Does Entering Fiction Contests Feel Like Playing the Lottery?
photo by Jeffrey Beal
Last week I announced that I would rework the incomplete novel that resulted from July Novel Writing month to enter a short story contest. I could take one of two approaches to begin this task. I could be true to the vision of the artist and complete the story first and then shop around for a suitable contest. Alternatively, I could take the shallow route by selecting a fiction contest first and then rewrite the fiction to improve the chances of winning that particular contest. I'll be taking the shallow route.
How do I know what fiction contests are out there that I can select from?
The Novel and Short Story Writer's Guide can be a resource and I have a copy, but it is way too old, 2006. I could Google away and bookmark like crazy, but that is an awful lot of work. It just so happens that I also have Writing to Win: The Colossal Guide to Writing Contests by Moira Allen with a chapter on short fiction contests. Rather than apply my calculation to all the contests in the book, I am going to apply a few filters and only focus on those short fiction contests that will not require a great deal of rewriting to make the story fit the contest. I also opted to focus on contests with a due date between the end of August and beginning of October.
Some highlights of the decision-making process.
- Since my source material is a science fiction story, the Once Written Halloween Midnight Hour Halloween Contest is Out and the ReadMe What If? Science Fiction Contest is In.
- Since my source material was stylistically and thematically postmodern and could generously be considered literary, contests sponsored by literary publications are In and genre fiction (with the exception of science fiction) is Out.
- Best short story relating in some way to the Mississippi River. Out.
- In a very bizarre way, the historical fiction contest, "Fish Short Histories Historical Fiction Award" could be a fit, since my source material relies rather heavily on the Gilgamesh myth and the personification of cities.
- Happy Tales Literary Contest is out of the question, due to my allergy.
- Children's literature—not bloody likely (not because of adult themes, but rather content that would be grotesquely uninteresting to the target audience).
Now, out of the gazillions of short fiction contests that exist, I have narrowed the candidates down to twenty-four.
Next week, I will apply ROI (that's return-on-investment in the parlance of business) calculations to decide which one of the shortlisted contests provide the greatest pay-off.
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