Writers' Village

Win a £400 ($660) cash prize for your short fiction in the spring 2012 competition!

Cash prizes totalling £550 ($900) can be won in the Writers' Village spring 2012 'Best Writing' competition for prose fiction in any genre up to 3000 words.

The first prize is £400 ($660), with a second prize of £100 ($160) and a third of £50 ($80).

A further five shortlisted entrants will receive a FREE entry for their story in the next round.

Prizes will go to those writers whose short fiction shows the greatest originality, mastery of the craft skills of creative writing, and power to move the reader.

Every entrant wins because... everyone, winner or not, gets back personal tips on how they could improve their stories! This helpful one-to-one critique is unique among low-fee writing contests. It's worth the entry fee in itself.

The spring round of the 2012 contest follows the great success of the previous six Writers' Village 'Best Writing' competitions, entered by writers from all over the world.

Entries will be judged by Dr John Yeoman, MA (Hons) Oxon, MA (Res), MPhil, PhD Creative Writing, winner of the Nemesis Award 2011, a university tutor in creative writing, and for forty years a successful commercial writer and publisher.

The new contest deadline is midnight 31st March 2012.

For further details of the contest, click here.

Gain a FREE 'mini course' in writing contest success here.

To read all the winning stories to date, click here.

What contestants told us about the feedback on their stories

Jenny Heap. Warwickshire, England. "I was most impressed that you were able to give such genuinely considered, insightful and helpful feedback – a definite bargain at £10 for two stories!"

Mary Jane Lick. Gatesville, Texas. "I appreciate the very helpful critique you have offered on my piece. This is the only contest I have found, so far, that provided a critique without charging extra for that. You offered some excellent suggestions that I will certainly consider."

David Hill, Eastbourne, England. "Your advice on short story competitions is excellent. I have followed it and won one competition and been shortlisted in two others so far."

Nancy Pawelek. Ottawa, Ontario. "Getting your critiques WAS worth the entry fee. I appreciated the conciseness of your advice and your encouragement. Seeing the points for each element now helps me focus in my re-writes."

Patsy Miranda. London. "This is the best website I have found so far especially if you are an aspiring writer. The free writing tips are invaluable, the critiques are extremely helpful and certainly more than their money's worth, and free access to the winning stories is a bonus. Absolutely well worth a visit, or two or more!"

Warren Glover. Woollahra, Australia. "I've both placed and been unsuccessful in Writers' Village contests and each time I've found the feedback fair, justified and extremely useful. I'd recommend Writers' Village contests as both a motivational and learning tool."

James Ward. East Sussex. "Out of the 66 writing competitions I've entered to date, yours is far and away the best organised, most competitor-friendly, and easily the best value for money."

Madeline Parsons. Southend-on-Sea, England. "I very much liked your marking system. It made me feel confident that the story had been judged against a set of criteria which had been applied to all the entries, and thus the competition was less subjective. I found your feedback to be just and insightful."

Barbara Leahy. Cork, Ireland. "Competitions can be like black holes swallowing up stories so it is great to get feedback from someone who actually read and thought about my entries."

David Roberts. Westerham, England. "Your feedback was much appreciated and indeed well worth the entry fee. It's always good to know where exactly you fail in a competition otherwise it is almost impossible to improve oneself."

Sharon Birch. Aberfeldy, Perthshire. "Feedback such as this is invaluable to me as a writer and very helpful when I come to edit and put them right. I shall enter your future competitions and spread the word amongst fellow writers. Your helpful tips emails are extremely informative and a welcome insight."

Hazel Martell. Keighley, West Yorkshire. "Thanks again for the kind comments - they really were appreciated! I'm also passing information about your competitions to various writing friends and hope they will also be encouraged to enter."

Alan Coley. Thames Ditton, England. "It was very good to receive your comments. It's so refreshing to receive constructive criticism rather than being left to stare at the short list and not be able to work out why my name wasn't on it. Many thanks."

Kim Kremer. Penrith, Cumbria. "Thanks for the feedback I received on my two stories. It was encouraging and helpful, and I'd definitely enter the competition again."

Donald Blair. Garve, Highland. "Thank you very much for your very encouraging comments on the stories."

Peter McGinniss. East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire. "I found your comments to be very helpful, and illuminating in terms of what is being looked for in a short-story writing competition. I shall take the advice on board."

Nicola Young. Sevenoaks, Kent. "Thank you for your feedback. It was a great to help to me. It's just encouraging to know you're going in the right direction, especially as I'm new to this."

Lande Abudu. Eastcote, Middlesex. "I really needed to hear an independent view of ways to improve my writing. It was helpful to get feedback as I am only just venturing into the world of writing competitions; I'll keep at it and hope to be a winner some day soon."

Valerie Bowes. Surrey. "Thank you very much for your comments, which I did indeed find helpful. Of particular use is knowing how I scored on the points system which you use to make your judgements. And the writing tips are very good, as well!"

Gail Richards. London. "John treated my stories with respect from start to finish, understood the theme and the characters and made some incisive and pertinent suggestions for improvement. I was impressed with the time and trouble he took and the insight he showed. If this is terse feedback I'd love to see a full critique!"

Paul Barron. Co Wexford, Ireland. "I found John's feedback exceptionally good.The breakdown and marks system is particularly good in focusing attention on parts that are not working. Most competitions offer no feedback or charge a fee. For my part I can't see how you can improve unless you know where you went wrong. Thanks again, John, for the feedback."

Kim Offenburger, Kentucky."I want to really thank you for offering these important lessons! I've taken quite a few writing classes on line, and these free lessons and tidbits about writing are really extraordinary. Almost everyone of them gives me an 'a ha!' moment."

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