Introduction:
I wrote a story recently that got all the way onto the longlist. Great! But it was about my uncle’s passing. Not great. I’ll miss him. I’m not posting it here for the sake of being able to publish it elsewhere more easily.
The competition in question was New2theScene Flash Fiction Competition 2025. They had this to say regarding my story:
Once again, congratulations on making it to the Longlist of the New2theScene Flash Fiction Competition 2025. With hundreds of entries from emerging writers, being put forward to this stage is a significant achievement and a real testament to your talent and voice.
Unfortunately, you haven’t progressed to the Shortlist this time. While this may disappoint, we hope you take confidence from your performance and are excited to see where your writing journey takes you next.
– Richard Howitt
The Point:
Getting to the point, this is the furthest I’ve come in a competition that wasn’t New Contexts or Impspired. It was the most correspondence I got with a competition runner that wasn’t those two as well. I felt as if I was talking to an actual person who was giving me concrete information and not just “THANKS FOR PLAYING. YOU DON’T GET ANYTHING. BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, IDIOT.” (They’re not actually that rude or blunt, but you already knew that.)
Then there’s the fact I’m putting this on my CV. Because why not? Moreso, there’s no good reason not to. Portfolios need to be big, need to show that I’ve done a lot of work that people have liked. Being longlisted is worth being proud of. It means my story was better than most others. Not . Worse writers still deserve to get better, thus getting money for their work.
I’d have been happier if it was published, but this still might get me somewhere. Recognition is part of getting published. Building a body of work. That’s what I’m doing now. Also I don’t want this point to be big because them I look ungrateful. I’m not, I’m happy about this, but we all know I’d be happier being shortlisted and published.
Conclusion
Another point: ACTUALLY DO WRITING. I’m editing right now, but that still counts because I’m rewriting my novella. You can’t call yourself a writer if you don’t do writing. As in, writing that is meant to be published.
To wrap things up: Being longlisted is a stepping stone, and quite a large one. I’m happy with this and if you can manage to get this far, you should be too. Also my lack of posting for a while was mostly due to my job.
Next post will be about more nerd/writing stuff. Or comment what you want.
- Thanks for reading! If you like this, please check out my published work:
- The Spider and the Moths, on Impspired.
- A Model Dwarf, Wolf in Sheep’s Therapy, on Impspired.
- Cramped Quarters, on New Contexts 4.
- Endure, Reclaim, in New Contexts 5.
- Lost and Found, in New Contexts 7.
- The Cleaner’s Burden, in Apocalypse Now?.
- The Last Man Standing on the Ash Heap, on Impspired.
- Or, you could have a look at my last blog post, which you can find here.
- Also, I have a Fiverr page, check it out if you need proofreading or copywriting work done. Link here.