CHRISTMAS CHILLERS CHALLENGE RESULTS

In judging this competition, as always, I read the stories without knowing the authors, and I put myself in the position of an editor, asking, would I take this piece for a Christmas magazine?

Only one entry was disqualified. The competition called for 1200, and the entry in question was almost 2,000 words long. It may have been a simple case of the author misreading the guidelines, but it does stress the need to check them carefully and several times before entering a competition.

Overall, the standard of story-telling was good. Without exception, the stories were entertaining and the interpretation of what is and is not chilling was as varied as the settings and themes.

However, some of the stories let themselves down on a number of fronts.

Even within the constraints of 1200 words, there should be time to build tension. Some writers used the available wordage to build background, leaving too little time for edginess.

The purpose of any tale is to exercise the reader’s imagination. In other words you do not have to tell them everything. Gauging where to stop is essential to the writer’s craft. Think of Hemingway’s shortest ever story. “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” Everything we read into those six words comes from our imagination, not the writer’s.

With that in mind, a proportion of the tales suffered from what I describe as “one line too many.” A writer should have the ability to realise where the tale ends naturally. It’s that point where no further explanation is necessary.

Similarly, there are times when a line of dialogue will end the story so much better than narrative.

Many entrants come from countries other than the UK, so I did not come down too hard on spelling differences, but there were one or two that irritated personally. To be pedantic, “whiskey” with an “e” is American or Irish. Scotch is “whisky” without the “e”. And in another tale, “smelt” is a kind of fish or the slag from molten iron ore. The correct word is smelled. I did not come down too hard on such errors, but in a number of tales, Claus, as in Santa Claus was spelled Clause, which as we all know, is part of a contract. There is no excuse for such a basic error.

Likewise, the occasional error in punctuation is acceptable and soon corrected, but where apostrophes were consistently missing and where there were too many spelling errors, the tale in question inevitably let itself down. Close editing is essential prior to submission.

And so to the winners!

1st place: The Robin and the Raven by Steven Wade
There’s a hint of what’s really going on in the opening paragraph, and like any good tale there other hints as we progress, but we don’t really learn anything until those final few lines. Well-written, well-structured, this story demonstrates another aspect of the supernatural. Not all spirits are malevolent. There is no gore, no horror, only the chill of eternity, but tinged with the goodwill of Christmas. An excellent effort and many congratulations to the author.

2nd Place: Merry & Bright Victoria Dutchman-Smith
There’s an old tenet in the writing of supernatural tales: it can take time for some spirits to realise they are dead. That idea is the heart of this tale which encompasses a range of emotions from love to anger, to grudging acceptance of a spouse’s faults, to outright jealousy. And the ending demonstrates precisely the point of not adding the extra line. There was almost no hint of what was to come until we were into the final few paragraphs. A candidate for top spot it was a close call between this and the winner.

3rd Place: Bacon Man by Dermot McKeone
A historical anecdote which telegraphed the ending, this could have worked either way round. The discovery followed by the explanation. But it engaged all the senses, including that which is so often overlooked by writers: the sense of smell. An old-fashioned tale of love and vengeance, well told.

My thanks go to all the writers for their entertaining tales, and my congratulations to the winners.

Read all Christmas Chillers entries including the winners.