3 Write Ways To Win Writing Contests

1.          In researching my book, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests” [[ Product review #0557023254 does not exist. ]], I soon discovered a hazard in contests organized by universities and writers’ associations. Reading both the printed anthologies and the judges’ comments from these contests, it soon became obvious that college students or literary society members, as the case may be, enjoy a considerable advantage. I’m not suggesting for one moment there is anything untoward in such contests, but in some instances, it’s obvious from the disproportionate number of students or members represented in the winning lists that many contestants are acquainted with the judges sufficiently well as to be aware of their various likes and dislikes. They know what aspects of an original story or poem may enthuse the judges, and even more particularly what they despise. So the outsider is competing against students or members who not only have access to inside knowledge, but have also possibly competed in the same contest in previous years and gained further valuable insights into the judging process. Needless to say, on making this discovery, I avoided such contests.

2.          It’s obviously a big advantage to Know your judge! So I avoided competitions where the judge (or judges) were not announced until after the contest closed, because I needed to  discover as much as possible about the judge before submitting my work. By reading some of their own prose or poetry, it’s not hard to discover what particular subjects and what writing styles they seem to favor. I once worked with a judge who absolutely loathed what he called "sentence paragraphs". If he came across an entry that had more than two paragraphs containing a single sentence (aside, of course from dialog passages), that entry immediately hit the reject basket.

3.          Know what subjects or themes seem to be taboo in the competition you plan on entering! If there is one, get hold of an anthology like the Tom Howard Contest’s “Watching Time” [[ Product review #184728969X does not exist. ]], or read the winning entries from previous years online. This is really of top importance as contests rarely break established patterns, even if the judges themselves change from year to year. For example, if all the winning entries in previous poetry contests are in free verse, it’s not likely the judges will award prizes this year to sonnets or other traditional 19th century forms; and if all the winning and commended stories in a prose contest are set in contemporary America, a composition set in Madrid or Helsinki is unlikely to find favor, even if Americans are major participants.