This was the big one for me. I set myself the huge goal of coming up with a story to send to this creme dela creme of writing competitions. I know I have no hope of winning it: I just needed to meet this goal as a way of advancing my writing and improving my style. At least it will get read!

The hardest things I had to overcome were:

1.  finding a story line;
2. writing for adults, not children - I couldn’t handle having no young characters at all, so stuck one in as a minor character; and
3. meeting the max word length of 5,000 words.

After a lot of sleepless nights, tormenting myself over the plot, squeezing myself into my characters’ minds, I finally got there!

So it’s done, ready to go, and I’m happy with it. I’ll do the right thing and sit on it for a week, as all writers should, because then any glaring errors will jump out.

I’ve set myself many writing goals, including entering competitions, and this has vastly improved my writing techniques for one, and my ability to churn out more and more. I would recommend making a weekly list of goals - realistic ones of course - as a way of advancing your own writing.

At least I’m adding to my list of short stories that I can send out to other competitions. This, in itself, is reward enough.   

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