Writing Contests

It is, officially, contest season for spec writers. This is the time where dozens of writing competitions want your scripts, short stories, poems, etc…

I have never entered a writing competition before. This is mostly due to the fact that I believe I’m still in the learning process. I have written 3 feature length screenplays, a short script, multiple short stories, and one story over 75,000 words. Going back and reading them, it tells me, first, how bad they are, and second, how much I have approved. What I’m doing know, I believe, is far better than my first few tries. This is all about practicing (actually writing) and learning by reading as much as I can about writing. I feel I am at the point of not only sharing my screenplays and stories, but to shell out some of my hard earned dough and enter a couple screenplay competitions, maybe a short story contest. The problem is that all of the credible contests cost anywhere from $35 to $100 to enter. With the hotel business not the type of career that you can make a fortune at, and with taxes due next week where I have to pay the most in taxes I have ever in my life, (Single people without kids get screwed. Or do they? [Ha, Ha] I’m not needy or high maintenance - I would be a perfect ‘dependent’), I’m not sure it is the best investment at this time.

Anyways, back to writing contests. Could I be scared? Am I afraid of the “… thanks for entering but you were not good enough and you should really try another career choice because your writing is crap and you should be ashamed of yourself for paying the money which would have been better spent on a “book for dummies” on any subject other than writing” rejection letter? But what if I get the “…. Congratulations. Your screenplay was amongst the top five of the hundreds of screenplays submitted. You are more talented than you thought, you have a bright future in this business and you should move to Los Angeles, hire an agent and, oh by the way, Martin Scorcese wants to buy your script and believes Leonardo DiCaprio would be the perfect choice for the lead role” letter.

Could I scrape a few pennies from the usual places, buy the single burger instead of the double with cheese, and drink domestic beer instead of foreign or micro brews? I sure can. I could even take more drastic actions like cutting back on the several movie and sport channels I have on my satellite TV, or I could…

Oh Crap! It is all about finding out that you are still amongst the thousands of other want to be writers fledging away at an improbable task of becoming a paid writer. Those bastards that don’t have to wear a tie, can sleep in or stay up late, and actually get paid for throwing words on pages, telling stories. It’s not about money. A hundred bucks or so won’t break my bank. I can research the dozens of writing contests and pick the best and most respected ones and enter a couple.

The question, from a proud but repentant procrastinator, is will I do it?