Category Archives: Contests January

Entry Fee: $5

Deadline: January 24, 2009

Guidelines: http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.php

Sometimes just sitting down and cranking out a story is the way to do it. Writers Weekly, the online magazine, offers an annual 24 hour writing contest. It’s limited to 500 entrants, so if you think you might want to try this one, sign up soon. The contest takes place beginning at noon central time, January 24, 2009.

When the contest begins, you will be emailed the topic and word count guidelines. Contest rules, hints, and guidelines, can be found here.  Be sure to read Angela Hoy’s list of the top ten mistakes writers make when sending a contest submission.

One word of caution from me is that if you write your story in Word or another program, then paste it into an email, the formatting doesn’t always come through correctly. It may arrive on the editor’s desk with strange characters, spacing, and sometimes with words or chunks of words missing. Here’s how to format a story to send by email:

1. Type the story in the word processor of your choice.
2. Cut and paste the story into notepad or a similar text editor.
3. Save it as a text (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) file.
4. Paste the text or rich text file into the body of the email. 

This sounds like a fun contest. Winners may see their stories published on WritersWeekly.com, and of course, there will be an array of prizes.