Why I Don’t Enter Writing Competitions

It can be every writer’s dream to win a writing competition and I even know one writer who once won an insignificant competition and then called herself “an award winning writer.” Haha.

Don’t get me wrong, winning a writing competition, or any competition, is a great feeling, and even when I’ve won something really small, I’m still happy to have won.

The problem with most writing competitions though, is that they cost money to enter, and I’ve known writers who spend hundreds every year to enter these comps without winning a thing or even getting on the short list.

And it can be demoralising.

The trouble is, you see, that there are usually thousands of entrants so chances of winning are slim, plus it depends who the judges are and their reading preference.

So this is why I don’t enter writing competitions. 

I’d rather use the money to buy a lottery ticket then at least if I don’t win, it’s just the luck of the draw and not because someone who’s probably never even been a writer or has never achieved anything great from their writing, has judged my work as not good enough in their opinion.

I do, however, love submitting work to paying markets because it’s free, I get paid if accepted, and rejections simply mean it wasn’t right for the market (which I’ve sometimes been told).

AND I’m free to submit my work elsewhere. Which I usually do.

But you do what’s best for you.

Living The Laptop Lifestyle
How To Start & Grow A Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job
https://ruthiswriting.com/books/LLS.html

It’s a Facebooking Time Suck

It’s funny how smart phones can be a waste of time (because of all our time that they waste) yet we daren’t go anywhere without one.

But having a phone always to hand doesn’t mean that we have to use it all the time or have notifications turned on so that every ding or other noise disrupts us.

Likewise, Facebook is a waste of time and it’s mostly anti-social which is the complete opposite of what it’s supposed to be so it can be a dark and depressing place to be - it was for me. And I have it on good authority that these days teenagers prefer Instagram because it’s a much happier place to be.

A couple of years ago, I closed my Facebook account that I’d had for only 3 years, but I’d had enough of just how really sh*tty people could be to each other, and it’s not something that I want to waste my time on.

At first I thought I’d miss it and miss out on keeping up with family and local gossip. But instead, I wish I’d closed it sooner because I had no idea how much time I wasted on it (sometimes I thought it was only minutes but it was actually up to an hour), not to mention the peace of mind it gave me once I no longer had Facebook on my phone or computer.

It was like my mind and my life had been set free. I’d never realised how depressing all the Facebook dramas could be. And it was usually the men who were the most bitchy.

But with my attention free, I had more ideas, wrote more, had more leisure time, and used my new-found time to study marketing which helped improve my book sales.

The problem with getting sucked into the vortex of anti-social media, is that it drags you down, and keeps you away from things that are actually important.

Spending time on Facebook made me forget my real mission in life, but now I’m back on track and loving it.

Mission Critical For Life
Start Living Life On Your Terms By Pursuing Your True Life Mission
https://ruthiswriting.com/books/MCFL.html

Write More While Getting Other Things Done

It’s common to think that you don’t have time to write if you have a lot of other things to do every day. Yet this is how bloggers earn their money from writing while being busy doing other things.

The way they do it is by writing about what they do. And it can be just about anything:

• Exercising 
• Cooking
• Gardening
• Parenting 
• Saving money
• Knitting
• Woodwork
• Reading books
• Your life in general

And there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of things you do in a day that you could write about on a blog, that can be done simply as an online diary or journal. I know of one blogger who blogs daily about how she lives a sedentary life and spends little money.

When you blog about what you do, not only is it a way to earn money, but it also makes you do more so that you have something to write about.

Not only that, but it makes you look at what you do in a different way, more deeply, because you have to have a good understanding of what you do so that you can explain it to other people. You need to tell them not only what you did, but why.

Why did you plant that so deep? Why did you add that herb to your cooking? Why did you use that tool? Why didn’t you like that book?

Blogging about something that you enjoy doing, not only helps you to do more, but can earn you money.

Living The Laptop Lifestyle

How To Start & Grow A Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/LLS.html

Stay On Topic

If you've been following me for a few years you'll know that I've been learning about marketing for quite a while now. 

And to this end, not long ago, I subscribed to a famous marketer's copywriting emails. But after a few weeks I unsubscribed because all the emails spoke too much about health and fitness, or at least what he thought that health and fitness was, and how he linked it all to copywriting was tenuous at the very least.

Not only was this a subject I have no interest in, but also all his information was incorrect so even if I wanted information about exercise and diet, following his advice would have led me to having health issues that I'd never had before, plus my health is fine and I don't suffer from anything (except maybe crazy monkey mind issues) so I never read articles about it.

I suffered through these emails for a short while and deleted them all within minutes of reading them, thinking that he was just on a current health obsession of some kind and that he'd soon get back to talking about copywriting.

Anyway, the last straw came when I received an email all about the typical US (he's American) fear of eating carbohydrates. He talked about a woman who improved her health and fitness by eating only cheese, soup and salad and how great her body looked. I laughed at that because no matter what someone's body looks like, you can't see their clogged arteries, diabetes or heart issues, and these are the things that are important.

And then he said how he himself always eats like a lion by eating lots of meat and not much of anything else. I thought this was a strange thing to do because he's not a lion so why would he want to eat like one? Also lions only eat about once every three days and I'm betting he didn't do that.

He likened his heavy meat-based diet to making his copywriting roar. Hmmm... Such a thin connection from one thing to the other. More like a 'Dad Joke.' He then provided links to his copywriting products. And that was it. No other mention of copywriting in his copywriting email.

It was this email that made me unsubscribe immediately.

You see, I didn't want dietary advice. I wanted advice about copywriting. But I didn't get anything except a a few links to his products that he wanted me to buy. So instead of being intrigued to take a look, I just thought that if his products were anything like his emails, they were of no use to me.

So how is telling you this helpful to you?

Because what I'm trying to show you is that if you're writing about something you need to stay on topic and not talk about unrelated things.

I mean, if you're talking about writing,  it's OK to talk about getting enough sleep so that you feel more awake to write, or how to keep up your motivation or productivity, or  talk about a great computer for writers, or a great book that can be helpful, but waffling on about how you stay fit isn't going to be interesting to people who want to find out about being a writer (or copywriter).

This is why it's important to stay on topic when you're writing, and whenever you talk about something else, explain how it ties into what you're saying and how it can help.

This is writing and marketing 101.

How to Write An Article in 15 Minutes or Less
- Including Research, Writing and Proof Reading

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/15.html