Gonna enter?

Mr.Nice Guy

Anyone planning on entering the upcoming RTE Short Story Competition? The winner receives €3,000 and a trophy as well as the story being read on the radio. It should be between 1,900 and 2,000 words.

You can read more info on it here:

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/story/1055444.html

I'm thinking I might enter it. Does anyone know any basic guidelines for a short story? Such as how many characters ought to be used in it and other such tips?

pwd

Maybe. 1900-2000 words is very short, and very specific length.
I've a story that is 2800 words I spent aaaaages on which I might try abridging to the appropriate length.
tips:
The classic 3-person story has three characters: A victim, a villain, and a rescuer. Over the course of the story, the villain becomes the victim, the victim becomes the rescuer, and the rescuer becomes the villain.
That more-or-less sums up my knowledge of theory behind short-story writing. I would guess that it would be inadvisable to have too many characters in a story that is so short.

edit: Note that posting a story on an internet bulletin board counts as having it published. So don't post a story here that you intend to enter, because it will invalidate it.

Mr.Nice Guy

Thanks for the tips, pwd.

Raphael

Can't hurt to enter, I suppose

Odaise Gaelach

Yeah, I'll be entering it.

Woah, the word limit is tight though. Should be between 1900 - 2000 words, and written for radio...

Raphael

I know, I had one piece that would have been perfect, but it wasn't long enough =/

lilmissprincess

Might enter it...have something saved on the pc, might shorten it a little..how exactly do you "write for radio?"

pwd

Writing for radio: It will be heard, not read. The listener may have their attention divided. The listener will not be able to re-read a sentence to make sense of it, which a reader can do. Clarity and simplicity are more important in writing for the radio than in writing for print media.

Odaise Gaelach

Sometimes in printed media there are lines that are printed in italics:

Both of the men turned and looked at her.
Him!
Koda turned her sights to...

A person who was reading that would automatically know that the italics is what someone was thinking. On radio, of course, you can't do that. So it has to be explained for the listener:

Both of the men turned and looked at her.
And there he was.
Koda turned her sights to...

As long as you use a bit of common sense then you should be able to adapt your work for radio.

Raphael

Just sent mine off today. Anyone else?

doonothing

mine be too long.. the fish short story one is a bit more my wordcount bracket! id like to try but 20yoyos? fcek...

Raphael

If you're planning on entering something into a competition DON'T POST IT ON BOARDS! That counts as publishing it for all legal senses, and if the competition states that it must be unpublished, you're buggered.

Shad0r

2000 words is a pretty standard short story length for publications...

pwd, I've tried to take 500 words out of a short story I'd written once befeore so that it would make the word limit for a competition and it was a disasterous idea. No matter how I tried I couldnt communicate my message the way I wanted without most of those 500 words. Maybe your better able at that kind of thing than I am but my advice would be to just write something new. 2k words should be easily written, proofed and rewritten in two or three days.

doonothing

posting it on boards counts as it being published? how's that? and also, how would they know?...

Raphael

Because the Irish laws are stupid. It's the same as Boards can be sued for libelous posts, in the eyes of the state, boards.ie is a publishing company.

doonothing

):

balls.

nothing i can do about it at all now no?
no amount of editing shall help, no?

Odaise Gaelach

I've got something that's around 1900 words, and it should be okay. I'm going to send it off pretty soon. I wanted to try and enter something else but it only weighs in at around 1400 words. Getting it up to 1900 is really going to be impossible.

Maybe for the copyright issues perhaps Boards.ie could delete any story threads that people want to enter into the competition?

doonothing

could that work by any chance? edit and delete the stories?
cos i honestly didnt know this counted as publishing! :mad:

Raphael

/me shrugs. Could be worth a shot.

For future reference though, if you plan on entering something, keep it offline. The only copies of mine that exist are on my hardrive, on the way to rte, under a pile of crap on my desk, and on the way back to me via An Post.

Odaise Gaelach

Can't hurt to try, I think.

Shad0r

doonothing wrote:

could that work by any chance? edit and delete the stories?
cos i honestly didnt know this counted as publishing! :mad:

Yeah it probably would, but there is at least one website on the net that is archiving the Internet ( www.archive.org ) so...

Still I reckon if I had a piece that I thought might win more than anything else I had, I'd chance my arm, get it deleted and enter.

Custom22

A good short story should always focus on a single event brought about by a conflict. This is the case with all successful short stories, ( I mean really short ones such as the type being described here. Longer stories may have more than one significant event however, there will always be the primary one.)

The_Minister

We can probably unsticky this unless a new competition is coming along.

Black Swan

This thread refers to a 2005 competition and should either be updated or binned?

Sarky

Shush you