In 2018, after years of submitting to different competitions, something miraculous happened: I won a regional literary award. Shortly after that, I went on to win two back-to-back national awards. In my opinion, nothing had changed about my approach to writing and submitting my work, so this was simply luck, in the purest sense.
Afterward, I was invited to participate as a judge for local, national, and regional competitions, and that’s when I dawned on me that there were some pretty clear differences between works that were sure to make it to the next round of a competition versus those that wouldn’t. I had stumbled onto the former in 2018 by chance when I had my breakthroughs, but I now realize that writers shouldn’t have to stumble onto anything and that there are certain things all writers should be aware of before submitting their work, to better their chances of making it into the next round and possibly winning a competition.
Admittedly, there are always some matters of subjectivity that will ultimately determine the outcome of any competition. You will have no way of knowing what a judge’s taste is or what their genre preference might be. Still, there are a number of things that you can do to better your chances, regardless of who might be evaluating your work.
While none of these are absolutely fool-proof, these four categorical tips are enormously helpful nonetheless.
Tip 1: Master the opening of your story.
One of the things I have noticed about a number of stories I have
