Writing Olympics??

I have to confess that this past week I've been rather distracted from my writing (and the rest of my life!!) by a certain tournament happening in my country.  No I don't mean between two knights jousting on a field in front of fair damsels - though that sounds fun too - but the Olympics.

When I first found out that the Olympics was coming to London, I have to say that I was less than bothered about it.  It seemed a lot of money that we as a country had to pay for an event that not many people in the country really cared about.  My indifference (and that, I suspect of the rest of the country) lasted until the opening ceremony which I thought was wonderful and so British!  Since then I've watched everything from judo to gymnastics, athlectics to archery and I've been carried away!  It helps too that the British team has been doing so well.

All this doesn't necessarily have much to do with writing and working on my novel.  Or does it?  Athletes have to practice for years to get to the point at which they are able to represent their country at an international level such as the Olympics.  They train week in week out, year in year out and even if they do get to compete in the Olympics or other top sporting events, they may well of course lose out to someone who was just that bit better than them on the day.

Writers too have to hone their craft.  They have to write for years to get to the point where they feel ready to submit their work to an agent or to self publish.  To improve their chances of being published, to get exposure and to improve as a writer, many enter writing competitions where there are awards for first, second and third - just like the Olympics.  I have entered a few in my time but didn't get anywhere.  I suppose I was put off entering competitions partly because I got nowhere, but also because I often had to pay to enter and I suppose I just baulked at having to pay any more for a competition which I was unlikely to win.

It strikes me that if there were greater opportunities for aspiring authors to win, more chances to really excel in competitions for writers, then there would be more exposure for amateur writers like myself to show what they can do.  It seems to me that there are so few windows of opportunity to win a prize in a competition that it puts people like myself off trying.  Perhaps it could be a case of having different and many more categories for story entries in writing  competitions; for example romance, thriller, sci fi, horror, women's fiction, historical fiction.  The list goes on.

I think maybe we as a writing community need to think outside the box when it comes to promoting amateur authors.  The Olympics has many different categories of sport in it and so many opportunities to suceed.  Maybe if there was a 'Writing Olympics' , more writers would get a chance to shine.