Two weeks to a contest ready entry you can proudly submit

 

Introduction

You want a shortlist or a win this year. You want a byline you can point to and say this one is mine. The way to get there is not luck. It is a clear plan that fits real life and respects how writing contests and literary awards actually work. Over the next fourteen days you will pick one legitimate writing contest, draft a piece that matches the brief, edit like a judge, package it to spec, and submit two days before the real deadline. Along the way you will make the quiet choices that move scores. You will state a premise in one line. You will anchor the opening with a concrete image. You will land a last line that echoes the opening with a twist. You will follow blind judging rules and remove file metadata so a slush reader sees only the work. You will treat standard manuscript format as a tool rather than a chore. Most of all, you will finish.

Here is the promise. You will complete and submit in fourteen days. The schedule assumes thirty to sixty minutes on weekdays and one longer block on one weekend day. If your week gets crowded, use the short day notes. If you have time to spare, linger where your draft needs it most. The goal is a strong, rule compliant entry that clears the first minute skim, earns a full read, and holds together through the shortlisting round.

Before we start, a few terms that will appear often. Writing contest, writing competition, and literary award are interchangeable in this article. Submission window means the period when entries are accepted. Reading period is when judges and readers work through the stack. Blind judging means names and bios are hidden to reduce bias. Simultaneous submissions means you may submit the same piece to multiple outlets if the rules allow it. First publication rights usually means the prize gets to publish your piece first for a limited time, after which rights revert and you may reprint or include it in a collection. Keep these in mind as you move through the two week sprint.

The path at a glance

Week one is about choosing a legitimate target, locking a premise, drafting, and shaping the arc. Week two is about editing like a judge, tightening language, stabilizing point of view and timeline, formatting to spec, and submitting early. Each day ends with a concrete deliverable. No guesswork. No vague goals. You do the work that moves a score.

Day 1. Choose one legitimate contest

Start by picking a target that fits your form, length, and timeline. You want transparency about judges, prize money, eligibility, response time, and rights. A simple way to find solid options is to use a vetted database. The Grants and Awards listings at Poets and Writers are curated and include past winners you can read along with fees, deadlines, and policies. That single page raises the baseline for legitimacy. Poets & Writers

Many contests accept work through a submissions portal. When you are ready to search by genre, fee level, and deadline, the Discover directory is a helpful way to scan active opportunities across poetry, short story, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, personal essay, and hybrid forms. Browsing is free, and creating an account lets you save targets and track entries. discover.submittable.com

Cast a wider net for comparison. The Big List at NewPages tracks magazine awards, chapbook contests, book prizes, audio and video competitions, and programs run by university presses and arts councils. Cross checking two or three trusted hubs helps you spot consistent details, such as word count limits and exclusivity windows, and avoid time sinks. NewPages.com

Now run a fast legitimacy check. Look for named judges with verifiable credits. Scan past winner announcements and click through to the work where possible. Read the rights clause closely. Confirm the results window and payment timeline. If anything feels vague or predatory, spend two minutes with the Writer Beware resource from SFWA. It collects years of warnings about schemes, fees that buy nothing, and rights grabs that no writer should accept. A quick read there can save you money and months of frustration. SFWA

Set your submit by date for two days before the official deadline. That buffer absorbs portal hiccups and gives you calm. Create one contest card with the essentials. Eligibility. Word count limit. Theme. Entry fee. Prize. Rights. Blind rules. File type. Required filename pattern. Response window. You will keep this card visible for the next two weeks.

Day 2. Define the story spine and constraints

Today you choose the idea and reduce it to one sentence. Write this line. X wants Y, but Z blocks the way. That is your spine. If you are writing an essay, name the question in one clean sentence and the insight you aim to land. If it is a poem, choose the image system you will carry through the stanzas. Decide point of view, tense, and form now so you are not reinventing the piece on day nine.

List your constraints. Word count limit. Theme guidelines. Eligibility quirks. Formatting rules such as double spacing or DOCX only. Constraints help you make choices faster. They also prevent disqualification. End today by listing five concrete nouns from your world that could live in this piece. Objects beat abstractions when time is tight. A vet bill on the fridge. An ice truck siren on parade day. A cash box under the bed. These will become anchors for voice and setting.

Day 3. Zero draft without stopping

Set a timer and write the piece from start to finish without editing. Aim for the contest length plus ten percent. Open on disruption. Put a body in a place with a goal. By paragraph two, a reader should know who wants what and what it costs if they fail. For poetry, write a complete movement and let line breaks carry meaning. For a personal essay, state the question and move with image based transitions. Expect a mess. That is the point. You need clay on the table before you can shape anything.

Day 4. Cool and collect detail

Step away for half a day. When you return, read aloud once and do not fix anything yet. Mark where your attention dips, where a sentence fogs meaning, and where the middle goes flat. Build a detail bank of five to ten objects from your world that fit the piece. Specificity is your friend. Replace vague moods with concrete things. Instead of sadness, show the folded hospital bracelet in the drawer. Instead of tension, show the chipped mug turned away on the counter. You will swap these in tomorrow.

Day 5. Reshape the arc and install a turn

Give the draft a spine a judge can feel. Write five scene beats on a card. Goal. Obstacle. Choice. Consequence. Change. If you are building an essay, shift to idea beats. Claim. Evidence. Tension. Turn. Implication. Move paragraphs until the piece advances with purpose. The middle needs a clear turn. Either a reveal that changes the reading of earlier lines or a choice that costs something. Trim all throat clearing at the top. Strong entries rarely begin with morning routines or fuzzy weather. Start where trouble begins.

Day 6. Raise stakes and texture

Readers reward consequence. Add one clean sentence that names what can be lost or gained right now. Then lace two vivid objects into the middle and let them carry emotion. If the narrator is hiding money, show the scuffed cash box under the bed and the floorboard that squeaks. If a relationship is fraying, show the jacket left on the chair that still smells like smoke. In poetry, let image and line break do the same work. Your goal is specificity without clutter. Each image should reveal character, mood, or pressure.

Day 7. Rest and read like a judge

Print the piece or change the font size. Read aloud once. Mark every line where your voice stumbles or your mind wanders. Judges skim too. On a second pass, ask two simple questions. Do I know what the protagonist wants. Do I feel movement from start to turn to close. Do not fix everything today. You are building a map for targeted edits tomorrow.

Day 8. Edit like a judge

A judge starts with a first minute skim. They glance at the title. They scan the first three lines for a concrete image, a clean premise, and forward motion. They decide whether to give you a full read. Create your skim checklist and make sure you can tick these boxes. Concrete image in the first three lines. Want and stakes by paragraph two. No info dump. Clean sentences. A small change or question that nudges the read forward.

Now score the piece with a simple five box rubric. Premise and focus. Voice and specificity. Structure and movement. Language and clarity. Opening and ending. Score each from one to five. Fix the lowest category first. If the open is soft, rebuild the first three lines around a specific image and a hint of change. If language is mushy, cut filler verbs and adverbs and swap abstractions for concrete nouns. If the ending explains the theme, replace it with a choice or image that implies meaning.

Blind judging rules vary by contest, so confirm exactly what the host asks for. Some programs require strict anonymity from the first round. Others only mask author identity at the shortlisting stage. Follow the posted policy to the letter so your entry gets a fair read. Poets & Writers

Day 9. Title, opening, last line

Three micro edits lift a draft fast.

Title. Replace an abstraction with a charged object, place, or time that matters to the plot. Crossroads becomes Exit nineteen at two in the morning. Change becomes What We Left in the Freezer. Specific beats vague every time.

Opening. Give the judge a picture and a nudge forward within three lines. The town was always quiet becomes On parade day the only siren belongs to the ice truck. This year it howled twice. You have an image, a pattern, and a disruption in twelve words.

Last line. Echo a concrete image from the opening and twist its meaning. If the ice truck howled in the first paragraph, the last line might read, When it howls again, I do not flinch. The click you feel as a reader is closure earned on the page.

Day 10. Language and clarity pass

Cut ten percent. It will not hurt. It will help. Kill filter words like I felt, I noticed, she saw, because they place a dim pane of glass between reader and scene. Prefer precise verbs over carpets of adverbs. Limped beats walked slowly. Name the object rather than the mood. A bad day becomes the vet bill on the fridge. Shorten prepositional chains. The rules of the contest becomes the contest rules. This pass makes the prose leaner, brighter, and easier to score.

Day 11. Dialogue, lens, timeline

Anchor dialogue with light beats so the scene does not float. Keep one point of view per scene. Stamp time so the reader never feels lost. Use calm anchors like At six, By noon, Two summers later. This removes the mid story fog that drags scores down and it keeps the structure and movement box in the green when a judge tallies the rubric.

Day 12. Format, blind, and metadata scrub

Readers and judges do not want decorations. They want clean, readable pages that match the posted rules. When a contest asks for standard manuscript format, start with one inch margins, a readable serif font, and page numbers where requested. If you want a reliable reference for short story format, the long standing guide by William Shunn is the page many magazines point to. Paste your draft into a clean template and match the requested spec exactly. shunn.net

Follow blind rules exactly. Remove your name from the title page and headers. Delete acknowledgments or prior publication notes unless the rules ask for them. Strip author metadata from the file properties before you upload. In Word you can use the Document Inspector to remove hidden data and personal information such as the author field and company name. Run the inspection, remove all, reinspect, and save the file. This small step prevents accidental disqualification during a blind read. Microsoft Support

Name the file exactly as requested. If the rule says Title Only, do not add your name for convenience. If the rule says PDF, do not send DOCX. If the rule says double spaced Times New Roman twelve, do not get clever. The slush reader owes you nothing. Meet the spec and you keep your piece in the pool.

Day 13. One trusted read and a calm tweak

Send the piece to one reader with a single question. Where were you bored or confused. Ignore notes that pull you toward a different story. Apply only the changes that increase clarity or energy. If you do not have a reader, read aloud into your phone and listen back an hour later. Your ear will catch what your eyes miss. Run a pre submission checklist. Title specific and memorable. Stakes clear by paragraph two. Middle turns once. Last line echoes the opening. Dialogue has light beats. Point of view is consistent per scene. Timeline is stamped. Spelling and proper nouns are clean. Format matches spec. Blind rules obeyed. File name correct. Portal tested. You are ready.

Day 14. Submit early and log it

Submit forty eight hours before the deadline. Portals clog in the final hour and you do not want a payment error to be the story of your week. Save the confirmation email and paste the submission ID into your tracker. Note the response window and any stated results date.

If the contest allows simultaneous submissions, track where else you sent the piece and withdraw promptly if you receive an acceptance elsewhere. That one habit keeps your relationships clean with editors and awards programs.

What judges reward and how to build it on purpose

A judge rewards a clear premise, lived in detail, clean structure, and an ending that lands. The five box rubric you used on day eight mirrors what many programs score. Premise and focus. Voice and specificity. Structure and movement. Language and clarity. Opening and ending. Your two week plan built each category in order. The spine on day two set focus. The detail bank on day four lifted voice. The structural pass on day five created movement. The language pass on day ten delivered clarity. The bookend edits on day nine created an opening that earns a full read and a last line that clicks.

The first minute matters. A judge skims your title and the first three lines in seconds. That is why you tested for a concrete image and a hint of motion. It is not a gimmick. It is respect for how people read. It also gives you a way to edit fast. If an opener fails the skim test, you know what to fix. If a last line summarizes the moral, you replace it with a choice or image that implies meaning. You are not shooting in the dark. You are making targeted moves.

Rights, fees, and what you actually sign away

You keep copyright unless you transfer it. Most contests ask for first publication rights and a short exclusivity window, then a nonexclusive archival right to keep the piece on their site or in an anthology. First serial rights are a common phrase in the magazine world. It simply means the publication is the first to publish your never published work in a particular medium or region. After first rights are used, you retain second serial or reprint rights and can usually resell or reprint depending on the contract. If these terms are new to you, a plain English explainer on first serial rights will help you read guidelines with confidence. Writer's Digest

Fees are not guarantees. They cover administration and prize money. You decide if a fee is worth it by balancing cash amount, reputation, judge quality, past winners you can read, and transparency of rules and timelines. Use your tracker to set a monthly cap. Rotate no fee and low fee targets. Treat fee waivers as signals to include newer writers and underrepresented voices. You control your spend. You control your pipeline. You do not control results. That is fine. Your job is to submit strong, rule compliant work to reputable programs.

Discovery tools that help without noise

A good search stack saves time. Use one curated database. Use one submissions portal directory. Use one independent list for variety. That gives you coverage without overwhelm. The Poets and Writers database is curated and careful with practices and policies. The Discover directory is wide and filterable by lot of criteria. The NewPages guide brings in small presses and indie programs that can be perfect fits for flash fiction, hybrid work, and chapbooks. With those three bookmarked, you can scan broadly, verify details, and build a three month pipeline while keeping your attention on the work itself. Poets & Writers+2discover.submittable.com+2

Blind judging and how to make it foolproof

Blind means blind. Your name should not appear anywhere in the manuscript file. That includes headers, footers, and document properties. When you save a Word document, the author field often carries your account name. That is why you run Document Inspector on day twelve and remove hidden data. It takes less than a minute and it keeps your entry from getting tossed for an avoidable reason. Microsoft Support

If a contest is not blind, do not panic. Many reputable programs still list judges and consider bios at later stages. Your task is the same. Follow the posted rules and let the work carry its weight. The safest default is to assume blind submission until the guidelines tell you otherwise. If unclear, send a brief question to the contest coordinator and ask exactly what must be removed from the file. A professional coordinator will answer with specifics rather than boilerplate.

Why this two week plan works

It eliminates ambiguous choices. You pick one contest, one spine, and one set of constraints on day one. That ends the loop of searching and second guessing. You do not need five perfect ideas. You need one premise you can say in a sentence and a draft you can move through scenes with momentum.

It mirrors how readers and judges evaluate. The first minute skim is real. That is why you fix the first three lines and return to them after the structural pass. A judge also looks for a coherent arc, clear stakes, and an ending that lands. That is why day five installs a turn and day nine bookends the piece. The plan builds the very qualities that the rubric rewards.

It folds in rest and distance. Skipping a day does not mean losing momentum. It gives your brain time to solve problems off the page. Day four and day seven are not luxuries. They are tools.

It treats packaging as part of the art. Many entries die before a reader sees them because they miss formatting rules, blind judging requirements, or a word count by a sliver. The plan moves these checks forward so they are not afterthoughts. A clean file and the exact filename the rules ask for do not win by themselves. They keep you in the pool where the work can compete on its merits. For format specifics, that long standing short story guide by William Shunn remains a useful baseline when contests cite standard manuscript format. shunn.net

It respects your time and your spend. Use a curated database to vet. Use a portal directory to filter. Use an independent list to widen your view. Keep one watchdog on hand in case a prize looks too good. The Writer Beware resource is exactly that kind of safeguard. A five minute scan there can keep you out of a rights grab. SFWA

Frequently asked questions while you sprint

Can I write a new piece in two weeks if I have a full time job. Yes. Weekdays ask for a focused half hour to an hour, and the plan saves the heavier lift for one weekend block. If you miss a weekday, protect the opening and the last line days. Those move scores the most.

What if the contest bans simultaneous submissions. Then do not submit the piece elsewhere until you hear back or until the posted window closes. If you do submit elsewhere and receive an acceptance, withdraw the entry the same day. Use the portal’s withdraw function or send a short email with title, entry ID, and date. Keep it courteous and simple.

Do I have to use Times New Roman twelve and double spacing. Only if the rules say so. Many contests use standard manuscript format because it is easy to read and easy to print. When a contest specifies something different, follow that. A judge is not scoring your font. They are scoring clarity and control. That said, when in doubt, use the classic format many journals reference and you will be safe. shunn.net

How do I know if first publication rights are acceptable. Read the clause. A typical request is first serial or first publication rights for a limited time, followed by nonexclusive archival rights. That is normal. All rights forever is not normal. If the language confuses you, start with a basic explanation of first serial rights so you can ask precise questions. Writer's Digest

Where else can I look for strong contests after I submit this one. Keep a pipeline. One curated database. One portal directory. One independent list. Add one community newsletter you trust. That mix gives you reach without noise. Start with the three resources cited earlier and build from there. Poets & Writers+2discover.submittable.com+2

Conclusion

Winning a writing contest is not a mystical event. It is the result of a piece that makes sense on the page and a process that respects the way contests run. Over fourteen days you made a series of small, precise moves. You verified the prize instead of hoping it was reputable. You wrote toward a spine instead of a mood. You installed a turn in the middle and landed a last line that clicks back to the opening. You met the rules down to file type and metadata. You submitted early and logged your entry like a professional.

You can repeat this sprint every month if you like. The same plan works for short story, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, personal essay, and poetry because it stays focused on fundamentals. If you want a pipeline, keep a shortlist of targets for the next quarter and rotate pieces through as rules allow. Choose opportunities with transparent judges, clear prize money, and fair rights. Use a curated database for discovery, a directory for filtering, a trusted independent list for variety, a standard manuscript format guide for spec questions, a first serial rights explainer for contracts, and a simple privacy step to keep blind judging intact. That stack keeps your energy on the page where it belongs. Then you keep shipping. The entry that wins is the entry that exists.