Writing.Com General Discussion

the real question is how good is your writing?

How many newbie writer patterns are in your work?
aka, do you know to avoid That, Just, Very, Seemed and -ly Adverbs, and passive voice ?

Have you had your work critiqued by a review group (and done well)?

Have you been published?

Fact is, you can enter contests any time you want. You'll just get a lot of rejections if you haven't learned all the stuff I'm hinting at in my questions. And 30 years, doesn't mean the person actually learned all that stuff. They could be reinforcing the same bad writing habits.