On Getting published on ABC Open 500 Word Stories

Recently I went to the Newcastle Writers Festival.  I went particularly to support fellow members of our small writers group who were live reading their stories.  One of these writers had won first prize in the short story Catchfire Press competition.  This was an amazing story and well deserving of first place in the competition. The other three writers  were to read their own stories that had been published on the ‘ABC Open 500 Word Story’  online site. 

It’s the ABC Open 500 Word story site I want to talk about today.

Run by the ABC this site is a wonderful place for budding writers to get their first ever publication of a story and after that as many more as they would like to submit. 

As it says, these stories have a limit of 500 words.  The story must be true and written in the first person. Each month there is a theme given.  Recent themes have included “Cringe” and “First Memory”. There are clear guidelines on the site regarding submissions.

The people who moderate in the Newcastle and Hunter branch are Anthony Skully and recently when Anthony was away, Bronwyn Purvis.  They are super supportive of the ABC writing community. Anthony runs workshops on how to write for the 500 Words, throughout the area and gives great encouragement to all.

I have written two stories in the last two months and they’ve both been published.  It’s a great feeling when you get the email to say your story is up on the site.  And you can then say you are a published author. A friend who has only just taken up writing and who sent in a story to “First Memory”, said waiting to hear if it was accepted was like waiting for a baby.  But just amazing and encouraging to hear it was accepted.

At the festival the ABC 500 group was the best of all the presentations I went to. There was standing room only.  A number of people read their stories which were welcomed with great delight by the audience.  Some made us laugh, some had us on the edges of our seats. All were amazing.  Bronwyn had a slide show up to match the stories and some stories were pre-recorded and played on the day. The atmosphere was wonderfully friendly and discussions later were amazing, with extra stories being told.  One reader of his stories was 97 years old!  The readers were from all walks of life.

It was the wonderful atmosphere that was the best part of that day – friendly and encouraging and happy.

So thank you ABC for providing this wonderful place for people who write, to be published and share their stories..

And to all you writers out there who would love to see your story in print  give it a go.