Hey kids! How do you feel about contests?
I’ve been looking for ways to move forward. I want to sink my teeth into this writing world…sport a bite worse than my bark. I want to make sure I’m a part of ‘it’ and genuinely working towards achieving more than writing a blog post here and there. (Which I absolutely love doing, by the way)
So…I entered a contest; the criteria – flash fiction, open prompt, a minimum of 250 words and a max of 750. A dreamy drool formed at the corners of my mouth as I pondered the possibilities. It was the first time I’d ever entered a writing contest and it was, although nerve-wracking, exhilarating.
I took a previously written (by yours truly) story called “That’s The Spirit”, tweaked it, paid a ten-dollar entry fee and chose to shell out an extra ten for the optional critique. After several minutes of water-gauging, I shouted heave ho, pressed firmly on the send button and…waited.
Apparently it takes a couple of months to read through, critique and judge several hundred stories. Who knew?
I submitted in January and went about my life sipping a cocktail of denial and disregard with a splash of dementia, and of course, the assumption that my story had been fed to the fishies. Until, one fine day, April 18th to be precise, the sails flapped in the wind, we changed course and before I could yell; “Jibe!” This popped into my box:
“Congratulations!
You’ve successfully made it through First Round Judging in the WOW! Winter 2013 Flash Fiction Contest. Your entry has officially been given the thumbs-up, and you’re well on your way!”
Whoa. Say what? I was taken completely by surprise. I thought I’d capsized long ago. But, I won’t keep you in suspense. I didn’t win. On May 21st, I received notice that I’d placed as an honorable mention. I’m thrilled with this. I entered to gain experience and something else that’s crucial – feedback. The ten bucks I spent on that critique was invaluable. Through it, I found out that I would’ve placed higher if it weren’t for a handful of technical errors. I scored 5’s on everything, but a 4 in the technical department. These are things that I would’ve thought could be overlooked if my story were good enough. I was wrong.
You don’t win with 4’s. You don’t win with meh. You don’t win with good enough. You require 5’s. You want wow. You need great.
I enjoyed the journey this voyage took me on and I will set sail again, regardless of a calm or cragged sea. After all…
Hazy Shades of Me 
Well done you! To have the courage to put forward your writing in that way is marvellous. Critiques are so useful, in terms of helping you to see if things could have been improved upon. Don’t be discouraged if you lose competitions though, as don’t forget that most of the time there can be only one/few winners – with the best story in the world, you still might not be able to beat other ones that are also highly crafted and polished. Set sail again for The Spanish Main with your writing soon and I’m sure you’ll be successful!
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Thanks, Too Full. I do plan to keep my eye on the horizon!
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Congratulations Hazy! Keep sailing and let the wind take you where it may. 🙂
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Thanks Murphy. :0)
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WOW is right. Good for you!
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Thank you!!
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Reblogged this on ftharvey.
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congrats! you will surely be successful in the future just stick to it and never give up! Believe then you can Achieve!
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Thanks Matt. I believe! I think… ;0)
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Believe! Don’t say you think! You can do it just don’t give up!
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Thanks Matt!
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Keep entering contests! You will win. You’re obviously really good 🙂
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Thanks so much for the encouragement, Jenn. 🙂
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Congratulations! An honorable mention is fantastic, keep entering and keep up the good work 😀
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Thank you, Dianne! I’m pretty chuffed. I really enjoyed to the whole experience. It was very positive.
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Good job, Hazy. But even better you learned a valuable lesson. When I first started freelance writing, I pitched an idea to Audubon magazine using the name of the editor I found in the Writer’s Market (which is old the minute it hits the shelves), and I didn’t check any further. I received a rejection on the article, not from my idea which the responder liked. No, I had sent the query letter to an editor who had left the year before. Therefore, I was told if I didn’t check that one little detail, the editor felt he wouldn’t be able to trust anything else I submitted. Harsh? Oh yeah. But valuable? By all means. I never forgot the lesson. But at least you received an honorable mention for your lesson! Well done.
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Yes, I won’t forget this lesson. In the case, the small stuff should be sweated. Ha ha.
Thanks for sharing your story!
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Congrats! The technical stuff can be easily addressed. Knowing that your writings is otherwise praiseworthy, well, that’s got to feel good. 🙂
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Thanks Adam. Yes, it feels a teensy bit good. 😉
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I admire your courage…
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Thanks for sharing this information! It’s really good to hear about someone else’s experience. Before I saw your post, I was half-wondering if I’d sent $20 off to something that was kind of a scam.
I only wish I had seen your post before I sent in my entry for the Spring 2013 contest, as I just got back an email with the critique, and I too got 5s for subject and content but a 4 for technical, which makes it unlikely that I’ll place. I should have had someone else read it over before I sent it, but I don’t really have anyone I’d feel comfortable showing it to (which of course is ridiculous since I sent it off to be read by a couple of strangers, and many more than them if I succeed).
I don’t know if this was true for you as well, but of the six “tracked change” marks in the MS Word document I received, only one of them was something where I thought “Oh gosh I’m an idiot, how did I miss such a huge mistake?” The others seemed more stylistic differences, like using a comma instead of a semi-colon in a series, or using a semi-colon instead of a period. So I’ll take the advice and re-submit for another contest, but I’ll be curious to see if the next editor agrees with the first.
However, the suggestions about how to improve the story, especially to punch up the ending, were great. I will definitely use the specific idea given about how to give the end more impact.
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Sadly Pat, if you’ve already received your critique, you didn’t place. They send out an alert if you’ve made the first round well before critiques are sent. However, all in all, I think it’s a good learning process and, like you say, a lot of importance is placed on technical. I guess if two stories are just as good as each other, it will come down to ‘little’ mistakes with punctuation and spelling etc., and who’s work is more polished.
There were a couple of suggestions that I felt were more on the stylistic side, but I supposed that’s up to editor preference. I do think it’s a good idea to revamp as per (some) of the critique and resubmit. As you say, it would be interesting to see what comes of it as the stories are not always critiqued by the same editor.
I’m really glad you commented here. It’s nice to hear of someone else’s experience, not to mention, getting to know a fellow writer/competitor! Thank you!
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Thanks for your welcome and for the additional info about the contest timing, though… oh, poop. Well, as you say, it’s a good learning experience and I’ll definitely rework it to benefit from the critique. The story I submitted is actually the first scene of what I plan to be a full-length novel, and I did find the 750 word constraint to be helpful in keeping me from my worst writing sin: excessive wordiness. I may try to keep writing at least half of the scenes within that metric to see if it helps me keep action and dialogue moving.
And yes, you nailed it about what keeps me from getting a proofreader.
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I missed something when answering your comment…I understand COMPLETELY your not feeling comfortable showing your work to someone before sending it in to be judged. LOL! It’s this crazy quirk us writers have…showing it to someone we know, before it’s become what we consider an official success (ie: having won a contest or be published) is very, very hard for fear they will think we’re insane. It’s much easier to show it to faceless strangers and find out that we are either, A: writing geniuses, or B: off our rockers!
BUT, if you can get past the fear and vulnerability, it is best to have someone else proofread it. I find that I, of course, know what it’s supposed to say, so I read it that way, even though I could have several words wrong or misspelt! It’s a frustrating dilemma.
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