John S Alty

To be honest, Alan, that the very act of having written something complete enough to be able to send it out to comps is a success, so I’d start off by saying Congratulations on that massive success before worrying about the relatively small “failures” that followed.
That said… It’s far easier to say these things than do them/feel them. My…[Read more]

I am not sure what I feel about this. On the one hand, Alan, I don’t think you should term not getting long listed in four novel competitions a failure. (Actually I am impressed you managed to find four to enter – I never can find any that seem suitable.) We just don’t know enough about what the judges are looking for. And trying to second…[Read more]

@Raine Your view of semantics (and that of others) is a moot point. Is failure not trying, or not winning? I think I may be too inclined towards not winning, and some re-education is necessary.
When considering success and failure, I think it’s important not to forget why writers do write. Surely, all the various reasons can be summed-up as…[Read more]

The not-getting-shortlisted thing is tricky. I had one story that was shortlisted in a major competition. I worked on it a bit more and submitted it to a few other places…and was met with silence.

Oh, failure is hard! And so unavoidable. It’s a bit like the ‘slushpile’ term though isn’t it? Perhaps more negative than it needs to be for some of the things we are talking about. Things like not getting short listed in major comps, or not getting a story into a popular journal … are they really failure, or are they a lack of success? Maybe…[Read more]

I’m rather good at that too. Though how would I Know? In concrete terms I haven’t actually had any writing successes.

Thanks. I didn’t realise it was a group.

Go to ‘Groups’

Go to ‘A Room with a View’

Go to ‘Forum’

The different topics are all in the ‘A Room with a View’ group forum. You will find ‘Chit Chat’ and explanations of what the competition is there.

I’m trying to understand this, but it’s like ‘Mornington Crescent’.
All I understand is that it’s a short story competition.
Where are the rules? Where is this ‘chit chat’ – I looked in ‘Room with a view’, but got directed somewhere else.

Maybe it’s not for me because I don’t (as yet) write short stories.

Has the competition moved here from the word cloud. Do I need to sign again? Where is the group? Can you tell I’m confused?

A failure of mine is to take each failure to heart while not believing that successes are real or worthy

On the How to get an Agent thread, page 3. In any event, here is the course:
https://www.faberacademy.co.uk/creative-writing-courses/who-do-you-think-they-are-character-creative-writing-course-gic2.html

The course is horrendously expensive, and the course info is a little misleading in that the tutoring is only in the morning. Nevertheless, I,…[Read more]

@Bellam @PhilippaEast @Squidge Thanks for your kind words, but it’s difficult for a self-driven person not to be harsh with himself.