The Good, The Bad, The Frustration of Contests
I have encouraged you readers to enter contests to sharpen your skills and resolve. Here is my latest attempt to put my money where my mouth is.
There were 13 categories to enter in the Cascade Christian Writers contest, and I entered three.
All three of my short stories placed as finalists. (I had two finalists, but no winner in 2023.) My poem was a flyer and I will tell you a story about that in a few more paragraphs. My book (Snippets –a devotional based on stories like those in the short story competition) did not place.
The best part of a good contest is the feedback by judges who work in the field. The worst part about a good contest is the feedback from the judges who work in the field.
The feedback on the short stories and poem were obviously positive from the three judges. The feedback on the book was a split decision: two loved it, one did not. I’ve had similar judges’ split feedback in other contests. That’s life in the world of submissions.
When I was writing for boating magazines, I had an editor who loved me and paid $600 for a story: my record high. He moved to men’s magazine and his replacement hated me. She even sent back stories her predecessor had already scheduled to print. I found a new magazine and editor who loved me, and I was able to pay my moorage bills with port of call articles. One of his competitors (a racing magazine) seldom bought anything.
What is great for one magazine, publisher, editor is useless for another even if Shakespeare is your ghost writer. You have to research who you are submitting to (or signing up to talk to at a conference) to find the right fit. Read beyond what the conference tells you. Find the editor’s blog. Read some of their work. They usually say what they are looking for. They mean it. Don’t expect them to give you a break. That’s not their job.
But keep plugging away.
The poem story. New Prince, Old Story was an intentionally lyrical short story. Very short. I was going to enter it as a short story and ran it by my writers’ group. They liked the tone, and someone suggested I lay it out as a poem. I was only allowed three short story entries, so I re-arranged the format and – bingo! – poem finalist.
I said that to say this. Get into a good writers’ group. Once you develop some trust, you will reap some rewards. Feedback from other readers will help give you insight to your work, see things you don’t see, give you incentive to submit.
The Cascade Christian Writers Conference is in Canby, Oregon every spring. They have a lovely facility, good lodging, Christian Camp kind of outdoors atmosphere and don’t charge an arm and a leg…just a leg. I’ll be back here in a week with results.
