In fact there's lots to like.
Well, firstly it does what it says on the tin – and
a little bit more!
Lorraine Mace and her team run their Flash
500 competition four times in a year – a quarterly competition for pieces that clock in
under 500 words (under 501 actually). The prizes are very healthy and very balanced: £300 for first
place, £200 for second and £100 for third. A highly commended writer also gets
a prize – non-monetary.
They also run a short story competition
once a year (3000 words) and a Novel Opening competition.
But what’s to love most about Mace and her
team is that they keep to a rigid timeline. Good timekeeping gathers respect.
They promise to deliver the results of each of their Flash 500 competitions
within six weeks of the closing deadline. That’s a pretty swift turnaround… but
even more impressive when examined in detail. They produce a longlist and a
shortlist in there, too – 53 on the current longlist and 25 on the shortlist.
The longlist appears somewhere around the 3 or 4 week mark and the shortlist a
week or so after.
The judge is different for each competition
and provides a report on the best of the stories – sometimes commenting on the
entire shortlist or the top ten on the list.
All of that within the promised six weeks! Wow!
It’s a lovely competition for a writer to
take part in – I think. Go take a look.
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