How to Win a Short Story Contest

In Today’s Journal

* Contest Results Are Coming Soon
* How to Win a Short Story Contest
* Progress Report
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Contest Results Are Coming Soon

I’ve heard from a few writers who wonder why it’s taking me so long to get back to you with contest results.

I did read the opening of every story the day after the contest closed.

If I wasn’t hooked or pulled into the story and therefore wasn’t enticed to keep reading, I closed the story and put it into the Rejected folder.

If I was hooked and pulled into the story and enticed to keep reading, I closed the story anyway and put it into the Accepted folder to read thoroughly later.

Then life intervened. For various reasons, all underlain by concern over a dear friend’s health, I didn’t get around to the final reading.

My friend alleviated some of that concern during a phone call yesterday. So to give everyone a fair shake, I’m going to start over on reading for the contest.

Today, reading is my priority.

I’ll read all the openings again this morning and separate the stories into two folders again. Then I’ll read the Accepted stories and make my choices for the prizes.

I’ll report those in tomorrow’s issue of TNDJ.

There will not be an anthology this time, so if you entered the contest feel free to publish the story(ies) you entered at any time.

You’ll remember this particular contest was an opportunity to practice writing description. That was the emphasis, and that will be my focus as I read.

Raymond Chandler was so great at writing description I held him up as the model to emulate.

And of course, every short story or novel you ever write is an opportunity to

grab the reader with a good hook,
pull the reader into the story (depth) with an interesting opening, and
keep him reading (engaged, immersed in the story) with good description of the characters and setting and with good dialogue.

So the “secret” to success in this or any short story contest is to accomplish those three things.

Another secret to success is to follow the contest rules as closely as possible.

I received only 17 submissions for the contest, and two of those were memoirs and therefore disqualified. Here’s the difference between memoir and fiction:

In a memoir, the writer is conveying something he or she recalls from his or her own life as he or she remembers it.
In a short story, the writer is recording on the screen or page one event in a fictional POV character’s life and how the POV character and any other characters in the story reacted to that event in their actions and dialogue.

Since I disqualified the two memoirs, that leaves only fifteen stories to read.

Also, one short story was submitted by a free subscriber but he didn’t send an entry fee. (For paid subscribers, there was no entry fee.) So that cuts the number of stories contending for the prize money to fourteen.

Back to you with results tomorrow.

Progress Report

I hung the gate yesterday and attached the old fence to both fence posts temporarily. When I resume, I’ll re-rout one corner of the old fence so it won’t be in the way while I’m stringing the new fence.

I’m taking this morning off from that project so I can get the reading done for the Chandler contest.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: Marriage Metaphors Much in this post is all about writing. Be sure to check it out.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 610

Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty

Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Day 2…… 1110 words. To date…… 4360

Fiction for August..………………….. 1110
Fiction for 2025………………………. 527757
Nonfiction for August………………… 6570
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 174970
2025 consumable words…………….. 695113

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29