What’s Your Story Competition – sing it, rap it, sign it or write it
The Evening Standard and Netflix have just launched What’s Your Story? competition.
It’s very different to anything I’ve come across before because entries can be sung, signed, rapped, or tapped out on your phone. (How does the last one work…?) And it can be written conventionally.
Here’s what it says in the terms and conditions:
Entries may consist of either
A written entry up to 1,000 words;
A video (MP4 format) of no more than 2 minutes in length for spoken word.
BSL entries should be recorded as a video and accompanied by a transcript of no more than 1,000 words.
And your story can be drawn from your childhood, be about growing up, a story of the imagination or “anything at all”. It could be written for the screen, the stage or the page. However, it also says in the T&Cs that stories cannot depict events concerning real people
There are two categories – Young Adult (ages 11-17) and Adult (ages 18+). It is open to anyone resident in the UK who has not already been published.
Judges comes a wide range of the creative industries from Vice President of Originals at Netflix to Head Buyer at Waterstones and Editor in Chef at Penguin. Singer songwriter (and memoirist) Will Young is judging the young adult section.
And the prize?
Well, it’s quite a lot of things and is basically a brilliant stepping stone to a creative career. Among other things, the winners will receive mentoring from Netflix and Penguin and their work will be published in The Evening Standard
The deadline is 30 June 2021, 11.59 AM
Lots more information HERE
The competition is part of the Stories Festival which is happening somewhere in central London late September over three days. It will feature Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio (that news alone sells it to me), politician and author Rabina Khan, Exciting Times novelist Naoise Dolan and loads more people and events.
Tickets go on sale in early July. For more information visit the festival website.
2 comments on “What’s Your Story Competition – sing it, rap it, sign it or write it”
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Maybe I’m old fashioned, but if I enter I’ll go for writing the thing normally.
I’d need the help of a 11 to 18 year old to explain how to enter it any other way, but I do think it’s fantastic that it allows BSL entries.