Speed Writing Contests

Can you write a stellar poem in two days? A novel in a month? Speed writing competitions force writers to amp up their creativity and get it all down, fast.

Contemporary Verse 2, a leading Canadian poetry magazine, recently announced its Second Annual Two Day Poetry Writing Contest. Two days? Two days! At the beginning of the contest, poets are given ten secret words they must include in their poem. First prize is $350, with more prizes for runners-up.

Speed writing contests encourage a new approach to writing: get it down, don't worry about perfection, trust your first creative instinct. An approach that is in stark contrast to the excessive editing and analysing that most writers rely upon to create strong writing.

Two well-known writing contests that focus on fast writing are the Three Day Novel Writing Contest and National Novel Writing Month (known as NANOWRIMO). The winner of the three day Novel Writing Contest wins publication, the winners NANOWRIMO win the satisfaction of having completed a novel.

A few years ago, I signed up for NANOWRIMO. For the month of November I wrote furiously, fantastically, without looking back to correct as I went along. In the end I didn't meet the 50,000 word deadline that qualifies as the completion of a novel, but I did get down 35,000 words – which was probably more in one month than I've written in the entire past year.

Recently I pullled out the draft of the novel I came up with. It's not good, but it's not terrible either. There are scenes that can be salvaged, characters to work with. It contains the bulk of a story. And it's amazing to hold all those pages in my hand and see, well, almost, a novel!

If you're fighting writer's block or looking for a new challenge as a writer, give one of these time limited writing contests a try. You might just surprise yourself with what you produce.