Submit to writing contests December 28, 2009

Stephie Smith’s site is a combination of writers’ resources, photos, novel excerpts, and PC help; but one of her most helpful pages is an ongoing list of writing contests. She has arranged all the information in easy-to-read columns, a visual dessert for writers.

Stephie’s historical romance, “The Masquerade,” has garnered 1st- 4th placements in various contests in 2008, and the awards helped her win an agent’s attention—she is now represented by Helen Breitwieser.

Read more about Stephie.

Stephie’s experiences prove that entering contests is a great way to:
—gain invaluable critique
—improve writing
—get attention from agents/publishers

There are many scams when it comes to contests and entry fees, so here are some tips and warnings when entering writing contests (from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America).

More writing contests
List from Manuscript Editing
List from Freelance Writing
List from Writers-Editors
List from Tectonic Designs

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Find a concept for your novel October 21, 2009

Concept
For my last novel and the one my mind is currently cooking up, I got the basic idea from quotes. Last time around, I found the following quote:

“We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.” ~ Blaise Pascal

I had spent some time around a friend who had once been a sniper, and he talked a lot about the secrecy and mental stress of the job. I then formed my novel around those two things. It’s called We Know the Truth and is currently with an agent. Here’s hoping!

Find the right quote
This time around (because of gearing up for NaNoWriMo), I went looking for the right quote again. My story begins with a girl who gets pregnant at seventeen and her mother is not impressed, to say the least. I specifically went in search of baby quotes and found a perfect quote that I can use part of as my title.

My basic concept is that the girl runs off to America with the aid of a rich man, but there are strings attached. Eventually she hears of her mother’s cancer and returns home to heal the relationship. This idea is still sorely lacking, though, because there is nothing to carry the story. I need a plot, a theme; novels based on daughters reuniting with their mothers don’t really sell in droves.

What if . . .
What if she falls for the older rich man? What if she still pines for her boyfriend? What if that boyfriend is a player? What if the child dies? What if she gives her up for adoption only to change her mind when the child is two because the father wants to marry her? What if the child is kidnapped? All these questions depend on which genre I want to write in, but no matter which one I choose, the reader must want to keep turning the pages to find out information.

What genre?
I could do some paranormal thing—she could discover a gift of mind reading and cause a lot of damage. Perhaps she gets into astral projection and visits her ex to torment him about impregnating her. I could make it a love story and a hunk of burning love shows up and she is in love in three days (although I hate the absurdness of that)l; I could take the suspense angle and have the child kidnapped, I could write Christian fiction and save them all in the process of love/suspense/paranormal activity.

What’s the goal?
So what if the child dies and the MC really loves kids and really wanted this baby once she was settled? What if the rich guy wants kids with her but she does not want them brought up by him? What if her biggest goal is to have kids and he is the chief antagonist to her having them? What if no publisher in the world will touch a novel with the chief goal of the protagonist being to have babies?

This, my friends, is the way a writer’s mind works. If you have any helpful suggestions that will turn me into a multi-millionaire, um, an inspiring writer, please let me know. In the meantime, see what you can come up with based on quotes you find.

All the best with your own search for a concept and plot-driven theme.

brainyquote.com
quotegarden.com
quotationspage.com
quoteland.com
thinkexist.com

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

What Is NaNoWriMo? October 19, 2009

“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.”

How do I sign up?
Fill in the details on this form.

How much does it cost?
NaNoWriMo is free to everyone BUT, naturally, these things cost money. Here is a list of expenses the NaNoWriMo team incurs, so even if you can only contribute five bucks, it will make a difference.

What do I do once I’ve signed up?
Wait for the e-mail to confirm your participation.
Read the forums to get a feel of what the heck it’s all about.
With some writing friends (or on the forums) plot your novel.
Download a word count widget for your blog, forums signature, etc.
Add a web badge to any public web page you own.
                                                                 
And then what?
Start writing on November 1. You’ll need to write close to 2,000 words a day, but it doesn’t matter if all you write is total trash. All that matters is the word count, and the whole point of this exercise is not to write something perfect and stunning; it’s to just write. It’s an exceptionally good project for the perfectionists among us, and face it, most writers tend to lean on the side of perfectionism.

The time for editing and going over mistakes and dumb writing is not November; it’s after the first draft is complete. Most novelists never get beyond their first chapter because they keep going over and over and over the same few sentences. You may as well quit as a writer if that’s all you’re ever going to do. To be a writer you have to WRITE!

I took part in this in 2007, and I now have the results (after quite a few edits and rewrites) in the hands of an agent. It’s called We Know The Truth. I don’t know if I would have ever finished the first draft had it not been for NaNoWriMo.

Some things you can expect if you participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo
A lot of time away from other daily activities and loved ones
Frustration
Bad writing
Headaches
Feeling like a total failure

Some good things you can expect
The beginnings of a finished novel
A sense of accomplishment
The thought that perhaps you can be a writer after all
A greater appreciation for your computer and writing software

The goal
To have a novel that is eventually good enough to submit to an agent or publishing house

If you’re under eighteen, and the thought of writing with a bunch of old fogies is a huge turn off, NaNoWriMo has a page just for you. It’s also a big help to teachers who would like to have their students go through the writing meat grinder, um, I mean, enjoy the delectable process of writing a novel.

I’d like to be more involved in this
If you’re one of those project-oriented people who loves to help the world, you can print off NaNoWriMo flyers and put them in bookstores.

If you’re the competitive type, you can check your area’s word count against those of other states or cities.

Take advantage of the discounts for Schrivener, Writer’s Digest Shop, and Alphasmart NEO that are available to NaNoWriMo participants.

Subscribe to the NaNoWriMo blog.

There is more fun to be found on the NaNoWriMo site, but rather than spoil it all for you, I’ll leave you to look around for yourself. Once the last day of November comes around, I hope to see many certificates posted on your sites for the world to see. It’s a huge accomplishment to be able to write 50,000 words of anything.

Carpe diem!

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Litmatch—agent search and submission tracking September 28, 2009

LitMatch is a free service that helps writers find and secure an agent. Apart from the necessary ads in the right-hand column, the site is beautifully designed—crisp and clean looking. It’s dead easy to use, too.

Tracking
For each novel, record the submissions you’ve made to agents. (You would not believe how easy it is to forget.)
Records: Day, agent, agency
Follow up info
End result

Agent search
Find an agent who represents your genre—LitMatch’s search feature could not be any easier.

Literary agencies and agents
LitMatch lists 1757 agents in 821 agencies. You can pull up any agency and find:
The list of agents
What they prefer to represent
All their contact info
Personal info/publishing experience
If they are currently open to submissions
If they accept e-mail submissions
If they accept postal submissions
A pie chart of the percentage of offers, requests, and rejections
Responses
Response times
Submission guidelines
Clients and projects represented
Comments

Agent blogs
Lists and links to all of the blogs agents have

Hotlist
When you find an agent or agency you like the look of, you can hotlist it, grading it out of five flames.

LitMatch blog
Talks about what LitMatch hopes to offer in the near future

I’ve just registered so I can track who I’ve sent my queries to. Hopefully you guys will find it just as helpful as I have.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM

 

 

Flash, Short, Nano, Micro . . . Categorize Your Fiction July 28, 2009

Joy in a Box is an e-book (and soon to be published) collection of thirty flash-fiction stories. Because I have readers reviewing it, I was asked what flash fiction is. Most names for fiction relate to the fiction piece’s word count so I’ve made a list that gives a rough word count guide. It is not definitive, as many publishers have their own ideas on what the word count of various types of fiction should be.

Nanofiction: 55 words

Drabble: 100 words

69er: 69 words

Micro-fiction: 10-250 words (although some would say up to 750)

Flash fiction: 250-1,000 words

Sudden fiction: Slightly over 1,000 words

Short shorts: 1,001-2,500 words

Short story: 2,501-7,500 words

Novelette: 7,501-17,500 words

Novella: 17,501-40,000 words

Novel: 40,001 words and up
                                                               
Pamelyn Casto write in her article Flashes on the Meridian: Dazzled by Flash Fiction:

“Other names for it include short-short stories, sudden, postcard, minute, furious, fast, quick, skinny, and micro fiction. . . . In China this type of writing has several interesting names: little short story, pocket-size story, minute-long story, palm-sized story, and my personal favorite, the smoke-long story (just long enough to read while smoking a cigarette).”
                                                               
My own name for flash fiction would be coffee-time or toilet-visit fiction, but Americans might find the latter distasteful because then they’d have to admit to reading on the toilet. The other negative to admitting to reading on the toilet is being unable to resell your books, as George discovered (in “The Bookstore” episode of Seinfeld).

REBECCA: (Opens the cover of the book) Oh, wait a second. (Certain) This book has been in the bathroom.
GEORGE: (Nervous) Wh-what are you talking about? That – that’s ridiculous.
REBECCA: It’s been flagged. I know. I used to work in a Brentano’s.
GEORGE: (Desperate to get rid of the book) Alright, I, I’ll just take fifty. Do – do we have a deal?
REBECCA: Yeah, and here it is: You get your toilet book out of here, and I won’t jump over this counter and punch you in the brain!
                                                               

It can take a while to get the hang of writing a good piece of flash fiction as you only have a limited number of white space you can use. I used to take part in the Faithwriters weekly challenge and got so used to writing short pieces that I can now hack and slash anything that’s too long. I’d highly recommend attempting to write a complete story in less than 750 words. You must have at least one setting, one problem to be resolved, and one character because this is to be a complete story, not just a vignette (or slice of a story). The practice will make editing your novel a lot easier on the heartstrings—your writing ends up tighter and no words are wasted. Just like it is with kids at dinner time, you don’t want your readers pushing the half-eaten dish away because they are too full.

 

Every piece of writing needs to be clear and precise. With microscope in hand, Inksnatcher’s writing and editing service will hone any work until it glitters in the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. INKSNATCHER.COM