CONTEST TIPS
Writer's Digest sponsors five writing competitions per year
and receives thousands of entries.
Some
of these entries eventually rise to
the top
-- and win. Why? Because of the quality
of the work. The style, the ideas,
the dialog,
the originality sparkle enough to get
them
put in the "save" pile instead of the
"discard"
pile.
The magazine contacted dozens of outside
judges used in their contests and came
up
with some valuable "feedback" for any
writer
entering a writing competition. Here
are
some of the ideas mentioned:
1. Send only your best work. If you've got a script of which you're
very proud and three others you know
need
work, keep working on those three and
send
your best.
2. Check your spelling and grammar. Then, ask someone else to do it. A stray
comma won't cause a judge to eliminate
your
entry. However, writing a short story
set
in Boston and spelling it Bosten for
half
the story probably will. Many of our
writers
at WGOT never send a story out without
first
having it critiqued at one of our monthly
meetings.
3. Check your continuity. Then, ask someone else to do it. If your
protagonist is named John at the beginning,
don't start calling him Doug halfway
through
the story. If you have seven people
in your
critique group reading your submission
in
advance, they will catch a lot of these
errors
that just seem to slip by.
4. Count your pages. There's nothing more disappointing than
receiving only four out of five pages
of
an excellent entry. Most judges will
simply
sigh and discard the entry rather than
contacting
the contest sponsors about having the
writer
send the missing page.
5. Check formatting requirements. If entries are supposed to be typed on
white paper, don't use pink to try
to set
your entry apart. You will set it apart,
but not in a positive way. If the rules
say
the entry must be double-spaced, don't
send
work spaced 1.5 lines. Judges generally
won't
disqualify you if you break these rules,
but many notice the violations and
subconsciously
penalize the entry.
6. Enter early. Two reasons here: A. You don't have to
spend money on express delivery services.
B. Entries often are sent to judges
in batches
as they come in. You'll have a fresher
judge,
one more likely to give your entry
the attention
it deserves, if you're not in the hundreds
of entries received in the final batch.
If you don't win, don't call and ask why.
The answer is obvious—the judges didn't
think
your entry was as good as the one they
picked.
More ideas from Writer's Digest:
Make an entry checklist. Have you included: A. the entry form, filled
out completely, B. the entry fee (if
needed),
C. your entry, D. the correct format
for
your entry, and E. any other required
materials?
Check the envelope twice.
Use the correct amount of postage. Postage rates change. What was a 34 cent
stamp is now 37 cents. If you don't
have
the right postage, it's likely the
competition
will have to pay the postage due. Is
that
really the initial impression you want
to
give?
Send your entry to the address exactly as
it is listed on the form. Don't decide that, because you're friends
with someone who works at the magazine,
you
will send your entry to that person
to get
an "in." It is unlikely that person
is involved
in initial judging, and it's possible
your
entry won't get to the right person
via interoffice
mail until after the deadline.
Follow the word limit. If you're to send a poem of no more than
32 lines, don't send one that's 33
lines.
If you're to send a short story of
2,500
words, don't send one of 3,000. Scanning
entries into a word processing document
makes
it easy to get a word count.
Follow the rules on confirming receipt of
your entry. If you want proof it arrived beyond getting
your canceled check or charge card
receipt,
check the rules. Some contests will
let you
enclose a self-addressed stamped postcard
or envelope that can be sent back to
you
to confirm delivery. If a contest doesn't
do that, send your entry via a mail
mode
or delivery service that will provide
you
with a receipt. If you submit via e-mail,
set up your e-mail under Options or
Preferences
so that you are notified when your
entry
arrives and/or is read.
Understand the rights situation. In some contests, your entry becomes the
property of the sponsor. That means
you can
never enter it in another competition,
sell
it or use part of the material verbatim
in
any other way. Think twice before you
enter
these contests. If the prize or the
prestige
is enough, that's fine. But make sure
you've
made an educated decision.
Don't send more than one copy of the same
entry. The only exception is if the contest asks
for more than one copy.
Don't call. If you don't understand the rules, read
them again. Generally, they are self-explanatory.
Check a dictionary or Writer's Market
for
definitions of various types of writing.
Don't call to see if your entry was
received.
Some competitions receive hundreds
or thousands
of entries, and in the weeks before
the deadline,
it's impossible to interrupt the process
to see whether an entry is received.
Resubmit the entire entry if you discover
a problem. If you forgot your check or your credit
card was over its limit, send the entire
entry again. If you'd like, attach
a note
saying you forgot to include the check
in
an earlier mailing. But don't expect
the
competition staff to put together your
entry,
received Jan. 1, and your check, received
Feb. 1.
Don't include information they don't want. Don't attach a photo of yourself, your
baby or your dog. Don't attach a biographical
statement if one isn't requested. Don't
include
a jacket of your latest book. Don't
send
illustrations for your story. They'll
never
make it to the judges, anyway.
Don't obsess. If you find a typographical or grammatical
error in your work a week after you've
entered,
don't resubmit the entry and don't
call to
ask the contest to make the correction.
Your
entry might not be retrievable at that
point.
Make the change in your own copy so
that
it's right the next time you send it
out.
For more information, go to the WGOT home
page, click on "Resources" and then click on "www.writersdigest.com".
