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!
