Here at #RWChat we’re all about hearing other people’s stories, so we’ve invited Laura Brown to tell us why she’s participated in writing contests, as a writer and as a mentor.

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I just love writing contests and have been involved on both sides: as an eager entrant and as a judge/mentor. The reason I’m doing the latter is because of how much I learned from the former.

Simply put: I owe everything to contests, directly or indirectly. Contests took me from writing in solitude, to meeting my first critique partners, to learning the basics of the craft. Many contests use twitter hashtags to spread information and knowledge. It’s an excellent way to learn and improve, even if not picked as a finalist.

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