How Do You Win Fiction Writing Competitions?
Although you might think the odds are stacked against you when you enter a fiction writing contest (after all, your little story might be one of thousands of entries), your odds are better than you think. Many writers either do not know how to write good fiction and/or they do not follow the rules of the contest, causing their stories to fail before really having a chance. Don’t be one of them. Here is how you can win fiction-writing competitions. Start strong. Introduce a complicated or interesting situation in the first few paragraphs of your fiction story. Make the reader want to see what happens to your characters. Be believable. Make your characters “real” people. Hone your dialog so that it sounds natural. Give your characters distinctive, but believable, mannerisms. Do not solve problems in your story with a “coincidence.” The resolution of your story must come from your character’s actions and arise organically from the situation. Be original. Although there may not be any trul
