If you've never heard of the Radio 2 500 words competition, you are missing out on the chance of a lifetime. All you have to do is write a story of 500 words or less, and submit it to the Radio 2 website before Friday the 8th of March. Your story can be about absolutely anything; however, it must be in English and fictional (i.e no historical recounts, although you can use famous/popular characters in your story).
Entries will be judged on originality, plot, characterisation, language and enjoyment. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how bad your grammar or spelling is; if you have good ideas, you may still be in with a chance of winning!
The prizes:
- Gold Winners - Chris Evans' height in books, 500 books for their school and an invitation to visit the set of a CBBC Production.
- Silver Winners - HRH The Duchess of Cornwall's height in books.
- Bronze Winners - Their own height in books.
My experience
Even though I didn’t progress, I loved taking part in the 500 words competition. Writing short stories is a special skill, and compressing a meaningful story with interesting characters into less than 500 words is no mean feat. My sister also took part in the competition, and she said: “It was really fun to write a story for a competition, and it would’ve been really exciting if I had won!”
Even though I am too old for this sort of thing now, I would definitely encourage you to tell anyone you think would be interested; and of course, start writing!
