I'm with Susie. I think the list is sarcastic and self-indulgent. It may have useful info in there, but it's not put over in a very pleasant manner, to put it mildly!

Everyone has to learn. They don't need to be derided as they do so.

Deb

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However, very interesting to read, Naomi, so thanks for posting. Interesting because of the controversy, and as a list of things to avoid (for her, anyway).

He has taken a lot of stick on his blog because of the tone of the piece, but remains largely unapologietic so I don't think anything we could say will ever change his nature. I think you just have to treat it as tongue in cheek, or even 'impish', and try not to take it personally.

- NaomiM

Just to make it clear, I didn't submit to this competition. So my opinion is entirely untainted by 'sour grapes'.
Susiex

Just to make it clear, I didn't submit to this competition. So my opinion is entirely untainted by 'sour grapes'. Susiex

LOL. I had the same reaction as you when reading the pretentious twat - especially when he complains of overwriting!

Now back to my short story about a melancholy leprechaun sitting in his pub kitchen doing the washing up and thinking about his mother's recent death.

Sounds like a winner, rainstop

Oh, it's a him. I didn't look that closely and assumed it was the woman who declared no winners. Thingie.

Deb

- Zadie.



There's a picture of him on his blog. Looks like a no nonsense kinda guy, albeit upside down. Gave me vertigo.

Yes, Zadie - thanks Naomi.

Perhaps he really lives upside down? On one of those back-stretching contraptions? Maybe when he turns the right way up he loses his cynical edge...

Deb

Classic Bridport - 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14,15

I love this. I wish I'd known about it. I don't write shorts any more but I'd have written something specially for this.

Best
Sion

I do wish someone would tell me the ideal length for a short story competition entry.

Willesden Blog don't have a word count do they? Maybe for them the ideal story is done when it's done? Can only presume as they don't mention it in their list.

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Yup and on the Willesden trail of gooder writing, “Zadie Smith is not fucking interesting,” apparently:

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/zadie-smith-isnt-fucking-interesting/

I did a trawl for a ZS short story. She’s written a few.

I didn’t find one but I did get an extract from The Autograph Man. Temperamentally, I could put up with that narrative in a short story but not a novel.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/UKExtract/0,,MTE0MTY5OjA6VGhlIEF1dG9ncmFwaCBNYW4=,00.html

But even in a short story I’d hate it.

But that’s down to taste and me being a useless pleb, not having the grace to see writerly “greatness” when it’s biting my fecking nose. (I’m going to have to commit WW suicide now aren’t I?)



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;)

You're right, Kully, they don't mention it, hence my query.

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I have short stories that range from 2K to 30K, so it would be helpful to know which to submit.

What I meant above is that I think the Willesden Blog Comp and ZS are mis-matched. The Willesden Blog aspires to an edgy and avant guard pose - as seen by their advice for writers.

I’m out of this now, as I’m not looking to rub people up the wrong way, I think I’ve said enough.

Cheerio.

The writer of this list is just a little tiny small bit FULL of themselves. Guilty of SELF-INDULGENCE, a crime not mentioned in the otherwise comprehensive derision here.

Didn't really get the Asian Ankles bit but it sounded a bit... angry. Why?

In the unlikely event that I ever manage to write a good short story, it won't go these people.

Pete

I entered this - being a freebie

I thought the points made were good, humourous - brutal yes, but to the spikey point.

After all the feedback on the blog, I think the author probably needs a holiday - getting a tad high pitched, so they are, but all laid out for one to see & note.