Have you begun writing stories of your own? They may not be novels yet, but they could be the start of something big. How do you know if you’re on the right track?
Almost all professional writers have a critique group–people they trust to read their early drafts, comment on what’s good, and offer ideas for making the story even better.
That’s why we’re hosting the 1st Annual NOVELWritingSite.com contest!
Here are the rules:
- Only readers subscribed by email or RSS Feed are eligible, but subscribing is easy. Just follow the directions in the left side bar under “Subscribe.” While you’re at it, why not register as a fellow Novel Writer? That way you can leave comments, ask questions, or submit short samples in the comment section following each lesson.
- Regular readers will have until 11:59 pm, May 1, 2010 to submit the first 12 pages of a story they have written independently.
- 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. 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.
- Email your entry as an attachment to contestentry@anovelwritingsite.com. In the body of your email, please be sure to tell us your name and the name of your story. (That way whoever critiques your entry will not know who wrote it. We will match entries to submitters afterwards.) If you could tell us your age, 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.
- 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!) One overall winner will receive a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. All entrants will receive a letter of appreciation and feedback on their submission.
So be looking through your stories to decide which one you’d like to polish over the next few months, and don’t forget to subscribe to receive this blog regularly!
