Harrogate Writers Circle

Our meeting of 29th Oct 2025 was the adjudication of the short story competition by Helen Walters.

Joan first introduced the adjudicator, Helen, indicating her high standing as a writer and being well qualified to judge our pieces of writing. Firstly Helen talked about dark stories in a number of contexts. She produced a mind map she had prepared to cover several styles of dark stories which a writer could use. The areas covered were first Ghost and Supernatural, Then Uncanny, Crime, True Crime, War and Military, Tragedy and Grief, Apocalyptic and Dystopian, Horror. Obviously some areas are dark by their very nature, like Horror. But some are not always dark. For instance Ghost and Supernatural which can be light hearted as well as dark. If you make your ghostly presence malevolent then it will be dark. Next is The Uncanny, which is about not knowing what is going on. This is quite often not an obvious threat but something that will send a shiver down the spine. Then Crime. Not all crime stories are dark, cosy crime certainly isn't, but certainly a murder mystery gives an opportunity for scary crime scenes. True Crime is very popular at the moment and gives opportunities. Then she covered War. By its very nature the background can give rise to darkness in the stories. Also Tragedy and Grief generally can be dark because they inherently involve loss which could give rise to darkness. The last two categories are Apocalyptic and Dystopian. These ensure a background for the story which gives the characters thins which will weigh on their abilities to survive. Finally we have Horror which exists mainly to scare the reader.

So why do we want to write dark fiction. It can be almost a therapy to face our own emotions. Finally writing Dark fiction can unfetter the writer, and give her a free reign.

Then Helen talked about the entries to the competition. She went through each story.

First was 'The Beast'. This had an excellent beginning and the description was really good. Perhaps the final scene needs a little tweaking. Overall a good story.

Next was 'Mothers And Sons' This has some good scene setting and the use of sound is very effective. Characterisation is also excellent and the ending was very good.

Then was 'The Escape.' A good dynamic beginning and the unsettling feeling comes in early. It had a good structure and plenty of jeopardy.

Next 'All Saints Eve' This started with a sensory scene - dust stinging in the eyes and throat. In general the scene setting is very good. The juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern in the story line was very effective. The odd comic interlude worked well. The opening paragraph was a little long and would benefit from breaking up a bit.

All stories had strong openings. And all were strong and enjoyable to read.

The result was :- The runner up was 'All Saints Eve' by Peter and the winner was 'Mothers and Sons' by Denise.

Then Denise read her winning story and the members gave their comments. Peter read the runner up story - 'All Saints Eve' and Joan read her entry, 'Mothers And Sons.'

Our next meeting on 12th Nov is a manuscript evening. Details of our programme can be found online at https://harrogatewriterscircle.weebly.com. If you want to improve your writing then why don't you pop into the next meeting.