While we’re waiting for the final word from the judges, I thought it might be worthwhile sharing a few thoughts with you on my overall reaction.
* Remember this is a short STORY contest. While the plotline doesn’t have to be vast or grandiose – better not, in fact – some entries were really very thin on narrative.
* Working within such a tight word count imposes plenty of (for the most part) good disciplines. There’s obviously a heightened temptation to do a lot of “telling†to get the reader up to speed on the scene, the characters, the background, etc. Telling is always bad news (see my previous rants on this). With some entries, close to 40% of the story’s bulk was little more than briefing. Kiss of death!
* Again, in such a compact medium as this, you really do have to (artfully) cover the basics – who, what, why, when, where – upfront. If we reach the end of the story and you’re still scattering establishing detail, you’ve lost us. Get down to it immediately!
* It would have been nice to see more personal, idiosyncratic styles developed. You really can push the limit with a short story, far more so than with a 100,000 word manuscript.
* Remember that the disciplines you’ve been practising in this contest are the very same ones you need to manifest in the first few pages of a larger novel. Maximum meaning from minimum words… it’s the best way to make your manuscript hit the ground running.
