From: FundsforWriters

Entering writing contests is great practice for writing, editing, revising and submitting your work, whether it is creative nonfiction or flash or longer fiction. The more awards you can obtain, the better it looks on your resume and makes you more attractive when applying for specific writing gigs and searching for a literary agent. Having won several different awards for my work over the years, I've developed three tips for finding success with writing contests.



Select the right contest for your work. There are so many contests out there, it's important to do your research when deciding where to submit your work. Are you familiar with the publication or website offering the contest? Are the entry fees reasonable? I personally don't enter contests where the entry fee is more than $30, but that's a personal choice. Research previous winning stories to get a feel for what the contest is looking for.

When I entered the Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards last year, I looked over the categories and decided I wanted to use the contest as an opportunity to create two new short stories—one a suspense/thriller and one in the young adult category. I read back through several years' winners for the suspense category and then got to work. Admittedly, I didn't research the young adult category quite as much. My story, “The Polaroid," won first place in the 2017 Popular Fiction Awards suspense category. The young adult story didn't go anywhere, so I filed it away.

Make your submission unique. Follow the guidelines for stories to the letter. If there's a prompt, follow it and stay within the requested word count. Think of a unique angle for a submission. As a judge for the WOW! Women on Writing quarterly flash fiction contest, I read through a lot of preliminary submissions. One subject we see a lot are stories that focus on dementia and Alzheimer's Disease or the disintegration of marriages. So, if you are going to write about those topics, take unique angles on them, such as sharing the story from the perspective of a neighbor or from the mind of the person with the illness, or giving a failing marriage short story a twist ending the reader isn't expecting.

Use contests to find a home for work you've already produced. As I mentioned earlier, I had written a young adult story for the WD Popular Fiction Awards that didn't place. A few months later I came across another writing contest opportunity from the Women's National Book Association. I thought the story, titled “The Name You're Not Supposed to Call Women," would be a good fit for this particular contest. I read through a few of the previous winners and submitted my entry. Within two months I received notification that the story won Honorable Mention in the 2018 WNBA Writing Contest Young Adult Category. I was glad that I hadn't let the story languish and was able to find it a home in this particular contest, giving me another great credit for my resume.

Read more at FundsforWriters.