Writing competitions. Are they worth entering?

I ask myself this every time I see a writing competition in a magazine.

I regularly enter non-writing competitions and have won a variety of prizes such as weekend breaks, cash  and vouchers.  However, they are normally just competitions where you answer a question and submit your name and address, without having to agonise over whether your entry is good enough.  Entering creative writing competitions is completely different.

Over the years, I have submitted numerous entries for creative writing competitions.  Full of hope when I pay my fee and press the submit button and wait.  Only to find out a few weeks later that someone else has won it.  And even after reading the winning entry, wondering 'how on earth did that win?'

There are two creative writing magazines that I subscribe to and which both have regular writing competitions throughout the year.  The first is the Writing Magazine and the other is Mslexia.

The Writing Magazine is a monthly publication which is packed full of writing advice, features, winning short story and poetry entries as well as many opportunities to enter their themed writing competitions which have a tight word count.  Once a year, the magazine also publishes a competition directory which provides details of all the free and fee paying creative writing competitions that take place throughout the UK and abroad.  I usually red pen the competitions that are free as I can't afford to enter too many fee paying competitions if I know that I might not win.

Mslexia is a quarterly magazine for women who write and it runs its own competitions as well as providing details of competitions run by other writing organisations.  The magazine regularly showcase winning competition entries and is also a good source of information about the writing market, writing courses and workshops.

If you really don't want to subscribe to writing magazines, you can always find hundreds of writing competitions by googling.  Below, I have googled and found a few useful websites containing details of competitions:

Writers HQ

Creative Writing Ink

Aerogramme Writers Studio

Finally, I still think it is good practice enter competitions if time permits as they do help to get you into the routine of regularly writing stories for a chosen theme, word limit and short deadline.  And if you win, you'll just want to enter many more.

Below is an entry I submitted for a competition from a few years ago.  The prompt was 'And then she remembered...'

And then she remembered… 

She walked towards the opening of the forest. Pine trees in the deepest of green towered above her, and a cool breeze rustled the branches.   

‘Mother Nature at her finest’ she thought to herself, as she powerfully strode through the rotting pine needles covering floor of the forest.  A black crow flew overhead and startled her. ‘what could it mean?’ she whispered under her breath.  The further she entered into the enchanting forest, the darker the sky grew.  She felt afraid, but she had to be brave – even if it was for this time only.  She came to a halt in the middle of the wood which was suddenly silent and rather creepy.  The birds had stopped singing and the sky was dark with the roar of thunder in the distance.  She was about to lose her nerve and turn back when she saw it.  It had seen her too and stood and stared back at her with iridescent green and unblinking eyes.  She drew a sharp intake of breath as a spike of lightning hit a tree next to her, viciously tearing off a branch which tumbled in flames to the floor of the forest.  She started to run after it.  She was determined; she wasn’t going to let it get away. 

She clambered into the hole, trying not to lose sight of it; forgetting she was dressed in her favourite green velour cloak. It didn’t matter; she had to do this. Inside, she felt the darkness and the damp smell of rotting vegetation enclosed her but she continued on, crawling on her hands and knees through what was now a tunnel. For what seemed like an eternity, she finally happened upon a large, and well-lit opening in the tunnel, where she was able to stand up to her full stature.  She dusted damp leaves from her cloak and looked around in awe. ‘Where is this?’ she thought, as she pondered upon the out of place candles dotted around the area and the rich and luscious aroma of fresh pine.  As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw a huddled figure facing her.  She was afraid and her mouth opened in fear but sound failed to emanate as the huddled figure drifted towards her with its glowing eyes burning into her soul.  It reached out a clawed hand to touch her cloak as her world turned into verdant green… 

Suzanne’s eyes opened suddenly in the light and airy bedroom.  She threw off the covers to find her body covered in pine needles.  Nonplussed, she brushed them off, drawing a sharp intake of breath as she caught the reflection of her body in the full-length mirror.  She admired herself and wondered how she had acquired her new Huntress Boudoir Bra and Ouvert Brief set which fitted her body like a delightful green glove.  And then she remembered…