Overview

This quarter’s writing contest is: Blog-excellence! If you’ve been around Inspire for a while, you know that Inspire’s blog is an award-winning, top ten resource for Christian Writers worldwide. We’re proud of the excellent writing we’ve produced, and the variety of topics we’ve covered to help writers with all aspects of their writing journey. So, here’s a chance for you to show YOUR stuff.

Submit your document using all the usual formatting rules (12 point, Times New Roman, one-inch margins, double spaced, 0.5″ indent for paragraphs, and no extra spaces between paragraphs). Remember that the judges mark in three categories: Formatting, editing, AND content, so you want to make sure great content doesn’t get obscured by poor editing and formatting!

Basics

What: ‘Blog-Excellence’ Writing Contest.

Topics: Any writing-related blog post is suitable for submission … craft, the business of writing, devotionals related to writing, marketing tips, etc. Basically, anything that will either equip or encourage a writer in their journey.

Wordcount: Must be 700-1,500 words (as determined by Microsoft Word’s Review>Word Count feature).

Entry Fee: FREE to Inspire Members, $15 for Non-Members per entry.

Max Entries: We will accept a maximum of THREE submissions per person. If you submit more than three, we will only accept the first three submitted.

Criteria: 75% of the score will be based on how compelling your piece is. 25% of the score will be based on mechanics (structure, spelling, formatting, grammar, punctuation, editing, etc.).

Note: All entries will be blind judged, and must be consistent with Inspire’s Statement of Faith.

No Previously Published Pieces: We do not accept any pieces that have been previously published, including on personal or corporate blogs, or any other web sites, social media, etc.

Submissions: Word docs ONLY (PDFs will not be accepted), submitted through the official submission form on inspirewriters.com (which will be available from this page.). Open for submissions from Sep 1 – Sep 31, 2021.

Note: All submissions must be compatible with Inspire’s statement of faith.

Formatting

As with most magazines and publishing houses, there is always a standard set of submission guidelines you must adhere to. This contest is no exception. Your Word doc must be formatted with the following specifications:

    • Do not put the author name in either the document itself or the filename
    • Standard letter-size pages
    • Filename should be your title, or the first several words
    • Times New Roman font
    • 12 point
    • One inch margins
    • Double-spaced
    • 0.5″ indentation for paragraphs
    • No extra space between paragraphs beyond double spacing. (Extra spacing is permitted between sections.)
    • And 700-word minimum, 1,500-word maximum. No exceptions. As determined by MS Word’s word count feature.

Scoring

Entries will be blind judged. 75% of the score will rate how compelling and well-written your piece is. 25% of the final score will be based on your adherence to the formatting guidelines, editing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and proper use of sentence structure and vocabulary, etc. Tip: edit, edit, ask someone to edit, and then edit again. A GREAT piece content-wise will not win if it’s full of spelling errors, poor punctuation, and missing words.

Submission Window

We will accept submissions via our website from September 1, 2021-September 30, 2021.

Results

Winners will be announced on October 15, 2021.

Prizes

First Place

  • Either a $50 Amazon Gift Card OR $100 off the Inspire Christian Writers Conference at Mount Hermon
  • Publication on our award-winning blog
  • Mention across our social media channels

Special Mention Entries Receive

  • Publication on our award-winning blog
  • Mention across our social media channels

Submit Your Entry Here

or

Purchase Contest Access (for Non-Members)