Deadline looming for budding writers to take part in the national Chorley & District Writers’ Circle short story competition

Prizes for the competition total £210 – the highest ever prize fund.

This year the theme is open to a multitude of interpretations of ‘on the edge’.

Maximum word count is 2,500 and the closing date is 15 December 2019 at midnight.

The shortlist will be judged by the competition’s sponsors: editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback www.fictionfeedback.co.uk whose editor-in-chief, Dea Parkin, is based in Chorley (and is Secretary of the UK’s largest organisation for crime writers, the Crime Writers’ Association, which awards the famous Daggers for best crime writing.)

The first prize is £100, second prize £50 and there are three third prizes of £20.

Shortlisted entrants will be listed online and the winning stories will be published online and possibly in print.

Entry fee is £6 for one story or £10 for two.

Subscribed members of the Writers’ Circle are entitled to one free entry.

Entrants can live anywhere in the UK or be a British citizen living abroad.

The story mustn’t have been published in print before (online is fine) or won first prize in a competition.

Chorley crime writer DJ Harrison said: "We hope writers have fun writing a story with this very versatile theme in mind.

"Judging criteria are: – interpretation of theme; originality; quality of writing, for example pace, flow, characterisation, plot and style; and quality of prose, including grammar, spelling and punctuation.

"We hope that’s helpful and look forward to receiving your entry by 15 December."

People can enter by post or by email and pay their entry fee by cheque or by PayPal.

The Circle reserves the right to cancel the competition and refund entry fees if entries are insufficient to cover the prize fund.

Full rules and details on how to enter are at www.chorleywriters.org.uk under Competitions.