Writer Advice

Helping Writers online since 1997

Prior Contest Winners

Winter 2020–The Winners of the Scintillating Starts Contest Are…

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Winter 2020–The Winners of the Scintillating Starts Contest Are… The Winners of Writer Advice’s 2019 Scintillating Starts Contest are Sue Stewart Ade, Sarah Russell, and Michael Jack Webb.  All are excellent writers and I love the voices represented here. The openings of their work are below. My compliments to everyone who entered. There are so many wonderful books

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Fall 2019 — Flash Prose Winners

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“Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”  –Joan Didion   Flash Prose Winners 2019   The Winners Are — Fall 2019   From the Editor: I continue to be impressed with all the creativity and effort on the part of participants. We

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Prior Winners –2019 Flash Memoir Contest

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‘It’s inspiring to read all the submissions and glance into the important moments of so many lives. You inspire me!   –B. Lynn Goodwin   Flash Memoir Winners 2019   Several submitters commented on the fact that you appreciated hearing comments from a human. From time to time, I submit too, and I agree that

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Scintillating Starts –January to March 2019

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This page used to be called Flash. It’s where we post the winners of each contest. The Scintillating Starts of Writer Advice’s 2018 contest are below. Editor’s Note: For the first time ever, we have a four-way tie. The judges score independently. They don’t talk to each other. Why does this matter? If one qualified

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Flash – Volume 19 Number 2

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Reading the Scintillating Starts you submitted was an eye-opening experience. I had trouble knowing whether many of them were memoir or fiction. That didn’t figure into my decision about the winners, but it made me realize that I could honor more people if we had separate contests for fiction and memoir. In 2016

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Flash – Volume 20 Number 2

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Congratulations to our fourScintillating Starts WinnersFrank Joseph, Susan Keller,Chris Muniz, and Deborah L. Stautonand Honorable Mention Winner, Julie K. Royce Suggestion: Enjoy these stories. Bookmark this page. You may want to come back and reread this collection.     TO DO JUSTICEBy Frank Joseph Image by © Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS      Ever since I’m little

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Flash – Volume 20 Number 4

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Congratulations to our three Flash Fiction Winners: First Place: Kathy Joyce Second Place: K. Alan Leitch Third Place: Laura Fischer Honorable Mentions: K. Eldr Rochelle Weidner Suggestion: Please enjoy these wonderful stories. If you have a message for an author, send it to me and I will forward it.   Note: The next contest, Scintillating

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Flash – Volume 20 Number 3

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Congratulations to our three Flash Memoir Winners: First Place: Marni Hochman Tied for Second Place: Karen Arbogast & Donna Landi   Honorable Mentions: Alice Brunner Akesha Baron Sue Kesler Suggestion: Enjoy these memoirs. Share them with your friends and writing peers. If you write flash fiction, enter our current contest. Information is on the home

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Flash Winners – Volume 21 Number 4

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Editor’s Note: The judges score independently. They don’t talk to each other. Why does this matter? If one qualified judge doesn’t like your piece, take heart and resubmit. Another one will. Just keep searching. Of course if you find things to fix in the meantime, do so. On behalf of the judges and me, we

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Flash – Volume 20 Number 1

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Congratulations toFirst Place Winner, Janet RobinsonSecond Place Winner, Jonathan Werre And Honorable Mention Winners, Shannon Brown You make me glad we held a separate contest for MG, YA, and NA. Five Notes about the Judging: Readers need to care about your protagonist by the end of the first page.  The potential for intense, hypercritical (to

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Flash – Volume 21 Number 1

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  Congratulations to these Honorable Mention Winners in Flash Fiction and Memoir. Which is which? Write to Lgood67334@comcast.net with a reason why it matters and I’ll probably tell you. Meantime, revel in these worlds. ever Too Late: A 62-Year-Old Goes From Wannabe to Wife (tentative title), which has been picked up by Koehler Press.   Such

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