best stories are not the cleverest but the most human.
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