Contests--An Opinion

Are contests right for you? Of course they are.

Contest and actvities. What a novel concept and a great extension to one's writing. I've been writing for many years, and recently began posting some of these writings on a personal web page. I'd get comments often more favorable than not. Of course, I was encouraged by this. But beyond a few comments, I received nothing tangible for my efforts.

That is, until I joined Writing.Com a short five and a half months ago. Within 30 days I had entered five contests. Many WDC contests require new work, something not seen before, something written to specific prompts. A prompt is a word, quote, picture, or phrase about which the story must be written.

Such was the case for three of the five. I didn't even have five items in my port at that time; I had to write them anyway. So I wrote three stories all to individual prompts--something I'd never done before. I discovered I could channel my muse and creative imaginings into a specific direction.

The biggest contest I entered was the Short Shots contest. In my inexperience, I didn't realize this was one of only three official Writing.Com contests. First prize (a $100 gift card for Amazon.com) was never a consideration for me. With a free subscription and less than 5000 gift points in my pocket, I set my sights on second or third place (500K or 250K gift points, respectively)--pretty heady stuff for a new upstart with a single digit black suitcase.

The prompt was a picture of a small child's face looking out of what looked like a porthole of a derelict ship. What did it say to me? The result was a story that garnered 250,000 gift points. Yes! It won 3rd place out of 23 entries. Since then, "Little Jamey"  has been part of three different review forums, viewed by more than 200 folk, averaged a 4.5 rating with more than 20 reviews, and received a 25K red ribbon. All this from one picture prompt and an idea by a brand new WDC author. If I can do it, so can you.

Oh yeah ... of those five contests I entered, I placed in four. The fifth contest disbanded before the judging. Yes, indeed--pretty heady stuff. Since then, I've never looked back. The contests page is bookmarked as a favorite; I still check it out regularly.

Contests and activities are a great way to get involved in WDC, and a very tangible method for recognizing one's talents. Write on!

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