
InScribe Zoom-In: Contests Tutorial
The purpose of our Contest Tutorials is to help you get comfortable with the process so that you feel confident to enter your work.
On Tuesday, February 21, we will be offering the free online tutorial, How to Write a Personal Essay. InScribe member Sandi Somers will take us through what a personal essay is, and the aspects required to make it exceptional.
There will be time for Q & A after her 30 – 40 minute presentation.
Please consider this your invitation.
Join us Tuesday, Feb. 21, 6:30 – 7:30 pm MT (8:30-9:30 pm EST)
From the comfort of your own device via Zoom
To register: send an email to contests@inscribe.org
subject line: Contest Tutorial Personal Essay
Please include your name and email address so we can send you the link.
Link to Recordings
- How to Prepare for a Contest – a tutorial
- Ask a Judge – a panel of judges who will answer questions and demonstrate what their job entails
- Q & A.
*****
I have been entering InScribe contests since the beginning of my author journey. The contest gave me incentive to start exercising my writing muscles, and the judges’ comments gave me encouragement to keep going. Over the years, the contest and/or results have
1) spurred me on to publish a children’s book,
2) encouraged me to explore different genres,
3) improved my craft, and
4) encouraged and confirmed for me that I am exactly where God wants me to be.
I highly encourage InScribe members at any level to take the plunge and enter an InScribe contest. You never know where it may take you and the blessings you will receive.
– award-winning author and singer/songwriter Sally Meadows
InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship believes that contests are an excellent way for writers to stretch their skills and hone their craft. ICWF provides a variety of members-only contest opportunities to ensure all our writers have an opportunity to participate.
InScribe Contests
Contests are open to InScribe members only. Join our community of writers today to take advantage of InScribe’s ongoing contest opportunities. A one-year membership makes you eligible to take part.
Note:
If you are a current member and have trouble opening a contest link, please try clearing your cache and then try again. The contests have been moved to the Member-Only side of the website, so members need to sign in. If you do not remember your password, please contact the webmaster.
Why Enter a Writing Contest?
If you’ve never taken the step to enter a writing competition, you may ask, why do so? One reason, it’s good practice — we are often told that the more you write, the better you’ll become. Another reason, as someone once said, the more you submit the more chances you have of winning.
Every contest provides the opportunity to gain experience and learn something new. An aspiring writer learns to write to deadline, specific guidelines and various lengths. An experienced writer can try out a new genre to ‘test the water’ before committing to something larger and more time-consuming.
By entering–and winning–an InScribe Competition, you could:
- Get published. If you win a prize, your winning entry could be published in the pages of FellowScript, the FellowScript Fall Supplement, and on our ICWF website or blog*. Who knows where else it might go from there!
- Get recognition. All winners are listed in our newsletter, on our website, on our social media sites, and in FellowScript*. Fall Contest Winners will be announced at the Fall Conference.
- Get feedback. Judges, who are experts in the writing community, are available to provide a professional critique of your contest entry or entries for an additional fee. Word Challenge entries will receive critiques from fellow InScribers.
- Get prizes. Many of InScribe’s writing contests award cash prizes and certificates to First, Second, and Third place winners, plus certificates for Honourable Mentions. Word Challenge winners will receive token, writer-related prizes
- * inclusion in any publication is at the discretion of the editorial staff
Another Reason To Enter
Although a winner’s cheque can be most rewarding, LinDee Rochelle, Founder of Women Writers Worldwide, points out in her article “Why Enter Writing Contests”, that a cheque in your hand often isn’t the real prize. She describes the real prize this way:
” …even as you mail your entry, whether you win or not, you have triumphed. For it takes a spirit of a winner, the heart of an artist, and the determination of a corporate magnate to create, manifest, and bare your soul with your writing, and submit it to a contest.
If you are satisfied you submitted your best work (it isn’t worth it if you don’t) … if you enjoyed the writing process … and if you learned something in your self-imposed workshop—you are a winner!”
So why not take the step and submit one or more entries in our very next contest?