Tell it in 100 words

Novelist Jeffrey Archer, who has sold about 300 million books worldwide, has set a writing competition to encourage budding writers.

The winner will receive £250 in book tokens and the top ten best entries will be published in The Mail on Sunday.

Flash fiction writers, give it a go!

Make every one of your 100 words count.

100 words excluding title.

Send your entry to shortstory@mailonsunday.co.uk.

Deadline midnight 17 November.

Here’s Lord Archer’s 100-word short story:

‘Unique’

Paris, March 14^th, 1921. The collector relit his cigar, picked up the magnifying glass and studied the triangular 1874 Cape of Good Hope.

‘I did warn you there were two,’ said the dealer, ‘so yours is not unique.’

‘How much?’

‘The thousand francs.’

The collector wrote out a cheque, before taking a puff on his cigar, but it was no longer alight. He picked up a match, struck it, and set light to the stamp.

The dealer stared in disbelief as the stamp went up in smoke.

The collector smiled. ‘You were wrong, my friend,’ he said, ‘mine is unique.’

                                                               image - public domain

Good luck!

Writing – competition – short story – Inktears

Short story 1,000 to 3,500 words

Deadline is 30 November 2016

Any theme.

Prizes

There are six prizes which will be awarded by the InkTears judging panel:

    Winner: £1,000

    Runner-up: £100

    4x Highly Commended: £25

Entry fee - £7.50

This is of interest indeed: Story may have been previously published in a magazine or online, providing the author still owns the copyright and there is no exclusivity with the prior publication. Alternatively, the story may be as yet unpublished.

Open to non-UK based writers.

Entrants must be a minimum of 18 years old.

Winning entrants agree to have their story published by InkTears in both electronic and paper format. Authors will retain worldwide copyright on their work with InkTears having publication rights. 

Full rules and submission portal can be found here

Writing – Competition – Short story – Artificium

Short story competition run by Artificium, the Journal of New Writing

Deadline – 28 November 2016

Length – 2,000-8,000 words

Any genre, style or theme

Prize - £300 plus minimum of £100 divided between first 4 runners up

Entry fee - £5 (£9 for two)

Full details from:

http://www.artificium.co.uk/competition---artificium

Good luck!

Writing - Competition - The H.E. Bates Short Story Competition

This competition was inspired by the Northampton-born master of short stories, H.E.Bates, and was first launched in 2005, his centennial year. It’s run by the Northampton Writers Group; for full website details, see here

Deadline - Monday 5th December 2016

Subject - of your choice.

Open to all writers.

Length - no longer than 2000 words.

*   1st Prize £500

*   2nd Prize £100

*   3rd Prize £50

Entry fee - £6 for the first story submitted. (It is reduced to £10 for any entry of 2 stories. Further stories have a fee of £5 each.) You can submit as many stories as you wish, providing they have not been previously published or have been prize-winning entries in another competition.

Judging panel - members of the Northampton Writers Group. The Head Judge is Maggie Allen, author and professional ghost-writer.

Postal entry: Send your story or stories (typed please) with a first sheet giving your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and title of story or stories to H.E.Bates Competition, 19 Kingswell Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN2 6QB. Please mark the envelope "f.a.o. Nick Hamlyn". Include a postal order or cheque (made out to N.Hamlyn).

E-mail entry: e-mail your story in Word format, complete with a first page as described above, to hebatescomp@gmail.com and pay by PayPal; you will be invoiced on receipt of your entry.

Good luck!

#Writing - Spine-chilling fiction writing competition

Spine-chilling fiction writing competition 

http://creativecompetitor.com/creative-writing-competitions/creative-writing-competitions-2016/haunted-writing-competition/

Length - maximum 1,000 words (including title)

1st Prize: £500

2nd Prize: £300

3rd Prize: £200

4th Prize: £100

Closing date: 31 October 2016

 (plenty of time!)

Entry fee: £3.50 

[Payment must be made via PayPal.]

Do you love writing spine-tingling fiction and have a fascination for horror stories? If so, enter this new writing competition from the Creative Competitor. You can use the above photo for inspiration but they welcome imaginative interpretations of the theme. They recommend that 'to be in with a chance of winning, make sure you have a strong opening and you hold our attention throughout.'

Your story must be unique and previously unpublished.

You must be aged 18 or over

Open to writers worldwide

You may include reference to the above photo

You may enter multiple submissions providing the correct fees are paid

You must enter on or before the closing date

Submissions must be pasted into the body of the email (unless otherwise specified) and sent to: info@creative-competitor.co.uk

Please mark the email subject line with the name of the competition i.e. Spine-chilling Fiction Writing Competition 

Good luck!

Writing - Open competition - short story

Southport Writers' Circle Open Short Story Competition

Deadline - 31 October

Length - up to 2,000 words

Any theme or genre

Prizes - £150, £75, £25

Entry fee - £3 (or £10 for four!)

Online or postal entry. Plenty of time!

See full rules here

The judge is Robert Scott-Norton, a successful indie author "famed for his ongoing intricate sci-fi series ‘The Tombs Legacy’". He's looking forward to reading entries other than sci-fi, of course... Check his books on Amazon - he likes to get straight into the action, it seems.

Good luck!

Writing – Open Competition – Short stories, poetry, novella

The National Association of Writers’ Groups is holding its 2016 writing competition.

Deadline:

31 October (plenty of time, you can enter online as well as by post)

Categories:

Short story – 500-2,000 words

Poetry – up to 40 lines

Novella – 5,000 words plus 1-page synopsis

Prizes:

Short story - £250, £100, £50

Poetry - £250, £100, £50

Novella - £300, £200, £100 to spend on book printing (see website)

Fees:

Short story - £5 for a single entry

Poetry - £5 for a single entry; £10 for 3 poems

Novella - £10

Full details:

From their website here

http://www.nawg.co.uk/4813/