Pitch to Win 2022 Winners

Thanks so much to everyone who sent us their pitches for the novels they’d like to write with help from our courses and mentoring. There really are a lot of brilliant novels being written.

We’ve had a difficult choice to make picking the three winners from our shortlist. All of the pitches had so much that was great about them. So well done to all and congratulations to our winners!

First Prize: The Time It Takes To Paint A Picture by Claire Schön

Claire’s winning pitch:

Becky and Lisa rekindle their friendship online after twenty-five years. Encouraged by Lisa, Becky changes her life, only to discover Lisa died some time ago.

Why we chose it: Instantly connects us to the characters, sets up huge scope for conflict and poses so many questions! Who is pretending to be Lisa and why have they targeted Becky? What has Becky done to change her life and what does she do when she finds out the truth? We want to know! Really looking forward to working with Claire to develop this novel.

Claire wins a place on our year-long, online Novel Creator Course.


Second Prize: The Death Of Doris Dainty by Anne Hamilton

Anne’s winning pitch:

For sixty years, twins and ex-Magdalene Laundry girls, Annie and Zeta, planned the perfect murder. Except now it’s all spoiled – because they haven’t been caught…

Why we chose it: Stories with twins always have so much scope for intrigue and mystery and one with a perfect murder at the heart of it instantly sets our minds off on loads of different paths. And the fact that these women want to get caught is so intriguing. Can’t wait to find out more!

Anne wins the Start Your Novel online course with a mentoring session.


Third Prize: Duty of Care by Sally Curtis

Sally’s winning pitch:

When multiple scandals rock a school, the Principal’s own lawless secrets face exposure. Murder is the only option, but someone is watching her every move.

Why we chose it: Multiple scandals, a murdering school principle and someone who suspects what she’s up to give us so much conflict. Plus there’s the added layer of the murderer being someone who should be looking after the kids in her school.

Sally wins two mentoring sessions: a Structure & Plot Surgery with C.M. Taylor and a Character Clinic with Amanda Saint.


Well done to everyone who was shortlisted, longlisted and sent a pitch!

The 2022-23 Novel Creator Course starts in September if you’d like to write, or revise, a draft with 1-1 mentoring, support and motivation all the way through!

April Monthly Micro Shortlist

Well done to all who made the longlist and congrats to the writers of our shortlisted stories – no telling which is yours yet though!

Vote for your favourite from these 10 fab stories to win the surprise People’s Prize. Our judging team are busy re-reading to choose the winners of the cash prizes. Voting is open until 23.59 (UK time) on 25th April 2022. Results will be announced on Tuesday 26th. Good luck everyone!


An Audience With Eggs

Eight egg-faces engage us, bold black lines on smooth shell. Some googly-eyed, some bemused, one a closed-eye open-mouthed laugh, another a mischievous wink. Eggs that’d earlier nestled in my son’s eight-year-old palm, canvases yielding to his pen’s caress. Each arched brow, each skewed smile, each protruding tongue speaks to me; words he cannot utter.

Is this the first tiny crack, a sign my chick may soon hatch?

He nestles into my shoulder, his touch as brief as it is unexpected, and as his downy head strokes my cheek, my frantic heart is calmed. I marvel anew at my glorious child.


During Her Existential Crisis, Jessica Considered the Impermanency of Maggots

I stared at the embers in the fire. They twisted like orange maggots. Illuminous. He was still talking, but the words swirled around me in a fog.

“So you see…”

That didn’t make sense. Maggots wouldn’t last in a fire. And they’d be white.

“You can’t say it’s unexpected. Can you? Not really.”

They would burst, I expect. Or would they shrivel? Little charred caterpillar carcases.

“Aren’t you even going to answer me?”

Shrinking down. Like burnt seaweed or tissue paper and crumbling. Crumbling into ash and black and then gone. Gone.

“Goodbye.”

Dissolving into nothing. Until they disappeared again.


Ella’s Lexicon

Ella’s lexicon lingers, though she is long gone. Ruth twists what will always be, for her, basghetti around her fork, incanting the words not words to summon her daughter.

Strawbabies, pumcakes, hitabottomus, frumpits, viginer.

Boiling water for her evening meal, and taking down a packet from the shelf, Ella feels a tug on the final thread that ties her to home. She ignores it. She is schooled in a new language now.

Dysfunctional, toxicity, pernicious, estrangement, complicated.

She scrolls as she eats her pasta. One day soon, she thinks, she’ll change her username and finally lay Basghetti Girl to rest.


Fish Out of Water

“Emperor Angelfish – Harlequin Tusk – Pyjama Cardinal”

Fish facts flowed off his tongue, releasing pressure from the information compressed in his head and filling the silences with a reassuring certainty.

With absolutely no understanding of the subtle, non-verbal dialect of adolescent attraction, he still didn’t know how he had invited her along to the aquarium, but she was brilliant at logarithms and he liked the dimple that appeared as she tasted the names in her mouth.

Noticing the shine of her strawberry lip balm so close in their reflection, he snatched a breath.

“A purple Tang” she said. He was hooked.


Home Truths and Three Shades of Orange

We jump the train, swig cans by the sea. A burnished drawbridge. A sinking sun. I joke there must be thousands of suns, all huddling beneath the horizon. You tell me I’m talking nonsense.

Our first flat. We smoke on the fire-escape, call it our balcony. You steal marigolds but we don’t have soil. Each time we smoke there’s little heads shrivelling, until I can’t look anymore.

The core of molten lava in a volcano is 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Nothing can live there because when it explodes, lava destroys everything in its path.

You told me you couldn’t stand nonsense.


I’d Like to Teach The World to Sing

Shadows skim across the floor. Stephen pulls Sally from her box. Presses a switch. The buckled bedsit lights up as his wife comes alive. She points to the dented clothes rack. Kimono, Stephen says. Sally shakes her head. Slips on a minidress and go-go boots. Her mouth opens and a dissonant cadence lands in Stephen’s brain. Lyrics about perfect harmony and peace throughout the land. His ringtone before the mushroom cloud invisibled. Sally’s warble stays on an endless loop. Stephen’s head throbs. His eyes burn. He snaps his fingers and Sally’s features go slack. He’ll fix her settings tomorrow.


One Giant Leap

I met Loona one night in the Victorian shelter opposite the beach. ‘I come from the dark side of the moon,’ she said. ‘Remember those landings? That giant leap cracked open my egg and I hatched a month early.’ ‘I hatched then too,’ I said. ‘We must be the same age.’ ‘Moon years are different though; one of mine equals three of yours.’ That made sense. Her skin had a shimmery pallor. Zero wrinkles or crows feet. ‘No need for collagen pills,’ she said. ‘We absorb moonbeams instead.’ ‘How did you get here?’ I asked. ‘Through your dreams,’ she replied.


That Summer When Mommy Decided Not to Put Up With Anymore of Daddy’s ‘nonsense’, or When We Got a New Daddy

Daddy drove our shabby SUV to the beach to watch. “Thar she blows” daddy shouted as the rocket’s parabola flared towards space. Mom’s eyes echoed its arc, rolling in unhappy symmetry.

Later we sang Major Tom and hoovered hot, ketchupy fries into our bird beaks, until mom’s short fuse detonated. We cooled our mouths with hot sundaes, while daddy cried hot tears.

New-daddy smelled like Mercedes Benz; newly-minted mom had a mean mouth and tight face. We cast off old-daddy like rocket boosters, moving on while he floundered into the gutter. Beer-glass weighted pockets dragging him towards the ocean floor.


The Patchwork Comforter

There’s no rhyme or reason to the quilt your mother’s crafted from the clothes you were wearing when you died. It’s small enough to cover the beautiful baby you won’t ever have. It’s a dirty t-shirt and bloody sweatpants.

She’s given your brother the one made from sparkling moments and hard-earned degrees. He’s down on his luck these days and ever so slightly thrilled.

She drapes the heavy quilt over her heart at night; swears she can feel you twitching. She pulls you close this time, cradles your head on dark wet tarmac and whispers, ‘I’m here. Don’t be afraid.’


Time’s Up

My mother stroked my hand and said she was feeling my age about the time she dropped her jewelled watch down the drain. I said it was a metaphor. She said the heart of being is not letting go. I wasn’t sure but still she grasped the nodding Jesus until it turned into a dachshund. Then both Christ and the watch had gone.

A gold-tipped, gull-winged car flew over the altar.

I expect they do cocktails now, she said. Mine’s an El Diablo.

The waitress smiled angelically and brought a large one. I ordered mixed nuts with my Last Word


Please vote using the form below, if you have any difficulties with the form you can try this link instead:  https://form.responster.com/RmC3Ng

April Monthly Micro Longlist

It seems our nonsense theme bamboozled a few of you this month, as we had slightly fewer entries than usual, but there’s still some great prizes on offer. We had 99 entries so first prize is £148 and second prize is £99, with the people’s prize to be decided. The shortlist will be published on Monday

Thanks so much to everyone who sent us their words. We enjoyed reading them all. Well done to our longlist below. No telling which is yours though!

Longlisted Stories

  1. A Lesson in Nonsense (re)defined
  2. A Tiny Tag
  3. An Audience With Eggs
  4. Baloney!
  5. Birthday Surprise
  6. Bye Bye Baby
  7. Could This be Mankind’s Greatest Discovery
  8. During Her Existential Crisis, Jessica Considered the Impermanency of Maggots
  9. Ella’s Lexicon
  10. Elegy for the King of Chaos
  11. Home Truths and Three Shades of Orange
  12. How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear
  13. How to Experience Remorse: a Six-Point Guide for Parents
  14. I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing
  15. Fish Out of Water
  16. My Father
  17. No Further Questions Your Honour
  18. Nonsensical Magnetism
  19. One Giant Leap
  20. Progress
  21. Sister Bernadette Said We Should All Give up Something for Lent
  22. That Summer When Mommy Decided Not to Put Up With Anymore of Daddy’s ‘nonsense’, or When We Got a New Daddy
  23. The Candy Striper
  24. The Patchwork Comforter
  25. The Ridiculous Importance of a Cup
  26. The Sun and the Mooning
  27. Time’s Up
  28. Thyme Served
  29. Vanilla Cake
  30. Why the Jabberwocky Made Perfect Sense to Me

Good luck everyone! We’ll have the shortlist on Monday.

Pitch to Win Shortlist

Well done again to all who were longlisted in our latest Pitch to Win contest. There are some fantastic sounding novels being written! We have now whittled our longlist down to a shortlist of 6 (not an easy job!) and there are 3 prizes up for grabs:

  • 1st Prize: A place on our year-long, fully-mentored online Novel Creator Course starting in September 2022.
  • 2nd Prize: A place on our online Start Your Novel Course with a mentoring session.
  • 3rd Prize: Two mentoring sessions – a Structure & Plot Surgery with C. M. Taylor and a Character Clinic with Amanda Saint.

Shortlisted Pitches

  • Duty of Care
  • Now And Before
  • Take It From Me
  • The Death of Doris Dainty
  • The Time It Takes To Paint A Picture
  • When You Come For The King

Good luck everyone! We will have the results later this month.

Forest Themed Flash Longlist

Many thanks to everyone who sent us a forest themed story for this quarter. We’ve enjoyed them all and well done to the writers of the following stories. We’re still reading anonymously though so no telling which is yours!

Longlisted Stories

  • A Face on the Earth
  • Beauty floats across a lake in the heart of the forest on a moonlit night
  • Cuckoo Pint
  • Disenchantment in Three Dishes
  • Fern-seed
  • Five Benefits of Forest School
  • Forest Fritillaries, chequered
  • Goatfoot
  • Girl in the Forest
  • Heaven is for Forest Bathers
  • In a Forest in Finland I Find a Sawmill
  • Into the Woods
  • Knock Three Times, Wait, Knock Again
  • Listen
  • One Way or Another
  • Sporocarp Dreams
  • Secretarial Duties
  • The Forest of Losses
  • The Gamekeeper’s Party
  • The Jam Jar Forest
  • The Point of Disappearance
  • The Question of the Sycamore Tree
  • The Right Conditions for Fire
  • The Risks of Reading
  • The Wild Self
  • When I wasn’t Looking
  • Your tasting notes

2022 First Chapter Comp Winners

We’re delighted to reveal this year’s winners as chosen by our literary agent judge, Nicola Barr, at The Bent Agency.

We loved all of the chapters on our shortlist and well done to everyone who made it to the final round. And HUGE congratulations to our winners!


WINNER: The War Between Us by Fiona Morgan

The first short sentence draws the reader in so effectively. The writing is so authentic and natural. The world is built naturally around the story. Some of the writing is exquisite. I loved Blitz London described as ‘a drab, steaming mess, water poured over raked embers’. I really like it and it has stayed with me. I’d love to read the rest!

RUNNER UP: All That is the Case by Hugh Burkhart

Very elegant, smooth prose that fits the narrative perfectly. A cool, sophisticated opening to a thriller. Intriguing.

shortlisted

A Perfect World for Alice by Sarah Barnett

A familiar set up but the author does a really skilful job of engaging the reader and keeping them engaged and on edge. Full of good, taut, surprise  turns that are handled very deftly.

Persona by Rod Cookson

Nice combination of small personal details amid a huge violent event. Snappy, pacy writing and a good sense of drama.

The Baby in the Box by Anne Hamilton

Really strong, interesting, non-typical main character. The relationship between the mother and son is immediately engaging. I found the prose here a tiny bit portentous and having a look at that could really improve the overall quality. I mention it just because I think it has real potential.

The Pre-Pact Christmas by Jennifer Bromham

The dialogue is a real strength here. It feels natural and relaxed, the writing is accessible and importantly it’s amusing but doesn’t try too hard to be funny and miss. Obviously it’s a very familiar set up so it really will need some twist to help it stand out.

Where the Sunbeams Go by Norah Blakedon

This is really atmospheric. It’s good on setting the scene and strong on the character’s emotion. I can feel her worry for her sister very obviously! I think pulling back just a little on description would help with the pacing. Again, mentioning because a small change could have a very big impact on it and it has real potential.


Fiona and Hugh both win detailed feedback on their submission packages.

If you have a MS that is not at submission stage yet but you have a complete draft, you can win a full MS review in our brand new Opening Lines competition.