Writing Contests | Cathy C. Hall Writes

Times are tough, I know. Markets to submit your lovely writing to are dropping like flies, and many of the markets left standing don’t want to pay. What’s a poor writer to do?

Try a contest. I know I might have mentioned (okay, harped about) this idea before, but I really feel like it’s a way to improve your writing (because you’re sending something out there, oftentimes, with a fee. It behooves you to put utmost effort into the submission you send). Also, I’m rather fond of financial remuneration for my utmost efforts. Aren’t you?

Time and time again, I see writers giving away perfectly wonderful stories. And, occasionally, this is a practice that can pay off. But you don’t want to make a habit of it. Kinda reminds me of something my mother used to say: “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?”

She probably wasn’t talking about writing. But, still. You get the point. There are plenty of contests out there, with nominal fees, and generally, the sponsors don’t publish the winning stories. You can still sell your story somewhere else!

Now, winning a small contest is not going to add anything special when you’re trying to sell your novel. But your wonderful novel should sell itself. Meanwhile, you can make a little money on your wonderful stories. And give your writing ego a little boost in the bargain.

I won First Place (the Pen Point Group Award) in the mystery fiction category for the White County Creative Writers. (Wheee!) The story, “Like a Pirate,” is one of my favorite stories. I wrote it three years ago. The original was a diamond in the rough (not that I realized that fact three years ago). It needed polishing details, but the plot was good. And every time that story got rejected, I worked on it just a little bit more.

Here’s a contest for you to try: The Saturday Writers 8th Annual Short Story Contest. There’s a small fee, and it’s open genre. Oh, and it’s sponsored by an organization packed with gifted writers! So, poor writer, pick your best story, polish it up, and put it an envelope.

And may the best writer win.

I’ll bet that’s a group of words that doesn’t show up in a search engine very often.

Today, I was going to wax poetic about building blog stats, and Sparky, and burning a feed, and search engine-y things. But the truth is, I do all this stuff (like burning a feed of my blog) and I’m kind of hazy on the whole business. So, that would have been a very short Finding Something Friday. Instead, let’s take a look at Dogs and The Women Who Love Them (2009 True Story Contest).

We’re not talking about a crazy dog like Sally Hall ( notice how I found a pic of Sally wearing a holiday crown? Or at least wearing a crown, Sally-style.). We’re talking about a contest where the “stories should demonstrate the benefits for a woman who fulfills a life purpose by partnering with a dog to perform extraordinary physical, emotional, or spiritual service.” That kinda leaves Sally out. But maybe you and your dog fit the bill. Write the story, keep it under 2,000 words, and get it postmarked by September 30th. I still love my Sally dog, you know. But we’re kinda lacking in the “life purpose” thing.

Now, agents. I found Litmatch a few months ago, and made a note about it. But like many notes, it got sorta lost in the shuffle. Since today was a “clean up that mess over there” day (according to the Beneficent Mr. Hall), I found Litmatch again. Whee! It’s a free service which lists agents and agencies and allows you to track submissions to such (and gives information about all things agent-y, too). I haven’t signed up for it yet, but I made a note about it.

Now, on to the (Thanksgiving and Christmas) holidays. I found an email in my Inbox from the editor of Girlfriend to Girlfriend Magazine. She’s looking for articles about the aforementioned holidays, and she’s looking for pieces with a female slant. Oh, and she’s looking for a family slant, too. She has another magazine called Simple Joy, so I think she has lots of slots to fill. And she’ll pay you a small honorarium. You know, it was a very l-o-n-g email, so I might be forgetting something. Well, you can email me if you need more particulars.

And if you know all the particulars on that business I was going to write about (like “why do I burn a feed of my blog and check subscribers, and what exactly does RSS stand for, anyway?”), you can email me about that, too.