How to Win Short Story Contests: Insights from A Writing Competition Judge

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Thinking about entering a short story contest? Rayne Hall shares tips on how to improve your chances at winning.

Contests are great for short story writers, because they motivate you to create more stories and to revise them until they sparkle like diamonds. If your story wins, you'll gain recognition, validation that your writing is good, a boost for your credentials. You may also reap a cash prize, and perhaps a certificate, trophy or plaque to display.

So how do you make your story stand out in the eyes of the contest judges?

Of course, you need to write a really good story. All the usual guidelines for story writing apply: character, goal, motivation, conflict, structure, dialogue, hook, satisfying ending and more. Unless you've mastered the craft of short story writing, your chances of success are small, and no insider tricks will help.

But here are several steps you can take to draw the judges' attention to your good story and win their favor.

I've been a judge on many writing competitions—sometimes the only judge, more often part of a judging panel—and I know from experience where many writers go wrong. Today, I'm sharing insider tips. Some of them may surprise you.

1. Submit your story early.

Try to be among the first who submit.

In many competitions, the judges start reading as soon as the entries arrive. At the beginning, there's only a trickle of stories coming in, and every story gets read carefully. Near the closing date, a deluge of entries arrives. The judges have less time to devote to each story, and they're jaded, because they've read the same kind of story so many times already. A good story arriving in the first few days after the contest opens is more likely to make it to the shortlist than an equally good tale arriving on the closing date.

2. Stick to the word count.

If the competition rules stipulate '2000-3000 words' then your story must fall into that bracket. This seems obvious, but surprisingly many contestants don't abide by the word count. I've received many entries where the entrants submitted stories just a few words over the limit—3010 words instead of 3000. Don't think the judges won't notice, or that they will make an exception for you because your story is so brilliant. If your entry exceeds the word-count, it won't even get read.

So, spend a few minutes and find words you can shave off before you submit. If the story really can't be told within the given word limit, write a different one.

By the way, the word-count refers to the story itself, and doesn't include the story title and author name.

(Here's more with The 5 Most Common Misconceptions About Writing Contests — Debunked)

3. Don't tell the judges why you deserve to win.

Some entrants think they can sway judges with a personal plea. They preface their stories with a paragraph begging for the prize. ("Please choose my story. I know it's not very good, but I have a sick husband and seven kids, and my therapist says that winning this contest would be good for my self-esteem.")

The judges are looking for the best story, not for the most needy or deserving citizens. If your entry starts with a personal plea instead of a great story hook, it will get discarded.

4. Follow the format.

The contest rules will say how to submit your entry: in the body of an email, as an attachment, through a submission site, or printed with double-spacing on white paper. Send it exactly as stipulated.

Surprisingly many entrants ignore formatting rules—either because they haven't bothered to read them, or because they think their story is so wonderful that the judges will make an exception—and those pieces get weeded out immediately, unread.

Be especially careful about the email heading. If the rules require you to put 'Entry: Udduddu Writing Contest 2021' then this is exactly what you have to write. The contest organizer's system is programmed to deliver only emails with this precise heading into the folder for the competition. If your email is headed 'My Competition Story' it won't arrive. Even a small mistake—such as a typo, or 'Writer's Contest' instead of 'Writing Contest' means your entry will be lost.

(Here's more with Writing Contests: How to Write to Win)

5. Focus on the theme, don't just mention it.

If the contest has a theme—such as 'Mother's Day' or 'Dangerous Insects'—make the theme central to your tale. To win, your story must do more than include the theme—it must be about the theme. For a 'Mother's Day'-themed writing contest, it's not enough that the events happen to play out on Mother's Day. The judges will select an entry that explores the meaning of Mother's Day, with a conflict built around it.

Many entrants, instead of crafting a new story that's perfect for the competition, simply send in an already-written piece, and insert a few words to mention the theme. Years ago, I was on the judging panel for a contest with the theme 'Garden Shed'—and obviously, we were looking for stories which were about garden sheds. But in most entries, a garden shed didn't even play a significant role. The authors merely inserted the words somewhere ('He walked past the garage and the garden shed and rang the doorbell'), expecting to get away with this. Their stories technically qualified—but they were not chosen for the shortlist.

6. Interpret the theme in an unusual way.

The contest's theme immediately brings up certain associations. The first idea coming to your mind may be the same that everyone else is thinking of. If you write that story, chances are, the judges have already read many similar ones, so yours merely elicits a yawn.

For example, when I helped judge that 'Garden Shed' competition, I got one story after another featuring a husband who spent time in the shed to get away from his wife. I groaned, "Not another one of those." Very few of them made it to the shortlist. I discussed this with the other judges, and they weren't enthusiastic either about reading endless variations of the same story. (One observed that even the names were often the same—husband Albert sought the peace of the garden shed to escape his demanding wife Sally.)

Interpretations that stood out and made it to the shortlist included a man trying to erect an 'easy self-assembly' flatpack shed, and a woman who coveted a shed so much that she would go to any length to obtain it.

(Here's more with Are Writing Contests and Book Reviews Worth It?)  

7. Choose an unexpected point of view.

You can make your story stand out by telling it from an unexpected perspective. For example, if the contest theme is 'Wedding', most entries will tell a story in which the main character is the bride. Some others may focus on the groom, a bridesmaid, or the mother-of-the-bride. Take a step away from the obvious and consider who else could be involved in a wedding. How about a caterer, a photographer, or the cleaner dealing with the mess after the event? What might their goals, experiences, dilemmas be?

However, please don't enter a story from the point of view of a dog. Almost every contest I've judged had one or several entries with canine POV. It seldom works well enough for the story to stand out.

8. Emphasize the story goal.

What does the main character want or need to achieve during the story, and why? Find a way to state this clearly in the first paragraph, because that's a powerful way to hook readers (including short story judges) and keep them hooked to the end.

At the end, show whether the character has achieved the goal. This will make the ending feel satisfactory to the reader.

In my experience as a short story competition judge, the main weakness of many contest entries is the lack of goal and motivation. Stories in which the main character doesn't need anything, or has no convincing reason for this desire, rarely make it to the shortlist, however beautiful the prose.

(Here's more with The Value of Critiques and Writing Contests)

9. Beware the anticlimax.

Many contest stories have held my attention with a captivating story goal, well-written prose and a suspenseful plot... and then the ending was a let-down.

The end of the story needs to satisfy the reader by showing whether or not the main character has achieved their goal. The answer can be 'yes' (happy ending) or 'no' (unhappy ending). It can even be 'yes, but' (moderately happy) or 'no, but' (moderately unhappy). But it has to be clear, or the readers (including the contest judges) will feel frustrated.

Most story competition judges have the same pet peeve: stories which end with '... and then the character woke up, because it was only a dream.' Or a simulation or a computer game. These endings are anticlimactic, because they build the reader's suspense, and then deliver nothing at all.

Your story's ending should be more exciting than what came before, giving the readers even more than what they expected. Never give the readers less than they anticipate.

10. Make sure your entry fee arrives.

Many contests charge a fee per submission. This is to defray their costs, to make a profit, or to raise funds for a charity. If you don't want to pay the fee, don't enter the contest.

Some writers think say, "I don't want to waste my money if my story doesn't win. I'll wait, and if it gets selected, I'll send the payment." But those stories never enter the judging system.

Some contests have automated systems, where you submit electronically and get directed to a payment site. Others expect you to pay by bank transfer or to send a check, and with those, the payment can become separated from the entry. I've been involved in several contests where the organizers didn't receive or couldn't find the fees for some entries. The main cause of confusion is that the name of the bank account differs from the name of the email or the pen name on the manuscript.

Make sure it's clear which story the payment is for.

What's your experience? Have you ever entered a writing contest? What's been your experience? If you're a competition judge, do you have any advice to add?

Rayne Hall is the author of over seventy books, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Her books have been published by several publishers in several countries, and translated into several languages. A trained publishing manager with more than thirty years’ experience in the industry, she also publishes her own books and champions indie-publishing for authors. She is the editor and publisher of the Ten Tales short story anthologies.

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