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Fortitude - A Daily Magazine for Being Human: They accept any pieces of original writing. I wonder if it's worth submitting a few of my short pieces there. If they make the front page, I'll get $10 for them.
Xomba - another site where you can use your Adsense. Check it out or ask me about it.
My Xomba posts
I also write for Freelance Tips.
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Writing Words - writing it is the only way of getting it written
I like the March NaBloPoMo theme - Strange(r). As usual, the theme is for those who'd struggle to find topics for a month's worth of blog posts.
I like the theme so much I was briefly tempted to have a go again in March, but I know I wouldn't be able to post every day. I'll be away for work and I'll go on holiday next month, and while I'll certainly take my laptop to the conference, I will certainly not take it on holiday. So I won't join the blogging madness this month, but you may find a few posts on the theme here nonetheless.
In response to the Guardian's Ten Rules for Writing Fiction from last Saturday (a must read), Salon.com ran an excellent piece on Tuesday: A Reader's Advice to Writers.
Laura Miller writes she never wrote a novel and doesn't have plans to ever do so, but she's read thousands of them and started many more which she didn't finish because they weren't great. She's also talked to other readers and their explanations why they liked or didn't like a book. In her own words: "I can tell you why I keep reading, and why I don't, why I recommend one book to my fellow readers, but not another." She goes on to list her five recommendations to budding novelists.
Excellent advice, and just in time for NaNoEdMo. Bookmark the post or print it out and stick it somewhere you can read it from your desk. NaNoWriMo is all about you getting your story out, NaNoEdMo is about making it appealing to readers.
Any budding playwrights among my readers? I've got a £500 drama award for you: The Windsor Fringe Drama Award, deadline in two weeks today on March 11.
The competition is open to amateur playwrights who can submit one one-act play with a maximum of six characters, no longer than 30 minutes. The three winning plays will be performed during Windsor Fringe from October 7 to October 9 and the winner of the £500 prize will be announced on the last night.
If you need a bit of help with polishing your script, check out The Perfect 10 from the BBC Writersroom (ten posts focusing on how to get your scrip accepted by the BBC which might be useful for stage plays, too).
Print out your manuscript. Editing on screen doesn't work.
Get pens and markers in different colours and develop a colour-coding system. I highlight bits that I like, as well - it's useful to remind yourself that not everything you wrote sucks.
If you have time, read your story before you start editing it. This helps with the next point.
Know where you're heading: What's the story you wanted to tell? What do you have to do to tell it?
You wrote a beautiful scene that has nothing to do with your story? Cut it. Save it for another story.
Before you start making edits in your story file, save it as a new version. If you delete anything by accident, you'll have the original file to get it back.
Be ruthless. If you think something doesn't work, cut it.
Remember: Editing makes your story stronger.
Roast Books is an independent publisher that specialises in shorter fiction. They have published six novellas and a box set of 26 short stories called "An A-Z of Possible Worlds".
From March 2010 on, Roast Books open their very own cabinet of curiosities: the Short Story Cabinet. Authors can send their stories for consideration, the ten best go on the web page and readers then vote for the 'curiosity of the month'. To me, it sounds like a good opportunity to establish a relationship with a new publisher open to off-the-beaten-path stories.
For submission details, check the Short Story Cabinet page on www.roastbooks.org.
SavvyAuthors.com are running an interesting mini-workshop: Crash Revision, presented by Holly Lisle. It will run from March 28 - April 1 and is $5 for non-members and free for members. Sounds good, doesn't it?
If you realise half-way through NaNoEdMo that you need help with the revision process, Crash revisions might be just what you're looking for.
Mark Twain said: "I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."
A bit of handy advice for NaNoEdMo and editing in general, I reckon.
Quick post outside the posting schedule because I just realised that it's only three weeks until NaNoEdMo.
NaNoEdMo is the perfect opportunity for all NaNo novelists to edit their November novels. One thing that appeals to writers during NaNoWriMo is the group support. NaNoEdMo does just that for editing. The challenge is to log 50 hours of editing on a manuscript of fiction - it doesn't have to be a NaNoWriMo novel.
Do you have a short story on the theme of unity or union? Can you write one in nine days? Then enter the Writers & Artists' Yearbook 2010 short story competition. It's free and the first prize looks rather good: £500 in prize money and a place on the Arvon foundation residential writing course. The submission deadline is February 14th.
Busy week again, so no progress on the themes for my Wednesday, Friday and weekend posts.
I'll say thank you instead. Thank you to all my readers - and the stats indicate there are a few of you - and thank you in particular to all the people who commented on my posts last month
[ Click here to read more ]
Now NaBloPoMo is over (for me at least), I'll not write a new blog post every day. This is the preliminary posting schedule:
There will be new blog posts on Wednesdays and Fridays and if I'm not too busy with other stuff, there will be a Sunday post, too. I'll try and come up with a different theme for the Wednesday and Friday posts - more on that on Wednesday, hopefully.
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