DOWN MY WAY – Latest Monthly, Arena Challenge
Calling all you non-fiction writers! Here’s your chance to show us what you can do! This month’s Arena Challenge is looking for a 300 word article featuring some aspect of your home town or village.

You can tackle it from any angle, e.g. a general over view or by focussing on a particular aspect of it, e.g. literary, villainous, ghostly connections.

Your article should be suitable for a general interest magazine which means there will be no losers in this contest as you should at least have a start for a longer article.

Writer members can enter as many times as they like, but all entries must be posted to the website by the 10th November.
http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/WritersCorner2.php?action=all

PLEASE NOTE: IN PREPARATION FOR THE MOVE OVER TO OUR NEW SITE, ALL ARENA CONTESTS WILL NOW ONLY BE POSTED ON THE NEW COMMUNITY SITE!
http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/WritersCorner2.php?action=all

KIDLIT – Arena fiction contest
Our latest monthly Arena competition calls for a children’s story aimed at 10-12 year olds. Your central character must be a child within this age group and be faced with a problem he/she has to solve or come to terms with.

If you’re thinking this will be a walk over, beware! Contrary to what many people think, writing for children isn’t an easy option! Apart from excellent writing skills, you need to have a good understanding of your target audience. If you are out of touch with youngsters of this age, might be a good idea to do a little research before you hit the page!

Word count is 300 so keep it snappy!

As usual there is £20 for the top entry.

Closing date, 10th October, 2009.

You can submit entries to either the old site or the new:

Old Site: http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_kidlit

New Site http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/viewPage.php?ID=Arena%20Challenge%20Instructions

WILD TIMES – Monthly Arena Challenge
It’s said, to each and everything there is a time, so for this month’s Arena Challenge we want to know about your wild times! Please don’t say you never had any, even the most conservative amongst us has had at least one moment when they have kicked over the traces of convention and waved a hand at the stars!

Tell us in verse about your midnight skinny dipping, stolen kisses, navel rings, henna hair cuts, bunking school, hippy happenings or any other event where you made a stand for personal freedom.

Poems should be no longer than 12 lines. Entries close, 10th September.

You can enter as many times as you like, but please post directly to the competition page:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_wildtimes

You can also post to our new site here:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/community

FANDANGO FINDS GOOD COMPANIONS & SALVATION ON PLATFORM FOUR
As you’ll see from our judge’s report, the standard was very high for our Good Companions competition so well done to Fandango for beating off some tough opposition!

Arena entries are being accepted on both our old site and the new one for the time being so read the winner and all other entries here:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_goodcompanions
http://www.writelink.co.uk/community

Adjudicator’s Report by Lorraine Mace
Poetry is the most subjective of all forms of writing, both for the author and the reader. Everyone will see different aspects, or read different meanings into the lines, depending on their own lives and experiences. For this reason, judging a poetry competition calls for the adjudicator to settle on certain criteria before reading any of the entries.

For this competition, because of the theme, I wanted the poems to deliver an aspect of good companionship which left me thinking about the meaning afterwards. I looked for something slightly deeper than the surface words – I wanted to be able to see what had brought the protagonists to that point in their lives.

I looked for good companions in an hour of need, or simply a stranger who was there at the right time, or a constant companion who could always be relied upon.

There were some very good entries and many almost made the final list, but five stood out for various reasons. I enjoyed the use of language, or rhyme, or the poem moved me, but all of my final five fulfilled my main criteria – they each left me thinking and gave me a glimpse of what had gone before.

In first place I put Salvation on Platform Four. This poem moved me very much indeed. I enjoyed the rhythm of the lines, was moved by the content and was immediately able to picture an almost complete back story – not easy in such a short poem. It was clear that this was not the first time the narrator had suffered, but neither was she the first who had stumbled into the warmth and salvation of that room. I simply couldn’t put this multi-layered poem out of my mind.

In second place I put After his Funeral – again a very moving poem. This narrator is surrounded by people who should have understood, but it took the unspoken kindness of a stranger to reach out and penetrate the emptiness within.

Third place went to A 1930s Train. The light humour in this masked a great deal of back story, which was very deftly handled. He was fat and she was plain is a wonderful line, telling us so much about the two who are about to find companionship in the dark.

The Robbery and Sometimes You Need to Look Closer to Home for Support were the other two shortlisted entries, both of which came very close to being placed in the top three.

Our next Arena competition is for Bikers Boasts, closing date 10th August.
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_bikersboasts

Don’t forget we are also running quarterly Arena contests now through our new site, take a look here:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/viewPage.php?ID=Arena%20Challenge%20Instructions

SHIVERY GOINGS ON AT MAWGAN’S MILL PROVE A WINNER FOR DENA
This watery flash fiction contest certainly tested the mettle of our members, but as usual you all rose to the occasion with some superb submissions as you’ll see from our adjudicator, Linda Daunter’s report.

Congratulations to Dena who stemmed a flood of challengers with Mawgan’s Mill.

River Shivers Result – Adjudicator, Linda Daunter

This competition certainly produced plenty of shivers. They were mostly of horror (what gruesome imaginations some Writelinkers have!) but I also enjoyed shivers of delight caused by some excellent writing, and a few chuckles at unexpected flashes of humour.

Not all entries featured rivers, but as the rules asked for ‘a watery yarn with a supernatural or fantasy element’ I did not penalise tales about water in ponds, lakes, seas, wells, a witch’s cauldron and even a car radiator!

But, talking of rules …

The first rule of any competition is to read the rules – carefully. River Shivers called for flash fiction with a maximum word count of 250 so, unfortunately, I began the judging process by disqualifying a poem and two stories that were over the word limit.

On my first reading, I rejected a few entries that lacked the required supernatural or fantasy element. Others failed to reach the short list because they seemed like extracts from longer works. When you only have 250 words to tell a complete story you can’t use them for leisurely introductions or anything that doesn’t move the narrative on.

I overlooked typos, spelling or grammar mistakes when it was obvious what the writer intended, but I deducted marks when I was distracted from a story by writing that didn’t make sense. It really is important to check before submitting!

After much re-reading, I was left with six equal runners-up. The Water God, For the attention of Messrs Billy Goats Gruff, The Witch, The Kelpie, Aqua Culpa, and Revenge is Sweet, were all entertaining and well written.

The winner was Mawgan’s Mill. The plot – a man’s epic struggle against nature, with shivery hints of something otherworldly – could easily have filled a much longer story, but not a word was wasted in the telling of it. Well done!

Winner and all entries can be read here:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_rivershivers

Our next Arena competition is Good Companions calling for poems of 20 lines.

Entries close 10th July.

All details here:
http://www.writelink.co.uk/arena_main.php?cat=a_goodcompanions