Judging

We're all familiar with the saying 'Don't judge a book by its cover', but how should we judge which writing competition to enter?

There are so many writing competitions around at the moment - online and otherwise, and unless you're a professional competition entrant you just wouldn't have the time to enter all of them. And unless you have another source of income, you couldn't afford to either. The entry fees to some competitions are quite hefty which can be off-putting. In some cases the entry fees make up the prize money.

So it can be down to the writing genre - is the competition in your preferred genre? Or perhaps its in a different genre, which gives you the opportunity to try something new eg poetry, script-writing. It's worth a try as you might discover that you have a flair in another genre you haven't yet explored.

It's also worth investigating who is organising the competition - are they a reputable organisation? Or is it someone trying to make a fast buck from their garage?

One issue which influences me in deciding on whether to enter a competition or not is who is on the judging panel. Some questions you might want to consider are - Have you heard of them? What do they know about writing? Is their writing opinion respected?

But then, it's all a matter of judgement.

Good luck with your next competition entry.