I failed to get shortlisted for the Commonwealth short story prize

I was informed yesterday that my short story ("Here on Earth") was not shortlisted for the Commonwealth short story prize contested by 6,642 submissions. However, they still want me to write next year and even expressed “hope” that I would attend the prize giving ceremony this year. I won't, of course, unless they are willing to spend on someone who isn't shortlisted, lol.

Anyway, I am glad I submitted a story as I agreed with a Maldivian friend that it is not winning that matters but being part of something big. And which could be bigger than a competition among 54 countries spanning a population of around 2.63 billion which is 33.31 percent of the whole world population. So statistically speaking, too, I was not placing any hopes of being even longlisted, let alone win.

A writer friend who read my story said he found the narrator's voice "sweet" but in my opinion that is not what foundations such as the Commonwealth look for. They need a "mature" voice which is rich in descriptions of the characters, places, and events, and I was writing in a “minimalist” style which would have appeared to them as been written by a most inexperienced person.

In fact, a friend who disagreed with my minimalist writing style said, since stories are not visual media such as film, we won't be seeing anything, so everything has to be described in words. But I rather prefer to leave some things to the reader's imagination because I prefer the reader to "fill in" and flesh out the characters according to the reader's preferences because that will make the reader get more actively involved in the story when they are able to relate more to the characters they have by themselves created from their own imagination rather than me giving them directions or guiding them towards my own thinking.

But while my minimalist style is enjoyed by some readers - and even by other writer friends - this is obviously not the kind of narrative looked forward to by award giving organizations. For example, they would rather I do a "Twilight" thing by spelling out each and every physical characteristic of, say, a protagonist such as Edward. In fact, some readers have given me feedback that if I am talking about a woman like Bella, for instance, I should describe her figure, the color of her hair, etc.

“If you are talking about Edward, for example, you should at least specify whether he has broad shoulders and a narrow waist and let the reader fill in the rest,” a foreign friend told me.

But since I know what I am doing and I know my audience, I will stick to my minimalist style. I am not looking to expanding audiences by trying my hand at doing something I do not enjoy doing, and that is describing everything to the extent that the reader need not get actively involved in the story and rather depend on me to fill the void in their imagination.

As much as it is important to recognize and award artistry, it is not a necessity to justify one's artistic expressions. I learnt that lesson from Bollywood’s Aamir Khan.

Although some of my friends criticize me for been too overtly "emotional", I don't feel hurt because it is unrealistic to expect that I am good enough to beat more seasoned and awesome writers across the Commonwealth as I am not such a professional, experienced, and creative writer as much as some of my friends like to believe. But I am happy that they advised me to submit my story and become a part of something bigger than myself, hehe.