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NEW WRITING COMPETITION ‘UNREAL’

August 1, 2013 by

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR NAME, AGE AND STORY NAME MUST BE IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL!

EMAILS THAT DON’T HAVE THIS INFORMATION MAY BE SENT TO THE SPAM FOLDER AND WE WON’T GET TO READ THEM!

Our new writing competition opens today. It is open to kids aged 8+ and adults.

The theme is ‘unreal’ so you can write whatever you want as long as there is some aspect of your story that IS NOT real.

This time we have four categories:

  • 8-10
  • 11-13
  • 14-18
  • Adult

In our last competition we had a lot of trouble with entries that weren’t submitted in the right format.

We can’t read your story if we can’t open it on our computer so please follow the ‘FORMAT’ guidelines at the bottom of this post.

PRIZES AND CERTIFICATES

KIDS AND TEENS WINNERS  – Winners in the kids and teens categories will receive an online writing course.

The courses have six sessions for you to read and complete, and you will receive individual feedback on your work. You can find out more about them here: http://writingclassesforkids.com/products/writing-classes/

Entry into the competition for kids and teens is FREE!

EVERY child and teen entry will receive at least a certificate.

We need to keep administration costs down so that the competition can remain FREE to kids and teens.

So, unfortunately, due to the large number of entries we receive, we are no longer able to provide personalised certificates.

 We are also unable to provide individual feedback.

ADULT WINNERS  – Winners in the adult category will receive a five page manuscript assessment and a free online writing course.

The courses have six sessions for you to read and complete, and you will receive individual feedback on your work. You can find out more about them here: http://writingclassesforkids.com/products/writing-classes/

Entry into the adult writing competition is $10 to cover the administration costs. Payments can be made online through PayPal here http://writingclassesforkids.com/products/

FORMAT

Please make sure your entries are formatted correctly:

  1. Your entry must be no longer than 500 words.
  2. Your story should be double-spaced, Times New Roman font or similar, 12 point font.
  3. Your entry must be submitted as a WORD document attachment or pasted into the body of your email.
  4. The subject line of your email MUST have the following information: Your name, the age group you are entering, the name of your story and the name of the competition you are entering.
  5. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY BY EMAIL to Dee*at*deescribe*dot*com*dot*au
  6. Limited to ONE entry per person.

COMPETITION DEADLINE

Entries must be received in the correct format by 30 November.

Entries are welcomed from anywhere in the world as long as they are in English.

Please note that the judges decision is FINAL and no correspondence will be entered into.

More information can be found at the Competition FAQ page http://writingclassesforkids.com/competition-faq/

We look forward to receiving your entries.

Happy writing:)

Dee

 

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WRITING TIPS – HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR STORIES

July 31, 2013 by

We had so many great entries in the last competition.

Unfortunately, due to the large number, we can’t provide individual feedback or post the stories online.

But to help writers, I’ve written these tips.

They are based on some of things that could have been stronger in the stories we received.

I hope you find them helpful.

WRITING TIPS

Main Characters – Introduce main character and focus on them – don’t get sidetracked by other characters.

You don’t need to describe how characters look unless the way they look has something to do with the story. For example in the 101 Dalmations, the dogs were dognapped because of the way they looked.

Repeat Information – Try not to tell things and then show the same thing. For example, “The man rushed up to me angrily.”

“I’m going to get you for that.” He rushed up and shook his fist at me.

You don’t need the first line because from the man’s actions, the reader can tell that he is angry.

Another example would be something like, The teacher told us he was going to give us homework for the weekend.

“We haven’t done enough in class,” he said. “I’m going to have to give you homework to do on the weekend.”

Here again, you don’t need the first line because the second line says it all.

Get straight to the action – If someone has had an accident, you don’t need to say how your main character found out about the accident and how they travelled to the hospital to see them.

Start the story with them at the bedside of the person who has been in the accident or show them being a witness to it and responding to what’s happening.

Smooth writing between scenes – Make time transitions smooth. If something bad happened and the next scene is a few weeks, months or years later, you need to give the reader some idea of what happened to the character in that space of time.

For example, if the main character was orphaned, where are they now living?

You don’t have to give too much detail, but you need to set the scene for the reader so that they know what has changed for the character as a result of being orphaned.

Story problems – It’s good to have a lot of action and mystery, but you need to establish a story problem for your character that has to be hinted at right from the start of their story.

What does your character want or need? What problems does this want or need cause? What is stopping the character from getting what they want or need?

If you have a particular writing question, feel free to ask it in the comments section of this post

Happy writing:)

Dee

Our new competition opens tomorrow August 1. Good luck:)

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