University of Hertfordshire Writing Award

Well, I didn't even get into the top 20 stories that are going in the anthology for this competition. Very disappointing. It may be worth getting a copy when it's released to see they type of story they were looking for. Maybe I'm not literary enough. I want a good plot/story and characters in my stories. Sometimes that comes into conflict with requirements for literary, modernist writing, I find. Any comments?

I would have liked to have done the MA course though.

I heard the winner of another prose writing contest and, although there were obviously good bits of writing in it, I came away thinking, OK, so what at the end. I didn't rate it at all, It didn't seem to go anyway, just wandering musings and observations. Surely there's more to writing than that?