Are Writing Competitions Useful for Writers?

I have started entering writing competitions in 2026 so you don’t have to. Actually, maybe you should enter writing competitions if you are a writer. Let’s talk about it.

I may have been a professional freelance writer for more than 20 years but it has only been this year that I have discovered writing competitions. I have no idea why I hadn’t looked into them before.

I knew about the Pulitzer Prize, for example (duh!) and the An Post Irish Book Awards, but I wrote competitions off (see what I did there?) because they have impossibly high standards and are only for famous authors with exceptional credentials and who make a considerable positive contribution to society. That ain’t me.

It was when I attended a couple of writing workshops earlier in the year that I got to hear about writing competitions and even participated in my first spoken word event, presenting my first fiction work in progress.

If you are based in Ireland like me I suggest checking out the competitions section in the Irish Writers Centre’s website. You may be inspired to enter these competitions or, similarly to what happened to me, you may think that these opportunities out there could motivate you to write something new.

There are writing competitions all over the world but I have decided to focus primarily on Irish, or UK and Ireland competitions.

So far I got a couple of rejections but I won’t be put off by them. I have also started tracking all my attempts entering writing competitions on a spreadsheet. At the time of writing, I have entered about a dozen competitions.

At least I can go back to the spreadsheet next year, as well as in years to come, and see where I should focus my attention more on, as some writing competitions may be worth entering again and again until you strike it lucky.

I would have entered more competitions if they all had been free and now I understand why there is a barrier to entry. Competition organisers receive hundreds and sometimes thousands of applications from writers, so having to pay a fee to submit your script can significantly reduce the volume of applications. Then again, this can also be perceived as elitist, as low earning writers may feel left out from good opportunities to raise their profile. Occasionally, competition organisers can offer discounts or other types of support for people on low wages.

Of course I tried to enter a few free competitions, because if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

I have paid the entry fee for a handful of writing competitions and if you are planning to do so as well in the future, please bear in mind that you are going to spend anything between €5-20. I set my own limit at €10 but if you can stretch your budget further than that I think it’s a good idea not to limit yourself.

As I waved goodbye to another €10 leaving my bank account, I kept thinking if this is money well spent. I could be facing competition from thousands of other writers and there is no guarantee that my work will get through and be shortlisted.

I think that to answer this question you need to decide what your priorities are: do you prefer to win some prize money, get your work published in a literary magazine or maybe both?

Some writing competitions offer to both publish the winner’s work and pay a monetary prize.

Also, something else to consider is whether you want to only enter more “prestigious” writing competitions or you are willing to start from smaller, local competitions with lesser clout.

Currently I don’t have a strategy so I have entered a bunch of higher profile competitions and local competitions to try my luck.

Knowing what the judges want is a bit of a mystery, because you may have a wonderful script but it may not be suitable or in line with what the judges expect. Reading the full terms and conditions as well as reading the work of past competition winners can help you get an idea of what style of writing is required, but this type of information is not always freely available.