A few days ago I discovered an old competition entry of mine lurking in the far reaches of my hard drive. The beginning of the story had been provided and the writer had to complete it in about 1500 words (I have long since lost the actual guidelines etc).

The pre-written section had necessarily dictated certain elements of my part, meaning that the finished article turned out to be a short story (not usually my area), for an uncertain age-group (YA or adult, I guess – there are certainly things in it that, IMHO at least, make it unsuitable for children), in a genre that I don’t typically write (sort of mild horror/suspense). Nevertheless, I didn’t want to waste the work I had done, so I took the part of the story that was mine and re-wrote it, providing a new beginning and changing the setting, title and certain details that had evolved from the original one and now needed to be removed.

I have recently posted the result, Caged,
here
and I would be very grateful to hear not only people’s opinions of the work itself but also any suggestions as to what I should do with it (enter it for a competition? look for a webzine that might take it?) once it’s finished, since I have very little experience with short stories of any kind.

All help will be met with outpourings of extreme gratitude!

Snowcat

(And if you’re asking yourself why on earth I even considered entering the original competition in the first place, I promise you’re not the only one… )