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Writing Words - writing it is the only way of getting it written
These are my 2010 writing goals as posted on the 13th of January:
- Write a novel first draft in November.
- Write at least two, ideally three blog posts per week.
- Write a short story every month.
And this is how far I got with these goals:
- Can't say much about November yet, obviously. I've got a vague plan for NaNoWriMo, though.
- I wrote a blog post a day in January and at this point it's fair to say that I'll probably do it again this month. It looks like I managed two blog posts a week in February. From March on, however, I only managed a couple of posts a month. So I have to do better there.
- Ah, and a short story a month. I wrote a few stories, not quite one per month. I submitted two to competitions, too, but no luck so far. I clearly have to do better on that front, too: One story per month in August, September and October.
I did quite a bit of freelance work in addition to the day job, so I can't say I'm unhappy with the overall output. It's just not as much fiction as I thought I'd be able to produce.
I Write Like is a cool online toy for writers: You paste a few paragraphs of text into the box, click analyse and the site tells you which writer's writing style is similar to yours. You get a link to the page that shows that you write like a published author and you can share the page on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
I've tried a few different samples of my own writing and it appears I write like Cory Doctorow and Arthur Conan Doyle. Conan Doyle only came up once, Cory Doctorow four times - twice for fiction and twice for blog posts. I can't say I'm unhappy about the outcome. It's rather flattering, actually.
I first came across Doctorow over four years ago when I heard his story Craphound on EscapePod - Really Long Link - one of the stories that made a lasting impression on me. Since then, I've read a few of his short stories and I've got Little Brother on my iPhone - I'm sure I'll get round to reading it soon.
Who do you write like?
"I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock in the morning."
Peter De Vries
I make money by writing travel-related articles. At the end of every work day, I need to have produced a travel piece on a current popular topic - my boss does not care if I'm inspired to write or not. And to be honest, sometimes I don't feel inspired to write about the ins and outs of, say, travel insurance. But nobody cares if I feel inspired, all that matters at the end of the day is that I've written another article that's around 600 words long, informative and easy to read.
When it comes to fiction, nobody looks at my daily output but me. So I have to make sure that when I sit down to write a story, I get on with writing it. Fiction writing time is scarce. If I don't make the most of it, I only shoot myself in the foot. When fiction writing time rolls around, I'd better be inspired to write.
First and third person narratives are common forms of narration. In general, writers are told that second person narrative is best avoided.
Thing is, I like telling stories from the second person perspective. I like using "you" rather than "I" or "she" - not in every story I write but every now and again. There are stories when the second person point of view just is the best choice. Stories that almost write themselves. It's fun to address the reader so directly.
I agree that if the story isn't written well, second person narrative is even worse than first or third person. If done well, though, I love stories told from second person point of view.
So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to write a couple, maybe three short stories in second person and submit them to upcoming short story competitions. Let's see if I can bag a few successes.
"Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish."
John Jakes
There is a lot of writing advice on the web. Sometime it strikes me that there is too much writing theory out there.
Knowing the basic rules is helpful, but at the end of the day there is only one way to become a better writer: You write a lot. You learn what works for what kind of story and what doesn't. When you look at published stories and novels, you'll find that writers break the rules as often as they stick to them.
There is no right way to write, there is only your way to write. What works for other writers may not work for you. Finding your write way is part of becoming a writer. While it can be frustrating sometimes, it's exhilarating at the moments when you discover something that is integral to your way of writing. Embrace the process with all its ups and downs, take on writing advice that resonates with you and take the John Jakes quote to heart: Be yourself in your writing.
I don't have a desk, I have a large Muji box which contains my pens, notepads and, when I don't need it, my laptop. I write on the sofa, feet on the box and laptop on my, well, lap. I sit on the right side with a big cushion for lower back support and once I've taken my writing position, I can keep it for hours. This helps me focus. I don't have to move because my back aches, my hand cramps or my left foot has gone to sleep. My body fades into the background and all that matters is my thoughts and the screen on which they appear. The notes I may have taken for research are scattered to my left, my pens go on the right armrest. More often than not, I take over the entire sofa and turn it into something resembling a Paperchase after a bomb explosion.
When I've finished writing for the night, I clear away the stationary explosion. Writing pads, pens and post-it notes go back to the box. It only takes a few minutes and the sofa looks like nothing ever happened. And I don't have to worry about losing any of my notes, they are safely tucked away
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Travel writing is an ideal genre for fiction writers who want to branch out (I should know, I am a travel writer by day). Even though you have to base your writing on facts, it's important to bring the place you write about to life. You have to make your readers smell the sea air, feel the sand beneath their feet and wish they were there. Travel writing is all about show, don't tell.
If you want to try your hand at travel writing, why not give the Leaf Books Postcard and Short Travel Writing Competition a go? You could win the £150 prize. The competition is fairly open as long as you evoke "a clear sense of place" and don't write more than 300 words. You can send it your submission on a postcard, too. The deadline is the 31st of August and the entry fee is £3 per submission or £10 for four postcards.
What do you do when you need to write a blog post and are fresh out of inspiration? Be it for personal or professional reasons, sometimes you have to write something at a time when you know you're not going to produce your best copy.
First thing to do: Look around you. Is there anything that could trigger a post? If the answer is yes, do a quick brainstorming session. Draw a mind-map, cluster the idea. Do you get enough material out of it? Then don't hesitate, roll with it
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"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist."
Isaac Asimov
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The links to short story competitions I've posted recently were mostly run by UK magazines and other literary institutions. Today, I'm looking across the pond to Canada.
The Writers' Union of Canada runs an annual Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers with a prize of CAD2,500. To be eligible, you need to be a Canadian citizen or a landed immigrant. Submissions may be up to 2,500 words long and must be previously unpublished. They only accept hardcopy submissions and there's a CAD25 entry fee. Deadline is the 3rd of November
[ Click here to read more ]
Are you playing Warcraft, StarCraft or Diablo? Do you enjoy writing stories set in one of these game universes? Then Blizzard is running the perfect writing competition for you: the 2010 Blizzard Global Writing Contest.
Stories can be between 2,500 and 7,500 words long, the deadline is the 23rd of August. The first prize is a a trip to Blizzard HQ in California, so you really have to be a fan of the Blizzard games.
If you want to write competition-winning short stories, you have to read lots of them in the first place. Don't know where to start? I have a suggestions for you:
Stories, a new (short) story anthology edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio has been published on the 15th of June. It features stories from a variety of authors - Joyce Carol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk, Roddy Doyle, Jodi Picoult and Neil Gaiman, to name just a few - and genres, even though they are all broadly fantastical. The mix of established and newer authors and stories of different lengths makes Stories an absolute must-read for writers of short fiction.
Writing Words is turning into Writing Competition Alert Central these days. But what I can I do, I keep finding these grate competitions and I know I'm not going to enter them all, so I might as well share them with you.
Today's find is a flash fiction contest for pieces between 250 and 750 words, the Biscuit International Flash Fiction Prize 2010. The entry fee is £9 per submission, which seems a bit steep, but then the prizes look good
[ Click here to read more ]
Here's another handful of writing competitions I found while researching short story competitions on Sunday.
Cinnamon Press runs three competitions twice a year with deadlines on the 30th of June and the 30th of November
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King Lake Publishing is running an Unpublished Author Competition for a year. It started in May this year, so there's still 10 months left for writers to submit their unpublished novels. Writers who had short story, poetry or non-fiction published can enter the competition as long as they haven't published any novels - self-publication counts for this, too.
Every month King lake Publishing are looking for novel submissions in a different genre
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My Writing Nook is a neat little application for writers who write on more than one computer. It's web-based - all you need to access your work in progress is a computer with an internet connection and a Google account. To back-up your work, you can email documents to your email address or download a copy to your computer (when you access it on your documents from home).
There are My Writing Nook mobile applications for iPhone/iTouch, iPad and Andoid, too. So if you have one of these devices, you can even access your documents when you're out and about. I just got the iPhone app and will test it over the next days and report back with the verdict. If it's good, I know what I'll be using for NaNoWriMo to write during my lunch break.
What are Writing Holidays and Writing Retreats?
A writing holiday is the combination of two wonderful things: writing workshops and a holiday setting. There are writing retreats over the weekend and there are week-long holidays. Often, there are writing classes and workshops in the morning and the afternoons are free for you to do what you want: You can spend the time writing or you can explore your surroundings.
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The first time I presented a story to my writers' group at the time, I was a nervous wreck. My imagination had gone into overdrive and had presented me with all sorts of negative responses to my writing. In my mind, none of the critiques mentioned the good bits. In my mind, my fellow writers tore my story apart.
In reality, there was positive feedback. A lot of constructive criticism, as well, but nothing downright nasty. Instead, people pointed out bits of my story that didn't work for them along with reasons why they didn't work. There were many suggestions as to how I could improve the story - I didn't like all of them but I wrote them down anyway. In hindsight, the whole thing was much less terrifying than I had imagined it and I went away from it with some useful pointers for revision
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