Results of Morgen’s 100-word competition: April 2018

Hello everyone. Last month I received 24 entries from 12 authors, six of whom had sent three stories (recommended). One was disqualified for only being 99 words. Fortunately the author had submitted two other stories so I had those to choose from. It was actually my least favourite of the three and as well as a word missing, there was a typo (though instead of through… easily done!). Another was disqualified for having a non-hyphenated number (ninety nine rather than ninety-nine) which then made it a 99-word story. Sorry but it’s a typo. Again, the author had sent in two other stories so still had a chance to be placed. Another author who had submitted three (always recommended) had a 102-word story. There was a hyphenated word (well-known) which could have been counted as two words (it isn’t) but no apparent reason for the other excess word.

The winning stories are ones that I reacted most favourably to; usually the winner making me go “Wow”. They were clever, surprising, eek-making (in a good way), or gave me a warm fuzzy feeling (without being sickly).

You may have chosen a different order or indeed not placed one or more of them so if you entered and didn’t find your story / stories here, don’t lose heart. You probably only just missed out so do enter new stories this month*, next month, whenever you like (but not in advance!). It’s an ongoing competition and free, so you could win at any time. There were new and familiar names this month so anyone could win… it’s all dependent upon whether your story grabs me, for whatever reason (whether it be clever, funny, unusual, quirky, or sweet).

Apart from the top three and highly commended, there are some ‘Honourable Mentions’. They don’t win anything but they were so close to being Highly Commended that I wanted them to know how close they came. It’s still something for them to put on their CVs.

*The theme for May is ‘the kite’ and you can submit your entries (and do send three) at any time up to midnight (UK time) on Thursday 31st May.

So without further ado, below are the successful entries this month.

*

First place (winning free access to three of my online creative writing courses (currently worth £60 / $60) or a free edit and critique of up to 2,000 words (worth £14 / $18):

D J Shine with ‘The Green Bucket’

I held the green bucket so close that the smell of earth washed up my nostrils, making me wrinkle my nose. I had used my thumb to put seeds into that earth and spent ages placing stickers of smiling princesses and clowns around my bucket. It was a magic world of happiness. I cried when Dad said I couldn’t take it into bed with me.
The sun did send love through the window but the earth didn’t hear it.
Dad spotted the grape in my bucket and said it was a miracle. It’s not a miracle it’s from the fridge.

*

Second place (winning free access to two of my online creative writing courses (currently worth £40 / $40) or a free edit and critique of up to 1,500 words (worth £11 / $14):

Laura Besley with ‘Blue on a Red Day’
‘Grandma, why is Mummy crying?’
‘She’s feeling a little blue, darling.’
I look down at the chopped up strawberries and raspberries in my bowl. ‘But that can’t be true, Grandma. Today’s a red day.’
Grandma slowly dries up the cup in her hand. ‘Not everyone believes the days of the week are colour-coded.’
‘I know. Peter Johnson says I’m silly, but Miss Anne always tells him off when he says that.’
Grandma sort of smiles. ‘Eat up.
‘But what does it mean?’
‘It means you feel sad.’
‘Is Mummy sad because the baby died?’
‘Yes, darling. That’s why she’s sad.’

*

Joint third place (each winning free access to one of my online creative writing courses (currently worth £20 / $20) or a free edit and critique of up to 1,000 words (worth £7 / $9) – in alphabetical order:

Angela Greenwood with ‘Animal Facts’
An ostrich lays gigantic eggs, while snakes don’t have any legs. An elephant’s nose is called a trunk and terrible smells come from a skunk. Bees are great at making honey, a hyena laughing isn’t funny. Zebra stripes are always black and wolves go hunting in a pack. A cheetah can run very fast, while a tortoise will always be last. Giraffes have the longest necks and geese will give you spiteful pecks. A lion gives a vicious bite, bats won’t fly unless it’s night. White rhinos have massive heads. But if a bear hugs you, you will be dead!

*

Lesley McLean with ‘The Moment’
The foxy seven year old swanked up to the teacher’s table, pivoted on the gaudy platform heels and announced to the class, New Shoes! She twirled then strutted down her catwalk, like a diva in drag. All eyes were on the fantastic footwear as she sat back down at her desk, grinning broadly.
It had taken tantrums and tears to acquire these magnificent creations. Mission accomplished, she owned the multi-coloured lace-up clumpertons. And to think, if she hadn’t mortified mother enough, she probably would have had to shamefully hide the horrid dowdy brown sensible Clark’s buckle shoes under her desk.

*

Highly commended (winning my Entering Writing Competitions course worth £20 / $20) or a free edit and critique of up to 1,000 words (worth £7 / $9) – in alphabetical order:

• Fiona M Jones with ‘A Hundred Words’
• Justin Rulton with ‘Discombobulated’
• Patricia Cooksley with ‘Jessie’s Surprise’

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Honourable mentions (not winning anything but only narrowly missing out and still looking good on their CV) – in alphabetical order:

• Ishika with ‘A Loss of Innocence’
• Jennie Gardner with ‘A Stirring Tale’
• Karen Turner-Smith with ‘My Best Friend’
• Lestie Mulholland with ‘It’s a Dog’s Life’
• Shalom Galve Aranas with ‘Lira and the Arab Prince’

*

Congratulations, everyone. The entries for this month are already drifting in. Remember, you can send up to three per month so rather than miss out on a chance by sending one story, do submit more.

If you’ve enjoyed these stories and / or just want to leave a comment, please do so below and / or you can email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com., although I won’t (can’t) discuss forthcoming entries unless it’s a general query.

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Calling Northants writers aged 8-12…

Are you, or (more importantly) a child you know, based in Northamptonshire? I’m delighted to be one of the judges of the Althorp Children’s 500-word story competition. (See details and poster below.)

 

To free eBook or not to free eBook?

There’s a lot of contention over whether to give away our books. Many authors (and others) say no, given the amount of work that goes into them, but if you have a series of books, listing the first for free is a great way to introduce yourself to new readers so they can buy the others… assuming your book is so good that they want to read more. And that’s the crux of the matter, we all need to put up the best quality we can. This is why we need people like me (editors) to buff our work to within an inch of its life.

So, whether you agree with freebies or not, below is a site that offers 30+ every day. Take a look. I bet (one of my ebooks for free!) that there will be at least one book to tempt you.

 

Poetry Writing Lessons for Children #guestpost by Robert Lynch

Today, I welcome a new guest, online writer Robert Lynch with poetry tips for children… of any age…

Many people love poetry but writing a poem is not simple. Students who are studying at school, college, or university used to attempt to poetry for various purposes. Children try to write poems for fun, to get away from their boredom, to contribute to school magazines, and so on. However, most of the time, they end up writing poor poems. Many students will have ideas but may not be able to write even a single line. It can happen if they are not familiar with writing poems based upon their lives.

Since writing poems seems to be difficult for them, they should ask poetry experts. Writing poems will aid the children to express their ideas, feelings, emotions, thoughts, etc. They can write amazing, stirring, thoughtful, and witty poetry that will astonish their friends, parents, and teachers. All you want to do is to understand how to prepare a poem, and know how to get started.

Here are some effective poetry writing lessons for children that will aid them to come up with good poems:

Read Poetry

Children who are interested in writing poetry should read some popular poetry so that they will understand how famous poets write. Reading poetry will help the children understand how these poets arrange their thoughts, ideas, and communicate their emotions to their readers. So, go to your school or college library, or search online in order to choose some books of poetry. You will be able to find a wide range of children’s poetry, and it will let you understand how to prepare poetry within your age range. Read some poems to realize how the lines of poems end, how they form rhythm, have an effect on the meaning of the poem, etc.

Recognize Your Goal

Children should primarily understand their goal of writing poetry. None of the students can write a good poem without knowing their goals. You cannot simply write a poem. You should have some ideas and thoughts with you to prepare a good poem. Children can write poetry for the reason that they would like to capture a feeling they have experienced. Your goal is to communicate with the readers and make them understand what you have to tell them. You can choose to write from experiences etched in your mind, some remarkable e achievements, an incident that you witnessed, and much more.

Avoid Clichés

When children are preparing to write a poem, they should think about something out of the box. They cannot make a good impression on people who read their poem if their it has no new elements. Readers need originality and freshness in poetry. If children love making their poetry interesting, they should keep away from common clichés. You have to keep in mind that people give importance to creative content and they will ignore your writing if it contains common clichés. When readers notice poetry without clichés, they will find that the writer has made a good effort to write original content.

Poem Structure

The poems that children write should have structure. If children desire to learn how to write poetry and how to become a successful poet, they should aim to understand the structure of a poem. If children write poems with no structure, none of the readers will be interested to read their poem. Hence, children should understand how should a poem be divided into lines, how to arrange their ideas into perfect lines, how to communicate their goals through ideal lines, etc. You have to find some superior ideas about selecting the exact structure for your poem.

Poetry Techniques

It can be observed that famous poets used to use poetry techniques in order to make their poetry excellent. They have the custom of adopting some poetry techniques that helps them to communicate their thoughts, ideas, knowledge, understanding and experiences. Poetry techniques will give children a good idea about how to write poetry, what to write about, how to get started, and pick the right words to add in the sentences. It will also lead you to identify how to get poetry ideas and convert them into poems.

Pick a Subject

Children can never write poetry without a proper subject. Hence, they should pick a subject before they write their poems. Picking a subject gives the children a perfect understanding about how to write poetry. There are many topics in the world to choose as your poetry subject such as death, love, nature, animals, friendship, politics, education, health, and much more. You can choose any topic but you have to come up with unique and original thoughts to make your writing authentic.

Choose a Pattern                                 

Children should know poetry patterns when they write poetry. It will aid the children to write in a manner to attract the attention of people with ease. Children should select free verse, rhyming couplets, or a usual poetry style. The ideas, thoughts, and words of your poetry should flow with the style that you have selected for your poetry, and you can also convert ideas into a completely new scheme if you choose a pattern to prepare your poem.

Other Tips

There are in fact many things that children should take care of while writing poetry. I recommend they stay away from sentimentality, but make use of images, bring into play metaphor and simile, exercise tangible words rather than abstract words, communicate a common theme, pass up ordinary ideas and thoughts, and finally, they should revise many times what is written. Children have to be creative so that they can create creative poetry. As poets always observe the world another way, children should also observe the world differently so that they can have a different point of view.

Author Bio

Robert Lynch is a freelance writer who enjoys his career as it offers opportunities to improve his writing, as well as every facet of his life. Presently, he works for a professional custom essay online writing service which allows him to aid students in making their assignments look simple. Robert also loves to write articles for blogs, online magazines, and content for a variety of websites.

 

March’s 100-word FREE competition is open… Norman’s bunny!

Hello everyone. Yes, February’s theme of classical music is closed but March’s is now open and the theme for this month is ‘Norman’s bunny’, used in any way you like. Why did I choose this? I have no idea. It just came to me… as things often do. You can have a lot of fun this one.

The theme for April is ‘fool’ which of course you can start work on but don’t send them to me until April 1st at the earliest.  And remember, you can send up to three stories per month (individually or at the same time). It’s worth doing because some people have missed out because of errors (usually not 100 words exactly) in the only entry they send so they are immediately disqualified.

There are lots of rules so please read the 100-word competition page carefully but the two most important are:

1. Your story must stick to the theme (which varies each month).
2. Your story must be no longer or no shorter than 100 words. This excludes the title which can be as long or as short as you like. Any stories of less than or greater than 100 words will be disqualified so please check before submitting. Hyphenated words (e.g. well-known) count as one word so 99-word stories because of a hyphenated word will be disqualified. This may sound harsh but it’s then fair on everyone. Also bullet points do not count as words so do not include them in your word count. Neither do ellipses (e.g. ‘and… we’ counts as two words), ages, e.g. ‘a two-year-old child’ also counts as one word (according to Word, which is what I use).

And the prizes?

• Prizes: you could win one or more of my online creative writing courses, or free editing and critique of your writing up to 2,000 words (worth up to £14 (€20 / US$22 / CA$ & AS$28)). See prize breakdown below. Alternatively you can choose one of my eBooks.

Good luck and I look forward to reading your stories.

 

Dark Minds charity short story collection currently just 99p!

Hello everyone. I know I don’t post very often about sale books (other than when mine were free) but this is one close to my heart. I am biased as I edited ten of the stories 🙂 but it’s a super cause. Please click on the link below (NB. changing to .co.uk to your country) and support these great charities, and the wonderful Bloodhound Books!

 

 

#RoaldDahlDay: 15 genius pieces of life advice from his books

My eNewspaper, the Morgen Bailey Daily, picked up on an article by the Telegraph newspaper highlighting 15 genius pieces of advice from Roald Dahl’s books. Anything to do with Roald Dahl catches my eye (a) because I was a huge fan of his stories and the Tales of the Unexpected TV series and (b) because my dad knew him. My dad was a photographer and Roald came into his shop one day to drop of a film to be developed. Although my dad had no clue who Roald was, my dad went on to take photographs for him (and, if I recall correctly, a video at Sophie’s fourth birthday party. So fond memories all round. I lost my dad early September 2001 and the 15th Anniversary of 9/11 came round which always reminds me of that time so happy and sad. And on that note… below is a screen print of the article so you can read it in full but the 15 are:

1. “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” – The Twits
2. “Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog.” – Matilda
3. “A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.” – Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
4. “So please, oh please, we beg, we pray Go throw your TV set away And in its place you can install A lovely bookshelf on the wall…” – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
5. “Don’t gobblefunk around with words.” – The BFG
6. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.” – The Witches
7. “All you do is to look/ at a page in this book/ because that’s where we always will be. No book ever ends/ when it’s full of your friends”. – The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
8. <this appears to be missing>
9. <this appears to be missing>
10. “You can fake a mouth-smile any time you want, simply by moving your lips. I’ve also learned that a real mouth-smile always has an eye-smile to go with it. So watch out, I say, when someone smiles at you but his eyes stay the same. It’s sure to be a phony.” – Danny the Champion of the World
11. “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” – The Minpins
12. “If I were a headmaster I would get rid of the history teacher and get a chocolate teacher instead.” – Roald Dahl Cookbook
13. “So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.” – Matilda
14. “Some people when they have taken too much and have been driven beyond the point of endurance, simply crumble and give up. There are others, though they are not many, who will for some reason always be unconquerable. You meet them in time of war and also in time of peace. They have an indomitable spirit and nothing, neither pain nor torture nor threat of death, will cause them to give up.” – The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
15. “When writing about oneself, one must strive to be truthful. Truth is more important than modesty.” – Boy: Tales of Childhood 

Do go visit the Telegraph page, it’s well worth a visit.