Keeping Tabs on Competitions and Entries
How do you keep tabs on both the writing competitions coming up, and those you’ve already entered? I have my own methods of dealing with both, which I find very useful.
For the competitions I might want to enter, I buy a cheap paper month-to-a-page calendar on which I write just the competition name. At a glance I can see what’s coming up, and when I might want to put some time aside to enter something.
For the competitions I’ve entered, I keep an Excel spreadsheet. On this I have ten columns which I label:
Date of entry / Title of story / Competition name / Theme / Word limit / Closing date / Number of words on my entry / Result / Website Address / Other Information
The information is entered in black. Entries that are not successful are changed to red. Those that are successful I make blue. I hope this, or your own adaptation, might work for you too.
Here’s hoping for more blue entries than red for you in 2019. Good luck!
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Rolling competitions:
Writers’ Forum Short Story Competition
Theme: Open. 1,000 to 3,000 words
Prize: £300 / £150 / £100
Closing date: Rolling
Entry: £3 subscriber / £6 non
Flash 500 Fiction Competition
Theme: Open, 500 words max
Prize: £300 / £200 / £100
Closing date: Next deadline 31 March 2019
Entry: £5 / £8 for 2
Closing soon:
International Sci Fi / Fantasy Short Story Competition
Theme: 1,200 – 7,500 words
Prize: $75 / $50 / $25
Closing date: 7 February 2019
Entry: $4
ChipLitFest Short Story Competition
Theme: Open, up to 2,000 or up to 5,000 words
Prize: £500 / £100 / £50
Closing date: 7 February 2019
Entry: £5 or £8
The Sunday Times Short Story Award
Theme: Open, up to 6,000 words, unpublished, or published before 1 January 2018
Prize: £30,000 / 5 x £5,000
Closing date: 15 February 2019
Entry: Free
The Scottish Arts Short Story Competition
Theme: Open, up to 2,000 words
Prize: £1,000 / £500 / £250
Closing date: 28 February 2019
Entry: £10
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March competitions:
The BBC National Short Story Award
Theme: Open, up to 8,000 words
Prize: £15,000 / 4 x £600
Closing date: 9am on 11 March 2019
Entry: Free
Writing Magazine Short Story Competition
Theme: Character driven story, 1,500 – 1,700 words
Prize: £200 / £50
Closing date: 15 March 2019
Entry: £4 (subscribers) £6 (non subscribers)
Harpers Bazaar Short Story Competition
Theme: “Liberty”, up to 2,000 words
Prize: Two night stay at Brownber Hall, Yorkshire
Closing date: 15 March 2019
Entry: Free
Limnisa Short Story Competition
Theme: Story inspired by “You’re Next” photo, up to 1,500 words
Prize: Writer’s retreat in Greece
Closing date: 30 March 2019
Entry: Free
The Henshaw Short Story Competition
Theme: Open, up to 2,000 words
Prize: £200 / £75 / £25
Closing date: 31 March 2019
Entry: £6
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April competitions:
ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Theme: Open, 2,000 to 5,000 words
Prize: $5,000 / $3,000 / $2,000 / 3 commended to share $2,500
Closing date: 15 April 2019
Entry: $25 (non subscriber), $15 (subscriber or student)
Shooter Short Story Competition
Theme: Open, up to 5,000 words
Prize: £500
Closing date: 21 April 2019
Entry: £7 / £10 for 2
Swanwick Writing for Children Competition
Theme: Up to 1,000 words
Prize: Fully inclusive week at 2019 Swanwick Summer School
Closing date: 30 April 2019
Entry: £6
Swanwick Short Story Competition
Theme: Open, up to 1,000 words
Prize: Fully inclusive week at 2019 Swanwick Summer School
Closing date: 30 April 2019
Entry: £6
Tom Howard / John H Reid Fiction and Essay Contest
Theme: Open, up to 6,000 words
Prize: $2,000 / 10 x $100
Closing date: 30 April 2019
Entry: $20
Bristol Short Story Prize
Theme: Open, up to 4,000 words
Prize: £1,000 / £500 / £250 / 17 x £100
Closing date: 1 May 2019
Entry: £9
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Francesca Capaldi Burgess has been placed or shortlisted in a number of competitions including Winchester Writers’ Conference, Twyford Writers, Chorley & District Writer’s Circle, Retreat West, Cordelia.net, Meridian Writing, Flash a Famous Phrase, Wells Festival, and Writing Magazine. She’s had stories and a serial published in magazines worldwide. Her first book, Danger for Daisy, was published by My Weekly Pocket Novels at the end of 2018. Apart from the RNA, she’s also a member of the Society for Women Writers and Journalists. Francesca runs a writing blog along with RNA member Elaine Roberts called Write Minds.
