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| Photo courtesy of Rebecca Heyduk |
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
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!
1 comments:
Hey Crystal:
This is a great post. The other thing I always say about contests (especially ours) is that you know your work is being read. Sometimes when we send to magazines or publishers, we don't know if we are even read!
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