sitting on two horses is ...

this post was triggered by Vesper's question.

for more details please refer to the post right below this one.

_

her question was this: is it possible to submit the same short story to two contests?

i wrote a somewhat mystical, folktale-like piece.

i wrote it upon a prompt given by one contest and decided later on that the writing is more suitable for the regional writers' contest (with the latter being focused on art-nouveau).

-

were the two contests at least two months or so apart, i wouldn't hesitate to enter my writing to both.

but they are not.

the deadline for the regional contest is 5 May, and 15 May for the other one.

which is practically the same.

-

my first thought was that it was unethical to enter both (or more than one contest for that matter) with one single writing when said contests are held at the same time.

-

i asked some of my fellow writers.

i got some 6-8 answers from aspiring writers, published authors and editors. about half of the answers said it is unethical and may cause copyright problems and any writer entering two contests with the same writing will be considered unacceptable by publishing houses. (this latter opinion came from an editor who works for one of the most successful publishing houses in Hungary).

the remaining half assured me that it is my writing and it is my right to enter as many contest as i can and to the hell with the restrictions.

-

i asked the organizers of the two contest.

only one of them replied, the one working for the regional contest. she said i may enter my story to any other contest just as i like.

-

so, here i am, the deadline is coming and i'm entering the regional contest.

then i'll have another 10 days.

shifting from one contest to another

there are two writing contests i plan to enter this May.

-

the first is a regional one, it is for writers of a special region, you guessed it right, to the region where i live.

the contest is annual and was founded in 2012.

since i am a member of the local writers' group, it is my duty to enter - or so i (and every other member of the group, for that matter), was told by our leader.

so, this year the contest focusses on art nouveau and submissions are expected in this style.

none writing however, will be excluded from the competition for NOT meeting this one particular requirement.

-

deadline is May 5 and my writing is already being beta-read at the moment by at least 2 friends (who are also aspiring authors).

it is a somehow mystic story, told in a folk-tale fashion.

it's full of shiny colors, creepy animals and is set in a magical forest.

i absolutely loved writing it.

it has many symbols embedded i took from Hungarian folk tales and from intuition.

i am so sorry i can not let you read it, but i guess things just might not work in English.

-

anyway, the trouble is that i wrote that piece for a second contest.

this second contest provides art-work (paintings) as prompts.

here's what happened.

i found one of the painting compelling and i wrote a short story.

on finishing i found that the story meets the requirements of a story written in art nouveau style.

since entering the first contest is a 'must' for me (being part of the local writers' group), i think i will submit my writing to the local competion.

-

and finally, if these two contests had totally different submission dates, i would not hesitate sending the writing to both.

to see how far it goes on both contests.

but now i have to choose one.

-

here's the painting that inspired me.

writing a what? :) UPDATED

oh my...

you know our writers' group is publishing an anthology, a second in the row and i have some writings included in it.

well, yesterday i was asked to write the blurb for the back cover.

guess what i am doing with google :)

i have found this site for example.

-

any tips?

what is your definition of a good blurb?
-
UPDATE
i wrote one, but the leader of the writers' gorup did not like it really much. than i came up with a blurb that basically told the same things as the first version, but consisted only of questions.
this second version was appreciated.
so i made a third one, a kind of combination of the first and the second one.
this was even more appreciated.
_

a short report from the writers' group

yesterday we had a meeting.

we had to read our homework and we tried to spot the mistake (see the post below) in each others writing.

it went like this:

i read my piece aloud, and each time anyone spotted/suspected a mistake he raised his hand.

not all the mistakes were found, and i came to the conclusion that this game is most effective when the piece is printed and made available for free reading for everyone.

for one of my groupmate had had the chance to read it before i started reading and she kept rasing her hand, and raised it at every other or third sentence - just as often as the mistakes were written in the text.

it was fun.

-

we also talked about the presentation of the second anthology which will come out in softcover at the end of May.

for almost all of us, the idea of sitting in front of a somehow larger audience  (we expect about 150-200 people) and talking about writing seems frightening.