[SunshineParticipant]

Ideas on how to create promote sponsor and publicise frequent and regular writing prizes and contests with or without writing prompts.

[Tola OdejayiParticipant]

Great topic, @nicolebassey.

There are two challenges in having frequent contests:
- Prizes. Suprisingly, I don’t see this as such a big issue. I feel that the core members on NS are motivated more by the glory and honour of winning competitions rather than the cash reward. So even a single prize of N3000 may be enough to get people interested.

Having said that, the bigger the prize money, the more motivated writers are to ‘step up their game’ and produce work that really shines.

And still, the money has to be raised somehow. It’s nice that the Naija Stories administration is the primary funder of these competitions, but it would be nice if others chipped in. Maybe NS should consider having a Competition Fund…

- Organization. I feel that this is a bigger issue. You need to announce the competition, receive and vet entries, shortlist, judge then announce the winners. And if there’s prize money, you have to arrange how you are going to send the money to the winners. This takes time and effort.

An easier option may to federate the judging to the people. Let everyone vote so that the burden of judging is removed from your neck. Of course, this means that a popular person with a horrible entry might win, but I trust that the good judgment of Naijastorians won’t let this happen.

Another idea to reduce competition overhead may be to have a series of small competitions, with the prize money distributed at the end of the year. That way, the organizer of the competition doesn’t have to worry about repeatedly sending prize money every few months.

But I’m curious to know; do people on NS really care much about competitions? What is the minimum amount you need to tempt you into [a] entering a competition an producing an ordinary entry; entering a competition and producing your absolutely best effort?

[Sueddie AgemaParticipant]

Phew!! This is much. @TolaO, which one you remain for others to talk?
Sometimes when you overdo stuff, they lose their excitement and grace. Less frequent contests would help us.
Tola, I don’t think organisation would be too much of an issue here. But even at that, with the growing community blogging we do, things would get easier. We can in-house most of the organisation. It would be fun.
Prizes? Hmm. True talk, we look more to the glory. The points would do magic. Yeah.

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