Every fortnight the Lincolnshire Echo will publish a short story chosen by Writing East Midlands, and next year a cash prize of £300 will be awarded to the author of the best piece, to be presented at the East Midlands' Book Award in 2013.
With a readership of 60-100,000, this is a fantastic opportunity to promote your work to a wide audience.
COMPETITION RULES
- Each month the Lincolnshire Echo will publish two new short stories (one every other week) by writers currently living in the East Midlands – Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Rutland, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
- A qualifying address and postcode must be supplied with each submission.
- Submissions should be sent to Writing East Midlands BY E-MAIL ONLY at echoshorts@writingeastmidlands.co.uk who will choose two winning submissions for publishing each month.
- Submissions for consideration each month should be received by the 25th of the preceding month.Thus, entries for publication in December 2011 must be received
by November 25, 2011.
- Submissions that are considered by WEM to be particularly strong may be ‘rolled over’ for future consideration, with the agreement of the author.
- Submissions must be a maximum of 2,500 words. Submissions of greater length will be automatically discounted.
- Submissions must not have been previously published in print.
- The author will also consent to their stories being published on Writing East Midlands’ website at their discretion, and in any other Northcliffe Group Newspaper.
- In November 2012 an overall best story will be chosen and awarded the 2012 Lincolnshire Echo Short Story prize at the East Midlands Book Awards in 2013.
- A cash prize of £300 will be given to the winning author.
Why should you take part?
Have a go! They say that everyone has a story in them and having your story published is an incredibly empowering experience – and you might find a passion for something you never realised. Writing East Midlands is keen to make contact with writers so this will also be the perfect opportunity for us to spot new talent and it’s a chance for people to have a bit of fun with something that they might have been thinking of doing for years.
What makes a good short story?
- Something that is entertaining and lingers after it has been read.
- Something that takes us somewhere else for a while.
- Something that says something interesting about a problem or situation.
- Mostly, a good story contains characters that make us like, dislike or laugh at
them.
What should you write about?
Write about anything you want. Stories can be set in any time, in any place and about anything. They can be about your family, your home, something that has
happened, or something that never will. A good tip is to write about something that you actually care about.
How should you write your piece?
The traditional short story format is:
- Information and Context – Who is the story about and where are the events taking place?
- Theme – What is the problem, tension or conflict affecting the characters and why is it important?
- Action and resolution – What happens – there’s often a turning point or surprising event enabling the problem to be resolved and bringing the story to a close.
- However,short stories are a great form to experiment with writing and the key thing is to engage and entertain or just make people think. Some great short stories
seem to be no more than just an observation about life.
