Hysteria 4

By Linda Parkinson-Hardman

Hysteria 4 is an anthology of all 30 winning stories, flash fiction and poetry from the 2015 Hysteria Writing Competition. Each category has 10 fantastic winners that all challenge women to reflect and review how they think about life.

Our annual theme is always ‘women’, in their many and varied guises. Each entry takes a different look at the things common to our gender. This year a standout theme was that of strength and diversity; the indomitable strength and determination of our heroines, characters and voices shines through.

Judging the competition is a herculean task and to celebrate this achievement you’ve find sage advice from a selection of our judging panel in each category section. This invaluable insight into the process is perfect for those hoping to win writing competitions in the future. This is the fourth anthology from the Hysteria Writing Competition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Parkinson-Hardman
• Release date: Dec 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370031818

Linda Parkinson-Hardman

I am the author of eight books and the editor of 5 anthologies for the Hysteria Writing Competition.I am also a Social Entrepreneur and Founder (CEO) of The Hysterectomy Association. I'm a professional speaker and in my day job a Business Change Manager and trainer.

Book preview

About the Hysteria Writing Competition

Hysteria is an annual writing competition for women only; it opens on the 1st April each year and closes at midnight on the 31st August. You can find out more about the competition, including rules and guidelines for entries on the Hysterectomy Association website about the next competition at: www.hysterectomy-association.org.uk/hysteria-writing-competition.

Acknowledgements

The competition and this anthology wouldn’t have been possible without the support and help of all the following people.

This book is dedicated to them and to the users of the Hysterectomy Association.

Thank you. Linda Parkinson-Hardman (editor).

Judges

Short Stories:

Tracey Glasspool

Ginna Wilkerson

Ayalla Buchanan

Sal Page

Clare Girvan

Tamara Jones

Lucy Williams

Flash Fiction:

Helen Chambers

Diane Simmons

Ninette Hartley

Elizabeth Ducie

Sade Norwood

Emma Norry

Lyndsay Wheble

Sarah Eaton

Lizzie Heasman

Poetry:

Janet Dean

Vicki Morley

Eithne Cullen

Samantha Read

Mandy Huggins

Marion Spencer

Sarada Gray

Clare Archibald

Foreword

It has been a privilege for me to be among the first to read the stories and poems compiled in this book. The wit, creativity and inventiveness of the entries has made all of us at Covance very proud to sponsor the 4th Hysteria Writing Competition.

Across each category, be it flash fiction, poetry or short story, a theme that has leapt off the page to me is that of strength, particularly strength in the face of the adversities which we as women will face throughout life. Though they may not always shout about it, or even fully believe it, the women in this anthology (and their fellow men!) show an indomitable spirit. And I think that’s something we can all relate to!

The judges have done an excellent, if unenviable job of selecting this year’s winners, and have also included some sage advice about writing across all of the categories. For anyone considering submitting an entry for the 2016 Competition, their words are a good place to start.

The pieces in this compilation have played on my mind, resonating with me for several days after reading, and whetting my appetite for what the competition has in store for the years to come. And I hope it will have the same effect on you, too.

Ruth Smethurst

Covance Clinical Research, Competition Sponsor

Flash fiction

The Flash Fiction category was open to entries with a maximum word count of 250 words. These ultra-short stories needed to be complete and give the reader the satisfaction of not being left hanging.

The challenge when writing flash fiction is to tell a complete story in which every word is essential. It’s important that the writer pares down the padding, peels away the layers and ends up with the pure essence of the story.

Advice from our Flash Fiction judges

Ninette Hartley

www.olivespastavino.com

Judging the Hysteria Flash Fiction Competition was an interesting experience and I enjoyed it immensely. It was surprising how many entries had the same or similar theme and very few of them made me laugh or smile, I would have liked a few more of those please, it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom to be a good read. The ones that stood out for me were written clearly with no ambiguity involved, those that made me think and stayed with me and the few that made me smile. One piece of advice, if you are going to write something with a twist, however slight, get someone to read it without the ending and see if they can guess what it might be, then you’ll know whether or not your twist is going to work. Make sure your theme is clearly portrayed, being confused by a short story is not at all satisfying for the reader. Read your story aloud to other people and it will soon be obvious if you’ve got it right or not.

Elizabeth Ducie

www.elizabethducie.co.uk

I read a lot of short stories as a competition judge, not just for the Hysteria Association, but for other organisations as well; and I find two common issues with many of them.

Firstly, they are depressing. So many focus on death, disease, dementia, child abuse etc—or even a combination of these themes. Of course, these are very real issues and can lead to powerful writing, but they don’t make for easy reading—especially when a judge has a couple of hundred or more to go through. And I should add that while this is a personal opinion, other judges I have spoken to feel the same way.

And secondly, they are predictable. There is a common belief among writers that there are only seven stories in existence—and I see no reason to argue with this belief—but there are an infinite number of ways in which these stories can be retold. Far too often, I read the opening of a story and predict what it’s going to be about and what the ending will be.

Now, I’m not suggesting that a downbeat story with a familiar theme is not going to be a winner. In some cases, the writing is so good it just can’t be denied. But I am suggesting that an upbeat story, especially if it makes me laugh out loud, is much more enjoyable to read; and if the theme is less obvious, and the ending is unpredictable, so much the better.

So next time you are planning to enter a competition, why not spare a thought for the judges’ happiness—and surprise us by making us laugh and surprising us with an unusually twist to your tale.

Lyndsay Wheble

www.lyndsaywheble.com

It was a pleasure judging the Hysterectomy Association Competition’s flash fiction strand in 2015, but several things came up again and again that I’d advise any entrant to avoid:

Twist endings. Personally, I find little more frustrating than having a piece hook me in with a theme, a character or atmosphere, just for it to be dashed in the final few sentences. To me, it comes across as cynical and uncommitted. A good piece of fiction should be a revelation, not a trick. 

Vaguely-drawn sentimentality. Many of the pieces concentrated on familial or romantic relationships, which are great topics to explore, but there was a tendency towards exaggerating the emotions or situations into the realm of the mawkish, whilst not putting enough work into the illustration of why the relationships in question were so special to the protagonist. Relationships need to be enacted in fiction to be believed, and offsetting any overt sentimentality in your work with a dose of reality or contradiction will usually serve to elevate it, making it much more effective. 

Common topics or themes. It is not difficult to anticipate when entering a writing competition who the market for it might be, and therefore, what subjects they might write about. In this competition, there was an overwhelming number of pieces about women getting their groove back, leaving husbands or losing husbands, or discarding familial obligations in favour of new lives. Some of these pieces were great pieces of writing, but the similarities between them worked to the detriment of all, as they all started to blend together. Try and anticipate this and write something that will stand out.

Emma Norry

www.linkedin.com/pub/emma-norry/81/851/230

This is an exciting category to judge but reading the variety of entries, it did strike me that there appears to be some confusion amongst writers regarding exactly what flash fiction should be!

Flash fiction does not have to have a twist, and in fact, it’s difficult to do this effectively in a unique way that doesn’t feel a ‘cheat’ to the reader (this was all a dream/narrating from beyond the grave/think narrator is a child but it turns out to be a pet/adult etc… we came across these examples multiple times!).

Flash fiction is not a ‘slice of life’ (this is a