Creative writing competitions can serve a number of purposes. One of them is to get you writing. Should you use a maximum word count and a deadline it concentrates the mind and can result in work that otherwise would in no way have been written.. If you’re given a topic to write about it’s even much better.

An additional consideration is fame and fortune. Not really a poor incentive, but here we should be sensible. Competitions are generally for short stories and so are held by magazines or publishers. The competitions can vary from really small to really large. A couple are absolutely free but most have entry fees. This is quite acceptable, as prize money should come from somewhere. However entry fees could be quite high and should you enter quite a lot of competitions the price of fees adds up alarmingly.

The little creative writing contests have a few hundred entries and provide you with a definite opportunity of winning. In fact some of the} entries will be very bad, some will be excluded, as the authors haven’t read the submission guidelines properly, and a couple will miss the deadline totally. This cuts down on opposition to some thing manageable. If you’re a great writer you have a chance of being within the top 2 or 3. But what do you receive for your trouble? The prize money will almost certainly cover your entry charge as well as the cost of a coffee at Starbucks. You may only get a free of charge copy of the magazine sponsoring the competition. That’s about it. Your name will appear on the list of winners, but few people will read the list. So entering a little competition is little a lot more than writing practice, whatever the outcome. But writers need to start somewhere and a win or a shortlist can cheer you up a great deal and inspire you to greater things.

Big creative writing competitions are different. They attract an international entry of thousands. The winner gets an amazing prize and lots of publicity. Not free of charge publicity, do not forget the entry charge, but valuable publicity that may push a career forward. The standard of winners are going to be really high. They might be competition specialists who aren’t only superb writers but know precisely what the judges are looking for. Perhaps they are published authors who, by definition, are very experienced at their work.

You should in no way think you aren’t good enough to enter any competition but a reality check is required right here. Simply to be on the shortlist of maybe 100 writers would be to have performed well. If you win you will have earned your fame and fortune.

Obviously one certain way to avoid winning a competition isn’t to have entered within the very first place. Have a go, you may not win – not at first anyway – but you will have written your entry. If you do not accomplish the success you had hoped for within the competition. move on to the next writing competition.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • Google Bookmarks
  • RSS

Leave a Reply

Security Code:

Powered by WP Robot