  Contests & Activities
This week: It's All in the Timing Edited by: Annette  
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There was a day, last week or nearly a decade ago, that you typed "writing" into your search engine. You wanted to show off some of your poems, short stories, or maybe even get feedback for a whole novel. You found Writing.com.
On this site you found all that you had searched for: Portfolio space, helpful reviewers, encouraging groups, style and grammar lessons from peers. But nothing had prepared you for the amazing bounty of: Contests & Activities |
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It's All in the Timing
Timing in entering contests or participate in activities on WdC is dictated by the ever-present and mystical time "WdC time." If you don't have your entry submitted by a certain "WdC time," your entry is not valid, your bid in an auction won't count, maybe even your raffle ticket purchase is void. 
If you have ever perused the "Writing Contests @ Writing.Com" page - and I sure hope so - you will often see that contests and most activities have a line that says: You must have your entry submitted by [date] and [hour:minutes] WdC time.
Sooo .... What is "WdC time?" It has many names. One of its names is EDT, also known as Eastern Daylight Time. You may also call it UTC -04. That means Greenwich Mean Time minus four hours. Confused? Me too, especially since I reside in UTC -07.
To me, WdC time is the perfect way to keep track of all the things I like to keep track of. Contests, the end of the month, the beginning of the week, midnight, or noon. WdC time unites us all around the world to have to do the same things by the same time. No matter what time it is on your kitchen clock when the WdC clock strikes midnight, you hopefully had your contest entry submitted.
Why is it important that we all use the same time zone as the basis of our interactions? Why can't everybody use their own time zone to participate in contests and activities? Well, nobody said you have to be up at the same time in New Zealand as somebody else in Africa. But people on both sides of the globe need something that levels the playing field. This is where WdC time comes in.
Each day has 24 hours all over the world. It's up to each of us to figure out at where we stand in comparison to WdC time and adjust our interactions on the site accordingly. There are many places where you can verify the time of day according to WdC. In the left bar, you can find the clock that gives you the date and the time according to EDT.
Every item you create gets a time stamp of its first time being saved and an ongoing time stamp that reflects the last time an item was edited. Blog entries, forum posts, book entries, emails ... all are stamped with EDT (WdC) date and time of delivery. Using this time stamp, contest hosts can see that the entry was submitted before the deadline and also wasn't edited since.
Official Writing.Com contests are very strict on submission times. Entries that come in after the deadline, or get edited once the deadline is up are disqualified. The easy and common denominator in Writing.Com official contests is that they always begin on the first of the month and end on the last day of the month, so there isn't much room for confusion.
Member run contests have rules that are as diverse as the hosts of those contests. Many member-run contests also go from the first day of the month to the last, but all variations are possible. There are daily, weekly, bi-weekly contests. There are those contests that end on the 24th or 25th of a month to give the host the chance to read and judge the entries before starting a new round. Always make sure to read all of the rules and be aware of the contest deadline. It's frustrating both to writer and host when an entry that was carefully crafted ends up disqualified for being entered late. When in doubt, email the contest host.
Happy on-time submitting to one of the many fun contests May is bringing us. |
Do you love to write supernatural stories about vampires and other supernatural creatures? If you do this contest is for you!
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A contest to write a Letter from Home, to our serviceman/woman. All letters forwarded to the guys over there.
The task is simple: get inspired by the photograph on the contest page and write a short story using this inspiration!
The perfect time to start reviewing and rack up those points with the goal to get that special Merit Badge that is reserved to the winners of this contest alone!
No time to lose! Get the newest prompt every day around noon WdC time and let your creativity run its course. 24 hours is all you get, then it's already on to the next prompt.
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Wabi Sabi. Be perfect while you're imperfect and write the winning entry to this intriguing contest by May 31st.
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So you think copying is a waste of time? Think again while you compete with J.R.R. Tolkien for the first prize.
Quickly now, no time to lose. This contest closes on May 16th!
Be a newsletter editor! Applications Entries taken until May 14th.
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Last, but not least, a contest that requires you to leave all linear thinking, time or otherwise, behind, and write really bad.
This contest gleefully accepts donations for its excellent prizes.  |
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Don't forget to support our sponsor!
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Have you ever missed a deadline for a contest or other activity? What was it like? Was it the time format, or what made you miss the deadline? Let me know and I'll showcase your story that involves a WdC time mishap, or good experience below.
Reader feedback and answers to my "Good Writers are Avid Readers" newsletter that asked: Do you know of a group or forum on WdC that encourages reading of published works? Do you belong to a group dedicated to reviewing with publishing in mind? Post a message in the box below, I shall list it in my next newsletter.
I received this submission via email. Want to be a published Writing.Com author? This is your chance to be part of this anthology completely made up from this site's members' writings.
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StephBee  wrote: Great advice, Giselle - that's how my writing has grown - by reading others. Smiles
Steph
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Contests & Activities: May 04, 2011 Issue [#4373]
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