Writing Winning Words

Hello again compers!  How was your weekend?  Get up to anything exciting?  It was the last weekend before our youngest started school this week, so we had a quiet one.  You know the drill – duvet days, lots of snacks, favourite foods (nachos and homemade pizzas in our case), and getting the girls ready for their first full week at school – exciting times!  It did mean I was fortunate enough to actually get some comping in though – amazing what you can get done on an iPad with Home Alone in the background and a tin of Cadbury Roses at your side!  Any wins to report?  Nothing much here yet for September, except a few very small instant win prizes- still hopeful though!

As the autumn starts to set in, we tend to spend more time indoors in the evening, don’t you think?  Does the way you comp change over the colder months?  Do you spend more time on skill-based comps, because you have more time to dedicate to getting a good entry completed?  Do you like to do more writing comps for instance as the weather turns – what better way to spend an evening than by getting your creative juices flowing and putting your thoughts down on paper (or computer) – all in the cause of winning a fantastic prize or two?  If you fancy turning your hand to writing some longer competition entries (rather than just tie breakers and captions), here are a few tips to get you going:

• Decide on what style of writing you enjoy doing – it could be poetry, short stories, children’s stories, historic fiction, romantic fiction or any combination of the above!
• Do you have a whole story ready to go, or just an outline that you can use for comps, and can flesh out later?
• Spend some time coming up with a good title – first impressions count.  Use the Windex database as a source of ideas for words and phrases to use in relation to particular themes and topics for your writing.
• Think outside the box – if you are writing a romantic fiction piece, steer clear of all the clichés that have been done before.  Try not to confine yourself to writing about the standard holiday romance, colleague affairs etc; think about some different scenarios where love can happen, and interesting characters that will stick in the judges’ minds.
• Make sure and read the terms & conditions carefully.  Writing competitions are very strict on their rules.  If they say 1,000 words max, they mean 1,000 words max – not 1,002 and hope they won’t count – they will!
• Make sure and do a full spellcheck and proof read, at least twice before you send.  You don’t want to miss out on a win, just because of some poor grammar.  Get someone else to read it too if you can, fresh eyes on a writing pieces are invaluable.

So what are you waiting for, have a browse through Compers News and dive into the Chatterbox Forum, and pick out some good writing contests to enter.  Settle down in a quiet place, grab a coffee (or your favourite drink) and get started.  As with all skill-based competitions, writing pieces are always lower entry, so why not give it a go. - you might surprise yourself!  Have you had any good wins from writing competitions, do let us know, we love to read all about your wins – and tips for winning them too!

Happy comping everyone, and lots of Lucky Dust to you all!

Kirsty x