Chalk Circle Writers congratulate fellow writer Jayne Block on her competition win with the CBC Writing School, led by Curtis Brown, one of the world’s major literary agencies. Read about her experience of entering the competition and the great prize she won.
I had been thinking for a while that the summer was slipping away, and I needed to get on with editing the first draft of my novel. I am one of those people who need a deadline to get things done, the closing date was looming for a course I was interested in. Hurrah! Just the encouragement I needed. The six week Curtis Brown Creative Edit and Pitch your Novel course sounded perfect for me.
I had redrafted sections of my novel with lots of helpful feedback from Chalk Circle, but I knew there were scenes that needed scrapping, characters dispatched, style checks, spelling checks, plot holes - the list is endless. Where on earth to start on such an insurmountable task? I needed a massive metaphorical boot up the backside to get me going.
Luckily for me, in this wonderful universe where all things social media are connected, I came across a competition by Curtis Brown Creative called #WriteCBC Tip & Task - a free writing exercise, silence you inner critic, writing in long hand - and the chance to win a free place on the same course. It sounded like a fun and unencumbered way to kick start my writing day. I barely registered what the prizes were.
I used three existing characters from my novel The Wild Weald, the first of a trilogy set in Sussex in the early seventeenth century. I was pleased with my competition entry and felt so energized I immediately signed up and paid for the course.
The next morning, I sat at my desk and started to write. I turned on my phone (I know you shouldn’t . . . ) and it started pinging with lots of lovely tweets, congratulating the winner of the #WriteCBC Tip & Task - and it was me!
I was thrilled of course, even more so when the generous people at Curtis Brown said I could still claim my prize and have a refund or a credit for use on another course. So now I must crack on with the hard work. No excuses left!
Find out more about the CBC competition task and read Jayne’s winning entry here