The Character-Driven Tale Contest, with David Corbett

Details

Writing is hard work. A writer has so many things to worry about: plot, grammar, style, pacing, atmosphere—the list goes on. But the most challenging of all those things can be writing realistic, convincing, and relatable characters.

We're really excited about our latest writing contest, because we're going to flex your character-writing muscle with help from author David Corbett. David is the author of four critically-acclaimed novels published by Ballantine, a Random House imprint. He's also taught writing at the UCLA extension's writing program among other venues, and his latest book, The Art of Character (Penguin), is, as the title suggests, all about creating characters that stick in your reader's heads.

This contest is going to require you to laser-focus your writing. To enter, submit a short story of under 3,000 words in which the focus of the story is on the characters. David will judge the entries based on the richness, uniqueness, and complexity of the characters you create.

"But how can I create memorable characters in just 3,000 words?" I hear you cry. Well, that's the challenge! You're going to have to squeeze every last drop out of the words you choose to create an interesting, short tale driven by characters that will stick with the reader for long after they've finished reading.

The first place winner gets a fifty-page full review of their work-in-progress by David Corbett himself. David will line-edit your work-in-progress and provide a detailed analysis assessing the strengths and needs of the set-up, story, plot, characterization, voice, pacing, theme, dialog, and marketability. This is your chance to get your writing assessed by a five-time published author who wrote the book on writing characters. What's more, this assessment is worth a whopping $350!

Additionally, first, second, and third place winners get a free copy of David's new book, The Art of Character, shipped to their door. (Winners outside of the US will receive a digital copy instead.) And last, but not least, all winners get a nice cash prize too.

Are you as excited as I am for this contest? Then let's see the characters you can create!

Winning entries

Winners have been announced! Log in to see them.

Prizes

Rules

• Entries must be received before midnight of Tuesday, April 30th (UTC time).

• Entries must be a character-driven short story of no more than 3,000 words as counted by Scribophile. There is no genre restriction.

• Only one entry per member, please. Multiple entries will be disqualified.

• Work must have Public visibility on Scribophile until winners are announced.

• Winners outside of the US will receive a digital copy of the book prize in lieu of a physical copy.

• Winners must have a valid Paypal account, or we won't be able to send the prize money!

Submission guidelines

• To enter the contest, post your work on Scribophile and check the box that says "Enter this work into the Character-Driven Tale contest." Your work will automatically be considered. The checkbox will be visible until the contest deadline, which is in UTC time.

• Entry is free, but you'll need karma points to post your work. You can earn karma points by writing critiques of work by other members.

• If you have placed in a contest in the past with a particular piece, you may not resubmit that piece in other contests.