'Commandments' for an essay writing competition

I won £1000 in a fantasy football competition, once upon a time. It's probably the best prize I've ever won, though I certainly like to keep a lid on my gambling. Still, I do love my football and fantasy football is nearly as much fun (generally, you'll pick a team to score points that may lead to prizes etc). It's as time-consuming as you want it to be.

I joined a website, and on it, they recommended following a set of commandments. Ten or so snappy little ideas, to enhance your chances.

Earlier this year, I entered the BBC Wildlife nature writing competition. Though I didn't consciously follow any such set of rules at the time, I do wonder what might have been if I had.

Anyway, for anyone interested in writing competitions, maybe this post could be helpful. What would my commandments have been, if I could turn back the clock?

How about these below?

READ THE RULES - disqualification / ineligibility WOULD SUCK
Love your subject - naturally. It would also pay to read other people's efforts (particularly past winners)
Find your "voice" - practice makes perfect
Hack it into a computer - keep older versions / keep tidy your current version
Write way beyond any word count limit, so that you can edit it down to perfection later (NEW)
Give yourself ample time to plan it and write it - don't leave to the last minute
Review, review, review - ad infinitum
Following the above tips, write a number of essays - submit the best (NEW)
Get your work peer reviewed - you WILL miss something
Know that all commandments are there to be broken - do so at your own risk

Are they in the right order?

Can anyone offer an alternative set? Maybe there's a need for 'develop a winner's attitude - accept nothing but the best and believe you ARE the best.' Visualise winning?

Hmmm...


edit: I think being able to type 'blind' at a reasonable rate and posting on forums regularly could also be an incredible asset in attempting in win just about any writing competition.

For example, I'm pretty sure if computers and the Internet had never been invented yet "postal forums" had popped up all the same (being all the rage, even), I very much doubt I'd have posted a fraction of a percent of what I've posted on the Internet over the last fifteen years or so. Even if I had still liked joining such forums.

It's all been good practice, I feel, for such writing attempts (and I've never really felt the need for a spellchecker, but they do exist for those who want to use them).

Write a lot and you'll improve, I like to think. I just could NEVER go back to relying on pen and paper.

But I can't condense this edit into a single line!