It’s been about a year since we first started writing short stories. Following our recent contest win, we thought we’d note down some of the things we’ve learnt.
Writing contests are a great way to improve your writing, giving you clear deadlines, themes and motivation to pick up a pen, and send your finished piece out into the world.
We’ve entered several writing contests over the past year. Some we’ve had success with, others not so much. But with every entry, we’ve picked up tips and ideas to help us improve both our writing process, and our finished stories.
Here’s a few of the key things we’ve learnt so far…
Brainstorm—but not for too long!
Before you begin writing, you’ll need a solid idea. As we write collaboratively, we bounce ideas off each other via WhatsApp, or over Zoom.
If you’re entering a competition, you’ll probably be given a theme. Use this as a starting point, but let your imagination run wild. Sit down with a pen and paper, and jot down any ideas that come into your head. That said, you’re on a tight deadline. Don’t let yourself become overwhelmed. Don’t stop at your first idea, but also don’t spend hours stewing over endless possibilities.
For our most recent story, Between the Hush of Leaves, we started with the theme of ‘a sudden or unexpected loss’. We bounced broad ideas between us—what could you lose? Memories, status, your home, your health… Then Rose mentioned that our parents had recently lost access to the woodland in their village. We started thinking about the importance of place, and what the loss of place feels like.
Keep it character focussed
This is something we’ve really learnt the importance of over the last year. Without characters that go on a journey your reader cares about, you don’t have a story. Any time we’ve struggled to pull a story together, it’s been because we lost sight of the characters at the heart of it.
So, as early as possible, you need to start thinking about who the events in your story will affect, and how it will change them. With only 48 hours to write, you’ll need to keep it simple. This isn’t the time to write a multi-generational family saga.
Review your initial ideas, and try to think about the characters at the heart of the stories. Which one grabs you?
For our story, we thought about what it would be like to lose not only access to a place, but also your health and independence too. We thought about what it would be like to lose that suddenly, rather than gradually. We decided to write the story about an elderly lady, who is able to experience the freedom of youth via a portal that leads to a magical woodland. What would it be like if she suddenly lost that physical freedom, and a place that was special to her?
PLAN both your writing and your time
We don’t mean you need a point-by-point plan of what your story will cover. But with such a tight deadline you will need some idea of where your story is going, or you’re going to struggle to write an ending.
You also need to think about your other commitments over the next 48 hours. Are you going out for the day? Perhaps you have errands to run or you’re meeting friends for lunch. Even if you have no plans, you’ll still need time to eat and sleep! Realistically, your actual writing time is likely to be much less than 48 hours. Factor this into your plan.
When we approach a challenge like this, we have a quick meeting beforehand to work out how our schedules line up. If Rose is busy the first day, Alice will work on the first draft and Rose will polish it the following day. We’ve often ended up editing stories while on a train, or trading notes over WhatsApp.
Keep it simple
You have 48 hours—generally, you need to keep your plot simple and the length relatively short. Otherwise, you’re not going to have time to finish AND edit it. If you feel your story is growing unnecessary legs, take a step back, try to summarise the story you’re telling in a sentence, to figure out where you’ve gone astray. Some ideas are just too big to tell in a short story, so be wary of picking an idea that’s actually better suited to a novel.
Keep going, even if you get stuck
You may well hit a wall. Don’t worry—it happens to everyone. Take a break. Go for a walk. Then come back to it. One of Rose’s favourite cures for writer’s block is to simply take a shower. Something about leaving your laptop behind and standing beneath the warmth of hot water, staring at blank tiles, does wonders for unlocking your brain. You’ll likely have a moment of genius mid-shampoo that solves a problem you’ve struggled with for hours.
Accept it might not be perfect
With only 48 hours, your initial goal should be to complete the story. Don’t spend hours agonising over making one sentence perfect—or one sentence is all you’ll have to submit.
Build in editing and reviewing time
This is so important. If possible, it’s always a good idea to get a friend or family member to look over your story. If that’s not possible, then you’ll need to be your own editor. Take a break, come back to your story with fresh eyes. You’ll be surprised how many mistakes you’ll spot.
Collaboration—a help or a hindrance?
For competitions with a tight deadline writing collaboratively is both a help and a hindrance. Yes, it means that if one of us is out for the day the other can pick up the slack. And it means we have a built-in ‘fresh pair of eyes’ for editing. But it also makes it harder to take advantage of spontaneous ideas. The editing and planning process can also take much longer, as we both have to agree!
Rosalyn Robilliard 