It's exciting for me to have done well in this competition because my story was the first complete bit of fiction I've managed to write since my baby was born in March. I've been working on a novel for the last couple of months but feeling a bit disheartened about how long it's going to take me even to write a first draft during Digory's morning nap! I needed a very short challenge to inspire me but not distract me for too long.
When I heard about Mere's flash competition I knew I wanted to enter. I love to enter themed competitions as I enjoy knowing that we are all trying to think of a unique interpretation of the same thing. Mere was not only themed but it was timed - something much more unusual. The phrase we all had to include in our work ("the end of the line") was revealed on Thursday 25th September and entries had to arrive by post no later than Friday 3rd October - giving everybody one week to write their 350-word piece. As it happened, I was away on a long weekend that week and Mondays are always frantic, so I didn't find out what the phrase was until Monday evening. This meant I wrote my draft on Tuesday, edited on Wednesday morning and posted on Wednesday afternoon! Not ideal for a competition entry but I was so elated to have finished a bit of fiction at last, I didn't care!
You can find out whot he winners were here. The winning stories and judges report will be available soon.
Congratulations, Chloe - both on finding time to write to write the story and for the High Commendation!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of the Mere festival before, but it sounds like a good competition. I like that they don't reveal the story titles in case you want to keep your story anonymous - that shows a consideration for writers that can be lacking in much larger contests.
I think it would be right up your street, Dan. You should look out for next year. You could do well in it, I'm sure. And yes, I thought it was really good of them to preserve anonymity like that - a rare courtesy!
DeleteCongratulations. How satisfying that must feel, especially since you had such little time to work in. I didn't know about that competition before. I'll watch for it in the future.
ReplyDeleteThank-you. It is satisfying! It has given me a new enthusiasm for writing again :)
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