The New York Yankees of Writing Competitions - Jacob Appel

Jacob Appel's resume speaks for itself.  However, he was kind enough to share some thoughts about writing competitions with The Competitive Writer. You can get some hints from his responses why he is so successful, not just in what he says, but how he says it.  He talks about his successes, his failures and everything in between.

His debut novel, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up, won the 2012 Dundee International Book Prize and was published by Cargo in October 2012.

Year End Review 2012

I had a lot of fun this year entering various competitions and I know I grew a lot as a writer. To recap:

• I came up just short of 52 contest entries (counting over half from the Writer's Digest Poetic Asides Poem A Day Challenge)
• Just over half of my prose entries were flash fiction.
• I tried eleven different contest sponsors: Midway Literary Journal, The First Line, Switchback, Creative Competitor, Fan Story, Writer's Digest, 100 Words or Fewer, On the Premises, Writer's Weekly,  Kazka Press, and finally I'm submitting to Writer's Village and the Society of Actuaries Speculative Fiction contest.
• I haven't won any major contests, just a minor headline contest.  My prize was a nice resource for writers. However...
• I had a couple journals accept my work for publication: The Binnacle accepted The Butler's Waltz, Marco Polo accepted The Open Box, From The Depths accepted a 13 word horror story, and Underwater New York accepted a handful of flashes.
• Finally I wrote a bunch of articles I'm very proud of and I hope you find them useful.

My favorite contest sponsor this year is Writer's Weekly.  They offer a seasonal contest where writers have 24 hours to bang out a short story.  They limit the number of entries to 500 writers.  Lastly, there are tons of prizes.

My favorite piece of writing this year was: The Intricacies of Cherry Cola.  And while it might not be a winner (yet), I've revised it once and I look forward to revising it again for future competitions.

On top of the work on the blog an with contest entries, I've finished the first draft of my first novel and that feels good from a personal perspective.

Hopefully you had just as fruitful of a year and will have an even better one in 2013.  I know I'm looking forward to it.  On New Year's I'll be posting my goals for writing competitions and we'll see how it all shakes out.

Poetry Results From April

Earlier this spring I did a poem a day as part of Writer's Digest Poetic Asides Blog Poem a Day Challenge. I sent in my best ones for judging.  The results finally came out and unfortunately I did not make the top 25 (out of over 750).  I'll make an unofficial claim that I was number 26.

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2012-april-pad-challenge-poetic-asides-poet-laureate-and-top-25-list

Writer's Digest- Poetic Asides - PAD Challenge Entries

Well, I finished.

Check out the website to read the poems and see which ones I submitted for consideration.  Final results are announced in August. Let me know your favorites.

The challenge was about as hard as I expected. 

• Most prompts yielded average-ish poems
• A handful of prompts were uninspiring and I struggled to throw something together
• A handful of prompts were the opposite and I had ideas immediately
• I completely threw in the towel for one
• I only missed one day!  (I went back and did it the the following day.)
• I have a couple that I really love.  My all time favorite of the bunch is The Sonnet To My Robotic Lover.

We have a winner!

Wordplay wins again! 
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/winners-of-the-3rd-annual-aprilfools4writers-contest

This writing contest was a simple headline.You can read my entry and link to the original contest here.
http://www.competitivewriter.com/2012/03/writers-digest-april-fools-headlines.html

The prize is The Writer's Yearbook 2012

Writer's Digest Poem A Day Challenge 2012

It's not really a contest, but I've been focusing a lot my energy on fiction lately and I've always loved poetry.  Since April is Poetry Month, I figure I'd get my fill of verse and meter via the Poem-A-Day Challenge from Writer's Digest.

I'm making a website to follow my entries.  Days 1 and 2 are updated right now.
https://sites.google.com/a/competitivewriter.com/pad2012/home

Writer's Digest -“April Fools’ Headlines for Writers” Contest

Submit your own entry here!
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/3rd-annual-april-fools-headlines-for-writers-contest

Here's mine-
EXCLAMATION POINTS TO QUESTION MARKS IN A PERIOD OF SENTENCE ENDING CONTROVERSY