PFN – Didcot Writers Writing Competition. Theme: Contronyms

Our current theme is: contronyms

A contronym is a word that can mean two things, which are opposites. We can dust a cake to add something to the surface, or we can dust a shelf and remove something. Something can be held fast, meaning it cannot move, or it can be moving fast. A sanction can mean permission for something or punishment for something. See what contronyms you can come up with (feel free to google) and see what direction it takes your creative writing.

Deadline for submissions: 30th September 2024

Submission guidelines:

1. Submit your entry via the google form linked under ‘How to Submit’ below. Please note the entry fee for those who are not participants at our free online events.
2. Respond to the theme/challenge/prompt. If you’ve got the perfect piece of work but it doesn’t fit the current challenge, get in touch to suggest a theme for next time!
3. There is no lower word limit. The upper word limit (not including title) is 500 words.
4. There are no strict formatting requirements, but nothing too weird please.
5. Please title your document with your entry title, and also put the title at the top of the work. Do not include your name in the document as entries will be read anonymously. Full credit will be given to the author if the work is published.
6. No really bad swear words or explicit content, please.
7. Submissions are welcomed from around the world, but must be in English.
8. We don’t mind simultaneous submissions, or if your entry has been published elsewhere in the past, but please make sure your work is copyright cleared for it to be published online if chosen. (For example, if you need to include the line ‘first published in…’ to comply with a former publisher’s terms, let us know.)
9. If your work is selected as winner or ‘Reader’s Choice’ it will be published on our website. We reserve the right to make minor edits. We would like to leave your work on our site indefinitely, but if you would like it removed after a minimum of 12 months online please get in touch.
10. There will be no monetary payments to authors for work accepted as this is a non-profit competition run by volunteers; there is a possibility your work may be included in a printed/ebook anthology in future – we will get in touch if we want to include your work.
11. We will keep your data in accordance with GDPR, and use your email address only to contact you to announce the competition winners and let you know of new competition opportunities (maximum one email a month after the announcement of winners). You can unsubscribe at any time, just email didcotwriters@gmail.com.

How to submit:

If you have not attended one of our events (online or otherwise) in the last 12 months you will need to pay a fee of £4 per entry. If you are unable to pay this fee, all you have to do to receive a free entry is attend one of our events (there are lots of free events and many are online – see bit.ly/didcotwriters-calendar for dates, and email didcotwriters@gmail.com for the links).

Pay the competition entry fee via PayPal here or via SumUp here (it’s the same price to you in both places, but SumUp take less commission, so we like them better).

For multiple entries: even for event participants only your first entry is free, no matter how many events you have attended. So for second and subsequent entries to the same competition please pay the £4 fee using the link above. If you want to pay for multiple entries to the same competition you can do it as one transaction.

Submit your entry via the google form here (you will need to sign in).

Please make your document title the same as the title of your entry, and include your title in your document (it’s not counted in the word count). All this saves us a headache later.