Birmingham Writers’ Group

Chorley & District Writers’ Circle launch their annual short story competition with prizes totalling £180.

The theme this year is a little bit different: ‘Chaos in Lancashire’. We are looking for a setting in or strong connection to any part of Lancashire.

Maximum word count is 2,000.

Closing date: 4 Oct 2015

Judge: Shortlist will be judged by the competition’s sponsors: editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback www.fictionfeedback.co.uk

Prizes: £100, £50 and £30

Entry fee: £5 for one story, £9 for two or £13 for three.

The three winning stories will be published in the Circle’s annual collection of writing, Aware. Shortlisted entrants’ names and story titles will be listed in Aware, and on the Circle’s website and Facebook page as well as on sponsor Fiction Feedback’s website. All rights remain with the author.

Submissions: can be made by email or post. Email: mail@chorleywriters.org.uk Post: Chorley & District Writers’ Circle, The Writing House, 3 Dale View, Chorley, Lancashire PR7 3QJ.

Please submit a separate cover page with your name, contact details including email and phone, story title(s) and first line(s). Please ensure the story manuscript itself does not feature your name. If emailing, please send the cover sheet and your story as two separate files attached to the same email.

Payment is by cheque to the above address or by PayPal. Please ensure you provide details to enable us to marry up your payment, however you make it, with your story submission.

We reserve the right to cancel the competition and refund entry fees if entries are insufficient to cover the prize fund.

See our website for more details including the PayPal button: www.chorleywriters.org.uk Any queries: dea@compedge.net

We hope you have fun writing a story with this intriguing theme.

People sometimes ask what criteria the stories are judged by. These are fairly equal considerations:

1)      Interpretation of theme

2)      Originality

3)      Quality of writing; narrative drive, pace and flow, characterisation, plot, technique

4)      Quality of prose; grammar, spelling and punctuation.

We hope that’s helpful and look forward to receiving your entry by October 4.