California Writers Club, Mt Diablo Branch

  • Home
  • About
    • Bylaws of the Mt. Diablo Branch
    • CWC-Mt. Diablo Privacy Policy
    • Board of Directors, Committees, Awards
    • In Memoriam
    • A State-Wide Organization
    • History
  • Membership
    • Membership Requirements and Annual Dues
    • Join CWC-Mt. Diablo
    • Renew Membership
  • Our Programs
    • Meetings and Workshops
      • Writers Table
    • Open Mic on Zoom
    • Writers Connection
    • Ekphrasis
    • Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Contest
    • Young Writers Contest
      • Improve Your Chances of Winning!
      • Meet the Winners of YWC and Read Their Stories
      • History of Young Writers Contest
  • Newsletter
  • Member Benefits
    • Quick Links to Important Pages
    • Resources for Writers
    • Helpful Editor
    • Critique Groups
    • Events and Member Spotlight
      • Event Calendar
      • Member Spotlight
    • Back Fence Online Discussion Forum
  • Writers Helping Writers
  • Contact
  • Member Directory
    • Login
  • Quick Links to Important Pages
You are here: Home / Improve Your Chances of Winning!

Improve Your Chances of Winning!

Over the years, our judges see many common errors that cause them to reject an entry before they’ve read more than a paragraph or two. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to avoid that. Here are some tips:

  • Use spell check. This will catch most spelling mistakes. You will still need to hunt for mistakes like “its,” “it’s,” “their,” “they’re,” “hole,” “whole,” etc. 
  • Ask others to read and critique your piece. Avoid your family or good friends – they may not want to criticize your work. Instead, look for other students you know are good writers. Maybe you can form a critique group! (Ask us how).
  • Print your piece and re-read it. This helps you see mistakes you missed on the screen. Edit your piece to fix these.
  • Print it again. Then read it out loud. You’ll catch awkward phrasing or silly dialogue. Fix these areas.
  • Don’t rely on a thesaurus. Varied vocabulary is good, but don’t use big words just to look impressive. The vocabulary should fit your story.
  • Use Your Own Voice! It’s your story or your poem. Don’t be afraid to be funny, sarcastic, angry, happy, or sad.
  • Give it a unique title. Good titles can really catch the eye. This is especially important if you are writing something as a class assignment. If the assignment is to write a poem about the color purple, don’t name your piece, “the color purple.” Everyone does that and judges don’t want to read fifteen poems with the same title. They start skimming. Make your piece stand out. Here are some good examples from 2018:

Predecessor to Successor
Ode to a Flower in the Cracked Ground

How Ketchup was Born

[maxbutton name=”Tips for Good Writing”]     [maxbutton name=”Poetry Tips”]     [maxbutton name=”Humor Tips”]

 

Events in Other CWC Branches

Click to Find Events in other CWC Branches
Click to read the latest CWC Bulletin
 

Critique Group


CLICK HERE for information about our Critique Groups and how to join.

 

Our Community Partners

Reasonable Books for partner
Reasonable Books for partner
Art Embraces Words
Art Embraces Words
Our Community Partners
Our Community Partners
Our Community Partners
Our Community Partners
  • Our Programs
  • Quick Links to Important Pages
  • Proposal for New Mt. Diablo Programs
  • Member Directory

Copyright © 2023 ·Enterprise Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in