Thanks to everyone from around the world who has already entered our 31st Award. Deadline this coming Sunday. October 5th.
You may have a tweakable story in your archive that could still flower amazingly like this sunflower and be ready to submit in time. Why not consider changing the title? I found a few stories in my archives recently and realised the titles weren’t right. They added nothing and one of them was too abstract. I’d written one of the stories a couple of years previousy It was easier to see an alternative title after this time. I gave a more mundane title to the other recent story. The orgiinal was too fancy for the subject. For your story, can you write a shorter and simpler title? Or, would a longer one suit the subject better. Could either new title give the story more depth? What is likely to grab a reader’s interest?
It’s interesting to look at the title word count for the Bath Flash winning stories since the inugural contest in 2015.. In February this year, I studied the word count of all the first prize winner titles.
Below is a list of the different word count for the second prize winners. It’s a little different from the first prize winners. The longest list is for two word stories. More of the second prize winning stories have three word titles. There are five stories each for two and five word titles. Have a look through the lists from the first and second prizes. Which titles interest you? Read the stories too, to see how the title fits.
One Word
‘McDonalds’ by Sarah Freligh October 2022
‘Pack’ by Dawn Miller, February 2025
‘Edging’ by Iona Rule, February 2022
‘Between’ by Madeline Bryne June 2022
Two words
‘Butterfly Effect’ by Mairead Robinson, October 2023
‘The Mothers’ by Jo Gatford October 2021
‘Mother Before’ Tara Isobel Zambrono, October 2020
‘Rags,Riches’ by Shelley Woods, June 2016
The Coast by Zahid Gamieldien, October 2018
Three words
‘Failure to Thrive’ by Sara Hills June 2023
‘Walking to Wollongong‘ by Nikki Cruthley Feburary 2023
‘Snow Falling Upwards’ Fiona J Mackintosh, February 2019
‘The Perfect Fall’ by Christopher M Drew, February 2016
‘The Undertakers’ Jolly’ by Conor Houghton, June 2018
‘The Wild West’ by Francis McCrickard October 2019
‘There You Are’ by Alys Hobbs October 2024
‘Strong Like Carp’ by Emma Phillips, JUne 2021
‘The Cool Box’ by Nod Ghosh,June 2017
Four words
‘Psalm (after the animals)’ by Joseph Randall, June 2025
‘The Hierarchy of Substances’ by Catherine Edmunds October 2017
Five words
‘This is how we drown’ by Eileen Merriman 2015
‘Car Trouble, Spartenburg, August 2002’ by K S Dyal, Fenruary 2021
‘The Peculiarity of Space Objects’ by Nicholas Cook, February 2017
‘The Dissolution of Peter NcCaffrey by Simon Cowdroy February 2020
‘When the Rubber Hits the Road’ by Lee Nash, February 2018
Seven Words
All The Things That We Are Not by Jo Withers, February 2024
Nine words
‘The Species of Pangolin Compromise Their Own Order Pholidota’ by Hannah Storm, June 2020
‘A God and his Famous Digging Stick Dug This, by Anita Arlov June 2019
Ten words
You have so many more choices than fight or flight by Al Kratz, Feburary 2016
Twelve words
Driving my Seven Year Old Nephew to Visit His Mother at Rehab by Emily Rinkema, June 2024
