Writing competitions

Writing isn’t going so well these past few days. The move has taken me out of my routine and I find it hard to get back into it. I think I have only written about 1000 words in three days, whereas my goal is 2000 per day. I even missed the deadline for the Mslexia short story competition, which I am really bummed out about as it only comes around once a year and the prize is really good. But I didn’t want to enter a half baked story which I knew wouldn’t win. I did enter the Mslexia flash fiction competition, so that is at least something. I shouldn’t be so hard on myself as I have entered a few competitions already this year. 

Part of my resolution to become more serious about writing was to enter more writing competitions. Not so much in the hope of winning – I know my limitations at the moment and am under no illusion that my writing is suberb yet – but more so to force myself to polish a short piece of writing. The timing hasn’t always be great, as with the Mslexia competition, but I will definitely try to enter more competitions as the year goes on.

Here are a few of the competitions I am hoping to enter in the next months:

Bristol Short Story Prize
Maximum length: 4,000 words, although there is no minimum
Prizes: 1st prize: £1000; 2nd prize: £700; 3rd prize: £400
Closing date: 3rd May 2017

Yeovil Literary Prize (short story)
Maximum length: 2,000 words
Prizes: 1st prize: £500; 2nd prize: £200; 3rd prize: £100
Closing date: 31st May 2017

Are you participating in any competitions, and if so, which ones?

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