20 October 2025

Great rewriting is the key to great writing.

Hello, Writer

We're 95.67% of the way through reading submissions in order to select the longlist! If you entered a short story this year, I'll email you a day or two before the social media announcements go out on 17 November to let you know whether your story was chosen. Phew, it's competitive this year with so many great entries 😅

Our first impressions

Our reading team is made of WHE staff and eager wordsmiths from all over the world. Every entry in the youth and adult categories has something to recommend it, and there are so many creative ideas! We're really enjoying reading your work.

Joshua J. Mark, co-founder and content director of WHE, has once again read a great majority of the stories and has some writing advice to share:

Write, leave, revisit

Take the time to really craft your piece

Sometimes I can see there's a really good story there but the author hasn't taken the time to craft it into a finished piece. I read one last night where the characters didn't seem like real people. But it felt like they were on their way to becoming "real people" if the author had given the piece more time and attention. Part of great writing is great rewriting.

Let the piece "cool"

You need to set the piece aside for long enough so you can return to it as an editor, not a writer. As the creator of the piece, you're going to gloss over mistakes and forgive yourself a hundred times over for lack of development or stilted dialogue – because it's YOUR piece. 

Return with a critical eye

Leave the thing alone until you can return to it as an editor – and as a very harsh editor. You want to read the piece as though it were written by someone you can't stand. Then you'll notice the problems and will be able to fix them.

Read the piece out loud

Does the dialogue sound like someone is actually speaking? You can't hear that reading silently. You need to read it out loud to catch absurd sentences no one would ever really say.

Thank you, Josh! I have a related post on self-editing a novel that applies well to short story writing too: How to edit the first draft of your novel: a guide to rewriting

We’re looking forward to sharing the longlist on November 17 and discovering some new favourite short stories along the way.

There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. —Robert Graves

Happy writing and rewriting! And Happy Diwali 🪔

Joanne

Ink of Ages Fiction Prize is run by World History Encyclopedia and generously sponsored by Oxford University Press, and more details are available on the contest website.

Joanne Taylor
Proofreader & Editor
World History Encyclopedia
www.worldhistory.org