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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
You think NaNoWriMo is insane? 30 days to finish a novel draft seems like a long time if you consider there's a 3-day novel contest. It takes place this coming weekend (September 4 - 6) and registration is open until Friday. I have to get back to the day job tomorrow and won't be able to write next Monday (it's not a holiday in the UK), so I'm not going to enter the contest. There are plenty of other writing challenges in September, however:
NaBloPoMo: One blog post a day for a month
The September theme is ART. Your blog posts don't have to refer to the theme, though, you can blog about any topic. NaBloPoMo is great for waking up a dormant blog. I've participated twice already this year and will have another go at it in November.
Write a Mini-Novel: 500 words a day
Someone on the NaNo forums is looking for people to join him in a mini-novel challenge in September. He suggests a minimum of 500 words but states in a later post that "there are no wordcount police for this". 500 words a day isn't much, though, most people will be able to write that in 30 minutes. I'm tempted to join the September mini-novel writers.
750words.com One Month Challenge: Write 750 words every day
750words.com took the concept of writing morning pages and created a 21st century solution for it. I've only signed up recently and am planning to write a blog post about the site after I've used it for a while longer, but I do want to draw your attention to their challenge. If you are familiar with the concept of morning pages and have always struggled with them, this one may be for you.The challenge runs every month, so you don't have to sign up for the one in September.
Thirty Days of Creating challenge: Not just for writers
CoachCreativeSpace is a community for creative people across the board. They run a Thirty Days of Creating challenge in September to help you establish a creative routine. There is no minimum word count, the only thing you have to do is create something every day. Even if you just write five minutes a day, you'll finish this challenge successfully. Might be a good one for freewriting exercises, this one, as there is no minimum word count you have to reach.
NaBloPoMo - yay, I did it again in July 2010
Writing a blog post every day for a month requires some commitment. Thing is, though, once you commit to writing every day, you find the time somehow. At least that's what I found in July. I'm not sure I'll do it again this month, but I may just see how the first week goes.
The August theme, Green, is a fairly open theme. You can go environmental, write about your favourite green things, go all out on gardening advice etc. As usual, the theme is only there to help bloggers who need a bit of a red thread throughout the month - you can post on any topic you like.
As far as I'm concerned, it's always a good idea to have a selection of writing prompts at your disposal. I've subscribed to quite a few RSS feeds of writing prompt sites which means I get several new prompts delivered to my RSS reader every day. I don't use all of them, sometimes I go for days and weeks without looking at them because I don't need prompts to keep me writing. Sometimes, however, I need a little nudge - a word, a phrase or a paragraph that isn't my own - to get the creative juices flowing. Then I browse my collection of writing prompts. So far, this has always saved me from staring at the blank screen.
My latest discovery is Plinky. Plinky posts a new question every day and people can answer it directly on the website. You need an account to post your answers (and you can add photos to your answer and share them on Twitter and Facebook if you want), but anyone can see the questions and read other people's answers. The daily prompts are meant for bloggers but that shouldn't deter fiction writers. So if you feel a bit uninspired, check out the question of the day or browse the prompts for a little nudge.
There's a $20 submission fee for the Narrative Magazine Story Contest, but then the price money is rather attractive: $3,250 for the winner, $1,500 and $750 for the second and third prize and $100 for ten finalists. In addition to that, all entries will be considered for publication - if your story will actually get published depends on how good your entry is, obviously.
The deadline is July 31, so you have almost the entire month left to hone your submission. Narrative Magazine accepts a number of different types of writing up to 15,000 words as long as the material is previously unpublished - check the website for more details and submission guidelines.
When I was planning the first few posts for this month, I had a great idea for today's post - unfortunately another blogger has beaten me to it: a list of meanings of Saved, the July NaBloPoMo theme. So instead of posting a similar list here, I've decided to spread a little link love.
Many of my posts this month will not be on the theme, I suppose. The main topic of this blog is writing fiction, after all, and some of the meanings of saved don't lend themselves to blog posts about writing. Others, however, do and these meanings might make an appearance on the blog. So if you're curious about how writing can be saved, check back regularly this month.
I guess I really ought to give NaBloPoMo a go this month, I've been a stranger to my own blog in the last few months. The July theme is SAVED.
Posting every day this month would be one step in the right direction. Not sure it would count as saving the blog because it's not dead as such, just dormant at the moment. There is stuff I have to finish, other stuff I have to get clear about in my head, and then there is the small matter that sometimes, I just like to get away from all the writing to enjoy the summer (while it's here - this is England, after all, it may all be over in a couple of days
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This month's NaBloPoMo theme is Now.
If you want to take up the challenge or if you're just curious about how other bloggers tackle the theme and do throughout the month, here's the link to the June blogroll.
May already, time flies. A new month means a new NaBloPoMo for all of you who want to challenge yourselves to writing a blog post a day.
I like this month's theme, Look Up. You could just look up the meaning of a rarely used word every day and use that as your writing prompt. You could also look up on your daily commute - who knows, you might discover something new
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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.
I decided to do NaBloPoMo this month to give the blog a boost. And not only did I post every day, I wrote quite a few useful posts. If to nobody else, the posts were useful to me because I found out about more writing magazines, discovered writing competitions and set myself writing goals, among other things.
The NaBloPoMo theme this month was BEST. I didn't manage to get 'best' in every blog post title but it made it in the body text every day
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Write a blog post every day in February 2010
This is from the email NaBloPoMo founder Eden sent: "The theme for February is TIES, so some of us will want to blog about all the things we feel tied to (family, people, jobs, cities, emotions, eras). Others may take me more literally and pull out their stunning collection of neckwear."
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I first started writing online when websites where still static. I had my own website and had to change the HTML for the site every time I posted a new entry. Back then, I called it my online column. So I've been around for a while, even if my performance here in the last two year and four months was rather on and off. I'm qualified to give blogging advice, even if I say so myself.*
So here's the best blogging advice I have (in no particular order
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There are a number of things that make good gifts for writers: a quality pen, Moleskine notebooks, a subscription for a writer's magazine or a writing course. I can't think of any writer who would not be happy to receive any of these gifts.
The best gift for a writer (at least for this particular writer) are vouchers for a well-stocked bookshop, though. As far as shopping is concerned, there is nothing that I like better than spending an afternoon in a big bookshop. If I can walk out with a bag-full of new books, I'll be a very happy writer.
There is lots of information on writing available online, but there are times when it's nice to have a magazine you can leaf through. If you can't access a computer during the day (or have to watch which websites you visit), a writing magazine may be the answer. Here are a few good ones to consider:
Writers' Forum - This is my favourite. It's full of advice, they run short story and poetry competitions every month and they list writing courses and writing competitions. Writers' Forum also accepts articles, both from published and unpublished writers. It's published monthly and available at WHSmith (a UK newsagent
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The best way to overcome writer's block? Don't believe in it.
Writer's block is a myth. It's your subconscious making up reasons why you can't write
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I just watched Conan O'Brien last show online. He said about his seven-month stint and the early end of hosting 'The Tonight Show": "[...] I did it my way with people I love. I do not regret one second of anything that we've done here."
So, back to the writing life. Imagine it's August 23rd - seven months from today. What have you achieved as a writer by that date? How did you achieve it? Are you on track for achieving your 2010 writing goals? Can you look back and say, "I do not regret one second of anything I've done", even if things didn't turn out as planned
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I'm not here for the money. If I were, I'd long since left. Still I wish the daily ads revenue were closer to the estimates here.
I blog because I like blogging. It's probably the best reason. If you have the time, the writing skills and the niche knowledge to turn your passion for blogging into a profitable job, that's a massive bonus. Money should never be the motivation, though
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Okay, the stats going all wonky isn't the best way to persuade me that Orble is my blogging future.
According to the daily stats email, both Freelance Tips and Writing Words had zero visits yesterday. Guess it must have been a ghost then that clicked on one of the ads on one of the blogs
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The new year is 20 days old already and so far I've not had any trouble sticking to my writing goals.
Even the blogging part is easy, despite my busy schedule. I enjoy writing these blog posts. I got quick at drafting posts and editing them up to scratch, too. So I should be happy about this blog, right
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After writing about the best blogs for writers on Saturday, I felt bad about my other favourite blogs that were culled from the list.
In the end, you choose how many blogs you want to read, and chances are you don't agree with my choices for the best blogs. So here are more blogs I read and recommend
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