Melissa Barker-Simpson

I’ve entered quite a few contests on fanstory recently. There’s tough competition so although I’ve come close to winning a few times, until today I never came first. It was a wonderful feeling to be recognised by my peers, it was also unexpected.

I’m not saying that to be modest. Some of my best work comes to me without rhyme or reason. I can put my fingers on the keyboard (though admittedly I prefer pen and paper), and the story builds itself. This time, I was working against a deadline but I was drawn in by the interesting parameters of the contest. I had to write a piece of flash fiction using only dialogue (not even speech tags allowed). I didn’t know what I was going to write about but I gave it a shot.

The next thing I knew, twenty minutes later, I had these two unbelievably sweet characters transforming on the screen. I gave it a once over and sent it off. So, although I was pleased with it, I didn’t obsess the way I normally do and rewrite a few hundred times (once or twice).

I know that my peers probably overlooked the odd grammatical error or two, but it was still a really good feeling to know it was not only worth the read, it was worth a vote as well. I think that sometimes, as writers, we strive to be perfect and forget that the characters can often speak for themselves.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time
Mel