Why Not Have A Go At Writing Competitions?

Do you enter writing contests? No? Why is that? Not confident enough? Think there are too many scams? Not worth the effort?

Or, perhaps you like to enter but find it hard work discovering the details of competitions.

One of the Hornsea Writers gang can save you a lot of time and effort in that search. Stuart Aken keeps a running table of links to sites that offer prizes for your creative writing efforts. Some are free to enter and offer large cash prizes. But, apart from the money, there’s a great deal of kudos to be gained within the writing community, and amongst readers, by being a competition winner. So, perhaps you should try it.

Hornsea Writers members have won a number of prizes over the years and continue to do so.

There’s always an element of luck involved, of course. But, rather like the lottery, you have to be in it to win it.

And, for the doubters and sceptics, there are actually only a few scams around and Stuart does his best to avoid those in his table. He also includes only those that provide a top prize worth at least 20 times the entry fee, unless, of course, they’re free to enter.

No confidence in your writing? Well, the best way to tackle a lack of confidence is to go for it. And, especially if you enter the smaller prize competitions first, you might be surprised by your chances of success. So, why not give it a try?

But, please, always read and abide by the rules. Contest organisers are generally busy people working voluntarily. They don’t look kindly on the novel entered in a poetry contest, the limerick trying to slide into the haiku competition, or the 6,000 word short story entered in a contest with a limit of 2,500.

You’ll find Stuart’s table here. He updates it frequently and gives reminders on his website each month, here. If you follow the instructions in his post, you can even receive an email of that regular reminder.

So, all the work of searching is done for you. No excuses. Go on, have a go! And good luck!