Short fiction is often the best medium in which to practice and hone writing skills. However, writing competitions - or competitive short fiction - often feels daunting. Regardless of the fears involved, I would encourage any writer to try out a competition or two, because competitions offer even more skill development to writers than personally-driven short fiction. Here's why.
First, I want to acknowledge the power of self-driven short-fiction. Challenging ourselves to write fiction allows us to accomplish a range of valuable things; practicing scene-work, pacing, economy of words, honing specific skills - or simply getting an idea out of our head and on to paper. All short fiction is helpful in the growth of a writer's skills.
But there are a few added bonuses to taking on the challenge of competitive short fiction/flash fiction.
While you can still practice the same concepts as regular short fiction (scene work, pacing, economy of words, specific skills, ect.) you also stand to benefit in a couple more ways. For one, if you've never been boxed into a randomly-generated or assigned prompt before, this is a useful challenge to undertake. This could challenge you to get out of your comfort zone creatively, taking on new genres, incorporating plot elements or characters you never would have, otherwise. This is useful because it builds your creative potential and adaptability as a writer.
Additionally, most competitions have some kind of 'timed' element. This forces you to be creative quickly, and more importantly, helps you practice working on a deadline. whether it's 1,000 words in 48 hours, 3,000, or 10,000, practicing meeting a wordcount within a timeframe is an important skill. If you then apply this skill to your own drafts - such as writing a scene within 24 hours, or a chapter within 48, you've begun to master the transferable skill of time-management within your writing.
Another significant difference I'd like to highlight between competitive fiction and independent side-projects is the possibility for feedback. In many competitions, judge feedback makes the competition an extremely worthwhile endeavor - but even in a competition without specific judge feedback, peer feedback is often worth something, too. The best competitions allow for both (more on this later). Feedback is an important part of the process of growth at any skill, and writing is no exception. Competitions force us to engage with feedback in a way that is nearly guaranteed to make us better writers.
There's one other benefit to participating in competitive fiction-writing; we grow a thicker skin as we learn what low-stakes failure looks and feels like. It's not the end of the world when we get told to revise a 3,000 word story, but maybe the revision teaches us something about the 30,000 words we'll write next. It's okay not to score highly so long as we feel like we accomplished or learned something in the process. All of this makes us stronger writers.
For these reasons (and probably more I'm failing to address), I think that participating in competitive writing is something every writer or aspiring author should try. And if you are thinking of giving it a shot, here are a few organizations I recommend:
1. NYC Midnight (a large variety of competition types, great prompts, judge feedback given each round from multiple judges, excellent peer discussion and feedback forums, overall my #1 choice!)
2. Reedsy (prompts are consistent, with possible prizes)
3. Storyshares (competitions are inconsistent, but submissions can often result in publication)
4. Writers of the Future (for Fantasy and Sci-fi, particularly; good forums for peer discussion and possible feedback)
Let me know where else you'd recommend getting involved in competitive fiction, and best of luck in your next competitive ventures!
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