You can't go wrong with major life and death stories when it comes to a competition, so I thought I'd have a go at writing one.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Stories hold conflict and contrast, highs and lows, life and death, and the human struggle and all kinds of things.
You can't write just anything. Your story needs structure.
I like writing about big turning points, where professional and personal lives coalesce, where the boundaries are coming down, and you're faced with a set of choices which will change life forever.
If you have a good story idea, don't assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible.
If you're going to write for a living, you should find something fun to write.
Having judged a few competitions, it's clear that novelists are often the laziest short story writers.
Sure, I have advice for people starting to write. Don't. I don't need the competition.
Write the story you need to tell and want to read. It's impossible to know what others want, so don't waste time trying to guess.
I'm just looking as always for something that's stimulating and I hope to find a good story that's a challenge, whether it's big or small. Or that it finds me. I don't have like a career plan. Maybe I should, but I don't.
I write about the trials and triumphs of contemporary life - and often the readers see themselves between the lines of the story.