How to win a writing contest

Last Updated on March 21, 2020 by Nathaniel Tower

So you’ve decided to enter a writing contest. Good luck! You’re going to need it. The competition will be stiff. The odds are against you regardless of your previous writing credentials. 

I’ve read over 5,000 writing contest entries. One thing that’s always surprised me is how little effort some people put in considering they were paying to enter the contest. It’s almost like they didn’t care about the money. Sloppy submissions with numerous typos, rushed submissions that didn’t follow the guidelines, blatant disregard for the rules, and general bad writing. Those are just a few of the problems I’ve seen. If you want to win a writing contest (and hopefully you do because why else would you enter), then you need to do everything you can to get an advantage. Here’s how you can pull it off:

Study the Contest Rules

Before you even start working on your entry, you need to read the contest guidelines and rules thoroughly. Don’t skim through them. Read every single word like it’s the most important word you’ve ever read. And as soon as you’re finished, read them all again. You need to make sure you’ve gotten every detail and that you fully understand what you’re getting into. This will prevent you from wasting your time or money by:

1. Making sure you actually want to enter this particular contest
2. Giving you the initial ammo you need to write a piece that stands a chance of winning

Read All Past Winners

Unless it’s a first-year contest, you need to carefully read all past winners. This will give you a good sense of what they are looking for. It allows you to see the style, tone, topics, and risks of past winners. But the goal isn’t to copy what a past winner did. If anything, you want to do something completely different from what any previous winner did. And you definitely want to avoid any topics past winners have written about. The judges aren’t going to let the same thing win twice.

Get to Know the Judges

Many writing contests have guest judges of some writing fame. Read their bios. Follow them on social media. See what stories/articles/writing they’re sharing. Read their work. Read interviews they’ve done. Try to get in their head and figure out what they want to see in this contest.

Write the Best Thing You’ve Ever Written

A writing contest isn’t a time to pick one of your unpublished stories that’s been rejected a few dozen times. It’s a chance to write the best story you’ve ever written. Challenge yourself. Commit yourself. Don’t be afraid to scrap a few ideas or write through a few dead ends. If you can’t produce your best work, then you shouldn’t pay money to enter a writing contest. You might as well buy a lottery ticket with the numbers 1-2-3-4-5.

Proofread, Revise, Edit, Repeat

A writing contest is definitely not the time to get lazy with your proofreading. A grammatical error or misspelled word could be the difference between victory and defeat. More importantly, you need to do significant rewriting. No story or poem has ever been perfect the first time around. Don’t submit your entry until you’ve gone through at least five rounds of revision. And then do at least one more.  

Share It with a Few Trusted Readers

Before submitting to the contest, let a few people you trust give it a read. Briefly preface the piece with the general contest rules, particularly if the contest asks you to write to a specific prompt. Ask for their honest feedback. Hell, ask if they’d pick your piece as the winner. Take their feedback seriously, but don’t take it as gospel truth. After all, they aren’t judging it (and they aren’t spending the money to enter the contest either). If they tell you it’s perfect, ask what’s perfect about it. If they have constructive criticism, then consider making some changes based on their comments. Just don’t take anything they say personally. Remember, they’re trying to help you win the contest.

Follow the Rules to a T

So you’ve written one of the best pieces of your career. Now don’t blow it on a technicality. If your entry does not follow all of the rules, it will be rejected immediately with no chance to win. Make sure you pay attention to every rule, including:

• Formatting – Some contests have specific rules for how you format your manuscript. When in doubt, use standard manuscript format.
• Contact information – Many contests will ask for you to submit your manuscript with all contact information removed. Make sure you only put your contact information in the appropriate place. About 10% of contest entries I’ve read have ignored this. If we’re trying to judge blind and you put your name right at the top, you’re automatically out. It wouldn’t be fair to keep you in the running.
• Submission method and payment – Make sure you submit using the right method and that your payment is received accordingly. Follow whatever guidelines and requirements they have. If they want you to pay your entry fee through PayPal before you email a submission, don’t email your submission and ask if you can pay by check.
• Word count – If there’s a word count, make damn sure you’re within it. Stories that are too long never win writing contests.
• Number of submissions – Some contests might allow you to submit more than once if you pay an additional entry fee. Others are strict about one entry per person. Don’t try to cheat the system. You won’t be more likely to win if you try to stack the deck by going over their limit.

Submit and Wait Patiently

Once you’ve finalized your entry and submitted it, all you can do is wait. At this point, you’ve done everything you can. Now it’s all up to the judges. Maybe they’ll like another entry better. There’s nothing you can do about that. All you can do is write the best piece of your life. And if it doesn’t win, at least you’ll have something you’ll be proud to publish elsewhere.

Now go pick a writing contest to enter and write the best thing you’ve ever written.

How do you approach a writing contest? Share your best tips in the comments.