[News]

News: Classic Poetry Section NOW online! Read poems from famous poets like Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and Emily Dickinson 

[CatdFifth]

I'm a new writer, still trying to build up some credibility and experience before going forth into the great unknown of submitting query letters.    I've found joining writing competitions has been a good experience, although I've yet to hear the results of the three competitions I joined in November! 

I share tips about competitions and listings of contests on my blog at http://www.cat-torres-v.blogspot.com.

Do check it out and comment! I'm interested to hear about other writers' experiences in joining contests!

[Chaosmancer]

  No offense but this is getting a little crazy here recently. Part of the rules of this site is that you are not allowed to advertise other sites here, which includes your blog. You probably don't realize this, but you are about the twelfth person I've told this week, it's actually getting a little humorous.

Okay, that's out of my system now  I agree that joining contests is great, I'm not sure if you've explored the forum yet, but there are at least two people consistently holding contests (as far as I am aware) on top of the official contests. Dom1n1ck who comes up with all sorts of awesome contest ideas and is a great writer, and ... someone else who I can't remember now, but he's starting a monthly contest thing that sounds really cool. If you believe you have enough time his first contest is writing a Santa Claus horror piece, submission is on the 10 of this month. You should check it out.

Good Luck with your writing 

[CatdFifth]

Uh-oh, sorry about that! Wasn't aware I was breaking any rules. Thanks for pointing that out; won't happen again!

[Chaosmancer]

It's fine 

[JohnnyAza]

There are contests here anyway. The responses are more immediate (unless they are the official challenges. They'll never be completed) and critiques, when given, are useful.

It's bad enough that getting replies from agents and publishing houses take weeks or even months, why bother with a so called "real" contest?
Use the time for challenges and contests in this site. That's my say.

JA

[GrammyBlue]

I haven't joined any competitions.  Actually, I try to keep my writing hidden, if I can help it.  Maybe that's why I joined this site.  To open up.

[Chaosmancer]

This site is great for that, but it may be a long and painful process depending on how stubborn you are. I'm taking it to the next level and putting my writing in places outside this site as well, but slowly just to be safe 

[Dark_Death]

So far, this is the only website to which I will trust no one to steal my works.  The only writing contests I enter are here, for I trust the site's members enough.

[Chaosmancer]

by outside places I mean a forum that has very little to do with writing, a little on facebook that I just got, and I made my own blog. I don't know any other writing sites and honestly I don't need them since I got you guys 

[Mysteria]

Facebook is good because you can control your privacy from the outside world but then again, I don't really want my old highschool friends, ex-boyfriend, cousins, sister's current boyfriend etc... reading my poetry either. I dunno, LOL. It just doesn't sit well with me for some reason. Blogs are cool too, but it's really hard to get anyone to read them. I think it's because 1) there are so many blogs out there and 2) it's really hard to find them unless the blogger like pays real money to advertise or happens to get talked about in the news or press (and that's usually celebrity bloggers UNfortunately). But I think you should use whatever is available to you, especially if you really want different types of people reading your work It can't hurt!

[Chaosmancer]

I'm learning these things the hard way, but I figure if it is out there eventually someone will read it. Besides I'm going to put a link to the blog on Facebook. I won't put up too much poetry and I don't care who reads my stories.

[Lynn]

Chaosmancer,

I, too, was not aware of breaking any rules. I thought I read somewhere that a link to your own site is okay. Is this also not appropriate? While I recommend Sites To See and Things To Do on my page, I don't make any money at all. It's just a Writing For Fun site.

Of course, if the link should be removed from my signature, I'll certainly do so.

Lynn

[Chaosmancer]

I don't know the specifics of the rules, you'd have to ask either Timmie or Bianca, Support, or find it again wherever it was posted.