5 reasons to try your hand at writing competitions

From major national prizes to tiny local contests, there are hundreds of writing competitions out there. It’s clearly never going to be practical to enter every single competition you come across, but entering carefully selected writing competitions could help you develop your skills as a writer. Here are five reasons to try your hand at writing competitions.

Give yourself a focus – and a deadline

First of all, it can be really useful to have a focus for your writing. As writers, we all know how easy it can be to procrastinate or fail to make progress unless we have a deadline in mind. Luckily, a focus and a deadline are two things that you can get from entering a writing competition, giving you a useful chance to work on your discipline and finish some projects.

Find motivation

Competitions can also help your motivation, partly by giving you a goal to aim for and partly by offering up some inspiration. Many competitions offer a theme or a prompt for you to work from, which can be great if you’re feeling a bit blocked or unsure of what to write. Likewise, many other competitions allow you to write whatever you want, which could be a great outlet for all those short stories or poems that you’re unsure what to do with.

Try new writing styles

Many of us tend to stick with one writing style, but entering competitions often gives us an opportunity to try out new styles and techniques. The theme of the competition might demand that we write in a certain way, or an interesting sounding poetry competition might force us out of our prose comfort zone. Whatever it is, it helps us to grow as writers and you never know when you might hit upon a new, fantastic idea you would never have considered otherwise.

Potential for confidence boosts

This one doesn’t really need much explaining – if you enter writing competitions, there’s a chance you might win. Of course, most of us won’t win most of the competitions we enter, but when we consider that there’s generally quite a lot of rejection in a writer’s career, it’s all good practice. Plus it only takes one win to give you a major confidence boost, so keep trying. Persistence is a useful skill for writers.

Add to your writing CV

Competition wins can be a great addition to your writing resume. For instance, if you’re pitching to agents or publications in the hope of getting your work printed, evidence of previous success – particularly if you’ve managed to win a prestigious competition – can be helpful. Depending on the competition, winning could also mean getting your work printed, which will be another helpful string to your bow.

Have you ever entered writing competitions, and are there any in particular that you’d recommend?