The writer says selecting which competitions to enter rather than submitting indiscriminately became a surprisingly demanding strategic exercise

An aspiring screenwriter confirms that building her carefully curated “contest stack,” the recommended three-to-four competitions per year rather than indiscriminate mass submission, required genuinely more strategic planning than any actual investment portfolio she’s managed for her own retirement savings.

Why This Particular Strategic Selection Actually Demanded Such Careful Planning

With considerable entry fees attached to each competition and only a limited annual budget available, she needed genuine confidence that her selected contests actually aligned with her specific genre and career goals rather than simply chasing every deadline that crossed her feed.

How She Actually Evaluated Which Specific Contests Made Her Final Stack

Researching each competition’s track record for actually advancing writers in her specific genre toward representation or sales, rather than simply comparing prestige or entry fee alone.

What Specific Competition She Actually Debated Longest Before Including In Her Final Selection

A well-known contest with genuine prestige but a track record skewing toward genres considerably different from her own work, a mismatch she eventually decided outweighed the competition’s overall reputation.

How This More Strategic Selection Process Has Actually Changed Her Relationship With Deadlines This Year

Genuinely improved, she reports, treating each contest deadline as a structured “forced rewrite” function rather than simply another item on an overwhelming, undifferentiated submission list.

Whether She Plans To Apply This Same Strategic Selection Process To Next Year’s Contest Cycle

Absolutely, she confirms, treating this year’s careful stack-building as a genuinely valuable template for future submission seasons.

What This Reveals About The Genuine Strategic Discipline Aspiring Screenwriters Increasingly Apply To Contest Selection Rather Than Indiscriminate Submission Across Every Available Deadline

A genuine, instructive illustration of how aspiring screenwriters increasingly apply considerable strategic discipline selecting contests aligned with genre and career goals rather than submitting indiscriminately to every available competition. Further screenwriting industry coverage continues at bohiney.com.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com