Back in April, I entered the Peter Cowan Writer’s Centre annual story competition. The genre was narrative fiction, which is not a strength of mine at this point. But I entered to give myself the experience of writing to set guidelines and to get used to the idea that people would read and assess my story.
The minimum entry was one story, but the only upper limit was only how much you were willing to spend on entry fees. When I entered, I thought each story would receive feedback, so I wrote four separate stories. The cost of $40 to enter ($10 per story) seemed reasonable, given that I would grow from any comments the judges gave me.
On the day of submission, I found out that only the winning story receives feedback, but by then, I had already written the four stories. I decided to enter them all regardless. If the winning story gets feedback, I can use that to see what the judge liked and work out what was missing from my stories.
There were several categories for submission. I’m too old for the Juniors and too young for the Seniors, so my options were Open Adult and Novice. The novice category applies to anyone who has never won or placed in a writing competition. That’s absolutely me, so I chose that category. At the time, I figured it was the right place for newbies on the writing scene. Only after I submitted my work did I realise that’s anyone who has never won a competition for their writing. Given that only one person can win each category (with a second-place getter), that’s potentially a lot of people!
I never entered to win. But still, I find myself hoping a tiny little bit that maybe I’ll do well enough to get second place. I know I probably won’t because reading my stories after submitting them showed me some areas I could have tightened. However, on the night, I’d read them so many times that I couldn’t see anything besides what I had already composed. That is all part of the game, though, and it’s something I’ll get used to the more I write.
For now, I’m happy that I entered. And yet, I wait for news! The only timeframe we were given was ‘around the middle of May’. There’s only one judge, and they have a lot of stories to read in a number of categories. I genuinely do not expect to win, and I’m prepared not to get a mention, but that little bubble of excitement that maybe, just maybe, there weren’t many entrants this year and mine is the best offering, or runner up, refuses to settle. I’m pretty sure that’s called Hope, and hope is a wonderful thing, even when it distracts me more and more often the closer we get to the announcement time frame.
If the winners already know they’ve won, then it isn’t me. The only communication I received was about a week ago, to tell me my story was in front of the judge. It was a group email that everyone in the novice category would have gotten. It advised that winners will be announced on the website. I have looked a few times, and there is nothing under the dropdown for Competition Winners for 2023. It also isn’t the middle of May yet, so that’s to be expected.
If I don’t win, I will survive. Winning wasn’t my motivation. I have not read any of the stories that have won in previous years – mostly because I didn’t realise there was a ‘winners’ dropdown that would have shown them to me! I’m also sure I’ve made plenty of rookie writer errors. But… I still wait, and I still hope.
A Glorious Mess 