UNREAL COMPETITION – JUDGES REPORT
I’ve had a fantastic response to the ‘Unreal’ Writing Competition with around 600 entries received.
It was so inspiring to see so much enthusiasm and great work from young writers.
I came across some very strong writing voices, and there were some great characters and story ideas.
Some people submitted a whole story, some submitted part of a story and some submitted the first part of a novel. I received a lot of science fiction and space travel stories this time.
We had entries from China, Singapore, India, UK, USA, Turkey, Ukraine, The Maldives, Japan, New Zealand, Greece and Australia.
It’s always hard for writers to find the balance between giving reader too much information and not enough. And this is something that some writers can work on with their stories. Try to show action rather than have a character talking about what happened. Also, you need to give the reader enough information so that they know what is going on in your story.
STORY LENGTH – DON’T GO OVER WORD LIMITS
Some stories didn’t score as well as they might have because they didn’t stick to the word limit. The word limit for this competition was 500 words, but some entries were more than twice that length. It’s okay to go a few words over the word limit, but you need to try and stick to it as closely as you can. If your story is too long, look for words that don’t need to be there.
I accepted all stories, even those that were too long, but some judges and publishers won’t even read your story if it exceeds the word limit.
FORMATTING
There were a lot of problems with formatting. Again, some publishers and competitions will reject your submissions if they are not formatted correctly – so this is a really good skill to practice.
Always follow competition guidelines.
THE WINNERS
With so many high quality entries, judging was very difficult. The winners I selected had great stories and characters, and action and tension that made me want to keep reading.
Congratulations to all our worthy winners.
First Place winners will all receive a free online writing course of their choice.
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/
CERTIFICATES
Certificates have been awarded for Highly Commended, Commended and Great Participation.
Unfortunately, due to the huge number of entries I’m unable to provide personalised certificates but there is room on the certificate for you to insert your name. Certificates will be emailed to you over the next week.
Our First Place winners were:
AGE CATEGORY | NAME OF WRITER | NAME OF STORY |
8-10 year olds | Gemma Lovewell | Why Ants Invade Houses |
11-12 year olds | Taylor Bird | The World of Bouncyrinas |
teen writers | Samuel Chang | Leeches and Sheers |
The Short List
There were around 600 entries across the three age groups.
I chose the winners from a very impressive shortlist of contestants.
Shortlisted Writers 8-10 years
WRITER | STORY NAME |
Alexandra Champion | Ice Cream Indecision |
Asli Aydin | The World of Fabricated Children |
Bella Edwards | The One Who Did Not Die |
Ella Litt | Magic Powers |
Esther Choi | The Mysterious Forest |
Gemma Lovewell | Why Ants Invade Houses |
Harper Barton | The Octopuses Adventure |
Hugo Xiao | The Lost Kingdom |
Kellen South | The Loss of Gravity |
Lynnette Kim | The Spider and Me |
Saanvi Venkataraman | Kheera and the Hermit |
Serena Li | The Other Night I Saw A Dragon |
Shortlisted Writers 11-12 years
WRITER | STORY NAME |
Alex Kovacs | Apocalypse |
Althea Lampaya | Friendly Moustache |
Angela Dong | Masked |
April Hill | Seeing Dead |
Beth Lim | To Call A Rose |
Caitlin Tan | The Snowglobe |
Ceri Jones | Secrets |
David Wilkie | Illusion |
Deniz Yilmaz | Hope |
Elizabeth Parker | Mary’s Curse |
Emma Johnson | The Day it Happened |
Eva Cotsell | Queen at 16 |
Finley Holt | The Dragon |
Grace Chae | The President’s Daughter |
Junu Choi | Antarctic Journey |
Keaton Smith | Refuge |
Laura Jones | Caught |
Lina Cho | Her |
Maeve O’Neill | Extra ordinary not Extraordinary |
Molly Glowacki | The Mission Contest |
Melissa Li | The Red Post Box |
Mollie Sandilands | Warped |
Nayun Eom | Let it Be |
Nithin Bala | The Man |
Poppy Hawkins | Nymphie |
Sage Monney | The Serpent’s Fang |
Tamarangi Keerthipala | That Breath |
Taylor Bird | The World of Bouncyrinas |
Tilly Munro Lawrence | Cold Steps |
Veon Chan | Something Strange in Creaksville |
Shortlisted Teen Writers
WRITER | STORY NAME |
Haruna Otake | “The Mysterious Skill” |
Kazuki Hayashi | “Strange Day” |
Alexis Navarroza | A Tread in the Shadows |
Amanda Gonzalez | Tree of Life |
Andre Ferreira | Blue, Grey and the End |
Ashley White | Dear Diary |
Deborah Jeong | Untold Story |
Ella Chochrek, | Otherworldly Creatures |
Ella Shields | The New Home Planet |
Erin Harvey | Reality Once More |
Fiona O’hagan | The Monster |
Genevieve Schloesser | A Hero’s Musing |
Gillian Goh | The Underground |
Jahanara Rajwani; | Adalhard |
Isabella Stines | A Dance of Death |
Jaime Roy | Adrenaline |
Katie O’Malley | Beneath the Blood |
Lauren Cook | Tick Tock Goes the Clock |
Lily Bao | One Cold Night |
Molly Wancewicz, | To See Saturn |
Niar | Chased through the night |
Ravneet Sandhu | The Crimson Succubi |
Samuel Chang | Leeches and Sheers |
Sheridan Burdon | The Innocent Prey |
Supriya Tyagi Sharma | Not Your Average Fairy Tale |
Tasha Nazrul | The Rainbow Road to Candyland |
This was the final competition for 2013. I will be running a new competition in May/June of next year so keep watching this blog for more information.
Thanks to everyone who entered this competition.
Keep writing:) I look forward to reading more of your stories.
Dee