Writing Incentives

 Writing Competitions

 Competitions often make great writing incentives, especially when the entry fee is low and the prize money is relatively high. Add the bonus of publication and you have an ideal scenario.

Eclat Fiction is seeking short story submissions of under 1500 words  for its second edition.to be published on March 1. Three top prizewinners plus five runner up entries will be published. The prizes are a generous £100 for first, £50 for second and £20 for third.

The entry fee is a donation via Paypal and it is left to the author to decide what to donate. Be careful to read the guidelines carefully.  The deadline is midnight on February 6 but if you are in USA or Canada, remember to check the difference in time zones. To be safe, send your email with story attached as a word.doc by December 5 at the latest.


You can find the first edition of Eclat Fiction on the site. It's free to read so you can get a fair idea of the standard and what the editor is looking for. There is no set theme but children's fiction and non-fiction are not accepted.


An extensive list of short story competitions including those for flash fiction and children's stories can be found on the Writers Reign website. Note that the closing date for the Twisted Americana competition is now March 12.  But be warned. They are looking for dark, very dark, crime fiction.The clue lies in the title.


Overcome fear of submissions

The only sure way of being published is to submit your work. Seems obvious--but for many of us the submissions process can be too high a hurdle.

For this reason I heartily recommend  Pub Sub 3rd Friday
the brainwave of author and illustrator Joan Y Edwards.

Her point is simple. The more you submit, the more likely are your chances of being published.

It's certainly worth a try.

 Slow writers


And just to cheer up those of us with the everlasting Work In Progress:


Novelist William H. Gass took nearly thirty years to complete his acclaimed novel The Tunnel.

And Californian novelist Thomas Sanchez  has taken nearly a decade to write several of his books.


One of my favourite books is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  another wonderful novel which took years to write. Sadly the author, Mary Ann Shaffer died before it was finally published and the novel, a best seller, was in the end completed by her niece Annie Barrows, herself an author.