In the Communal Changing Room

How quickly this year is speeding by. Almost half over already and, more importantly, only a few days left to craft your entries to the Hysteria Writing Competition. So, time now to lift those stories and poems from their dark and snug hidey holes and to actually dispatch them. Of course, you will give them a couple of final read-throughs before pressing the ‘send’ button, won’t you?

Is it worth it?

In a nutshell – yes.

Oh, you won’t get rich, although that publishing contract could make you the next Agatha Christie or Simon Armitage, but there is an amazing sense of satisfaction from just pressing that ‘send’ button. It’s a well-deserved feeling too, for what you have just done takes courage and commitment. Both worthy of a medal.

Courage takes many forms, and I always think that entering a writing competition is rather like stripping off in a communal changing room. There is nowhere to hide, and you are at your most vulnerable. Very few of us have that ‘perfect ten’ Bo Derek figure (Remember her? Ever even HEARD of her? 1979 film with Dudley Moore. Almost ancient history now!) Normally, we disguise our imperfections as best we can and hope for the best. In a writing competition though, we put our writing/body, warts and all, under a microscope and invite strangers – strangers! – to examine it in forensic detail.

Wow!

So, how can you ensure that YOUR piece catches the eyes of the readers/judges and stands up to scrutiny?

Final Considerations

• Have you been original?
• Have you given a new slant to a much-used topic?
• Have you tried out a variety of forms and voices?
• Have you obeyed the dreaded rules?
• Have you filleted your work – removed unnecessary words, cliches, boring verbs, strings of adjectives?
• Have you let someone else proofread your work so that typos, spelling mistakes, punctuation errors etc are pointed out to you?

All those boxes ticked?

Then give the Hysteria Readers the pleasure of reading your work.

Being a reader is a joy, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. There are so many ‘Now, why didn’t I think of that’ moments. So many moments when you gasp aloud or think, ‘I’ve just got to read that again – NOW!

 Sometimes a piece is totally surreal, and I marvel at the imagination that has created such a left-field world. Other pieces take the most mundane of subjects and make them so riveting that I never view the object or situation in the same way again. Pieces can make me well up with tears, chuckle aloud, or cry out, ‘YES!’ in whole-hearted agreement. (Or the opposite!)

What reaction will you aim for?

You have only a few days left to make your decision so ‘screw your courage to the sticking place,’ (Thank you Mr Shakespeare) and get writing.

What goes on – or off – in the changing room, stays in the changing room. Be brave. Enter the 2025 Hysteria Writing Competition NOW.

Gillian Scholey

(Image: Image by b0red from Pixabay)