Ben, Wonderstarr, Scrawny, Dang and others might be interested in the above competiton. I know it's the Daily Fail and everything, but as it's just the price of postage (and printer ink I suppose) it might be worth a punt. So! there you go. Feel free to use this thread to post up any other avenues that laughably optimistic creative types might be tempted to pursue.
-------------------- Now that you've called me by name? Posts: 2007
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Lee Child is a judge. Must re-write first draft to include short sentences of no more than 8 words. Luagh long and hard for ten minutes. Six four and two fifteen pounds. Drink coffee in take away etc.
I must say that I might go for this - what the heck!
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66 days (time remaining minus a few days for posting it on the Friday to arrive on the closing date of Monday July 2nd) to rite a novle?
80k / 66 = just over 1200 words per day.
This is apparently Wonderstarr's workrate, but it's about twice mine so I'd have to really get a spurt on or (maybe!) repurpose a load of existing material.
It certainly tempting - so thanks for recommending this, Thorn. I would urge you to submit something of your own which, as you've completed at least one novel, at least gives you something to re-work in the next couple of months.
The best thing to do, of course, would be to win the competition then - at the big party they threw - publicly tear up the cheque for 30k in protest at the Daily Mail's bigoted editorial line.
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quote:Originally posted by ben: I would urge you to submit something of your own which, as you've completed at least one novel, at least gives you something to re-work in the next couple of months.
Yeah, I was planning to chuck one into the pot, especially as it's kind of a fast moving spare prose, adjective-free story driven thriller type thing which mostly adheres to the kind of style set out in Lee Child's thrillers. Nothing to lose except self-esteem; hope; dignity.
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A lot of 'serious' authors cut their teeth on writing competitions - can't imagine they were able to be too fussy about only going with ideologically unimpeachable sponsors. Aside from anything else, authors generally have to make ends meet through a variety of degrading (columns in the Evening Standard) or debauched (running 'creative writing' MAs) means so entering a competition hardly scores too badly on the soul-selling scale.
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During my endless daydreams about being a famous author/popstar/film director etc I have always told myself that I will never, ever accept any stupid awards. Not even the Nobel Prize. The flaw in this plan is that I can never enter competitions for new writers/popstars/film directors, as winning would immediately break my pledge.
It's a shame really as I'd be pretty much a dead cert if I did enter. *sobs at injustice*Posts: 8467
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2 thousand words a day - like an essay a day really, and not even a really good one at that!
I'm going to enter this and then use the prize money if I win to sponsor and african childe, or pay for a polish company to relocate to middle england.
Or put a dent in my debts. either or...
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I too sometimes think of writing a story, but I still don't think I've got to a point where I can. Occasionally an idea will excite me, but they're not usually any good, and are often borne out of a single, practical frustration. When I move beyond that point, the idea becomes ridiculous. I'm hoping that twenty years down the line, things will have come together enough to be able to write something worth reading.
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I don't know - I'm getting quite excited now. I'd been stuck in a rut with my current project, so going back over what's already written, hacking it down by a third then motoring through to the conclusion might be exactly what the doctor ordered. I tend to make pretty heavy weather of my writing so a tight deadline might just force me to get to the point a bit faster.
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What the fuck is up with Daily mail readers 'non-resident in The UK'? They bitch and whinge about a perceived lack of patriotism then fuck off themselves to the Costa del Sol - no doubt to spent the rest of their years crowing about how 'Britain's going to the dogs' while never making any contact with anyone who isn't a puce ex-pat like themselves.
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That's fucking tough. I'm on 46,500 words and was planning to do the next 30k in July, then the last 10,000 some time in Autumn. If the deadline was 1 Oct or something, I'd definitely go for it.
-------------------- pudgy little saucepot Posts: 738
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quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Although I do have other novels "in the drawer" of course... not that I consider them as much cop as my current work.
It says you can make as many submissions as you like, so it would seem to me that it was worth hurling everything had at the thing. I know what you mean about how finished stuff tends to diminish in comparison to the exciting project you're currently working on, but I think you can get to a point where you can't accurately judge something that's sat with you for a few years, that you've worked on for ages, slogged around agencies and gradually grown disillusioned with. It won't carry all that baggage for someone who's seeing it for the first time.
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I've decided I'm going to have another crack at writing. I'm going to write a schlocky horror novel. Set in London in the Fifties. With monsters. And poison and brass knuckles and motorbikes.
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I wrote the first chapter in my head last night as I couldn't get to sleep - it was really good. Maybe they'll just give me the money if I tell them that?
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Obviously the deadline for that Daily Mail comp is pretty near, and it's a bit late for anyone who hasn't finished anything wrap it up, but this MacMillan New Writing initiative is an ongoing thing aimed at publishing new writers and might be of some interest to some people on here.
-------------------- Now that you've called me by name? Posts: 2007
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Well, as you can see from the results it looks like the TMO manuscripts must have gotten lost in the post or something because no-one's on that list. I definitely put the right postage on my envelope, so I'm not sure what happened there. So! There we have it. There's extracts from each of the six finalists, that you can have a read of and have a think about how they're in contest for a substantial prize of 30k and a publishing deal and that these are apparently the six best unpublished writers in the UK. Obviously there may be some temptation to mock the finalists, but each of those entries has been judged by a panel of experts to be better than mine. But I'm fine with it, really. I'll leave you to it
Goes outside, rips shirt off, collapses in gutter screaming in misery.
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quote: The idea came right out of the blue; it was a revelation.' Next stop in his peripatetic life was Beamish, a Northumbrian forest, where he lived in a caravan with his partner and son, Jack.
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I finished writing my last novel in August so I expect it was too late. Now it can just fail in a longer-term, more drawn-out way, instead of simply not winning a competition.
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