Could Have Been Worse… Could Have Been Papyrus
Years ago, back when I was a university student, I got a temp job helping with the administration of entries for a local writing competition.
I was on email duty, answering queries from entrants. That’s when I happened across the following snotty email.
Entrant: “I am writing to tell you that I will not be taking part in your competition due to your excessive guidelines. I am so sick of all these requirements. It’s ridiculous. There are classes and articles telling writers how to do things. Perhaps there should be one for competitions and publishers to make sure you’re all doing the same thing. You need to get over yourselves.”
As a writer myself, I understood how frustrating it could be when every publisher, agent, magazine, and competition had different guidelines and rules.
I wrote back, apologising for any frustration our guidelines may have caused but explaining that they were in place for a reason. I wished him luck on his writing journey and left it at that.
His response?
Entrant: “F*** you, stuck-up b****.”
He was blacklisted from the competition, and quite possibly from others since the chair of the competition committee had contacts in other national and international competitions.
Do you want to know what the “excessive” formatting rules were that enraged him so?
Entries had to be in twelve-point Arial font, double-spaced, black.