Writing Tips
These are in ascending order with the least advanced tips at the beginning, and tips for more experienced writers toward the end.
Read It Before You Send It
Your story made sense to you while you were typing it, but are you sure it's as clear as you think it is? Don't type it up and immediately send it in. Save it, leave it for at least a day, and read through it tomorrow. Make sure it all makes sense. Maybe leave it for another several days and read it one more time before you send it in. We get stories that, frankly, make no sense at all, along with stories that have simple, obvious mistakes. Make sure you've at least read it once before you send it.
Your Story Should Not Be One Huge Paragraph
Hit the ENTER key from time to time. We get stories that are one enormous paragraph. Other stories have one or two paragraphs per page. They're tough to read. Break your story up into paragraphs. In particular, when you have dialogue, start a new paragraph whenever there's a new speaker (more on that later). But sections without any dialogue need to be broken into paragraphs too.
Don't Add Pictures or Fancy Formatting
I'll just remove it all before I send it on the judges.
You Probably Don't Punctuate Dialogue Correctly
When I was reading last year's contest entries, it reached a point where I was surprised when someone actually punctuated dialogue correctly. Don't guess. Don't wing it. Learn the basic rules of punctuation and use them. There's only a few rules, and they aren't difficult.
"My dialogue ends with a comma because the sentence continues after I stop speaking," Jordan said. "If dialogue contains a complete sentence, end with a period. Use a comma if the sentence continues," he added. "Sometimes, the dialogue is the entire sentence."
Kim said, "Start dialogue with a capital letter if it's the first bit of dialogue in the sentence."
"However," added Jordan, "start with a lower-case letter if it's a continuation of dialogue within the same sentence."
"This is a new paragraph because it's a new speaker," said Kim.
It Doesn't Really Matter What Colour Someone's Hair Is
You probably describe your characters more than you need to. It doesn't help the story to include a catalogue of hair colour and eye colour and so on. Check some of your favourite books. There is probably much less description of the characters than you think. Detailed descriptions can actually hurt a story, because they interfere with the reader imagining the character. This is especially true of your protagonist. The reader likely wants to imagine themselves as the character. Don't interfere. Give the reader's imagination some room.
Read It Before You Send It
Your story made sense to you while you were typing it, but are you sure it's as clear as you think it is? Don't type it up and immediately send it in. Save it, leave it for at least a day, and read through it tomorrow. Make sure it all makes sense. Maybe leave it for another several days and read it one more time before you send it in. We get stories that, frankly, make no sense at all, along with stories that have simple, obvious mistakes. Make sure you've at least read it once before you send it.
Your Story Should Not Be One Huge Paragraph
Hit the ENTER key from time to time. We get stories that are one enormous paragraph. Other stories have one or two paragraphs per page. They're tough to read. Break your story up into paragraphs. In particular, when you have dialogue, start a new paragraph whenever there's a new speaker (more on that later). But sections without any dialogue need to be broken into paragraphs too.
Don't Add Pictures or Fancy Formatting
I'll just remove it all before I send it on the judges.
You Probably Don't Punctuate Dialogue Correctly
When I was reading last year's contest entries, it reached a point where I was surprised when someone actually punctuated dialogue correctly. Don't guess. Don't wing it. Learn the basic rules of punctuation and use them. There's only a few rules, and they aren't difficult.
"My dialogue ends with a comma because the sentence continues after I stop speaking," Jordan said. "If dialogue contains a complete sentence, end with a period. Use a comma if the sentence continues," he added. "Sometimes, the dialogue is the entire sentence."
Kim said, "Start dialogue with a capital letter if it's the first bit of dialogue in the sentence."
"However," added Jordan, "start with a lower-case letter if it's a continuation of dialogue within the same sentence."
"This is a new paragraph because it's a new speaker," said Kim.
It Doesn't Really Matter What Colour Someone's Hair Is
You probably describe your characters more than you need to. It doesn't help the story to include a catalogue of hair colour and eye colour and so on. Check some of your favourite books. There is probably much less description of the characters than you think. Detailed descriptions can actually hurt a story, because they interfere with the reader imagining the character. This is especially true of your protagonist. The reader likely wants to imagine themselves as the character. Don't interfere. Give the reader's imagination some room.