Trusting Your Gut in Writing Competitions

When entering writing competitions, your gut often knows the story better than you do. That's been my experience taking part in a few competitions outside of Vocal - and it's a lesson worth sharing.

The First Challenge

Last year, I entered the NYC Midnight 250+ Word Microfiction Challenge. The genre I was given was Ghost Story, the action "surrendering," and the word "remind" that had to be featured in the story somewhere.

Although I love horror, I find ghost stories hit or miss, so I was already feeling nervous. But I had paid to enter and wasn't about to back down. With only 48 hours to write the story, I decided pretty quickly that I couldn't write a story with big scares or elaborate reveals in such a short word count. Instead, I wrote a quieter, more emotionally-driven ghost story told in first person - the style I always fall back on when I'm struggling.

In my piece, I explored childhood trauma and a fractured parent-child relationship. Curiously, although I wrote the protagonist as a girl in my head, many of the judges for the competition assumed it was a boy. I love the ambiguity, but it was a great reminder of just how much readers bring their own perspective to a story.

After sharpening it with rereads and edits, I submitted the story. I wasn't thrilled with the results, but wasn't unhappy either. When the results eventually came back, I didn't progress further, but the judges praised the concept and the emotional beats. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and was motivated to try it again.

Here is a link to the story:

Round Two: Comedy Come to the Reef

When the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge was announced, I jumped at it. This time, I was assigned Comedy as the genre, and given an assigned item "fake fingernail(s)" and assigned location "coral reef". Fortunately, the target word count was 1,000 words or less, so there was a lot more room to develop a stronger story arc.

Comedy can be a difficult genre to work with - highly subjective, very slippery, and hard to nail (yes, the pun is intended). Within a short space of time, and the clock ticking down from 48 hours to zero, I quickly devised a wild idea: a decorator crab finds a fake fingernail and battles a painted frogfish, set at the Great Barrier Reef. I did some research. Yes, those creatures do live there, and yes, sometimes, fake nails survive underwater.

I felt I was in a good place.

The first draft was a little flat and dull. It didn't feel nearly peppy or funny enough. So, I leaned into the chaos, added more absurdity and energy, along with more Die Hard references, because why not? It's one of my favourite films.

I submitted it and felt confident.

Then I waited for the results to come in. I didn't advance, but I did earn an Honorable Mention. The feedback from the judges pointed out various improvements that could be made to make the story better, but also praised the story as unique, fun, and very off-the-wall - exactly what I had aimed for.

Here is a link to the story:

The Takeaway

These two challenges taught me a simple lesson - trust your gut. When I wrote that ghost story, I second-guessed a lot of the decisions I made, and the results reflected that.

When I followed my instincts with the second attempt, the story had spark and garnered some positive attention, even if it didn't help me progress in the challenge.

Competitions are unpredictable. Judges will differ, genres will change, and often the prompts can feel impossible. But your intuition — that gut instinct you develop over time — is the one constant you can rely on. It can tell you when a draft feels a little flat, when it's time to turn up the crazy, and when your story is full of life.

So, whether you are entering Vocal challenges, outside contests, or submitting to publications - listen to your gut. It may not guarantee a win for you, but it will always guide you to produce your best work.

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Thanks for reading!

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