A NOVEL Writing Site.com » Personal Motivation

Writing Lesson 3.20 – Should You Enter Writing Contests?

Naomi Musch — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:00:05 +0000

As you pop around the web or read writing magazines, you’ll pretty quickly discover writing contests. In fact, we even host one on this site each spring. You may mull these contests over and wonder if they’re worth your while. Winning would be fantastic! But what do you have to gain for all your effort if you lose?

Contests are a great way to stretch your writing wings. Of course, not every contest is for everybody. To randomly select contests to enter would be as bad as submitting an article to just any-old-market without studying its style, needs, and requirements first. If you haven’t studied writing craft long, or if you haven’t been through the experience of having your work critiqued, then entering a national contest would probably not be the best use of your time.

However, if you’re looking at a smaller contest with a topic or style that really suits you, then entering a writing contest can have value in a several ways.

First, you just might win. You might not, of course. Your odds are always 1 in however-many-entrants-you’re-up-against. And you may be competing against some real whizz-bang writers. But even if you don’t win or don’t make an honorable mention, you will doubtless learn something that will improve your skill. If the contest is small enough, you may get individual feedback from the judges. This is a HUGE deal. As long as you can handle helpful criticism, you stand to gain insight that most people have to pay for.

But even if you don’t get feedback, you may learn to streamline a story, set parameters, follow guidelines, train your mind around a theme, work on a deadline, and so on. And then there is always the possibility of residual rewards.

Case in point: Two years ago I entered a very large contest with a national publisher for a contemporary romance novella (one of those stories that’s too long to be a short story and too short to be a novel). In this case, the contest word limit was 25,000 words. My story came in just under that.

I’d never written a novella before. I’d also only written in the historical genre, never contemporary. But as I was working on a separate, long project involving tons of research, stepping back to enter the contest gave me a refreshing break. It taught me a different style. In writing a novella that didn’t really require research, I knew I’d see closure on a story much sooner than in my long fiction. The contest also gave me very clear guidelines for writing this contemporary story. You could say those guidelines walked me through the process. I really didn’t know how it would go, but when I finished, I felt I’d written a very sound piece. I also discovered that I actually enjoyed writing contemporary stuff — much more than I ever thought I would.

So did I win? No. I don’t even know if I came close. But…

I was so pleased with that story that I decided to modify it for a different publisher (so it wouldn’t be seen as the same storyline as for that contest) and I submitted it elsewhere. Within weeks, I had a contract for publication of my novella, which you’ll see somewhere on the sidebar of this page. It’s called Heart Not Taken.

I am really glad I entered that contest!

Not every story you write might come to such a fine conclusion. But you will never know unless you try.

Exercise

Investigate some contests online. Beware of sites that charge high entry fees. Many contests are free to enter. Some of the larger contests charge nominal reading fees of $10-$30.

Take a look at your current Work-in-Progress. Is it something you think might do well in a contest? Are you ready to expose it to the world? Contests like the one here at A Novel Writing Site require only the first several pages. Other contests might involve a scene, a line, or a blurb. Be prepared to meet requirements.

If you decide to enter a contest, follow the submission directions exactly!

Write on!

Naomi

http://www.naomimusch.com

Writing Lesson 3.15 – Just in Time for Christmas…

Lynn Dean — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:00:27 +0000

November is past, and NaNoWriMo with it. Whether or not you took the challenge to write 50K words in a month, here’s one way to see a story by YOU in print by Christmas!

Snapfish is an online photo development company. Around the holidays, they offer special prices on photo scrapbooks–bound books, in a variety of sizes, printed in small quantities with lots of full-color illustrations. Mixbook is another online company that offers similar books at a reasonable price. Most people use scrapbooks like these to preserve family memories, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use photographs or even jpgs of your own artwork to illustrate a short story of your own.

You could present an original story or collection of poems to someone you love for Christmas.

Exercise:

Decide on a recipient and a story. Believe it or not, this is a very real part of professional writing. Before writers begin a project, they know who their target readers are since this will affect so many style decisions.
Decide on an appropriate format, number of pages, and price. These are also decisions that professional writers and publishers make up front so that a book appeals to readers’ interests and their pocketbooks.
Experiment to see how your story will fit into the number of pages you have to work with. Page design is another aspect of professional publishing. While you’re at it…
Select a font style and size. This is also a part of page design. It’s important to choose a type face that is readable and fits your story and page size. It’s best to stick with one font style, though you might use a second style for your title.
Choose illustrations and decide how they will work with the text on each page. Original photographs and artwork can make the story more personal, and they will also save you money and time for securing the copyright permissions required to use other people’s work.

Even if you decide, in the end, not to place your order, you will still have gained valuable experience by trying your hand at several steps required to produce a finished book. And if you DO decide to “take the leap,” you may be surprised to experience the thrill of producing something all your own.

Writing Lesson 3.8-Get Ready for NaNoWriMo!

Lynn Dean — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:00:36 +0000

It’s hard to imagine that any lover of literary lore hasn’t heard of NaNoWriMo, but hey…the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

NaNoWriMo, short National Novel Writing Month, is billed by it’s non-profit sponsors, the Office of Letters and Light, as “30 days and nights of literary abandon!” You may abandon a lot of things during the National Novel Writing Month of November–healthy meals, sufficient sleep, non-writing-related school work, maybe even take leave of your senses–in your drive to scribe 50,000 words in 30 days, but for lovers of the written word, this is a challenge that’s hard to pass up. And if 50K words sounds unattainable and you happen to be 17 or under, fret not! The NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program allows you to tailor your own ambitious word goal.

The rules state that you can’t begin writing until November 1 and must reach your target word count by 11:59 p.m. November 30th, BUT if the challenge tempts you like a double-dog-dare there are plenty of things you can do NOW to increase your odds of success.

Choose your Challenge–Go to the adult site or young writers’ site and get signed up. You even get a cool web badge that you can add to your social media. Nothing like having all your friends ask how it’s going to encourage you as you write.
Browse through the resources included on each site. The Young Writers Program site has a special Resources tab and a great Dare Machine right on the home page that’ll get you thinking “outside the box.”
If you need more story ideas, visit OLL’s related Script Frenzy site and try the Plot Machine. Once you quit laughing and groaning, try making your own plot machine by inventing an assortment of settings, characters, and story goals. Happy shuffling!
When you’ve got an idea…or at least a direction…you ARE allowed to sketch out a rough outline, diagram, or storyboard–anything that will help you pre-shape your story without actually beginning to write it. (I’ve been known to use Post-It Notes on the back of a door so that I can rearrange them as I experiment with sub-plots.)
Use the NOVELWritingSite archives (listed in the left sidebar) to review past articles on plotting, setting, characterization, goal/motivation/conflict, themes and motifs. Plenty of ideas in there!

If November isn’t a good month for you to undertake the challenge, don’t despair! Camp NaNoWriMo is open year-round, offering an idyllic writer’s retreat smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life (so there’s no excuse for copping out!)

But if there’s even a remote possibility that the NaNoWriMo challenge might, perhaps, just maybe help you get a serious manuscript underway–or even just follow a crazy idea wherever it takes you–why not give is a go? Have fun with this! And once you’ve signed up, leave a comment here so we can all cheer you on!

Writing Lesson 3.2-Story Engineering

Lynn Dean — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:00:16 +0000

I’ve referred in past posts to Larry Brooks’ excellent book, Story Engineering.

As I read this book the principles of plotting finally clicked–probably because Larry explains them in architectural terms, and I am a building designer by trade. Suddenly both the rules and the reasons for them became clear, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

Winners of this year’s NOVELWritingSite Writing Contest received gift copies of this book. Many of my posts this year will deal with skills I learned from this book. If you haven’t guessed by now, I highly recommend THIS BOOK! Find it in paperback or ebook from Amazon HERE.

Larry also writes a most informative blog, Storyfix, and I’m a fan of that, too. So are a lot of other folks, apparently, because Storyfix was the #1 Best Blog for Writers this year! Today I’m honored to guest post over at Storyfix and talk a bit about how writing, like architecture, blends art with the science of structure. You can also read a snippet of historical fiction I wrote about what can happen when we ignore the rules of structure. Click HERE to check it out!

Did you click? I’ll wait until you get back.

Cool, huh?

I’m supremely psyched about the skills I’ll be introducing this year as well as the ones coming in from our other contributors. We’ll have some new faces, too, so be sure to register, subscribe to RSS feed, add us to Google Reader on your iGoogle homepage, or whatever you need to do to make sure you join us every Friday. Writing prompts and exercises will start next week!

In the meantime, if there are specific writing skills you’d like to work on, we’re always open to ideas and suggestions. Please leave a comment!

Summer Sabbaticals

Lynn Dean — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:21:18 +0000

Sabbatical–that’s the Word of the Day on Dictionary.com. “Any extended period of leave from one’s customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.”

Extended, of course, is a relative term. Since Summer is when I wrap up my busiest season at work, I can only extend myself one day off–but today’s the day!

In less than an hour, I will be leaving for a 2-day writer’s conference in a nearby city.

Many writers’ groups sponsor week-long national conferences. I’ve been to three, and they were wonderful. I heard famous authors speak, sat in on how-to seminars, got to meet other writers, editors, and agents. It was like candy for my brain! But big conferences come once a year and are rarely nearby which means that they can be expensive or impossible to access.

A quick internet search may reveal other possibilities in your area–a regional writers’ group or local critique group. Some meet monthly. In larger cities, some host Saturday seminars like the one I’ll be attending. The rate was quite reasonable and includes meals as well as the teaching. While they may not draw a large number of big names, there will be more time to meet and get to know the people who are there, and I have to figure that anyone who gives of their time to teach at a smaller conference really has a heart for helping others. That’s good to know!

So this summer, look for opportunities to get with writing friends and acquire kewl skilz!

Writing Lesson 2.35 – Wasting Time?

Melinda Evaul — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:00:47 +0000

Summer is here! It’s tempting to sleep late, play games, watch TV, or waste yourself in your favorite way. I can relate.

I’m not the person to talk to you about time management. Well, maybe I am since it’s a problem for me. I frequently get lost on the Internet or in emails. Time can mean money for a writer, so let’s talk about a way to become more productive and organized.

Instead of wasting our summer vacation, let’s use it to create better habits. Will you take this challenge with me?

Make a list of the items you should complete during the day. (Clean your room, write 500 words, read 50 pages, help Mom do the laundry…)
Be realistic. My list is always too long. If that happens, move those unfinished items to the list you make the next day.
Determine the amount of time needed for each task you listed. This may take some trial and error. Our goal is to accomplish more when we manage our time appropriately.
Set a timer and don’t get distracted.
Take a break for some exercise, food, and fun.
Don’t forget to set that timer to bring you back to the next task.

It’s okay to allow some free days. After all, that’s part of summer vacation. Set aside time for working on your writing skills and reading great books.

I want to write a first draft, or at least a hefty chunk, for another book. I’ll report my progress this fall. Gaining control of my time-wasting habits should help me accomplish that goal. I’d love to hear what you accomplish by mastering some time-wasting habits.

Ready, set the timer, go!

Writing Lesson 2.34 – Advice on Becoming a Better Writer Over the Summer

Naomi Musch — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:58:05 +0000

Right about now, most of us are thinking of one thing — summer vacation! School books are put away, jeans and hoodies are exchanged for swim suits and flip-flops, and the list of all the fun things we want to do feels like a shiny, wrapped up package, waiting to be opened and enjoyed.

But whoa, Nellie! If you’re a young writer — which you probably are or you wouldn’t be reading this — you know that summer is the perfect time, to dive into the adventure of improving your craft.

So here’s my advice to help you become a better writer over the summer.

#1. Read a lot.

We spend a lot of time practicing to turn our own phrases on a page, but we learn the art of better writing largely by reading. So don’t leave home without a book. When you’re at the beach, waiting at an appointment, riding along in the car, or just lounging, use the time you can to read. We all stay up a little bit later at night during summer. Use those winding-down hours at day’s end to read. It’s the stories you read which will inspire your own and will teach you the technical aspects of writing.

#2. Stick to it.

Don’t procrastinate. It’s easy to tell yourself you need a break. You might want to forget about everything over summer. But if you’re serious about being a writer, use your summer break to work without the distraction of all your other subjects getting in the way. Spend some time writing each day. It might be a blog. It might be a page in your current story. It might be a journal entry where you’ll flesh out your thoughts on a project. You never know, you might finish a novel. Just WRITE!

#3. Connect with other young writers and share your work.

Some people are not very good at critiquing. They are a little too intentionally critical. But writers need to grow very thick skins. Criticism is part of the game and teaches humility. If you know other writers, young or old, and are willing to open up your work to them, and to ask questions, you will gain a huge amount of insight into your progress. But if neither you nor your writing friend have done this sort of thing before, set some parameters for critiquing. Honesty with tact and kindness is a good place to start.

Have a great, fruitful summer!

Writing Lesson 2.30 – Resurrect Your Reason for Writing

Lynn Dean — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:00:23 +0000

Quick Reminder!

Don’t forget our NOVELWritingSite Writing Contest deadline is May 1. Check the contest page for details!

And now for our Regularly Scheduled post…

This is the day Christendom celebrates Good Friday, and in three days (by the traditional Jewish method of counting) we will celebrate Resurrection Sunday or Easter.

I have a confession to make.

The term “Easter” has always bothered me.

The word “Easter” comes from “Ishtar”—a fertility goddess whose celebration in the ancient world fell at about the same time as the death and resurrection of Christ. Linking a pagan celebration featuring eggs, rabbits, and other symbols of spring to the resurrection of Jesus has sometimes seemed to cause cultural confusion. The Christian message can be almost obliterated by secular marketing hype.

BUT I believe that the original intent was to communicate the new and unfamiliar message of salvation and new life in a context that people of that time and place could more easily understand.

For writers who happen to be Believers, our challenge is similar.

Whether we write stories that are overtly “Christian” or whether our worldview subtly infuses our writing simply because of who we are, how can we be “salt and light” in a world where decay and darkness sometimes seem overwhelming?

Exercise:

Think about why you write. Is there a unifying message that threads its way through every story?

Who is your audience? If you write to encourage other believers, you may want to target the Christian section of your bookstore. If writing is a form of outreach for you, people who are not necessarily “religious” might be more likely to find your stories in with secular books.

When you edit your stories, put yourself in the place of your intended reader. Have you addressed issues with respect for their current belief system? Have you avoided offensive stereotypes? Is your manuscript “preachy,” or does it simply present ideas for consideration? Is your story merely a set-up for a sermon, or does it have merit as an engaging read?

Are your spiritual themes truly scriptural? Are they added as afterthoughts or woven deeply into the story?

Write deliberately. For some, this means that the gospel is presented clearly in every story. For others the meaning may be more subtle, but it can still be clear. The book of Esther in the Bible contains no direct mention of God, yet who would doubt that the story is “about” Him, nonetheless? C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia are examples of contemporary fiction which, while making no overt mention of faith, are inseparable from the Christian worldview of the author.

Second Annual NOVELWritingSite.com Contest!

Lynn Dean — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:00:52 +0000

All year, you’ve been learning how to hone new skills that you can apply to your stories.

Ready to see how you’ve improved?

This contest gives you the opportunity to have professional writers take a look at the first five pages of your story–the pages that will hook a reader’s interest. We’ll give you positive feedback and maybe some ideas.

Letting someone else read your stories may be a scary notion for some writers, but who would understand that better than a fellow writer? I personally promise that your entry will be read by kind and sympathetic volunteers who like stories and like to encourage the people who write them. Besides, authors’ names will be removed before entries are forwarded to our readers, so until it’s time to send out the results, take comfort in the knowledge that your identity will be secret . . . incognito . . . completely anonymous.

Here’s what to do:

Choose a story that you feel reflects your best efforts–something you wrote independently.
Make sure you’re subscribed by email or RSS Fed to www.aNOVELWritingSite.com. Only regular readers may enter, but subscribing is easy. Just follow the directions in the left side bar under “Subscribe.”
Send the first 5 pages of your story by midnight, May 1, 2011 as an email attachment to discovertexas@hot.rr.com. Your submission should be typed, double-spaced with 1″ margins, in Times New Roman font (12 pitch size) and saved as a Word document in Rich Text format (.rtf). Please use a header to show the title of your story and the page number on each page, but do not include your name in the header. If you know the genre of your story, you may include that information also.
In the body of your email, please be sure to tell us your name and the name of your story. If you could tell us something about yourself, how far along you are in your story, or how long you’ve been writing, that would be interesting as well.
Entries will be critiqued by one or more of our contributors. We will be VERY gentle and encouraging.
Categories will depend somewhat on how many entries we receive from writers of various ages in each genre. Winning entries in each category will receive a full critique and a copy of A Novel Idea: Best Advice on Writing Inspirational Fiction, a compilation of tips from best-selling Christian novelists. This is a really good book!

So be brave! Take the challenge! There’s really nothing to lose but your jitters. And don’t forget to subscribe to receive this blog regularly.

Best wishes for a happy new year from your friends at aNOVELWritingSite.com!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lynn Dean — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 09:00:23 +0000

No lesson this week, owing to the holiday, but an encouragement just the same…

Most authors do not typically earn enough from their book sales to be able to write full-time.

That’s encouraging?

Well, in a way, yes! That means most professional authors write their wonderful stories AFTER they finish their other jobs. They squeeze their creative writing into the chinks of time when other people might pursue other hobbies…or just watch television.

Your storyworld can become a very portable hobby–one you carry in your head, handy to work on in any spare moment…like in the car while you’re driving to your grandmother’s house for the holiday.

Life is busy, but the encouragement is that you don’t have to wait for an ideal situation where you have no duties to distract from your writing. Learn to look for the bits of time that add up to great stories, and understand that the life you’re living in the REST of your time is what gives you something to write about. Be looking for your next great idea!