Participation Prize

The Unexpected Rewards of Writing Contests

- POLLY CAMPBELL

For 25 bucks, I jump-started my imagination.

The rules were simple: Register for the writing contest, pay the entry fee, and at midnight, I'd receive three unique prompts—a genre, an object (mine was a sleeping bag), and an action. I had 24 hours to weave those into a 250-word story and submit it online. A couple of my friends were entering, and on a whim, I decided to take on the challenge, too.

I wrote something fantastical, far outside my nonfiction wheelhouse, about a model stuck in a sleeping bag, and then rushed off to a holiday bazaar.

It will come as no surprise to learn that I didn't win. I was eliminated before the second round. I don't even remember what the prize was. But I gained something valuable: I had fun writing, something I hadn't felt for a while.

The prompts pushed me outside my usual subject matter, forcing me to experiment and let loose. With such a tight deadline, I didn't have time to overthink—I just wrote.

In the process, I remembered why I loved storytelling in the first place. Writing contests offer benefits beyond the possibility of winning. They help writers rediscover creativity, build confidence, and grow.

THE PERKS OF WRITING UNDER PRESSURE

Even the most experienced and prolific writers have days when working through a messy draft feels as slow and sloppy as clearing a clogged pipe. Contests help keep the creative flow going, says Joel Shoemaker, Associate Director of Library Services for Methodist College, Peoria, Ill.

Shoemaker, who has self-published several books and a picture book called Silas on Sundays (Wildling Press), enters several flash fiction or short fiction contests a year—his current favorite is Writing Battle (WritingBattle.com). He said he rarely thinks about winning, but he has fun and his contest pieces often become the seeds of his anthologies and other works.