Viewing Thread:
"A writer's website with competitions"

Hey folks, just had an idea, wondered if there would be any level of interest.

I'm thinking of starting a new website featuring short stories and other such creative things.

Would anyone like to contribute to this for a small fee, if there was the chance of winning prizes?

Many writing competitions charge a few pounds to raise the prize money, so it would be something like a maximum of 100 entries, £3 each, 1st prize of £100, runners up prizes of £50, 2*£25, 5*£10. Or something.

Numerous contests every month, perhaps with different themes, and word limits. For instance, a very short story contest, entry just £1, but smaller prize. Writing to a specific theme too.

It wouldn't just be stories though, the kinds of things that many of us frequently write on this site, comical guides, fake news, serious topics.

So, who is interested, and who would honestly part with a little cash for the chance to win more?

Certainly I would be interested a great deal! Got my GCSEs soon so I wont be writing AS much but in about 2 months I am free forever more.

Its a good idea I recon, and should pull in a lot of interest over the world. If and when it is done I'll put a banner on my 'good' website, which gets about 50-100 hits per day, should pull some more people in.

The thing I want to question is payments - will you need to use credit card or will cash be suitable?

El Blokey wrote:
> Would feedback be offered?

Maybe, but that would be time consuming, and I'm hardly an expert when it comes to writing.

Perhaps for a small fee....

It depends what kind of interest there is.

Would feedback be offered?

I would try and enter, sounds like a very good way to get experience of writing and at the same time have motivation to do so.

If you do get it off the ground, I'll go look ([email protected])

Like the sound of it, and the fee doesn't seem to bad either.

Drunk Cow wrote:
> Personally I think this a great idea but because I live so far I am
> pretty sure some problems will come up.
>
> What do you think Meka?

I doubt it would be a problem if you could use a payment method like Paypal or similar. Any entries could be emailed.

If I went to print with a collection of the stories then there would probably be an additional fee for international shipping if you wanted it. But I don't see any problems that cannot be resolved.

I think I could do with writing some of this down.

Personally I think this a great idea but because I live so far I am pretty sure some problems will come up.

What do you think Meka?

Insane Bartender wrote:
> or look at my website (plug: http://www.geocities.com/gazrip/ib/)

Heh, I like the fact that the 'You Lot' section is titled 'Other Stuff of Little Significance'...

Insane Bartender wrote:
> Meka, quite clearly I'll be interested. Talk to me on MSN
> ([email protected])


Oh my god.... I have always thought IB had an amusing Email address. I had been reading it: Annoying Internet Trouting , I thought it was completely Random but pretty funny and, well if he likes fishing thats his choice. In a moment of non stupidity i just realised the truth.......

I'd probably only make the winners and runners up available to read, though another competition (with less entries) could be voted upon by those that had entered. Worth considering.

This is still in the 'brain-egg' stages at the moment, but the idea has potential, I believe.

It's just that there are so many decent writers that use this site, it would be good to give them a chance to enter it into a competition that isn't quite on the same large scale as some of the larger websites.

So many ideas, too much time to spend at work to make it difficult for me to do it!


IB, as I'm at work I can't MSN you, and I'm away next week, but I'll add you to my contacts. I'll drop you an email when I have a bit of a clearer idea of what I want to do.

I'd be interested, paying a couple a pounds is nothing, really.

If enough people are interested, just one story per-member would probably work.