How to win a writing contest

ACFWAuthors and writing, Contests, Friends of ACFW, tips, writing 1 Comment

By Jill K Willis

You’ve decided . . . gulp . . . to enter your book baby in a writing contest. You’ve agonized over the synopsis, formatted the manuscript, and completed the contact form. You’ve edited it a thousand times, along with your mother and your critique partner. You’ve caught typos, grammatical errors, and plot holes. What more could possibly be done to impress the judges?

Reading it out loud.

Such a simple concept and oh so effective. You don’t have to pay an editor or purchase an app like ProWriting Aid. All you need is your voice, a comfy chair, and a quiet room.

Besides entertaining your cat, reading your work aloud will help polish your manuscript so the judges will focus on the story and not waste time commenting on mistakes. You’ll:

  1. Catch awkward or unnecessary phrases. In other words, you’ll find the filler words to cut. When you read in silence, the impressive sentences you’ve penned might appear lovely on the page. But when you read the same words aloud, you might discover them cumbersome, even pompous. Pay careful attention to dialogue. People don’t speak in the same manner as the written word. I write young adult fiction and quickly learned that TeenSpeak is almost a new language. In fact, it’s sometimes hard to even spell what comes out of teens’ mouths. For males, it’s mostly grunts and one syllables.
  2. Find more typos, grammatical errors, and plot holes. If you’ve read your work multiple times (in my case, dozens), you’ll find yourself skimming through anticipated words and phrases. You’re not reading every single word. But if you read it aloud, you’re forced to read everything. And that’s when you realize you’ve left a character in one room while his friends have moved to another.
  3. Reveal unsuitable emphasis and inflection. You might be proud of a certain turn of phrase (after all, your mother gave it two thumbs up), but when you read it aloud, it falls flat. Ugh. You spent a whole morning on that section. Reject the urge to leave it. Spend whatever time it takes to make it worthy of being read aloud. It’ll be worth it.
  4. Uncover poor word choices and repetitive words. English is a fabulous language. We have so many words with similar meanings it’s hard for readers to get bored. But as writers, we must acknowledge the different nuances of words. For instance, one of my teen characters wouldn’t tell a police officer that he’s wrong. Poor word choice. As a Christian sixteen-year-old, she’d been taught to be respectful. Instead, she’d soften her response and suggest he’s mistaken.
  5. Discover offbeat rhythm and pacing. Chapters must have a perfect flow that depends on the action. If the action is building, write in short sentences to move the story faster. But don’t use too many in a row, or your work will sound clipped. To slow the story, write in longer sentences. Be careful of stringing together too many compound sentences. That also can get redundant.

I’ve entered a lot of contests, but never won one until I read my entry out loud before submitting. Good grief. I caught so many errors. I wish someone had told me of this simple trick before I’d wasted all that money on submission fees.

Have you ever found a funny mistake while reading your work aloud? Please share it.

Entering a writing contest? Here’s a surefire way to impress the judges. @JillKWillis #ACFWBlogs #writetip #critiques #ACFWCommunity Click To Tweet

Jill K Willis is the author of The Demons Among Us, winner of the ACFW Genesis Contest-YA Category in 2020. The first page of that manuscript also won the ACFW SC Chapter’s First Page Novel Contest in 2020. Jill’s a co-founder of the Storyteller Squad blog.

 

 

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