For those of you who might be interested, here are my writing statistics from 2023. It was a bit brutal, especially at the start of the year, but it got a lot better!
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100 Short story submissions (plus 21 rolled over from last year)
1 Second Place
1 Third Place
1 Highly Commended
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I’ve been compiling my list of potential competition submissions for 2024, which I thought I’d share in case it’s useful to any other writers. This is not an exhaustive list, and I won’t enter all of them.
I always note the deadline, the competition name, a link to the website, followed by the entry fee, word count limit, and theme (if applicable). I’ve put question marks by any that don’t have the deadline dates confirmed and I’ll undoubtedly add a few more once they open for entries. Bear in mind that I write a lot of flash fiction, so many of them tend towards shorter word counts, but some of the competitions have different categories that you might like to check out – e.g. I’ve put Bridport Flash Fiction, but there are also prizes for short stories, poetry, novels etc.
Please read the guidelines for yourselves and follow the rules to the letter. I always check them nearer the time, too; something might have changed, or I might have made a mistake when I initially noted the competition!
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I’ve had some good news about one of my story submissions. I’m not allowed to share the details publicly yet (sorry!), but it was a lovely pick-me-up after a migraine day.
I’d submitted this story to competitions and publications seven times previously and received nothing but rejections.
I wrote it around the same time as four other pieces of flash fiction. One of them won 3rd Prize in the Flash 500 competition; one was shortlisted in Bridport; one was shortlisted in Mslexia; and the other was shortlisted in Fish Flash Fiction, longlisted in Mslexia, and longlisted in Retreat West Micro Fiction!
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Thursday 30.11.23
It’s been a couple of years since I wrote a day-in-the-life blog post (‘A Day in the Life #1: Workday’), so I thought it would be fun to do another. As I said in the last one, every day is different, and my productivity varies hugely depending on my energy levels/health. I was extra motivated and determined today, probably because I was writing about it. It went well until late afternoon and then I struggled with bad fatigue; that’s just how it goes sometimes.
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8:00 Normal morning routine: skincare, medication, coffee, dressed, and made up. Went for my usual fifteen-minute walk – frosty today! Listened to a voice note and responded.
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In yesterday’s post, I talked about how each story goes through several stages of being ‘handed over’ to different people. The more I thought about it, the more stages I realised there are, and the more resilience required to keep going.
Here’s an example. In 2019, I wrote a story called ‘She Went There for the Weekend’ as an assignment for my Creative Writing MA, which will be included in my short story collection, Something Very Human. These were all the times I handed it over:
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There, it’s done: I’ve handed over my short story collection to my Bridge House Publishing editor, Debz! It will go through two or three more edits and then proofreading.
I read the current draft one last time yesterday before sending it to her. It’s reached a point where any little flicker of objectivity I had remaining has disappeared. I’m interested to see what Debz makes of it and looking forward to her feedback.
I’m used to ‘handing over’ my work, but it still comes with a jolt of nerves, whether it be handing it over to editors, publishers, or readers. Each story gets handed over several times during the process. It’s unsurprising that this comes with so much anxiety for a lot of writers; you’re putting your creative heart on the line not just once but multiple times, even before it’s out in the world for public consumption. That’s a lot of potential rejection.
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Hannah Retallick: I Have an Idea... 