Vicki Bradley

In April/May I went on a competition entering spree.

It meant pestering friends to proof read my entries and staying up until midnight to hit submit before the deadline bewitching hour hit!

I started thinking that I should be writing, rather than fiddling around with my first 3 chapters so that they were under 10,000 words. I was wrong. Entering competitions was precisely what I should be doing. They hone your editing skills, force you to look at your first three chapters like never before, (chapters you might not have looked at for months) and they give you enforced deadlines. It’s also a chance to take stock at how far you’ve come on your writing journey. You’re a real writer now, entering actual competitions!

And there’s always the chance you might win. Like I did. I’m ecstatic (and still in shock) to announce that I won WriteHereRightNow.

Competitions are the way forward.

It’s competition time and so far I’ve been shortlisted for 2 writing competitions.

First Novel and WriteHereRightNow. I’m very excited and feel like I’ve won just being shortlisted.

I recommend entering competitions when you’re at the point of submitting your MS to agents. It will give you a good indication of whether your novel is ready for the world and competitions are good deadlines to give yourself to get your MS up to scratch.

It is so easy in writing just to drift along and realise that a year has past and in many ways your no further forward. I need goals to keep the momentum going and to feel like I’m achieving something, be it an editing goal or getting a submission in for a competition.

A good website to look at to see what competitions are out there is Aerogramme Studio.

Good luck with the writing all!

Vicki