Hope and hopepunk

This week has been a good one for me.  It started with me being shortlisted for the University of Portsmouth's  WriteUp competition.  This was a writing competition for students and alumni of the university, so I decided to enter a story with local references.

My story concerned a dragon woman on an ironclad warship based in Portsmouth Harbour which was going into battle against a French fleet.  I thought the judges would like its themes, and I was right.  After I was presented with my prize I got chatting with three of the student judges. They were second  year degree creative writing students, and we fell to discussing the judging process.

They said they'd each read each story separately, then come together to choose the winner.  They said a couple of things which I found intersting.  First, they said that most people had waited right up to the closing date to submit their entries.  I know from reading judges' reports on other competitions that this is a common complaint.  So if you want a better chance of winning a competition, submit early.  If you're on the last minute that puts more pressure on the judges reading the stories.  They may have less time to consider each entry, and that might prejudice them against yours.  And if they're reading a lot of stories at the last minute they might be feeling a little jaded.  Your sparkling prose might not get the benefit of the doubt.

The second thing they commented on was the number of what they called 'relentlessly grim' stories they'd read. They had shortlisted a few, but from what they were saying, some of the entries were beyond dark.  They liked my story because it was light in tone, and also because it had a local connection.

I felt bouyed up by this, not only because I won the competition, but also because younger readers seem to be turning away from grimdark.  This is good news for me and my novels, given that I write hopepunk, the opposite of grimdark.  I'm in the middle of pitching an environmental hopepunk novel to agents right now.

So far, the only one who has replied to me has rejected it, but I know she likes dark and twisted stories.  Far too many of my target agents profess to like that stuff, but I'm hoping that, in the light of the grimdark reality we're currently living through, some of them will now be willing to turn towards hope and the light.