Writing Contests: How to prepare

For writers, writing contests are an imperative part of the process because they provide us with feedback and also help us thicken our skin. Remember, writing is a highly subjective industry, which means that we are constantly going to face rejection and conflicting opinions, whether by judges, readers, family members or even our own edits.
One way to effectively prepare for a writing contest is to have a professional edit done. If you have a crit partner that’s great. Not everyone has the time. I myself have to hire someone to do my edits because I simply don’t have the time to give the feedback to the other person. I always urge people to get a critique done first or a full edit because this is putting your professional foot forward. You wouldn’t go in to a job interview wearing jeans and likewise you don’t go in to a writing contest with a first draft.
Research some places. Writing Career Coach, of course, offers editing and I usually offer specials around the times of large writing contests. But beyond that, find either a critique partner, someone who is knowledgeable in the industry or a professional editor, to go through your writing and give you some feedback.
You can get a detailed edit where they will pick apart every little piece, or have somebody just do an assessment and give you an overview generalizing areas of strength and weakness. Either way, make sure before you go in to a writing contest that you’re taking the time to learn about the craft and build a strong showing in the contest.
Once you’ve toughened your skin and polished your writing it is time to get it out there. Find contests that have trained judges who are going to give you feedback on your work. While we always want to win writing contests in this subjective industry that won’t always happen. We need to be able to get something out of the contest no matter what. That is why feedback is so important. I’ll talk more about using the judges’ comments to improve your writing, but for now simply focus on finding good contests that provide real feedback.
If you’ve entered some good contests I’d love for you to share below. I know the Genesis Contest [unpubbed] and Carol Award [pubbed], both of which are sponsored by ACFW are good contests. The Daphne du Maurier Award from the RWA KOD chapter also has a good reputation and excellent feedback.


Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

This blog originally posted on WritingCareerCoach.com on August 13, 2010.