The RTÉ Short Story Competition 2023 in honour of Francis MacManus is back and is now open for entries.
Below, one of this year's judges, writer and filmmaker Ferdia MacAnna, explores what she looks for in a good short story.
One of the most extraordinary, illuminating and uplifting aspects of being a judge on this competition last year was discovering a short story possessed a 'radio voice’. The work is brought to vivid, incandescent life by a professional actor. It doesn’t alter a story. Instead, it enhances it in captivating, unexpected ways.
I love to read – and hear - about a compelling, flawed Character. I don’t have to like them, but I do need to care about where they are coming from and what they want. Whether or not I like the Character, I want to be able to root for them.
If the Character has a relatable goal, along with a passion to achieve it, I’m hooked. I will kiss goodbye to chores, deadlines and imperative family matters, until I find out what happens.
I relish stories that make you miss your stop on the bus or train. I yearn to be transported somewhere by a story, even if it means I have to walk home.
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Listen: RTÉ Short Story Competition judges Ferdia MacAnna, Claire Kilroy and Kathleen MacMahon talk to RTÉ Arena
The way a story is told is important - expression, use of words and language that emanates from a character and their world, not from an authorial voice telling us what to think and feel.
A rule I usually agree with is Show, Don’t Tell. Once I detect polemic, obvious exposition, too much explanation, unnecessary backstory or an author showing off attempting to weld the reader into a theme, I detach.
Give me conflict, atmosphere, a curious, significant setting. Character-driven dialogue along with a brisk pace. Intrigue, surprise and enthral. Keep the reader at least one step behind. In other words, a tale needs to be unpredictable or at least, artfully disguised so it feels as though we are participating in an unravelling, a revelation.
Kurt Vonnegut said writers should be sadists and make bad things happen to characters to show readers what they are made of. I get that. Who wants to read about a vanilla person doing bland deeds in a world where everything is beige? It’s an invitation to bail by the third paragraph.
One of my heroes was - and still is - Ray Bradbury. He famously encouraged writers to jump off a cliff and find their wings on the way down.
Reading a good short story should feel like jumping off a cliff. Take risks. That’s what Bradbury meant. Don’t settle down. Embrace your imagination.
Rules are great and handy things, but made to be undermined and subverted. Know the rules, then break them.
The truth is I don’t know what I am looking for in a short story. Perhaps nobody does. Like myself, they only know it when they find it.
I would encourage a writer to dedicate a final pass to reading your story aloud. To yourself or others. You might be astounded to discover how it sounds and also what tweaks and changes could improve, clarify or improve it.
Beir Bua.
Writers have until Friday 26th May to submit their short story to the RTÉ Short Story Competition. competition - for rules, information on how to enter, and to read and listen to past winning stories, go here.
