This week: Seeking Entries, Slow Months 4 Contests Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Contests & Activities Newsletter by Dawn
Taking a look at the difficulty of the month for contests and for those who have so much to do in preparing to write novels when it comes to getting entries. Promoting some contests and suggesting people to seek out ones to enter over the next two months. |
October and November often are the month for novels considering we have had National Novel Writing Month for almost 20 years. While the official site may be gone, many of us are still writing novels. As a novel writer, these are my months. However, as a manager for a contest that often has weekly prompts, these months are a challenge because it's hard enough writing a novel, let alone other things on the side. October also has "October Novel Prep Challenge" [13+], which involves a lot of work based on a calendar of events. So, this can be a barren time for contests.
So, what I want to do here is, even with the challenge of novel prep and novel writing, I want to challenge you to enter a couple of contest. If you aren't trying to prepare and write novels, I suggest/ask that you enter even more. We have lots of contests to consider and I've got the space in this newsletter. Let's talk about them.
There are some contests that either only happen during October, or ones that have special rounds because we have holidays in the near future. "The Grim Reaper Contest " [13+] is a good example because it just opened up at the beginning of the month. And October is a good month for horror contests and prompts since we have Halloween coming up. The Grim Reaper Contest doesn't even have much of a prompt so it's fairly open to the imagination and the word count isn't crazy big, like my What If... contest where I have to read stories over 5,000 words since I put that as the limit. There are also contests like "The Bard's Hall Contest" [13+] or "Chapter One" [18+] both do special prompts that are influenced by the nature of things in October. Even "The Weekly Quickie Contest" [18+] has darker romance that we decided to do for the prompts this month. And all of the contests would love some entries in October but understand that there are some challenges.
Then you have the regulars that you can often count on that do different prompts on a regular basis. I won't link everything and some contests that I know will be in the Editor's Pick section right below for options of places that would really appreciate entries in the contests for both stories and poetry. For the consistent contests, you can count on Writer's Cramp or The Daily Fiction Contest to have a prompt that might spark some inspiration. There are also contests that have been going for a while that have prompts every month. The ones that come to mind for me are like Lodestar, Chapter 1 and even some poetry contests like Shadows and Light.
Many options exist for people to enter contests. Doesn't matter if it's poetry, flash fiction or short stories. Some have prompts and other are open with limitations instead existing in the genre or style and form. You have such a variety to pick from that even if you are writing a novel and especially id you are not, there are places on the site that will appreciate getting to see somewhat that you've written. Take the chance and enter a contest.
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How do you find time to prep a novel and enter contests? If not in prep, do you plan to enter any contests this month?
For this month, there are a couple of contests that I plan to enter. I have made a list with a priority as the first couple are important but I hope to do more while I also take part in the prep challenge as I am preparing 2 series and 1 romance novel. Here are the contests that I am trying to enter this month:
"The Lodestar Contest" [13+]
"Chapter One" [18+]
"The Weekly Quickie Contest" [18+]
"Poetry Topic of the Month Contest" [13+]
"Sharmelle's Recipe Kitchen Contest" [E]
I challenge you to enter one of them? Also, let me know what contest you like to enter. Share the information about contests in the newsfeed when you can. The contest owners and judges will really appreciate the help. Have fun writing!
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Contests & Activities: October 08, 2025 Issue [#13386]
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