Win Survivor Contest with 4 Entries

The Survivor Contest is a Literotica contest that awards prizes for prolific writers. It's not a beauty contest. It's not about skill. It's about volume across the board and nothing more. You can find a link to the Survivor Contest rules on the Literotica homepage. Follow the link and you'll see how to sign up to participate. I'm going to teach you how can theoretically place in the money with only four entries.

First, let me give a small disclaimer from me. I was a contestant last year. I placed 6th overall in 2012's contest. That put me one place below the money prizes. Yeah, I'm a bit bitter about it. While I appreciated the $25 Amazon gift certificate, I thought I was in line for a cash prize. You see, contestants are expected to keep up their own scorecards. Based on the scorecards in late December, I was in the money. I don't know if other contestants sandbagged by entering a bunch of entries late in the year or if they sandbagged by not keeping up their scorecards. It doesn't matter. I slipped from a money position to a gift card position by the end of the contest. It didn't help that my personal life went crazy towards the end of the year and I was unable to do any writing. Honestly, I blame myself and not the other contestants. But I'm lying if I don't admit a few sour grapes.

The Survivor contest awards cash prizes for the first five places. Beyond that, places 6th through 15th are awarded $25 Amazon gift cards. By the end of this article, I'm going to show you how you might win one of those gift cards with just four entries.

Disclaimer #2: I've been part of Literotica for just over a year as I write this. By Lit standards, I feel like a newbie. There have been other survivor contests in the past. I don't know how long the contest has existed. Please don't turn to me for a history lesson, because all I can find are the results for the last two years. In 2011, the unofficial results show 6th place starting at 20 total points. I'll show you how to beat that score in four entries or less. In 2012, winning a $25 Amazon gift certificate required a minimum of 18 points. Again, I'll show you how to do that in four entries or less. There's actually more than one way to do it.

First, the direct way to do it, with submissions alone. Survivor awards 5 points for each contest entered. There are a total of six contests through-out the year. (As of this writing, you've already missed one contest: Valentine's Day, so pay attention!) Submit an entry in four out of the five remaining contests and you'll automatically score 20 points on your Survivor scorecard. Will that be enough to place in this year's survivor? Only time will tell, but I promised to show you how to score 20 points or more with just four entries.

Want a second way? Good enough. Survivor has an interesting twist to it. There's an immunity earning system based on a lottery. (Read the instructions for more details.) You pick a number as your immunity number. Each time it shows up as part of the six digit draw, you earn one immunity. What can you do with your immunity? You can cap off a category that you don't feel like writing. Why is this important? Because Survivor has another interesting rule. Remember when I said it rewards volume over quality? Entering 10 categories will earn you an additional 5 points. What this means to you is this: pick a hot number in the lottery and you can earn 5 additional points WITHOUT EVEN WRITING A STORY!

Think about it. Enter three contests (at 5 points per contest), pick the right number as your immunity and by the end of the year, you could be sitting on a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

I know what you're thinking. How practical is it to pick a number that's going to be picked ten times in a year? I did a bit of math based on half a year's worth of drawings for 2012. Within half a year, the number 14 came up eleven times. The number 19 came up 13 times. Both 36 and 48 came up eight times in 26 drawings. Think about it. Just a couple entries from you, a lucky number choice and by this time next year, you'll be wondering how to spend your twenty-five dollar Amazon gift certificate.

If we keep 20 points as the magic number for placing in the money (and there's no guarantee that number will do it this year) then how else can you get to 20 points? The easiest way is to write and post seven stories in different categories. Each story posted in a new category is worth 3 points. Seven categories will give you 21 points. Choose an immunity number that's picked three times in the year and you will have an extra 5 points for capping off 10 categories and a total of 26 points. So what are you waiting for? Survivor accepts new entrants until October!