5 Writing Competitions Made For You
- Kali Kuzma
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Are You the Next Winner?
I love nothing more than a good competition. Unlike some, I think competition is a great motivator to push people to their limits and see what potential they truly hold. This is the same when it comes to writing competitions.
Writing competitions are a great way to push yourself to the next level especially when it comes to writing outside your normal genre or with a prompt you might have otherwise never used. I find some of my best ideas have come from writing competitions.
Not only are you improving as a writer, you are also benefiting. Many competitions will either give out cash, or publish your writing. For those who have 'get published' as a bucket list item, you might be able to mark it off your list this way!
So, if you are looking to push yourself, your writing, or are looking to mark off a bucket list item, I highly suggest checking out the following writing competitions.
The nycmidnight competition is not only one competition, but many competitions throughout the year in several categories. My favorite including the 250 Word Microfiction Challenge. You can see my blog posts about that exact one, but there are more including short stories, screen plays, scary stories, etc. that you can participate in.
There is a small fee for each as well as a time limit to write and submit based on the prompts given, but the reason this competition is great is because you get direct feedback from the judges. You don't see this much in writing competitions so it's nice when you do. I do have to mention though, some of the judges are random people who may like to read, but maybe not in the category you end up writing.
The turn around is quick as you are split into smaller groups and then from there the next step of the competition is on the way until there is one winner. Thousands of people sign up for this, I think the biggest I've seen was over 6,600. So don't be surprised if you don't win, but at least try to get get through a few levels!
At the end, there is a cash prize for first, second, and third place!
This is another competition I would love for people to submit too. Based on the sarcastic writing found on the site, you can tell they really just want good short stories to read and publish. That's it! Well except there is one main rule... don't go over the word limit of 7,000 words. Otherwise, have fun writing in any genre you like. This competition has submissions open over the course of October through January which is plenty of time to refine your writing.
There is also a cash prize for first, second, and third place as well as getting your story published.
If you don't feel like writing a story you can always sign up to receive their newsletters where every few weeks you get to read a published story. There have been some good ones! If you are interested get started early because the competition isn't that far away.
For those of us who love writing a short story, this one is perfect for you! With 1,500 words or less you can submit your story to Writer's Digest. Besides a cash money prize, there is a long list of other prizes including meeting editors and agents, going to conferences, and getting published. There is a small fee of $35 to submit your writing, but if you win, the prize money will cover the bill.
If short stories aren't for you, don't worry! They have other competitions you can participate in throughout the year. Just remember you're going against at least 3,000 if not more people for each.
We have seen a big upswing in the sci-fi and fantasy genre these last couple of years. If you're a writer who loves these genres then this competition might be the one for you. With the competition going quarterly, you have plenty of chances to submit your stories. Just don't write over 17,000 words or use AI(obviously).
Again, there is a cash prize of up to 5k with a bonus of an actual award! Go start world building if you haven't already.
If you have a $5 to spare, then you have a chance at winning $250 each week with the ReedsyPrompts competitions. Each week you can submit a 1k-3k word story based on the prompts they give you found within a category. For example, if the theme is food, there might be five prompts within that category you can submit to relating to food.
Typically 200-400 people submit each week which gives you a much higher chance of winning compared to the other competitions found on this list. And you don't have to wait long to find out if you won. The winner is chosen within seven days of submitting. If you can write quick I highly recommend giving this a try. You can even go and read past winners to see what the judges like.
Final Thoughts
Like I mentioned, I love a little competition every once in a blue moon. It gets the creative juices flowing and can be fun to experience even if you don't win. There are so many out there, but be careful as some are not what they seem. Don't forget to read all the rules before submitting-you don't want to be disqualified after putting in so much hard work.
Tell me in the comments below, have you participated in a writing competition before? If so, did you win? How did you stumble upon it?
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