Writing contests for both adults and teens are a great way to start developing a writing portfolio and get into the habit and comfort zone of submitting before your paycheck depends upon it. Writing contests can help a writer become familiar with submission guidelines, working with editors, and to push past roadblocks that might prevent them from succeeding as a writer. This guide will show writers how to enter writing contests in order to have the best possible chance of success.

1. Always submit per the contest's guidelines.

2. Take the time to proofread your manuscript before submitting to the contest.

3. Writing contests help build your writing portfolio if you win.

As a new or fledgling writer, many publishers won't even consider your work until you have a published portfolio.. Unfortunately, you can't get that portfolio unless someone will publish your work and they won't publish your work until you get the portfolio and you can't get the portfolio until you... (deep breath) Vicious circle.

So... now what? Writing Contests, that's what!

When you can't get your foot into the proverbial publishing door, entering--and winning--writing contests can give your writing that leg up you need, without having to pound the pavement looking for those elusive publishers that will take unpublished or lightly published authors.

Every writing contest you win becomes an achievement on your writing resume, and those achievements look good to agents and publishers alike. Winning writing contests isn't hard, if you can write a decent story and follow the steps in this guide.

Every writing contest is going to have submission guidelines that you'll need to follow in order to enter the contest. These might include the theme for the writing, the genre of the story, the length (word count), and the formatting required by the publisher or contest coordinators.

The submission guidelines can be a very important part of entering writing contests. If you don't follow the submission guidelines, you can be summarily denied a win, no matter how good your writing is. Always follow the guidelines, to the letter, no matter how off the wall they may be.

The next step in entering writing contests is to actually write the manuscript you will be submitting to the contest. One you know the theme, genre and length, you can begin the writing process. Finding creative and clever ways to write about the theme will often give you a leg up on the competition.

The best story in the world won't make it very far in a writing contest if you don't make sure typos, bad grammar and misspellings are removed. Proofreading your manuscript for those simple errors can make a big difference when entering writing contests, and don't be afraid to run a grammar and spell check on it through your word processing program.

Then you need to edit your manuscript. Editing is different from proofreading, because editing is going to look at things like story consistency, adherence to the theme/genre, character consistency, and plot holes. For example, you don't want your character leaving the house at 10am, locking the front door, and turning around to stare up at the dark night sky.

Watch out for little blips that might make your story lose it's suspension of disbelief. You want to keep your reader entranced and lost in the story for as long as possible.

If you have time, get someone else to read your work, submit it to a critique group on a writers forum, or hire or trade editing services with another writer. Anything you can do to get a leg up on the competition will make your submission that much stronger of a contender in a writing contest.