Tag Archives: Green Stories

Green Stories seeks superhero tales with a climate twist

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Northern Slopes stream and woodland by Judy DarleyThe Green Stories’ team invites you to create an eco-Superhero for their latest creative competition.

They say: “‘Saving the world’ is the basic job description of most superheroes, but who on Earth is going to help ‘save the planet’? Maybe that’s where you come in! As part of the Green Stories Competition, this contest challenges you to create an uplifting short story of superheroes that respond to climate change.”

Your target audience should be teens and young adults who enjoy watching superhero films.

The winner will receive a £500 prize, plus a scene from their winning story will be turned into a one-page comic strip, created by a professional artist.

The competition is free to enter.

The deadline is 15th April 2023. Entries should be no longer than 2,000 words, excluding title.

Imaginative prompts

  • What kind of superpowers would your heroes have?
  • What are your own experiences of climate change (and extreme heat) in the countries you’ve lived in? 
  • Are there any personal/ emotional barriers to your own efforts to address climate change in real life? Would your own heroes face similar challenges? 
  • What are the personalities of your heroes? What are their virtues and limitations? What about their backstory and occupation? 
  • How will they attempt to reduce, or adapt to, climate change (and extreme heat)? Will your audience be able to do similar in their own lives?
  • Which solutions will you include in the story? If possible, draw on the information provided below *. Will technology help or hinder their goals?
  • Will the character(s) take political action? If so, how effective would their campaigns/ activism be in addressing their fears for the future?
  • Is your story entertaining enough for the target audience?
  • If you have not lived in a country that’s particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis, are you able to listen to the experiences of people that have? 

You can download a free anthology of climate solution stories to inspire you here. You may also find the associated webpages a useful resource: https://www.greenstories.org.uk/anthology-for-cop27/solutions/.

The Green Stories website is packed with information on the topics they’d like you to consider, ranging from practices such as the sharing economy to advances such as nanotechnologies and green transport.

For full details of prizes and how to enter from 1st April, visit www.greenstories.org.uk/upcoming-competitions/superhero-competition/ 

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) iCloud (dot) com.

Submit stories on a ‘clean vs green’ theme

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Leaf & raindrops by Judy Darley
The Green Stories crew are inviting short stories on the theme of ‘clean vs green’ for their latest competition, closing to entries on 21st July.

First prize is £500. Entering is free.

The competition has been devised as a way of myth-busting: “Often when promoting waste reduction and reduction of high-energy activities, such as running hot water, we come up against health and safety issues. Some of these are valid, but many are misinformed.”

The judges are seeking engaging fictional stories that help readers understand how over-cleaning can mean that we kill our bodies’ ‘good’ bacteria through over-use of harsh cleaning products.

“Your challenge is to write a short story (between 1000 and 3000 words) that helps to raise awareness and shift attitudes, especially for those people who assume that the more detergent the better.”

You’ll also need to provide around 200 words on the thinking around your story and how it meets the criteria.

The Green Stories website has story briefs and suggestions to inspire you, as well as plenty of information to make sure you get the details rights.

Find full details here: www.greenstories.org.uk/upcoming-competitions/short-story-clean-vs-green/ 

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Enter the Orna Ross Green Stories Prize for eco-novels

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Arnos Vale light in the canopy. Photo by Judy Darley
The Orna Ross Green Stories Novel Prize is seeking adult novels showcasing what a sustainable society might look like.

The deadline for entries is 30th December 2021, making this the perfect chance to end the year on a positive, eco-friendly note!

There is a cash prize of £1000 for the winner and £500 for the runner up.

Green Stories aims to create a cultural body of work that entertains and informs about green solutions, inspires green behaviour and raises awareness of the necessary transformations towards a sustainable economy.

A particular aim is to use fiction as a way to reach an audience beyond those who already strive to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and to support winning authors to translate their stories into published books.

Entry is free, but entrants must show they have read at least one chapter from successfully published pieces from the Green Stories project that provide an example of entertaining mainstream fiction that meets the criteria of showing green solutions (not just problems) that readers can engage with.

This year the book is Habitat Man by D. A. Baden, an eco-themed rom-com and murder mystery written specifically for the Green Stories project. The submission survey will include a short easy quiz to demonstrate that you’ve read the extract.

Length: Submit three chapters* (minimum of 4000 words, maximum 10,000 words) of a 70,000 – 95,000-word novel as one document that must include the following:

  • the first chapter
  • another chapter that best showcases how your novel meets the green stories criteria
  • a third chapter (suggest the final chapter if possible)
  • a synopsis between 500 and 1000 words (name and contact details optional – we can identify via submission page) that covers genre, plot, characters, and details of how it meets the green stories criteria of showcasing positive visions of a more sustainable society or incorporating green solutions into the context of an otherwise mainstream story.

You can submit more than three chapters if you need to, in order to make up to 4,000 words. If you reach the shortlist, Green Stories may request more chapters or the full novel from the best entries to help them choose a winner.

Eligibility

Open to all adults (18+) of any nationality, as long as the submission is in English and has not been published elsewhere.

All submissions must conform to the green stories criteria of showcasing positive visions of a more sustainable society or incorporating green solutions into the context of an otherwise mainstream story.

The competition is open to novels that are either:

–          Partially complete (at least 50%) in the first draft phase
–          Fully complete and unpublished (between 70,000 and 100,000 words).

Prizes

£1000 for the winner and £500 for runner up, plus the following: 

A half-price manuscript appraisal by established literary consultancy Daniel Goldsmith, worth £300 to £400, will be available to the authors of the top three entries.

Winners will also have the choice of either a one-to-one mentoring session with the winners (at their office in London or virtually) with literary agency Redhammer Management, or a package of self-publishing support from the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) set up by Orna Ross including a year’s membership of ALLI and a free pass to the Self-Publishing Advice Conference.

Publishing is just half the battle, to help winners achieve sales we will promote the winning book (once published) via our networks.

Submission

Find the full details of how to submit your novel excerpt entry here: https://www.greenstories.org.uk/upcoming-competitions/adult-novel-deadline-dec-2021/.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.