Quick Link: Your Ultimate Guide to Writing Contests

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Have you ever entered a writing contest or wanted to? Over on his site, Jerry Jenkins explores the benefits of entering writing contests and then gives advice on how to find legitimate ones.  Let us know if you have ever entered a writing contest and what your experience was.

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Your Ultimate Guide to Writing Contests

Posted February 19th, 2016

Regardless where you are on your writing journey—from wannabe to bestseller—you can benefit from entering contests.

Why?

Because the right contest can tell you:

• Where you stand
• How you measure up against the competition
• What you still need to learn

To get you the complete lowdown on everything you need to know about writing contests I consulted the ultimate expert. Dr. Dennis Hensley is chairman of the Department of Professional Writing at Taylor University, Upland, Indiana.

It’s because of Doc that I unequivocally refer to Taylor as having the best university writer training program in the country, bar none. Ever since I heard him speak more than 30 years ago, I have never hosted a writers conference without inviting him to keynote and teach. Doc is always a favorite and never disappoints.

His students don’t just learn to write and sell and publish. They’re in the game every day, pushed to query and propose and market their work to real publications. So Doc isn’t preparing them to be professional writers when they graduate; he’s thrusting them into the action now.

Besides having students sell their writing, Doc pushes them into contests too. He’s turned out  enough productive writers over the decades to tell me that what’s good for them has to be good for you and me.

So I asked him:

Why are you such a strong advocate of writers’ contests?

Contests force writers to hit deadlines. That means they have to finish, and finish on time. It’s hard to beat that kind of training.