Writer-In-Progress

This contest is near and dear to my heart because I spent a year of my life being the coordinator for it.

Ignite the Flame, the annual contest of the Central Ohio Fiction Writers (the RWA group of Columbus, OH) is now open for submissions. If you’ve got a manuscript ready, enter the hero & heroine’s first meet in these sub-genres:

Young Adult Erotic Romance
Suspense Romance Historical Romance
Single Title Paranormal Romance
Category-Length Contemporary

Laura Bradford: Young Adult (Agent at Bradford Literary Agency)
Deb Werksman: Historical Romance (Editor at Sourcebooks)
Charles Griesman: Category-Length Contemporary (Editor at Harlequin)
Marlene Stringer: Suspense Romance (Agent at Stringer Literary Agency LLC)
Susannah Taylor: Single Title (Agent at Richard Henshaw Group)
Leis Penderson: Paranormal Romance (Editor at Berkley Publishing Group)
Lindsey Farber: Erotic Romance (Editor at Samhain Publishing)

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I love planning ahead–that’s why I love this listing of 2011 monthly memoir contests at Women’s Memoirs. Each month’s contest and deadline is listed so we can work those into our writing schedule–nice. If only all editorial calendars were so organized!

If you’ve got a memoir, they’ve got a contest. Stop by and check it out:

Women’s Memoir Contests

While you’re there, check out the site as well. Great food for thought if you’re a memoirist/essayist. Let us know what you enter!

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Being out of the routine of our daily lives, whether on vacation, in a new locale or just having a day off work, can lead to wonderfully creative surges. When the confined and monotonous shifts to being open and limitless, our brains often stretch and inhale with new life.

But sometimes this change, however minor, can be paralyzing. Instead of having our routine to fall back on, our common, repeated actions to soothe us and move our bodies in a hazy cloud of unawareness while our minds engage, we grow fearful with the notion that we’re all alone and adrift in a sea of maybe, sorta, kinda, without the reassurance of repeated knowledge to support us.

These are the times in which we grow creatively the most but can potentially lose the momentum that has brought us to this point in our writing careers. If you find yourself in a new situation–and excited by the potential–but wasting time procrastination because you don’t know where to begin, try a few of these to get yourself in the writing groove:

1. Give yourself permission to decompress, refresh and observe.

A few days away from writing might be just what you need, but with the constant pressure to keep on cranking out the words, you’ll soon find yourself at odds with and possibly angry at yourself. Treat yourself with the same care you extend to others who might be adjusting to a new venue, lifestyle or schedule. Observe your writing thoughts, your creative mind. Are you upset because you’re not writing? Because what you’re writing isn’t what you think you should be writing? Maybe you’re not writing enough or with your usual level of intensity. Give yourself permission to be a little less perfect, a little more forgiving of your process in this time of limbo rather than beating yourself up.

2. Pick your most favorite element of your previous routine and start there.

For writers, routine is so much a part of our process, our ability to create that without those small, mindless activities we begin our writing with, like pouring a cup of coffee, lighting a candle, walking the dog, stretching or turning on the iPod, we never give our subconscious mind the trigger that we are approaching our creative time with intent. On my recent trip to Las Vegas, I was worried about being able to transition my early morning hours into productive writing sessions. Upon reflection, I discovered that having a cup of coffee was my trigger to tell my brain to start moving. As soon as I woke and dressed, I went down to the casino coffee shop and ordered something hot and steamy. By the time I found my way to the indoor park (amazingly empty at 5am Vegas time!) and a bench, my mind was chomping at the bit to get cracking on the laptop.

3. Vary Your Routine

Vacation and time away from home screws up everyone’s internal clocks and natural rhythms. On vacations away from home, I often wake earlier than I would were I at home. As a result, I wind up being ready for bed earlier than normal. For me, that early waking time is quiet time without kids, phones, email or distractions. Some friends get up later and use the fact that they’re on vacation to stay up later than normal. If you’re with kids, try to customize your schedule to take advantage of the ebb and flow of theirs. If there aren’t any kids, take some time to notice your energy levels throughout the day. Just because your novelist friends don’t write from noon to five every day doesn’t mean you can’t if that‘s when you feel most creative (and your kids are napping or off with family).

4. Start Something New

You’re on vacation, after all. The other elements of your life are currently on hold or in a state of flux, so it stands to reason your writing will be as well. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try writing in public instead of sequestered in your creative cave. Or you’d like to give longhand a shot. Do something new, shake up your routine and see if there’s any validity in trying things another way. Unless you’re on a dead strict editorial deadline, use this time to play with writing and add a new element. You’ll never know how much you might grow if you don’t give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, back home will be back to the grindstone. Writing should always be a passionate activity, not a punishment full of drudgery. One small tweak can be the key to kicking your career in the behind.

How do you manage to keep writing while on vacation or when your schedule gets screwy? We’d love your insight!

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• Filed in Writing Contests, Your Writing Career

For your consideration (but mostly entertainment), some sage advice on how to win an essay contest…

1. Surf the web with no explicit purpose during your writing time aside from procrastination

2. Find an essay contest that looks very interesting and get excited about it.

3. Get a few ideas for said essay contest almost instantly (because you’re full of many things, especially ideas)

4. Read rules of essay contest and calculate that today is Friday, the entry is due on Monday.

5. Furiously rough draft one topic idea. Allow draft to take you over 1,000 words despite contest limit being 300 words.

6. Set aside rough draft, thinking, “I have two days left to play with it.”

7. Awaken at 2:30 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning and realize that your math and calculation skills are the reason you went into English teaching. Essay deadline is not Monday but Sunday. And you’re going to be gone almost all day Saturday.

8. Spend most of Sunday chop, chop, chopping words mercilessly, tightening prose, gritting teeth in anger because your idea that seemed so full of promise on Friday is just a weird, random, creative thought that can’t compete on the level of personal essay.

9. Submit the damn thing anyway late Sunday afternoon.

10. Get an email on Wednesday from the author sponsoring the contest to inform you not that reading your essay was a waste of time but that you WON FIRST PLACE (sorry for the shout. You’re a little excited!)

Now, mind you, every author’s experience is different. This is only what works for me

Think I’m making this up? Check it out for yourself: (no lemons were harmed during the writing of this essay)

True Genius Essay Contest First Place Winner at CreativityPortal.com

(or, “The Lemon Essay That Won Me the Contest).

Any advice you’d add for upping your chances at winning a writing contest? Or for getting the lemons out of your head?

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• Filed in Writer's Life, Writing Contests

Several years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Deidre Knight at a writing conference and remember thinking that if I were ever in the market for an agent, she’d be an excellent choice. I enjoyed her energy, enthusiasm and obvious love of the romance genre–something you don’t get from everyone.

Visiting her agency blog, KnightAgency.blogspot.com, I discovered her current contest for the chance for 20 lucky authors to get a read by an agent and possible representation. All it requires is three sentences…certainly you can do that, right?

Don’t waste time. The contest ends April 20th.

The Knight Agency’s Book in a Nutshell Contest

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I know, I know. Anytime I use “Michigan” and “goodie” in the sentence, I run the risk of being run out of Columbus by an angry mob of crazy Buckeyes. But since I am one, I’m deferring the mention of the state up north to let you romance writers know about a great contest with a very near deadline.

All romance writing contests are cool but this one is super-cool: it’s a final chapter contest as opposed to a first chapter contest. So if you’ve finished that novel, here’s your chance to get a foot in the door!
====
The Best Part: You can enter electronically—now, if you’re ready. Visit the Mid Michigan RWA website (opens as a PDF) for all the details.

The cool stuff:

Contest Rules & Guidelines:

The Happily Ever After Contest is a last chapter contest. Enter the last chapter (and
epilogue, if applicable) up to twenty-seven pages of your manuscript, and a 1 to 3 page
judged synopsis of the entire novel, for a maximum of thirty pages. The entry must
include the final scene in its entirety. The same manuscript may not be entered in more
than one category. Choose the category that best fits your manuscript. All entries
must be uncontracted at the time of the contest entry Postmark/E-Deadline of
Saturday, November 1, 2008.

Whaddya win?

Categories & Final Round Judges:

Both an editor and an agent will judge each category. The partial list of judges is shown
below and will be updated on our website as we fill the remaining judges’ slots.

Short/Long Contemporary Series – Johanna Raisanen, Harlequin & Melissa
Jeglinski, Knight Literary Agency.

Single Title/Mainstream with Romantic Elements (young adult, women’s fiction,
etc.) – Holly Root, Waxman Literary Agency

Romantic Suspense – Miriam Kriss, Irene Goodman Literary Agency

Historical – Victoria Horn, Liza Dawson Associates Literary Agency

Paranormal (shape shifters, fantasy, sci-fi, time travel, etc.) – Chris Keeslar, Dorchester Publishing

Inspirational – Emily Rodmell, Steeple Hill Love Inspired

Erotica/Sensual Romance – Hilary Sares, Kensington Publishing & Laura Bradford,
Bradford Literary Agency

Excited now? Go visit the Mid-Michigan page for all the details. Good luck!!

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It’s been so long since I promised a contest that even I almost forgot about it LOL.

Plus, Jason the boy genius and I don’t get the chance to cross paths too often these days, what with him keeping up with all his 11th grade AP courses and me trying to find ways to keep the classroom busy.

But he just chose a random date for me and, as luck would have it, it was a date with a post and a comment. August 12th, in honor of a USA Men’s Basketball Olympic win (we are sports nuts in this house). The winner is a girl with a great name…Beth Morrissey, another wonderful freelancer. (You should check out her blog–I love it over there).

Yay Beth! I’ll be sending you a package of writer’s goodies, including the pens that started this whole contest thing…

And thank you so much to everyone who stopped by, passed on my blog link, made comments and sent me wonderful notes. Especially those of you who keep coming back to read. I know I’ve been horrible at posting over this last month but I do think I’ve gotten my teaching life under (some type of) control so I’m hoping to jump back into the blogging world soon. I really do miss it…

Hope you’re all still writing…
Beth

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I’ve been raving to my writing girls about an online course I’m taking which integrates tarot reading with plotting via the Hero’s Journey. I was a bit wary because I have ZERO tarot experience (except for being fascinated by it), and, well, let’s just say my plotting stamina has something to be desired.

The course has been an absolute godsend. I have never in my life plotted more deeply into a book than I have, and we’re only halfway through (but I digress).

Key to my understanding has been the excellent teacher, Stephanie Arwen Lynch. So imagine my surprise when I found out she’s going to be not only chatting on a radio show about the Tarot (she *is* the current president of the American Tarot Association), but also hosting a contest for a free reading….:) I’m posting here to get myself into the drawing (definitely check out her blog if you’re even remotely interested. Really fab stuff she’s got going on!). You won’t be sorry….

Let’s Talk Tarot & Readings

Do you want to learn more about Tarot? Want to listen in as a professional Tarot consultant gives free readings? Want to be one of the people who gets a reading? Come join Stephanie Arwen Lynch, president of the American Tarot Association and professional Tarot consultant, as she chats with authors Mandy M Roth and Michelle Pillow Wednesday July 16th from 11pm to 12 midnight EST.

And you can win a free reading by posting this notice somewhere it hasn’t been posted and leaving the link here. Have to leave it there or it doesn’t count.

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Yeah, it’s been a while. I’ve been cruising around my favorite blogs and realized I haven’t done much to reward you loyal readers (and lord knows, you need a reason to read this drivel!)

For the next three (or so) weeks, I’m gonna host a contest. Lucky for you, there’s no writing to this one. Every comment you post will constitute an entry, and on July 23rd, I’ll have Jason, the boy genius, pick his favorite for a nice little summer door prize. Don’t start looking into vacay properties just yet–there’s no cash involved. (I am a struggling writer just like you!). But I do have a nice assortment of writing toys for your pleasure, maybe a craft book or two. I’ll see what I can dig up and will post that list later.

In the meantime, I’m on my way to a post about my newest (simpleminded) discovery: pens. Try not to have too much fun with that one….

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Yes, that’s right. Another shameless plug for the contest. For those of you who keep putting it off, today’s the day you’re going to write that 100 word winner.

Having trouble getting started? Try these ideas:

1. Go pour a cup of coffee, a mug of tea or grab a bottle of something and find a quiet place to sit for brainstorming.

2. Set a timer for ten minutes and only write down possible topics and ideas. Make this as a list with numbers or bullet points. When the timer starts moving, start your pen or pencil (or typing) on the paper and do not stop. Even if you feel resistance, type “no idea..no idea” or something similar to fill up the time. Spend the entire ten minutes writing and thinking.

3. Put your list aside. Go take a walk, do a little yoga, clean the bathroom, fold a pile of laundry. Something that takes a bit of time but not too much.

4. Return to your list, and through process of elimination, cross off ideas and words that do not inspire you to create a story about your worst Christmas present. (I often find that the ideas that come later, after I’ve excavated the top portion of my brain where my conscious thought controls everything in tidy chunks, is when the good ideas start flowing)

5. When you’ve got one idea, create another list in the same manner as the first. Write down every single thing–idea, feeling, emotion, sensation, etc., that can bring that one idea to life.

6. Now you’ve got your story. Create a 100 word story and bring your Christmas gift to life. Let us see, feel and understand why it was so horrid.

7. If you’re looking for a little insider secret, the entry I’m liking the most right now is not something material–no ugly sweaters or stinky perfumes–it’s an event. Not that something funny and material can’t top that, but think deep on this one.

Now that you have your assignment, what are you waiting for?! Get out there and write!

happy 100-wording,

Beth

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