1st Paragraph Competition
The drive home was slow: the flat tyre made it seem to last a lifetime. Even my usual game of mimicking other drivers didn’t help. A lone packet of vegetable lasagne stared back at me from the middle shelf of my otherwise bare freezer. I kicked off my shoes and tried to relax, but the mistakes I’d made earlier at work kept sneaking into my thoughts. The microwave pinged. At the same time, the phone rang. I was in two minds: answer it, or let the machine kick in? Years later I came to regard that moment as the single biggest mistake I ever made, one that I would regret for the rest of my life.
For some, starting a story can be the most difficult part of writing. So here we have the opening paragraph to help unleash ideas and images to take the story on to its natural conclusion. Let the narrative unfold as we learn more about the protagonist, the issues at work, the moment that everything changed and the implications.
The 1st paragraph could be the beginning of a romance, the thoughts of an unlikely killer, the tangled and intricate web of a horror story or the start of an adventure. As the writer, the world is open to many possibilities and interpretations.
Entry fee: £12 per submission
Judge: Baden Prince Jnr
Deadline: midnight on Sunday 30 September 2012
Maximum words: 3000
Status: original and previously unpublished
Submission requirements: Contact details on separate sheet, word count, brief author biography
Prizes: £300, £150 & £50 plus winners and runners up published in anthology.
All entries must begin with the paragraph outlined above. Submissions are accepted online or by post. For all postal entries send them to 1st Paragraph Competition, Chapter One Promotions, Canterbury Court, 1 - 3 Brixton Road, London, SW9 6DE.
For online submissions select one of the options below:
Payment and Submission Options
- Pay and submit online
- Pay online and postal entry
- Post payment and send entry online
- Entry and payment sent by post
Note: All online submissions will receive an automated acknowledgement.
To view our guidelines please click here.
The results will be announced on Friday 1 February 2013.
If you would like to get in contact, please use the contact link here or call us on 0845 456 5364. Alternatively, you may prefer to write to us. Please include a self addressed envelope and send it to Chapter One Promotions, Canterbury Court, 1 - 3 Brixton Road, London, SW9 6DE.