Bearing fruit by Jane Ayres

Any business, small or large, will regularly review and evaluate output and productivity.  What is selling?  What isn’t?  Is the reward commensurate with the time expended to produce it?  (Okay, this is a perennial issue for all creators, not just writers.  Creating can be hugely draining and time consuming; also frustrating and difficult, as well as spiritually satisfying.   And we aren’t supposed to be doing it for the money (!) But that is for another article….) Back to the topic.  So how many writers analyse their output in terms of volume and results?  For example, have you ever gone through your records detailing work sent out (you do keep records, don’t you?) to ascertain the ratio of work published to work submitted?

My core work is writing short pony books for children and teenagers, which I have done for more years than I care to remember.  However, I am a big advocate of not putting all your eggs in one basket, so have always tried to establish a parallel writing career that is independent of this; particularly since the publishing industry is so fickle and dynamic.  I have written articles, comic strips, poetry and advertising copy, but my first love was always the short story form.  When I started to analyse my non-pony book output, I discovered that on average only 12% of my speculative submissions resulted in publication, and this was consistent over several years.  Was I producing quantity rather than quality?  Or failing to target my work effectively? Investigating further, I undertook a breakdown of the successful output, to see if any trends were apparent.  The results were illuminating.  I spent a lot of time and energy writing short stories but had disappointingly few accepted. Repeated editorial feedback indicated that my fiction lay uncomfortably between “commercial” and “literary” – a situation I guess many writers will be familiar with.  However, to my surprise, writing features and articles, which I had never seen as my strength, had actually proved more successful and earned more money.  This boosted my confidence writing non-fiction, and as a result of this analysis, I decided to concentrate more on feature writing. 

Being a glutton for punishment, I then scrutinised competitions.  I had given myself three years to make some headway with short story writing competitions.  Where had it got me?  In my best year, I’d been awarded 2 prizes out of a total of 18 competitions entered.  The following year, I’d more than doubled my output, and entered 46 competitions and was awarded one prize.  Ouch!  I hadn’t realised I’d entered so many and when I totted up the total entry fees, I was shocked. Ouch again.  Admittedly, I had recycled some of the unsuccessful competition entries, and several of these were, eventually, published elsewhere.  But I was in a situation where I needed to pay the bills, so in terms of time and money, entering competitions was a poor use of both. 

So what did I learn?   Well, what you enjoy writing and what you are good at writing are not always the same.  And that can be quite hard to accept.  Writers need to be flexible and open to trying anything.  You can’t afford to be precious, especially if you intend to rely on income from writing in the future.   I also learned what I should be doing to use my time efficiently and effectively.  (Note the use of the word ‘should’.  I am still the mistress of procrastination!)

I would urge any writer, particularly if you are seeking to earn an income from your words, to regularly undertake this kind of analysis and evaluation.  Writers need to think about their occupation as a business, and successful businesses understand what they are producing, what sells (or doesn’t) and the reasons for it.  Or at least to try.  And from a creative viewpoint, it can actually be quite a liberating process.  It is easy for writers to pigeonhole themselves, and discovering that you have hidden talents is always exciting.

About the author:

Jane had her first short story published in a UK pony magazine when she was 14. Her latest title, Valentine Horse, is available from Amazon. A passionate cat lover, Jane is donating all author royalties from her e-book Coming Home to the charity Cats Protection. See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aweX0y3lvL4&feature=youtu.be

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Ayres/e/B004MWCTD8/

Blog: http://www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/124661.Jane_Ayres

Subject Matters: How to win a short story competition

By Jane Ayres

You’ve posted off the final draft of your short story to yet another writing competition, paying attention to all the ingredients you know judges look for - like structure, plot, pacing, characterisation, dialogue, and language.  But how important is your choice of subject? Will it engage your readers - or alienate them?  What themes do you intend to explore in your story? And what part does subjectivity play in the decision-making process?  After all, writing competition judges are human beings, aren’t they?

Short story competitions are a great opportunity to develop your writing portfolio, improve your discipline in working to deadlines – and maybe even win a prize.  But is it really down to luck?  Or can you do anything to maximise your chances of success?

There are hundreds of competitions to choose from, and whether or not they specify themes and topics, or appear to provide an open-ended brief, when it comes to wining short story competitions, subject really matters.  Some competitions are extremely helpful when it comes to guidelines on the genres they will consider, and give clear and specific guidelines, and useful advice.  Others vary.

Whether or not you agree with the exclusion of particular categories is irrelevant.  If you want to succeed in competitions, the guidelines are there for your benefit, so read, absorb and inwardly digest before you start to write.

Judges sometimes complain about repeatedly seeing tired, over-used story lines. For instance, the main character turns out to be a ghost or the narrator is really a dog.  Maybe the down-trodden wife leaves her boring/cheating husband or an evil murderer finally gets his come-uppance.  On the whole, death in various forms is a popular subject so the occasional humorous tale can make a refreshing change.

If you want to submit a horror story then consider the monthly Dark Tales writing competitions (http://darktales.co.uk/contest.php).  Keen to produce a heart-warming romance?  Try the Cremona Romance Short Story Competition from The Cremona hotel in Bournemouth, for romantic stories with a seaside setting. (http://cremona.co.uk/index.php?page=competition)

(Don’t get your entries mixed up for these two!)

The Mona Schreiber Prize wants humorous fiction and non-fiction. “Comic essays, poetry, short stories, scripts and humorous shopping lists are all acceptable.” (http://www.brashcyber.com/mona.htm)

The James White Award for science fiction stories gives very specific advice on choosing your subject. http://www.jameswhiteaward.com/advice

The Tom-Gallon Trust Award advises, “The submitted story should be traditional, rather than experimental, in character.”  (http://www.societyofauthors.org/tom-gallon-trust-and-olive-cook-award ). The advantage of all these guidelines is that you are given clues and signposting about what is likely to be acceptable. 

The Annual New Writer Annual Prose and Poetry Prizes (http://www.thenewwriter.com/prose-and-poetry-prize/ ) want fiction on any subject or theme, in any genre (except children’s) and are looking for “bold, incisive material in any genre providing it reflects today’s writing.”    But “today’s writing” encompasses a huge arena - are we talking Lee Child, Dorothy Koomson or JK Rowling?  All of these writers have different, unique voices and all represent current fiction.  Don’t they?  Which leads to the issue of subjectivity.

The part that subjectivity plays in judging writing competitions is often overlooked and rarely acknowledged.  Even where the accepted genres are stated, writing about certain subjects will not do you any favours.  Some subjects are perhaps generally accepted as taboos, for instance stories that incite racial hatred or describe gratuitous acts of sadistic violence, but in addition judges will have their own particular dislikes, subjects they find revolting or distasteful, or situations that strike a very personal chord.  It’s part and parcel of being human.  So if you write a story glamorising a burglar and the person judging has just had their house ransacked, your theme may not be well received.   You should also bear in mind that some competitions produce anthologies of shortlisted work to go on sale to the general public.  Understandably, they will not wish to offend or alienate sections of the community.

Stories are often penalised for being unrealistic.  Again, this can be subjective.  I have known of stories criticised on this basis when they were based on actual events, on situations that the writer may have actually experienced or witnessed.  What is unbelievable to one reader may be perfectly acceptable to another, depending on their own life experience and attitudes, which is, after all, what shapes our personalities, outlooks and values. For this reason, you may find that a story doesn’t make the shortlist for one competition but wins a prize in another.  Speaking from personal experience, a previous story, rejected by an editor who “hated the characters”, went on to win first prize in a national short story competition.  (Moral - if you believe in yourself, keep at it!)

Of course, what judges look for above all is a well written story with that extra something, that mysterious, elusive quality that makes it stand out from the rest.  What, nowadays, is referred to as “the wow factor.”

So if you want to succeed in short story competitions, read the rules, do your research, and acknowledge the role that subjectivity plays in the decision making process.  Use common sense about the choice and treatment of your subject.  Outside the competition arena, the rules may, or may not, differ.  But that’s another story…

About the author:

Jane had her first short story published in a UK pony magazine when she was 14. Since then she has written many books and stories for children and teenagers, and published work has been translated into nine languages. A passionate cat lover, Jane is donating all author royalties from her e-book Coming Home to the charity Cats Protection. See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aweX0y3lvL4&feature=youtu.be

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Ayres/e/B004MWCTD8/

Blog: http://www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/124661.Jane_Ayres