Southend Book Fair, organised by local writing group Writers Anonymous and South Essex College, is launching an exciting writing competition in the run up to the Fair which takes place on Saturday 26th June, 10am – 4pm, at the College’s Southend Campus.
The event forms part of Southend Festival 8, the area’s biggest and brightest celebration of creative talent and the competition is asking for budding JK Rowlings or Stephen Kings to write the first three pages of a fictional novel, in any genre, along with a synopsis of the book as a whole.
The fantastic first prize for this literary answer to The X Factor is a book token, plus the chance to have the first three chapters (up to a maximum of 40 pages) of the winning manuscript, plus synopsis, read by professional reader, Dr. Hilary Johnson. The winner will receive a professional appraisal of their work worth approximately £300 in the general market which could help put them on the road to writing success.
There will also be second and third prizes up for grabs of book tokens and a £130 voucher and £65, respectively, for any creative writing Evening or Weekend course offered by South Essex College of Further & Higher Education.
Launching the competition were accomplished local writers, David Shaer and Simon Woodward, both part of writing group, Writers Anonymous. The pair said: “We wanted to run a competition to encourage people to write and enjoy the writing process. They say that everyone has a book in them so with this competition we wanted to try and tease it out of people and enjoy seeing what they come up with, after all seeing those words leap off the page as you read them is half of the fun.”
Winners will be announced at the Southend Book Fair at South Essex College, sponsored by leading player in the global publishing industry, AuthorHouse.
Simon and David offered the following hints and tips for writing that killer synopsis and three pages to grab the judge’s attention.
1. Check out other synopses online as this one side of A4 is often the hardest element to get right. Remember you must lay out all your twists and turns.
2. Always carry a note book with you. Ideas can and will hit you at any time, whether that be on the train or in the middle of the supermarket.
3. Flesh out characters and know their traits and what makes them tick inside and out. You don’t have to reveal everything but to know what motivates them you should create a biog of them for you to refer back to.
4. We’re not just after the next Dan Brown, find your own voice and style.
5. Listen to constructive criticism, even established writers are honing their craft all the time.
6. The more you write, the better you get.
So armed with all that advice and all those great ideas buzzing round your head get tapping away on those computers and scribbling ideas down on those notepads.
David and Simon, concluded: “Good luck and happy writing. Who knows this could be the first chapter of someone’s successful writing career.”
All entries must be received by 5pm (GMT) on Friday 30th April and emailed, as separate story and synopsis attachments, to SouthendBookFair@writersanonymous.org.uk. For a full list of competition rules please visit www.writersanonymous.org.uk/sbf/
To keep up with all things Festival join the College’s Twitter page here.
ENDS
Image: l-r David Shaer and Simon Woodward
Notes for Editor
Some selected rules from the above website:
The competition is open only to writers that have not been previously published with an ISBN number.
The competition is open only to writers that do not currently have a contract with a publisher or an agent.
The submission must be in 12 point font with a minimum margin width of half an inch.
The story submission must be double spaced.
The title and name of author must appear on the first page of the entry. If the first page of the entry shows only the author details then the first page will not be included in the page count for the submitted story.
A single A4 page synopsis of the entire novel must be submitted. It is recommended to submit the story & synopsis as separate email attachments. .
Entrants must be 16 years of age or over.
Only one entry per person.
Writing courses at Evening and Weekend College
Evening and Weekend College at South Essex College offer a wide range of creative writing courses including: Become a Playwright, Creative Writing, Getting Your Work Published, Screenwriting, Unblocking Your Creativity, Write Better Fiction, Write Your Life Story, Writer’s Workshop, Writing for Children, Writing Poetry, Writing Short Stories, Writing Your First Novel.
South Essex College of Further and Higher Education was formed on 1st January 2010 from the merger of Thurrock & Basildon College with South East Essex College of Arts and Technology. It offers outstanding skills, education and careers training from entry level to degrees across Basildon, Southend and Thurrock.