A Little Friendly Competition

Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.
— Nancy Pearcy

It was never wise to challenge fate to a Hold my beer contest.
― Yasmine Galenorn

It is the contest that delights us, and not the victory.
— Blaise Pascal

Have you ever entered a writing contest? They can be a lot of fun, and the prizes can be a lot more than you’d ever make just publishing your short fiction or poetry.

When I first started writing seriously, I wrote science fiction and fantasy, I used to enter the quarterly Writers of the Future contest, that was started by L. Ron Hubbard. Not only were there decent cash prizes, winners and runners-up were also published in their yearly anthology. A couple of times they sent feed back on my stories, and once I made it as a finalist but was too far down the list to be included in the anthology.

I’ve also entered the annual Toronto Star Short Story Contest several times. In the early days prize was a word processor or computer with word processing software, which I coveted more than the prestige of winning the contest. These days first prize is $5,000.00 and tuition for the Humber School For Writers’ online course.

There are a lot of benefits of entering writing contests, the main one being the prize money. While some contests offer little, other than bragging rights, for all your effort, many of them offer substantial rewards. The drawback is that many of them have an entry fee so you can actually lose money entering them. Myself, I never enter a contest that requires an entry fee, but I think that could change for the right story.

A lot of contests are themed, looking for a specific kind of story, which encourages you to try something you might not have considered before. There are also a variety of lengths (everything from six words to sixty thousand), genres, and styles. This is your opportunity to stretch as a writer.

Contests have specific deadlines, which is great motivation to overcome that pesky procrastination and get it done. You’ll need to finish your story, polish it up, and get it submitted on a schedule. And if you’ve done it once, you can do it again, even without a deadline.

It will improve your writing as you polish up your work before sending it. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll get feedback on your story.

Entering contests will help you develop perseverance. It’s unlikely you’ll win the first time out, but if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And even if you don’t win, you have a polished story that you can submit elsewhere.

There are plenty of contests out there, do yourself a favor and find one.

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WORDAGE REPORT

You know, it might be easier to do the Wordage Report if I actually kept track of the words I wrote. I worked on a couple of stories, but didn’t think to keep track of the word counts. I guess I should just be happy I got things done.

I think I’m going to stop worrying about the Wednesday post. I’m just getting back into a writing routine and the Wednesday posts tend to be time consuming. Even when I’m recycling from old posts I need to update them.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,198+550+942=2,690

Three minute words – 108+119+116+127+128+128+130=856
Total words: 2,690 words

EDITING:
I did some bona fide editing last week. Specifically, Story 1 from NaNo received a title and an overhaul. I think all in all it was reduced by about six words in total.

I also edited two poems and printed out a story to edit the old fashioned way. Next week I’ll try and keep track of the time I spent doing so.

MARKETING MONDAY:
Every year I remember the Toronto Star Short Story Contest, only after the deadline has passed. This year I remembered with a whole week to spare. LOL While there’s no fee for the contest, I did spend $17 on postage to ensure it arrived before the March 1 deadline (they only accept submissions through the mail). I also submitted a couple of poems to themed anthologies.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
I had another Zoom meeting with my stitchery group and I kind of liked it. It makes me wonder why I was resisting for so long. Unfortunately it took up half my Tuesday, and the final polishing and a trip to the post office with my contest story took up the rest of it. So that was pretty much it, technically speaking.

CRAFTING:
I got a little more work done on my current afghan. The moderator for the Zoom meeting gave us another challenge, putting me three projects behind. This inspired me to get working on one of them. I’d forgotten how hard cross stitch is on the eyes.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished Carnal Innocence, by Nora Roberts and then read Divine Evil, and so far I’ve resisted picking up another of her books. I don’t know how much longer I can hold off though.

And easing back on the Noras meant I spent more time with the Kindle. I finished A Mate For the Christmas Dragon, by Zoe Chant, and then Holiday Heat Boxed Set (five books in one), by Vanessa Vale. Now I’ve started Her Cowboy Prince, by Trish Milburn. Looks like I’ve turned from the shifters to the cowboys.

GOALS:
1. Continue working on my Christmas Story.
2. Complete one of my stitchery projects.
3. Check out more contests.
4. Continue the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit.

Have a happy writing week.