Competitive Spirit

I just finished reading the winning and runner-up entry to the State Library of Queensland's Young Writer's Award competition for this year.

The competition is open to Queensland residents aged 18-25. The entries are to be under 2,500 words, to be judged on their 'literary merit' - and the prize is $2000.

If you're interested in taking a look yourself, the runner-up story is here and the winning story is here.

I don't like the runner-up - it reads like abstract poetry, and although there are some great images and sparks of ideas in there, whatever story is there was lost on me.The second was more to my taste. It felt like a real story, a real person, it was told with an original 'voice' and interesting imagery. It also felt a little cliched - the takes on the issues were things we (should) have all heard before. The themes were strong and clear, but I was not overly satisfied with the main character's resolution to his problem; I didn't feel like we were given the whole story in regard to his turning away from his religion.

I was interested to note that neither of the two stories survived a basic proof-read. There were places in each story where I had to stop and try to work out what a phrase was meant to be.

All of this makes me wonder if I could have done a better job. I would have had a hard time choosing a theme, and I don't think a story I wrote would be as poetic or rife with interesting imagery, but I think I could have turned out to be a formidable competitor. Too bad about that motivation thing... :-b