  Short Stories
This week: Be a Contender Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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| Hello! I'm Jay's debut novel is out now! and I'm your editor for this week's Short Stories Newsletter. This month I'm sharing some thoughts on writing for contests and competitions. |
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One of my favorite quotes from the movie Little Miss Sunshine is the part where the father says,
"Now, there's no sense in entering a contest you don't think you're going to win."
I think there's a lot of truth to that.
I've sent a lot of reviews on contest entries over the years, since I do a lot of judging for different contests here on Writing.Com. I participate in judging some of the official site contests, I judge for contests that I host, and I've been a part of the Writer's Cramp judge pool since sometime in 2003. I think in nearly every contest I've helped to judge, there is always someone who sends back something to the effect of, "Thanks for the review, I didn't think I was going to win anyway."
That type of response sort of baffles me. I can understand not feeling confident in a story I've written, but at the same time, I also don't understand why you'd bother to enter if you didn't think you had a good story in the first place. I suspect some of that kind of talk is self-consolation, but it always feels barbed.
That being said... there are a lot of ways available to every writer, of getting oneself to the top of the pile, whether it be for a contest here on Writing.Com or an editor's inbox.
The first way, and possibly the easiest, is to pay attention to polish. No writer is perfect and we all flub up things that are otherwise perfectly sensible. However, when you enter a contest, you are implicitly stating, "I think I have written a better story than other people who have also written a story for this contest." You want to prove that to every judge who reads your entry.
Based on this logic, then. it doesn't make sense to hand in a story that hasn't even been proofread. Polish-- that is to say, attention to detail, making sure every sentence gleams-- matters when you want your work to stand out. It's easier said than done, but it's necessary. If you're one of those people who "doesn't edit," once something has emitted from beneath your fingers into your word processor, then you are not taking advantage of the best advertising you can do for your writing-- making it look good! Make sure not only to check your grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but also the content-- make sure that every part of the story works and there aren't any gaping plot holes. Did you present as much of the story in current action as possible, rather than flashbacks or overviews of action? These are all just parts of a greater whole.
Another thing to pay attention to with contests is to stay on task with the given prompt or goal of the contest, assuming there is one. Having written some stories in my day, I know I've written a few that started from a given prompt and veered off into territories unknown somewhere around the halfway point. What I've learned about those stories: sometimes they can be better than what I would have gotten out of sticking to the prompt-- but it isn't worth my time to enter them in the contest if they've lost relevance to the prompt's objective.
Something a lot of writers consider when they enter a contest is the word count; they see the maximum listed and do whatever they can to stay below it-- sometimes at the cost of amputating portions of the story that are necessary, or worse, never developing important parts of the plot that will help readers better understand what's happening in the story. One thing a lot of writers don't seem to consider is that rather than always racing to keep the story as short as possible, the real challenge is making the best use of the word count-- getting as close to the word limit as possible without breaking the contest rules, preferably during the editing stage once the frame of the story is established and still has room for embellishments that will really bring the characters and plot to life. This way you guarantee yourself space to make the reader (ie, the judge) fall in love with the way you present your story.
These are just a few starting points-- reminders for us old-timers perhaps, and things to keep in mind for those of us just starting out.
Until Next Month,
Take care and Write on!
~j
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From last month's newsletter: "Idols and Inspirations"
D.L. Fields  writes:
Most of the time when I pick a book at the library, it's because I think I can learn something from them.
True enough! I would say that most books I've read have taught me things that I don't even remember learning, but the exercise of reading and absorbing information has ingrained in me over time.
Zeke writes:
I read every day to give myself ideas on how to do a better job of showing.
Zeke
I think that's a good approach, Zeke! I think it's important to read every day, just as it is to write every day. We don't learn about the craft by not participating.
sdodger submits the following:
I have a new ghost story in search of readers and reviews. If you can feature it I'd be grateful. Thank you. |
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Short Stories: August 24, 2011 Issue [#4580]
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