Hero or Anti-hero?

*Regretfully, we are going to have to close this competition early. Due to the low number of entries we are postponing it, with plans to re-open it in the New Year.* For those of you who have already entered, please let us know if you wish to have a refund of the entry fee. Otherwise, all entries already received will be kept on file until we re-open the competition. *Sorry for any disappointment and thanks to those who have entered!* Hero or Anti-hero? All entrants will receive a free week of our creative writing course on receipt of their entry (see below for more details) Prizes 1st Prize: GBP250, publication of your full book & 12 week creative writing course with feedback 2nd Prize: GBP50, first chapter of your book published in the back of the winning book & online, 12 week creative writing course with feedback 5 Runners Up will receive a 4 week creative writing course with feedback Closing date: 30th September, 2009 Winners announced 30th November, 2009 What does it take to be a hero? Do you have to battle against a terrible foe to rescue the love of your life, do you need to be kind to kittens or gentle with the weak? Do you need to be able to ride without a saddle and fight aliens with your eyes closed? Is this why anti-heroes have such a bad press? Your average anti-hero is not interested in saving the world, the world should be able to save itself. If a damsel is in distress, she probably brought it on herself. As for the weak, well, you can imagine how the anti-hero feels about them. and aliens might just make life more exciting. Kittens though, might be different, as anti-heroes are more likely to favour animals than humans. You know where you are with an animal. For our new competition, we want you to focus on personality, in particular your hero or anti-hero. With a strong emphasis on your main character or characters, give us a good storyline, inhabited by believable and vibrant people. They don't need to leap off the page screaming and waving their cutlasses, but they should make you feel you know them by the time you've read their story. Decide whether your main character is a hero or an anti-hero. Can a fictional character who gains a life of their own ever be one thing or the other? If they are a true villain, with no redeeming qualities, what is it about them that makes us love them so much? Please note that we have used the male form of hero and anti-hero for ease only, feel free to have as many strong, scary, wonderful, kind and world-saving women as you want for your main characters! Your work should be fiction but the genre and audience is up to you. Please see our creative writing courses page for more details of the courses we have available. For enquiries, please contact us on office@winterwitch.co.uk as we have had some issues with the Contact Us forms. International entries are welcome. Entries are GBP4.00 per entry, you may enter more than once. Please see below for full guidelines. Enter Now! GBP 4.00 If you wish to pay by cheque, please make it payable to J. Findlay. Guidelines Entries cost GBP4.00 per entry, you may enter as many times as you like but there is only one free week of coursework per entrant. Please note, there is no feedback available with the one week of free coursework. The free coursework can either be sent to yourself or as a gift to someone else - please specify at the time of entry. Children's courses are available. All coursework sent will be from our advanced courses, unless otherwise requested. We would appreciate being able to send all coursework by email but if this is not possible, please provide a stamped address envelope of A5 size or above for your coursework to be posted to you. The coursework will be no heavier than 60g. The coursework will be sent as a PDF attachment by email. Please enter the first 1-3 chapters of your work, depending on the stage reached in your project. Your project does not have to be completed for you to enter. We would also like a synopsis and/or character biographies. The length of your finished project is flexible, though we would prefer your final book length to be less than 150,000 words. Please contact us if this is likely to be an issue. If your work is unfinished, please state the estimated final length of your book - this will not affect your chance of winning. If it is complete, the approximate word count should be included. Please submit your entries in 12point font size or above and ansure all pages are numbered and labelled, in case they become separated. If submitting by email, please send your work in the body of the email or as an attachment in MS Word, MS Works or as a PDF. If submitting by post, please send to: Winter Witch Books, 3 Stoneybeck Cottages, Broughton Cross, Cockermouth, Cumbria. CA13 0TX. If you wish to pay by cheque, please make it payable to J. Findlay.