Creative Writing Awards - How To Win Fiction Competitions And Gain Extra Profit

Creative Writing Awards - How To Win Fiction Competitions And Gain Extra Profit

A lot of people win writing awards and achieve a big cash income, every year. How do they do it? They learn what judges of writing competitions search for. Just about all writing contests, if well judged, will have rigorous conditions for assessing entries. Many award schemes publish their criteria, some don't. In case they don't, how do you know what judges are searching for? Allow me to share the three most crucial points that contest judges commonly look for at the start.Bear in mind: all judges are subjective, just like literary agents and publishers' readers. An entry that transports one judge into a cloud of incoherent delight will leave yet another unmoved. That's exactly why a respectable contest will have a 'points' scheme set up. A system is vital - not so much in detecting an overall winner (the quality of a superb entry usually speaks for itself), but in helping to make fine decisions among, say, the winner of a 3rd award and a runner-up prize. (It also lessens the risk of judges disgreeing.)Listed here is a typical rating system. A 'perfect' story will often have an overall total weighting of thirty points. The top three prize winners typically rate in the range of 25-30 points whilst the ten near-top winners typically get into the 20-25 points bracket. True, there is still room for private judgement. Every judge will certainly give slightly different - sometimes completely different - points in every class. That's the reason why a story that flops in a single contest could go on to gain first prize in yet another. It's also why, if you believe your tale is good, you need to keep on posting - and strengthening it!1. How well does the entry mirror the theme, genre or author requirements of the contest?Don't assume all contests are given a theme. If the organizers ask merely for short stories of any type whatsoever, this type of assessment is inappropriate. But watch out for a contest that has no conditions and terms. Possibly it lacks discrimination in other aspects too? :) Typically the guidelines for style, genre and/or contestant, etc, are plainly explained. It goes without saying that you shouldn't enter, for example, an undoubtedly 'Christmas' story using a 'summer vacation' topic, or a poem, script or crime mystery to a children's fiction competition - or an entry to a competition intended to acknowledge Afro-Caribbean writers if you can't, by any stretch of the mind, qualify as an Afro-Caribbean.If it is obvious, why say it? Because, as numerous contest judges will tell you: people don't always look at the rules. Many entries are excluded from writing award schemes because they disregarded the guidelines. Total possible points: 102. Does the entry engage the reader emotionally all the way through?Many stories are remarkably ingenious. They skip with ingenuity, humor or wordplay. Nonetheless they don't win over the judges. They are cerebral exercises.The figures in such tales are cardboard or the themes trivial or the plot tenuous. Towards the end the reader no longer worries how the tale will work out. It takes massive craft skill to make the reader worry about characters and occurrences that are wholly imaginary.Total possible points: 103. Is the entry original in its concept?Of course, take a common plot or theme. We have seen just a few dozen of them conceived since the start of humanity so you're not likely to create a new one. But do a little something innovative with them!The spurned lover who plots a vicious revenge on his/her faithless spouse goes back to the tale of Medea. Yet (I hear you cry) surely we might do a new slant? We could possibly have the spurned lover hide his/her murder victim in a garage freezer - just for the brand new lover, aghast, to stumble upon it. Couldn't we? Not a chance. That's just a re-run of Bluebeard's cupboard. Certainly, there's nothing wrong with reprising the theme of Bluebeard's cupboard, if you conceal it with a very original twist!Total possible points: 10Those are simply the top three factors that judges will use. Normally, they have many more. A more sophisticated system of requirements might comprise 100 points or even more, inspect several other factors. Yet, if your writing is great - and you get merely the top three aspects right each time - you're nicely on your way to earning a five figure part-time income from writing awards, year in year out. It's a win-win profit scheme!

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