Writing Competitions / Contests - Part 1 of ...?

I know this is going to have to be Part 1 of ... some larger number... because there are just so many writing competitions out there! Some are there to grow your writing community, some have cash prizes and agent/editor meetings as rewards, and some are there to help you hone your skill and craft. Whatever the reason or outcome, they are all worthwhile!

Writing competitions can sometimes feel like a waste of time, especially to the many people (myself included!) that don't win or are not Honorable Mentions (HMs) or even in the longlist. And yet, the one thing I continually remind myself is that they are so much more than just the result. As Kathryn mentioned in my interview with her (as a veteran of 16 different competitions!), they provide deadlines to help encourage you to finish things and also good practice for agent submissions. They also help you write to a prompt (if that is part of the contest), many provide strict word counts which are both a pain and a good challenge, and they can push you out of your comfort zone or to try something new.

I am going to talk about 3 competitions today: KidLit Chuckle Challenge, Fall Writing Frenzy and the Writing Magazines Children's Book Prize.

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I LOVE this competition!! It started last year in 2024 and ran again this year. You get 5 different characters and 5 different objects - your story must feature one of each (pick and choose) and the word count is 200 including art notes. It is definitely a challenge because of course, you have to make it funny! Kris, April, Juile and Bri are fantastic at hyping up all the authors that enter, do some fun stats during the wait for results, and just generally make everyone feel welcome and included.

Last year I wrote a story about Santa's grumpy Uncle getting rotten broccoli for Christmas as a prank. This year I wrote about a crazy fish who wanted to walk on land and so became "FrankenFlounder" but forgot to give himself lungs! Neither story won or got an Honorable Mention (HM), but I had so much fun writing them. And last year I found a fantastic critique group on X (someone put out a call for story swaps for the competition and we all answered). We are still going strong today and this group of writers are phenomenal (many won last year and this year!). They really help elevate my writing and I aspire to be as good as them one day.

The prizes are fantastic - often they are critiques or ask-me-anythings (AMAs) with agents and writers, tickets to conferences, entry to courses, and signed copies of books. The community really comes together for this one and offer some fantastic prizes, which I know are so hugely appreciated by all the winners!

Is it sad when you don't win? Yes. And it is important to actually acknowledge that I think. It would be easy to ignore it. So go ahead and feel a bit sad, a bit deflated, a bit disheartened. But then remind yourself of everything you gained from the experience and remember that writing is subjective. What makes you laugh isn't going to make someone else giggle. And honestly, I think I went too dark this year - I do have a tendency to do that sometimes. I might post it sometime if anyone is interested.

So next year, mark your calendars (subscribe to April's newsletter too for a head's up!) and give it a go!

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The Fall Writing Frenzy is happening right now! You can actually see my recent post which includes my entry if you are interested - it is called 'Til Undeath Do Us Part... This contest has been running for quite awhile and is hosted by Kaitlyn Sanchez and Lydia Lukidis with a guest judge of Aixa Perez-Prado this year.

This is a great community building event that encourages people to post their entry on their blogs (hence my post!) and for fellow writers to visit the blogs and follow along. So it is a wonderful way of expanding your community and meeting new writers!

It is a photo prompt competition, so they give you a selection of photos (there were 13 this year) and you choose one that inspires you. I took part last year and wrote a spooky story about children trick-or-treating at a house and disappearing. This year I wrote about a spooky wedding between a skeleton and a zombie. I love this time of year and the darker-leaning kidlit, so this one is always fun! I wasn't sure if I would get an entry done as inspiration took a while to hit, but luckily it struck!

The prizes are critiques with agents, editors and established authors. Lots of the community come together to give away their time, and I love that on the donor page you can see the best way to support the donors. It is a great way of giving back to the donors who are giving away their time to help unagented writers.

So another one to mark your calendars for! And again, subscribing to Lydia's or Kaitlyn's newsletters are a great way to make sure you don't forget!

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This next one is different - it is a paid-entry writing contest hosted by Writing Magazine, author Amy Sparkes (a.k.a. the Story Godmother - more on her in a post coming soon!) and agent Julia Churchill. It is for picture books and chapter books (one of the only competitions for chapter books!) and is based in the UK, but open internationally.

I haven't taken part in this one yet, but will be submitting both a chapter book and a picture book to it (deadline is October 31st!) and have a writer friend who won it last year! Prizes are various amounts of money, meetings with Julia and Amy, and subscription to the Writing Magazine.

This one is not a hype-event or a community building one. It is open to anyone and has no parameters for what you can submit beyond the genres. So pick your best work and send it off!

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Now I know there are SOOOO many more of these out there! But in the interest of keeping this post somewhat short, I wanted to just highlight these 3. I will do another post with others such as PB Party (amazing!), Sun Write Fun, Cheshire Novel Prize Kids, and Bath Children's Novel Award.

Which ones do you love and look forward to every year?