Need to nudge your shorts? Here's the best writing contest around . . .

Don't ask me how I stumbled onto the Helen Whittaker Prize writing contest three years ago because I can't tell you. What I can tell you is that if you need to create more pieces to submit (short fiction and/or poetry), you won't find a better impetus than the Whittaker Prize sponsored by The Write Idea Forum.

Now I always entered the fiction category only. Some writers do both. Since the contest lasts for nine--count 'em--nine rounds and because I am not a poet, not even in my mind, I've only entered the short fiction category twice--in 2008 and 2010. If I could have entered in 2009, I would have, but I was in the thick of my MA in Creative Writing classes and couldn't squeeze it in.

What's so special about the Helen Whittaker Prize?

The fact that it is a long-running competition makes it exceptionally meaningful and engaging compared to one-off contests, even annual one-offs. This contest consists of nine rounds, each lasting two weeks, from March 12, 2011 through July 16, 2011. Each round you compete against the same slate of writers for the top spot. Each round someone emerges a winner. So, you may not win the whole schmear, but let me tell you from experience, winning a round is a BFD!  If you enter all nine rounds, you’ll have nine new pieces of writing in your back pocket by the middle of the summer.

I've had the privilege of competing with many of the same writers for two years now, and you won't find a more capable group of people who are surprisingly supportive, mature, and fair-minded for writers competing against one another regularly. They are also a very accomplished lot, publishing their stories, books, and in anthologies left and right. I feel as though I've made a lot of worthwhile friends in the writing world because of this competition while improving my ability to write shorts. Not to mention, you find out what you're made of--as a writer, as a person. This contest has allowed me to grow in both areas.

What really defines the Whittaker Prize contest, however, are The Write Idea site adminstrators, Donna Gagnon and Doug Pugh. They are hard-working and responsive. They are consummate professionals though running this contest hardly constitutes their livelihood. They do it because they are interested in preserving and growing a strong writing community. And on top of all that, they pat you on the back if you deserve and hold your hand if you need it (writerly egos and all that).

How to sign up and other details...

The competition is open to anyone over the age of 18 who writes fiction or poetry in English. There are two categories: fiction and poetry. Writers may enter one category or both categories. Anyone wishing to participate in this competition must currently be a member of TWI or register and be accepted as a member of the forum but it costs nothing to register for the site.

There is an entry fee of $30 CDN. Writers may enter BOTH categories for a fee of $50 CDN. Fees may be paid via PayPal to donnagee at vianet.ca or email donnagee at vianet.ca to make other arrangements (i.e. cheque or money order).  What it boils down to is $3.33 per round, which isn't much considering that it involves a good deal of administration and that any judges worth their salt merit reasonable compensation.

Who are the fiction judges?

Donna's outdone herself this year obtaining capable judges. They are:
EVA STACHNIAK was born in Wroclaw, Poland, and arrived in Canada in 1981 on an English scholarship to McGill University. Her first short story, "Marble Heroes," was published by the Antigonish Review in 1994.

Her debut novel Necessary Lies (Dundurn 2000) tells an immigrant’s story of national and personal betrayals, silences and lies. Its characters – caught in the web of love and betrayals – grapple with their dramatic past that takes them from Nazi Germany and Communist Poland to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first years of democracy in the former Eastern Europe. It was first published in Toronto in 2000 (winning Amazon.com/Books in Canada First Novel Award) and in Poland as Konieczne Kłamstwa (WKTS 2004). Her second novel Garden Of Venus (Harper Collins 2005) re-tells a story of an extraordinary woman, Sophie Potocka, courtesan, courtier, countess, and confidante to tsars, queens and kings in late 18th century Europe. The novel has appeared in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Serbia, Ukraine and Poland. In September of 2011 Doubleday Canada and Bantam Books USA will publish her third novel, The Winter Palace, which takes place in 18th century Russia and is based on the life of Catherine the Great.

Eva lives in Toronto. More information at http://www.evastachniak.com

WILLIAM MEIKLE is a Scottish writer now living in Canada with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in 13 countries and eight languages.

He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in many magazines, newspapers and professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION reached #2 in the Kindle SF charts.

He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com.

Is it hard work? Yes! Is it worth it? Yes!  Hope to see you there.

Prompted to say more about . . . prompts!

Writers (and teachers of writing) seem to be polarized about using writing prompts. One good writing buddy stated categorically that he hated prompts and wouldn't participate in any endeavor that expected him to use them. Several other writing teachers said they never use them. Why this is, well, I'm uncertain.

Is it mentally "cheating" to rely on an outside stimulus to trigger your intrinsic creative genius? Are some writers fearful that following a prompt won't allow them to tap the organic story they're holding inside them, that's itching to be told?

Paint chips can inspire more than remodeling ventures

Prompts can be single words like fragrant, crimson, circus, three words I remember using in my first competitive flash fiction writing experience--all evocative, all working well for me. In fact, the story I wrote for crimson ended up being published here, a fine online compendium that, sadly, is no longer around.

Yes, prompts can be story starters several lines long or lines from other's writing, loosely followed. They can be images, photos, and objects. One of my faculty members at Wilkes University used paint chips, specifically the names given to different colors of paint to create a collection of poems--paint chip poems, if you will, based on names like Corn Husk Green, Grass Cloth, and Jungle Trail. A strikingly original, kitschy kind of prompt, that prompted some beautiful work.

I would say prompts may border on expedient, but are not cheating the "organic" writing process. I heartily argue in favor of giving prompts a try.

We are bombarded by so many stimuli day in and day out that our senses and sensibilities can become dulled. Sound, color, smells, tastes. My day is chock full of them. Does that mean I give each sensation its due? Absolutely not. Instead, it's almost like I've been desensitized to the concrete world and have to invent ways to re-engage--to see the world like a child, like Dorothea Brande recommends in her book Becoming a Writer. Prompts force me to focus on one idea, one sensation, one word. Maybe I have adult ADHD that has never been diagnosed. That's highly possible. But I don't think I'm the only writer who responds well to prompts. Another Wilkes faculty member remarked in a panel discussion that a single real-life image can and has prompted him to write whole books.

Lenore Hart Poyer

Writer Lenore Hart was my fiction foundations teacher in the Wilkes University Creative Writing Program. Her newest book The Raven's Bride is due in bookstores in February 2011. Lenore had this to say about using prompts:

I use writing prompts in workshops or writing classes for various reasons. They are great to get past the blank terror of a plain white page, because the hardest part is always just GETTING STARTED. I use them also in a targeted way to help people with specific craft issues (not understanding POV, or a need to stop using too much summary, or adding specific details to counteract vagueness).

For my Beginning and Advanced Undergraduate Fiction Workshops I made up different three-page-scene writing exercises for each student, in lieu of a final exam. It was specifically crafted to force that particular person to address his or her biggest weakness, or to just do something different than the usual safe default story line. After I passed these out, they all invariably gasped and whined and cried and no doubt cursed me up their sleeves, but then many came to my office later to say, "It's the best thing I ever wrote." So those for me have been the best uses for prompts. I don't tend to use them myself, I already have too many stories clamoring in my head to be told, and I'll never get to them all in this life! But I think a prompt can be very useful if you ever do feel stuck and need a good old-fashioned kick in the pants.

So, there certainly are applications for those teaching creative writing at the college level. What about in real-life practice?

Recently, I participated in a nine-round short fiction contest sponsored by The Write Idea. This year they added picture prompts, which I used more than I used the linguistic prompts. In fact, I won one of the rounds for which I used a picture prompt--a painting in Monet's Japanese series.

Suffice it to say, what inspires us to write is as varied as the kinds of stories we write. Some of us have different ways of connecting with our muse. The most important thing is use what works in order to keep yourself creating new content with as much regularity as your schedule permits.