Inspired by Art

High time I came back to writing a blog. I’ve spent too long head-down in serious work – making progress on the novel that took third prize in March and helping to get the new shower completed at home. Blogs are fun to write, and I’m in the mood for more fun.

What else I’ve been up to – I took part in Globe Soup’s ‘Inspired by Art’ contest earlier this year. It looked simple. They put up 24 pieces of original art ranging from the fantastical (flying car, dissolving face) to portrait to landscapes. We were asked to choose one and write a 500 word story inspired by it. Like an idiot, I thought; “500 words, easy!” and bought a five-story ticket. Managed one story I spent hours refining and three others with a bit of a slapdash splash to them. The thing about Globe Soup is that it has a lot of writers, and that many of them write smart and polished stories, so it’s quite an achievement to be even mentioned. Most of the time, my stories sink without trace.

Fast-forward to August 19th, and suddenly my fellow Soupers were pinging my phone with messages of “CHECK THE WEBSITE!!!” GS email the winner to get their permission to publish, so I knew full well I hadn’t won – but I had been named as having a story shortlisted. Twice. Given that only twelve stories were shortlisted out of around 1,500 entries, getting two shortlist places was a proper ‘sit down and remember to breathe’ moment. I’m still really chuffed. One of the shortlisted was the story I spent a dog’s age revising and editing and polishing – one was a real surprise, a strange idea that took barely an hour to write and was sent off twelve minutes before the deadline. The story that was my second favourite – yes, sank without trace.

The winning story was a corker, and it’s published on the Globe Soup website for anyone to read. The shortlisted stories appear only as titles. And as they are unpublished… I was free to submit them to other competitions. Three of them are out there right now, under different titles and anonymous, so they have another chance to be chosen for a longlist elsewhere.

Globe Soup have a historical fiction contest going on right now. Deadline Monday night. One story has finally escaped the obsessive editing process and been submitted; another one being written as soon as I finish this blog. Wish me luck.