Competitions

[noctuary]

Hey guys! I noticed this place had been a bit quiet and I was starting to feel isolated so I thought I'd post a topic. ;_;

So! A newspaper in my country is having a short story competition. I've never entered a writing competition before and I'm quite excited. Apparently we're allowed to submit a number of stories, and the length maximum is 3000 words. (They didn't give us a minimum, which was interesting to me.) The prize is $5000 and some book vouchers, although as quite a shy person in "real life" I'm not quite as keen on the awards ceremony or my picture in the paper. Lord.

Anyway, I wanted to ask whether anyone had ever entered a short story competition, and if so, did you win? How did the competition work, and how did you pick the story/ies you wanted to enter?

Comments

[niniane]

Interesting...

I've entered quite a few that I haven't one, and one that I placed (there weren't winners or losers, just people who placed). It works a lot like sending things in for publication. You send something in, and see if it works. I tend to use the same qualifications for sending stuff in as I would for publication. (i.e. what are they looking for? And then I send in the best piece that I have that is written for their specs.) I would avoid submitting more than one, unless they're fairly different stories and you're not sure whether they'd go for more of a cute or melodramatic story or whatever...otherwise, I think it can appear like you're "spamming" them.

I do avoid all contests that involve paying entry fees - that always strikes me as fairly stupid. But I'd totally enter it. What's the worst that can happen?

[noctuary]

That's sort of the problem for me, they haven't given us any idea what they're looking for, just a word limit. So I'm having trouble trying to work out the sort of story they'd like. I thought I might in one longer one and one that's just a couple hundred words. I don't think I'd send more than three - I agree that that would feel like spamming, if not to them, then at least to me.

And yeah, I wouldn't spend money on a competition either.