You're probably pretty busy.  Most of us are.  So why should you take the time to enter writing contests?  I mean lots of people enter and if you didn't win, you'd just be disappointed, right?

Well if you are only in it to win, that might be valid.  But what if you used the writing contests as a way to improve your writing?  What if you used them to challenge yourself to try new styles of writing? What if you entered them just as a discipline of forcing yourself to write and meet deadlines? What if you looked at them as just another way to get your writing out there?

I truly believe that writing contests could be a great way to improve your writing skills and to challenge you to keep moving forward with your writing.  The question is will you take the time to enter? You're supposed to be journaling every day.  Why not use your journaling time to put together material for the contests.  You don't have anything to lose, as long as you look at it as a learning experience!

Here are a few contests that I found at WritersDigest.com -

• The Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards
  Writer's Digest is now accepting entries in the 14th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards. Now more than $15,000 in prizes. Enter the only competition exclusively for self-published books.

• Your Assignment -

  Each month Writer's Digest presents a creative challenge for fun and prizes. Should you choose to accept our assignment, submit your entry, typed on one side of a standard-size postcard, to the address below. The winner will receive a selection of Writer's Digest Books worth approximately $100, chosen by the editors of Writer's Digest magazine. Honorable mentions will each receive a copy of a Writer's Digest special issue.

• Chronicle
  The next deadline for the Writer's Digest Online Chronicle Competition is 3/25/2006. Entries should not exceed 500 words and must be submitted electronically.

There are many more writing contests awaiting you online.  Just google Writing Contests and you'll come up with a plethora. Then challenge yourself to enter at least one. You just might learn something.  And hey, you just might win as well. You'll never know until you try.  Are you game?

~Nancy Carter
Managing Public Relations Consultant
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

Comments

Excellent point, Nancy!

10:15 AM, Mar. 10, 2006, posted by MelM

We can't win contests that we don't bother to enter! If nothing else, drafting contest entries will help writers with the process of their craft, and they'll build a doozy of a file of pieces that may be useful elsewhere in the future.
I just posted about the Writer's Digest 75th Annual Writing Competition myself over at SmallBizMentor. I believe TOS's own JenIg has won awards in that one!