Writing Contests - Good for Your Soul!

Photo courtesy of Rebecca Heyduk

Greetings from Wisconsin where it is currently colder than Antarctica! Schools and businesses have been closed the last few days and we've been doing all we can to keep the cows warm and the children from killing one another!

I've been working in my home office which has been keeping my fingers warm, and thanks to WOW! Women on Writing, I've been spending the last few days working on interviews with those who have placed in our various writing contests. I love my job at WOW! but particularly look forward to these interviews. When I send my questions, I tailor them to the specific contest, story, and author, but there's one question I try to include in each interview and that is:

What advice would you give to others who may be 

considering participating in a writing contest?

I also include 8-10 questions with instructions that the contestant can pick and choose and needs to answer just 5 of the questions. Each person I've interviewed has always responded to the question above. Here's a "best of" compilation of those responses:


WOW is the greatest site for writers I’ve found, with valuable classes and services, and they do a contest that works to promote the writers. ~ Mary Ellen Wall (http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2018/05/interview-with-mary-ellen-wall-2017.html)

Submitting to WOW was one of the best choices I have made as a writer, and the option of purchasing a critique is great for those struggling with confidence, as I was. It’s an opportunity to learn and grow as a writer. ~ Tina Tippett (http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2018/04/interview-with-tina-tippett-2017-winter.html)

Move outside your comfort zone!!! It’s fun. This was the first time I entered a writing contest, and for me it felt very much like submitting your work to a literary journal or magazine. ~Sue Ganno (http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2018/06/interview-with-sue-gano-essay-contest.html)

If you've never submitted your work to a writing contest, I suggest you take some of the advice from above and check out our latest contests: http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php Whether you win or not, writing contests are good for your soul. It's encouraging to get feedback and helps move all of us forward. It's alright to be nervous about entering, but I guarantee you'll be glad you did! I also like to think we have a little something for everyone! WOW! Women On Writing now hosts two quarterly contests: one for fiction writers and one for nonfiction writers. We’ve hosted the flash fiction contest since 2006, and over the years, writers have asked us to open up an essay contest. So we are happy to add the essay contest to our offerings. We look forward to reading your work!

Click on the links below to jump to:

Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest

Quarterly Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest

Crystal is a secretary, council secretary, and musician at her church, birth mother and auntie, babywearing cloth diapering mama (aka crunchy mama), business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Publicist with Dream of Things Publishing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their five youngest children (Carmen 11, Andre 10, Breccan 5, Delphine 3, and baby Eudora who somehow turned 1 already), two dogs, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, and over 230 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal riding unicorns, taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary, blogging, reading, reviewing, and baking here and at her personal blog - Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade!