Exercises to get you writing: Competitions

Another great source of inspiration for writing is writing competitions. 

A quick internet search will reveal a large number of different writing competitions. Some are more prestigious than others, and entry fees vary from the free competitions, to those that are more pricey to enter, although they do tend to have some of the biggest prizes. 

If all you want is inspiration, then you really don't need to worry about entry fees. I tend to look for free competitions, with the idea that if I write something good enough, I will enter it. If a competition has an entry fee, I will have a go if I think the theme is really interesting. A word of warning though - there are lots of writing scams, so do make sure you check it out before you hand over any cash, and use a secure service like Paypal. 

I like these sites which list writing competitions:

Publishing and other forms of insanity In addition to pages listing both free and fee based competitions, there are a wealth of other markets listed. 

Neon books have a list of UK writing competitions, and a nice layout that shows you what the fees are for the competitions

Almond press has a great list, organised in the form of a calendar. 

Christopher Fieldon is one of my go-to writer's sites, as it has lots of advice, and very comprehensive lists of markets and competitions. 

Reedsy blog has a list of competitions, as well as lots of advice for writers. 

One of the advantages of using these lists is that the do vet the competitions, so you are less likely to be caught by a scam. Even better, they save you from trawling all the sites in an internet search to find the information. Hopefully at least one of them will have a theme or idea that will get your creative juices flowing. 

Happy Writing