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Nov 19, 2025 at 11:23am

#3770817

Re: Reviewing Contest Entries

by Amethyst Autumn Angel

Super duper good question, sir. I approach reviewing contest entries pretty much the same as anything else, because the people I know around here who are "serious" contest enterers (is that a word?) basically pour themselves into their work as much as they would (or more, even, considering there might not be as much motivation to write if one thinks no one will ever notice it... Which sends me on a tangent below...) There's one lady, a Mod, I don't think she'll mind if I tag her... THANKFUL SONALI Party Hopping!

she adores contests. I adore her work! It's fulfilling in a number of different ways.

Reasons why people write for contests are quite rich, usually. It gives your work an automatic visibility: the judges read it, the other entrants read it, people who are considering entering read it, people who are looking for stuff to review read it, and if/when it wins an award, it'll be a featured piece in one's portfolio, a feather in their cap. It gives you a motivation to take the dusty things in your head and squash them into shape; sometimes, a prompt will make a lightbulb go off and you'll be like "yes, that's it! I'd love to write something like that!"

I can't tell you how many times that's happened with me. When I first arrived here, I told myself writing for contests was cheap and cheesy. But someone (Gaby

, to be exact) had a prompt that jogged the loose bits of crime drama bouncing around in my head, and I spit out a hella story, and after that, I realized what a useful and creative tool the contests and prompts are. I'm only writing what I want to write; I never feel like I'm being forced to write something I wouldn't have written otherwise.

Gee, maybe this should be a blog post. Thank you for being curious.