A couple of months ago, my boyfriend told me about this annual writing contest that he had heard about. I had never participated in a writing competition before, but I decided to give it a try. Since I just turned in my story for the first round of the contest, I figured I could share some great things that I learned from this experience. I hope to encourage you to participate in one too if you like to write. Whether you want to become a writer or not, writing competitions can still be fun if you enjoy the art. And who knows - you could even win a prize or something!

So, here are three things that I have learned from this writing competition:

1. Creativity.

Creativity will be required in any competition, but especially in a writing competition. You may get certain criteria to follow, but the world is your oyster as you create new worlds and characters. I feel like I really stretched my creativity and tried to do something unique. Judges tend to prefer stories that have stretched the boundaries and tried to do something unique. Even if you fail, you still tried to do something out of the box, and that's always a great practice for a writer. Stretching your creative limbs and trying stuff you haven't done before will take you to places you may have never thought you'd enjoy so much.

2. Structure.

This lesson was unexpected and kind of random to me, but I'm glad that I learned it. While I was writing, I learned to pay attention to how I structure a story and how important that is to the story's success. The human brain likes consistency and repetitions and organization. The actual plot and characters of a story are very important, but how you structure it can either improve or ruin your story. It's like with the human body: the organs and stuff are important, but if the skeleton doesn't keep them in place, it's a mess! You may have seen stories where you have pretty good characters and an interesting plot, but the structure is just confusing and makes the plot so hard to follow and the characters so hard to understand. I have tended to overlook structure in the past, I think, but this competition has helped me see the importance of it.

3. Confidence.

I'd say the biggest thing that I learned from this experience was to be confident. Before this, I had never done this kind of competition before, and I was pretty nervous. After getting through it, I better understand what my gift is, what I'm capable of, and what I can do when I push myself and try. Whether or not I move on to the next round, I can be proud that I worked hard and wrote something that I thought was pretty good. This can give me encouragement to do more competitions in the future, which will help me grow even more as a writer and a person. In the end, the best thing for a writer is confidence. If you're constantly giving in to fears and doubts, you'll never get anywhere. When you put yourself out there, you've already taken the hardest step!

Well, I'm very glad that I joined this competition. Even if I don't move on to the next round, I'll still be very happy that I put myself out there and made something that I can be proud of. I mean, what's the point of having a gift if you never use it?

If you like to write, I highly encourage you to try some competitions too. Even if you're nervous, and even if you don't do too well, you can make it into a growing experience and learn how to write better.

Good luck and happy writing!