Whenever you are entering a competition, it is important that you follow whatever layout, word count and guidance has been provided. Failure to comply simply gives a panel of busy judges every excuse to bin your entry.
At Perthshire Writers we have simple guidelines for competition entries that everyone should follow. Their primary purpose is to ensure competitions are fair, competition entries have a consistent format, and finally, entries are easy for a judge to read and, where necessary, annotate.
If you have any questions about entering a competition, you should reach out to our Competition Secretary, or simply ask a fellow member, and they will be more than happy to point you in the right direction.
Here are the guidelines and rules of which you need to be aware.
General Rules About Entering Competitions
Entries should be submitted by email to the Competition Secretary by midnight on the specified closing date for the competition. They should be entirely your own work. We don’t accept entries created with the use of Artificial Intelligence, although the use of established AI-related tools such as spellcheckers or Grammarly, which check the text rather than create it, is allowed.
Use a Pseudonym
This part is crucial! The pseudonym you choose should be a single word, and should give no clue as to your identity. When you email your entry to the Competition Secretary, they will add you and your pseudonym to a list to which only they have access. The judge(s) will see only your pseudonym, and thus cannot be influenced by knowing who the actual author is.
Word/Line Limits (unless otherwise specified for a particular competition)
- Short Story: Maximum 2,500 words
- Flash Fiction : Maximum 250 words
- Poetry : Maximum 40 lines
Layout and How To Enter
- Submit your entry as an attachment in Word, or a format readable in Word.
- Lines should be double spaced, though poetry can be single spaced.
- For prose pieces, the first paragraph should NOT be indented, and the second and subsequent paragraphs should be indented.
- Choose a generic font, e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, size 12pt.
All entries should have a title page, containing
- The title of the piece
- Your chosen pseudonym (but NOT your real name!)
- The word count or, for poetry, line count
- The competition name
Send the entire Word document to the competition secretary in an email. In the body of your email inform the competition secretary of your pseudonym and real name, this will then be noted for the adjudication night.
In effect, your competition entry should look similar to this:
You can read the full competition rules here.
Our Roll of Honour, containing records of competition winners through the years, can be found here.
Good luck!