The Gibberish Writing Competition
Catchy Name Forever Pending
Hi! I am Scoot, and you are currently reading Gibberish. Yes, a whole lot of Gibberish.
You may not have heard of me because I’m not famous. I’m prolific and silly on notes, and occasionally I write things some have described as “worth reading”. But I’m not formally trained, I am not especially qualified, and neither am I especially good. But what excites me is getting better at writing—what excites me is helping other people improve their craft.
One way to do this is something a LITTLE crazy: A Competition. This is going to be a little bit different from other fiction challenges like
monthly prompt celebration, or mysterious award seasons. In both of these, you submit, you wait, and then someone tells you whether you’ve won or not (or, in Fictionista’s case, whether you stood out as a favorite). That’s gut wrenching. What are they using to evaluate? How can you use that to improve your craft?And this isn’t to bash the Lunar Awards or Fictionistas! They do a tremendous service. They get you writing. They get you reading. You can see by example which stories are the cream of the crop and try to emulate what you can suss out from reading the winning stories.
But I want to try something different. I’ve been watching TV reality show cooking competitions and I like the idea of Challenges; I like the idea of Feedback. So that’s what we’ve got here!
Great! What is it?
The GIBBERISH WRITING COMPETITION is going to be a bit of a commitment.
There will be an application process, and I will select 5 to participate in the competition.
The 5 contestants will write 3 stories based on three prompt challenges.
Contestants will publish their stories on their substack and tag me to let me know!
I will read and critique each story from each contestant, and share detailed feedback to them privately before sharing the next challenge.
After each round I will share a summary of my feedback in a post and share with readers the overall scores and the standings!
When all three challenges have been completed, I will publish the final scores and announce a winner!
The winner will receive a free for life subscription to Gibberish and a free copy of my book Sandbox Earth. (If you already have either or both of these things, I will work out a suitable reward!)
All contestants will receive frequent cross promotion from Gibberish.
I will ALSO take the highest scoring piece of fiction from the winner and publish my detailed comments on the story, and include a link to the original publication.
This is a non-trivial competition! Do you think you have what it takes?
I Am Ready! How Do I Apply?
Listen Carefully! Here’s what you must do to apply:
Subscribe to Gibberish
Send an email to substackscoot@gmail.com
In the subject line, include the word “duck” somewhere
In the body of the email, explain to me what part of your writing you are most interested in improving.
In the body of the email, explain what your best skill is as a writer.
Include a screenshot of your subscriber count that includes the header of your publication.
Like This I will only accept applications for people who have fewer than 200 subscribers right now. If I don’t get 5 applications, I will extend the limit to 500 subscribers.
Finally, include a link to the piece of fiction you are most proud of from your substack.
If you haven’t published anything on Substack, or don’t have your own for fiction—*start one* and screenshot zero subscribers (it can be private—but give me something I can promote!)
I will also accept a google doc or a word document in lieu of a substack published story—but if you’ve started a substack above, I mean, you might as well, right? Eh????
Selections will be made entirely subjectively and I will not be able to defend why I selected one versus another. Not being selected doesn’t say anything about your ability or potential—feel free to follow along with the challenge and still try your hand at the prompts! This part of the process only exists because I need to keep the number of competitors down to a manageable size.
Applications are due by Wednesday, July 5th, at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Applications received after that will only be considered if I don’t have 5 contestants.
What Happens Next?
We will get this show on the road! The contestants will be selected and contacted on Thursday, July 6th, and the public announcement of the contestants AND the first challenge will happen on Saturday, July 8th.
The schedule is as follows:
July 8th - First Challenge Announced
July 12th - First Challenge must be finished and posted. Review phase starts.
July 15th - Second Challenge Announced, standings updated, and contestants have received their individual feedback!
July 19th - Second Challenge must be finished and posted. Review phase starts.
July 22nd- Third Challenge announced, standings updated, and contestants have received their individual feedback!
July 29th - Third challenge must be finished and posted. Review phase starts.
August 5th - Results announced, final winner selected, and top scoring post with edits will be shared.
I reserve the right to modify this schedule due to life events. I already know I am going to be away for the weekend of the 22nd so I will figure out how to work around that. I’ll be in touch with the contestants!
Good luck, all! I look forward to reading your applications, reading your wonderful fiction, and discovering some more truly talented writers of fiction here on Substack!
Godspeed!
-Scoot
Dang! I gots too damn many subs. Maybe I should boot some to get in? lol j/k j/k 👀
Who has not heard of Scoot!?! Where are these people? Do they live under a rock?
This is a great way to give back. I hope you get some good participation!