Number of entries received for the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel to date: 140
If anyone’s still checking in, I apologize for the prolonged absence. Life has just been a little too interesting the last couple of months.
Contest entries started pouring in last week, and my first thought was that the new online Writers’ Market listing must’ve gone up. It finally occurred to me that it’s end-of-the wire time, which is always extra busy. I can’t believe we’ve almost reached another deadline. Leap year gives you an extra day, so be sure to get your first chapter in before March 1.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Contest prize change
Number of entries received for the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel to date: 42
I went to the post office during my lunch hour yesterday to buy money orders, but when I saw the line stretching outside the door, I did a 180. All those people with Christmas packages reminded me I have three I need to get in the mail myself, so I figured if I have to stand in line, it makes more sense to just do it all at once. Course that means I have to actually get the gifts I've bought boxed up. I don't know why that small step seems to take so long.
But I promise, contest winners, the prizes will go out in the mail this week.
Which reminds me of some fun news--one of Brian's goals is to increase the prize amounts, and he decided at the last minute to take a small step in that direction now. Effective immediately, third place will get $25 in addition to an autographed novel.
It'll probably be a year or two till we bump up all the prize amounts, but that is part of the grand scheme. Don't worry though--the contests will always be free to enter.
I went to the post office during my lunch hour yesterday to buy money orders, but when I saw the line stretching outside the door, I did a 180. All those people with Christmas packages reminded me I have three I need to get in the mail myself, so I figured if I have to stand in line, it makes more sense to just do it all at once. Course that means I have to actually get the gifts I've bought boxed up. I don't know why that small step seems to take so long.
But I promise, contest winners, the prizes will go out in the mail this week.
Which reminds me of some fun news--one of Brian's goals is to increase the prize amounts, and he decided at the last minute to take a small step in that direction now. Effective immediately, third place will get $25 in addition to an autographed novel.
It'll probably be a year or two till we bump up all the prize amounts, but that is part of the grand scheme. Don't worry though--the contests will always be free to enter.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Post-contest letdown
Number of entries received for the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel to date: 37
Usually prize-awarding time puts me in a good mood, but after these recent comments, I'm feeling guilty. We certainly never meant to discourage or sadden anyone with these contests.
If you entered but didn't win, take heart. Think of all the people who say they want to write but never do. You overcame that hurdle. Then you showed courage in sending out your work. I know that isn't easy.
My dad, a seasoned freelance illustrator, came to talk to my freshmen about the creative process a couple weeks ago, and he reminded them (and me) this: every artist out there with an impressive list of achievements has a much longer (usually secret) list of rejections and disappointments. There will be stretches of time when you aren't rewarded for your efforts, so you have to be patient and persistent.
I'm not trying to discourage you further; I'm just trying to say that everyone who sets out to be any kind of artist has obstacles constantly springing up in front of them. Most eventually give up, but some keep stubbornly finding ways over and around those obstacles.
There's so much of this business you can't control--whether it's winning a contest, getting a work accepted for publication, or landing a grant. The only thing you can truly control is yourself and your work. If you refuse to give up, if you commit yourself to honing your craft and doing your best work, if you continue to send out your work, then you are a writer, and no one can tell you otherwise. The external validations are bound to follow.
Usually prize-awarding time puts me in a good mood, but after these recent comments, I'm feeling guilty. We certainly never meant to discourage or sadden anyone with these contests.
If you entered but didn't win, take heart. Think of all the people who say they want to write but never do. You overcame that hurdle. Then you showed courage in sending out your work. I know that isn't easy.
My dad, a seasoned freelance illustrator, came to talk to my freshmen about the creative process a couple weeks ago, and he reminded them (and me) this: every artist out there with an impressive list of achievements has a much longer (usually secret) list of rejections and disappointments. There will be stretches of time when you aren't rewarded for your efforts, so you have to be patient and persistent.
I'm not trying to discourage you further; I'm just trying to say that everyone who sets out to be any kind of artist has obstacles constantly springing up in front of them. Most eventually give up, but some keep stubbornly finding ways over and around those obstacles.
There's so much of this business you can't control--whether it's winning a contest, getting a work accepted for publication, or landing a grant. The only thing you can truly control is yourself and your work. If you refuse to give up, if you commit yourself to honing your craft and doing your best work, if you continue to send out your work, then you are a writer, and no one can tell you otherwise. The external validations are bound to follow.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Quick contest update
Number of entries received for the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel to date: 35
Time flies fast during the holidays. Then too, we've been having some computer problems which have put me more in a pen-and-paper mode of experiencing time. From an electronic perspective, I haven't posted in ages, though it really doesn't feel that long to me.
Contest judging for the short-short story contest has been completed! I know we're running late with the official announcement, but we haven't heard back from all three winners yet. So remember to check all your email accounts if you entered. Hopefully the news will get posted soon.
Time flies fast during the holidays. Then too, we've been having some computer problems which have put me more in a pen-and-paper mode of experiencing time. From an electronic perspective, I haven't posted in ages, though it really doesn't feel that long to me.
Contest judging for the short-short story contest has been completed! I know we're running late with the official announcement, but we haven't heard back from all three winners yet. So remember to check all your email accounts if you entered. Hopefully the news will get posted soon.
Friday, November 9, 2007
The tortoise and the hare
Number of entries received for the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel to date: 23
An observant contestant pointed out that the Best First Chapter guideline page still listed March 1, 2007 as the deadline. I apologize for failing to catch that when I updated Brian’s site. I am going to use aging as my excuse. Every year, I get a little more absent-minded, and then too, I can’t seem to wrap my brain around the fact that it is 2007, which must have prevented me from realizing that next March will actually be 2008. Where do all the years go?
Back to the writing exercise from earlier this week…besides noticing that you wrote more when you were just observing (and not evaluating as you went along), you might have found that the quality of writing from the second part of the exercise was better.
Therein lies the conundrum of first draft writing. Do you spill it all out fast, NaNoWriMo-style, to prevent paralysis, or do you go at a slow and steady pace, editing yourself as you go along?
Different writers use different strategies when it comes to a first draft. Some prefer a more polished draft and can’t stomach the thought of writing dozens (or even hundreds) of pages that might end up on the cutting room floor, while others don’t mind ruthlessly slashing and burning a messy first draft during revisions.
Play around with both the tortoise and the hare approach. If you’re perpetually frozen with fear of failure (or any other writers' block-creating thoughts), try the speedy, free-writing method. Charge straight ahead without so much as a glance in the rearview mirror.
On the other hand, if you don’t have a problem accumulating pages but have more trouble structuring your writing into a cohesive whole, you might want to invest more time on plotting notes beforehand and on revising as you go along. It will take you longer to reach the end of your first draft, but odds are that when you do, it won’t be quite as much of a baggy monster.
An observant contestant pointed out that the Best First Chapter guideline page still listed March 1, 2007 as the deadline. I apologize for failing to catch that when I updated Brian’s site. I am going to use aging as my excuse. Every year, I get a little more absent-minded, and then too, I can’t seem to wrap my brain around the fact that it is 2007, which must have prevented me from realizing that next March will actually be 2008. Where do all the years go?
Back to the writing exercise from earlier this week…besides noticing that you wrote more when you were just observing (and not evaluating as you went along), you might have found that the quality of writing from the second part of the exercise was better.
Therein lies the conundrum of first draft writing. Do you spill it all out fast, NaNoWriMo-style, to prevent paralysis, or do you go at a slow and steady pace, editing yourself as you go along?
Different writers use different strategies when it comes to a first draft. Some prefer a more polished draft and can’t stomach the thought of writing dozens (or even hundreds) of pages that might end up on the cutting room floor, while others don’t mind ruthlessly slashing and burning a messy first draft during revisions.
Play around with both the tortoise and the hare approach. If you’re perpetually frozen with fear of failure (or any other writers' block-creating thoughts), try the speedy, free-writing method. Charge straight ahead without so much as a glance in the rearview mirror.
On the other hand, if you don’t have a problem accumulating pages but have more trouble structuring your writing into a cohesive whole, you might want to invest more time on plotting notes beforehand and on revising as you go along. It will take you longer to reach the end of your first draft, but odds are that when you do, it won’t be quite as much of a baggy monster.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
November is NaNoWriMo
Number of entries received for the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel to date: 22
There are quite possibly more people writing novels during the month of November than any other time of year, thanks to the popularity of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
In order to ‘win’ NaNoWriMo, participants write a complete novel—defined as 50,000 words—during the month. Here’s a quote from the website: “Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.”
That kind of free-writing mentality can be useful for cranking out a first draft. Some writers can’t turn off the editors' voices in their heads and end up with writers' block, terrified of making a misstep.
Here’s a writing exercise that quickly illustrates how this approach works. (I didn’t make it up, but alas, I can’t remember where it came from.) Go to a good people-watching spot. First, watch one couple or one small group of people interact. Jot down every single gesture you observe. Do this for 10 minutes.
Next, choose another set of people to watch, but this time, write down only the gestures that you find intriguing. Take 10 minutes again.
You’ll probably find that you wrote a lot more during the first ten minutes than the second. That’s because your inner editor was temporarily silenced. Once you started judging whether your subject matter was good enough to warrant writing about, that slowed you down and decreased your output. More thoughts on this next time...
And hey, if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this year, remember you have till March 1 to polish up your first chapter and submit it to the InnermoonLit contest.
There are quite possibly more people writing novels during the month of November than any other time of year, thanks to the popularity of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
In order to ‘win’ NaNoWriMo, participants write a complete novel—defined as 50,000 words—during the month. Here’s a quote from the website: “Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.”
That kind of free-writing mentality can be useful for cranking out a first draft. Some writers can’t turn off the editors' voices in their heads and end up with writers' block, terrified of making a misstep.
Here’s a writing exercise that quickly illustrates how this approach works. (I didn’t make it up, but alas, I can’t remember where it came from.) Go to a good people-watching spot. First, watch one couple or one small group of people interact. Jot down every single gesture you observe. Do this for 10 minutes.
Next, choose another set of people to watch, but this time, write down only the gestures that you find intriguing. Take 10 minutes again.
You’ll probably find that you wrote a lot more during the first ten minutes than the second. That’s because your inner editor was temporarily silenced. Once you started judging whether your subject matter was good enough to warrant writing about, that slowed you down and decreased your output. More thoughts on this next time...
And hey, if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this year, remember you have till March 1 to polish up your first chapter and submit it to the InnermoonLit contest.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Happy Halloweiner
Number of entries received for the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel to date: 21
Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!
Brodsky's thinking, There are so many little trick-or-treaters out there. Can't I eat just one???
Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!
Brodsky's thinking, There are so many little trick-or-treaters out there. Can't I eat just one???
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