I've entered a short fiction contest over at Clarity of Night. If you're interested, check it out!
Feel free to read and comment, but voting is only for those who have submitted. Sorry!
~VK
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Friday, July 30, 2010
Feelin Lucky Friday!
Contests abound this week friends, so let's get to it!
The folks at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management got swept up by World Cup craziness a while ago. They decided to have a tournament to determine which country will hold the title of "World's Best Book." Cast your vote here!
If you want a ton of swag and about a billion ways to get it, head on over to The Misadventures in Candyland. Or click the banner tag to the right. Hurry up! You've only got a day left!
Corrine Jackson is celebrating her 1-Year Blogiversary by offering up a blog makeover to the winner! Enter by tonight!
Harley May is sponsoring a photo contest in celebration of the much-buzzed-about "Numb" by Sean Ferrell. Three of you can win a signed copy! Details here.
Fiction for Dessert is celebrating her birthday with a short story contest. Win a $25 Amazon gift card and get your story published on her blog! Enter by August 31st.
Books Obsession is having a pre-order YA paranormal romance (yowza) contest! Enter by August 18th! Click the link or the contest button on the right!
The deadline for The Adirondack Review's Fulton Prize for short fiction is tomorrow! Past winners include the above mentioned Sean Ferrell.
And for those of you with discriminating tastes, I'm happy to announce that Blizzard Entertainment (creators of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo) are once again hosting a creative fiction contest! The story must take place in one of these worlds. So dust off your fan fiction and get to submittin'!
Good luck and go win something!
~VK
The folks at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management got swept up by World Cup craziness a while ago. They decided to have a tournament to determine which country will hold the title of "World's Best Book." Cast your vote here!
If you want a ton of swag and about a billion ways to get it, head on over to The Misadventures in Candyland. Or click the banner tag to the right. Hurry up! You've only got a day left!
Corrine Jackson is celebrating her 1-Year Blogiversary by offering up a blog makeover to the winner! Enter by tonight!
Harley May is sponsoring a photo contest in celebration of the much-buzzed-about "Numb" by Sean Ferrell. Three of you can win a signed copy! Details here.
Fiction for Dessert is celebrating her birthday with a short story contest. Win a $25 Amazon gift card and get your story published on her blog! Enter by August 31st.
Books Obsession is having a pre-order YA paranormal romance (yowza) contest! Enter by August 18th! Click the link or the contest button on the right!
The deadline for The Adirondack Review's Fulton Prize for short fiction is tomorrow! Past winners include the above mentioned Sean Ferrell.
And for those of you with discriminating tastes, I'm happy to announce that Blizzard Entertainment (creators of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo) are once again hosting a creative fiction contest! The story must take place in one of these worlds. So dust off your fan fiction and get to submittin'!
Good luck and go win something!
~VK
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Perseverance
Joe Konrath has been quoted as saying:
"There's a word for a writer who never gives up: published."
I love this quote for its simplicity and it never fails to encourage me. In this day and age, there are so many avenues to get yourself published. You can go the traditional route and query agents, who will shop to publishers and so on. You can write for magazines or anthologies, paper or electronic. Hell, you can even self-publish (again, physical or e-book), and that's worked very well for Mr. Konrath.
No matter the road you choose to take, there will be bumps, dead ends and maybe even a washed-out bridge that you didn't see until the last second and went careening over the edge into the drink. It happens. But how do you know when to say "enough is enough?"
If writing is really in your blood and bones, the answer is simply, never. Sure you'll be bruised and battered along the way, but eventually your work will be published SOMEWHERE! I've been writing for about five years now and I've yet to see anything I've written published anywhere. But I also know that these first five years have been 99% learning the ropes.
So for someone like Jodi Meadows (who I naively thought was published long ago), who has done everything right along the way, it's particularly difficult to keep struggling. That's why I'm reposting this admission of hers, about how she nearly quit. I've seen it posted on Kelly Hashway's blog and Miss Snark's First Victim, but the original post is at Corrine Jackson.
Read it. Enjoy it. Appreciate it. Persevere.
~VK
"There's a word for a writer who never gives up: published."
I love this quote for its simplicity and it never fails to encourage me. In this day and age, there are so many avenues to get yourself published. You can go the traditional route and query agents, who will shop to publishers and so on. You can write for magazines or anthologies, paper or electronic. Hell, you can even self-publish (again, physical or e-book), and that's worked very well for Mr. Konrath.
No matter the road you choose to take, there will be bumps, dead ends and maybe even a washed-out bridge that you didn't see until the last second and went careening over the edge into the drink. It happens. But how do you know when to say "enough is enough?"
If writing is really in your blood and bones, the answer is simply, never. Sure you'll be bruised and battered along the way, but eventually your work will be published SOMEWHERE! I've been writing for about five years now and I've yet to see anything I've written published anywhere. But I also know that these first five years have been 99% learning the ropes.
So for someone like Jodi Meadows (who I naively thought was published long ago), who has done everything right along the way, it's particularly difficult to keep struggling. That's why I'm reposting this admission of hers, about how she nearly quit. I've seen it posted on Kelly Hashway's blog and Miss Snark's First Victim, but the original post is at Corrine Jackson.
Read it. Enjoy it. Appreciate it. Persevere.
~VK
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Punctuation Celebration: The Period
Where would we writers be without punctuation confused for one thing everything we write would simply run together have you read the famous Ulysses novel by James Joyce there are at least two instances of stream of consciousness without any defining punctuation if you haven't read that then this introduction should give you an idea of just how frustrating it can be
See? Isn't this much nicer? Question marks, commas, and periods. Periods!How could we survive without them? They let us know when to stop /stop/ Otherwise we'd still be talking like they did in the days of the telegraph /stop/ And I'd imagine that would get pretty frustrating /comma/ not to mention wasting a lot of ink
So today begins the first in a weekly series to celebrate our oft overlooked companions: punctuation, equally as important as letters, words and the sentences they provide structure for. For our first installment, I present: Period's Perspective.
I'm the king of punctuation.
When I say "stop," they stop. When I say "jump," they say "That doesn't make sense, we're letters on a page," but even if they ask "How high?" they still need me.
Take a closer look. You think question marks are just as important as I am? I'm a PART of them! Without me, a question mark is just an awkward squiggly line. You need me for emphasis! A question mark is nothing but me thinking really hard about the answer so that a curl of smoke escapes my head.
And don't get me started on exclamation points. That's just me holding a sword! A sword that's four times as big as I am so you know I mean business.
A comma? Me with a beard!
Colon? Me and a buddy playing Chicken Fight.
Ellipses? Me and two friends at the movies, waiting for the previews to be over...
I'm everywhere. You cannot stop me.
Oh, you just had to go and bring that up didn't you? Yes, I know that I'm another name for a lady's "time of the month." Can I help it that my British cousin "Full Stop" has a cooler name than me? No, I'm not bitter at all.
You want me to stop? Well guess what! We don't stop until I say so, because that's what I do!
I'm a period. And I own you.
See? Isn't this much nicer? Question marks, commas, and periods. Periods!How could we survive without them? They let us know when to stop /stop/ Otherwise we'd still be talking like they did in the days of the telegraph /stop/ And I'd imagine that would get pretty frustrating /comma/ not to mention wasting a lot of ink
So today begins the first in a weekly series to celebrate our oft overlooked companions: punctuation, equally as important as letters, words and the sentences they provide structure for. For our first installment, I present: Period's Perspective.
I'm the king of punctuation.
When I say "stop," they stop. When I say "jump," they say "That doesn't make sense, we're letters on a page," but even if they ask "How high?" they still need me.
Take a closer look. You think question marks are just as important as I am? I'm a PART of them! Without me, a question mark is just an awkward squiggly line. You need me for emphasis! A question mark is nothing but me thinking really hard about the answer so that a curl of smoke escapes my head.
And don't get me started on exclamation points. That's just me holding a sword! A sword that's four times as big as I am so you know I mean business.
A comma? Me with a beard!
Colon? Me and a buddy playing Chicken Fight.
Ellipses? Me and two friends at the movies, waiting for the previews to be over...
I'm everywhere. You cannot stop me.
Oh, you just had to go and bring that up didn't you? Yes, I know that I'm another name for a lady's "time of the month." Can I help it that my British cousin "Full Stop" has a cooler name than me? No, I'm not bitter at all.
You want me to stop? Well guess what! We don't stop until I say so, because that's what I do!
I'm a period. And I own you.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Writer is a Liar
A common piece of advice among writerly folk goes something like this:
"Write with honesty and clarity so that the reader trusts that she is in capable hands."
While I get what that's supposed to mean (in other words, make sure your writing is tight and don't yank the rug out from under your reader) , I'd take the advice a step further:
"Be the best liar you can be."
When you stop to think about it, the stories we read are nothing more than big intricate webs of lies. The more expertly woven a plot is, the more we are willing to buy into it (literally). The crazier the lie, the better the writing has to be to achieve suspension of disbelief.
There are no wizards (sadly), no Jedi (say it ain't so!) and no sparkly vampires (thank God). These are billion dollar lies. And we love them.
Think about your circle of friends. You probably have one or two that try to tell a story and it just falls flat. And you probably have at least one who lives an incredible life and always has a crazy story from the night before because the weirdest stuff happens to her. While, yes, some people have more exciting lives than others, it's all in how you tell the story.
Say your two friends tell the same story at a party. One of them sticks to the facts while the other embellishes at just the right parts. Which one of them will gather the bigger crowd around her? Which one will make new connections from telling that story, who in turn drag her to meet another circle of friends to retell that same story? How often have you been listening to someone's tall tale only to stop and tell them, point blank, that there's no way what they're saying ever happened? And then what? You encourage them to go on because you have to know how the story ends!
Stand-up comics, singers, politicians, marketing execs and writers. We're all liars. The best among us can lie right to your face and keep you coming back for more. So what's the secret?
I've always told lies based on the "Three C's" ( I honestly just made these up off the top of my head): Creativity, Consistency and Confidence
Creativity - Obviously as a writer this is a biggie. You take mundane events and jazz them up until they're actually interesting to read about. Say you had a best friend in third grade: that's reality. Then maybe, she happens to be an orphan and a bit of a social misfit. Turns out, your best friend actually possesses telepathy that she uses to pass her tests and charm her teachers. Oh and she gets that ability from her parents, one of whom is an alien and the other is a vampire (why not?) That's escalation from reality. That's creativity (it can be argued.)
Consistency - The easiest way to spot a lie is when the liar flubs the facts. If you got beat up by a guy who was 6' tall and 200lbs one minute, don't change him to 6'8'', 300lbs the next (unless he has a very severe pituitary problem.) While a little bit of embellishment will get their attention, if it's too inconsistent you'll lose them pretty quickly.
Confidence - Every bit as big as the first two, maybe the most important. Stick by your facts and categorically deny that it happened differently. Usage of the phrases "I swear!," "It happened just like that!" and "I know right?" tend to be thrown in for dramatic effect. In written work, having your in-scene characters react to a particularly crazy situation in a realistic way will show that you're confident in handling your own lie. I happen to enjoy it when said characters remark on how ridiculous a certain event is, all the while going through with the business at hand.
So practice the "Three C's." Lie to your friends, family and loved ones. See what lies work, see where embellishment helps and where it goes too far and see how they react in each situation.
In summary, if you want to be a better writer, lie your ass off!
~VK
"Write with honesty and clarity so that the reader trusts that she is in capable hands."
While I get what that's supposed to mean (in other words, make sure your writing is tight and don't yank the rug out from under your reader) , I'd take the advice a step further:
"Be the best liar you can be."
When you stop to think about it, the stories we read are nothing more than big intricate webs of lies. The more expertly woven a plot is, the more we are willing to buy into it (literally). The crazier the lie, the better the writing has to be to achieve suspension of disbelief.
There are no wizards (sadly), no Jedi (say it ain't so!) and no sparkly vampires (thank God). These are billion dollar lies. And we love them.
Think about your circle of friends. You probably have one or two that try to tell a story and it just falls flat. And you probably have at least one who lives an incredible life and always has a crazy story from the night before because the weirdest stuff happens to her. While, yes, some people have more exciting lives than others, it's all in how you tell the story.
Say your two friends tell the same story at a party. One of them sticks to the facts while the other embellishes at just the right parts. Which one of them will gather the bigger crowd around her? Which one will make new connections from telling that story, who in turn drag her to meet another circle of friends to retell that same story? How often have you been listening to someone's tall tale only to stop and tell them, point blank, that there's no way what they're saying ever happened? And then what? You encourage them to go on because you have to know how the story ends!
Stand-up comics, singers, politicians, marketing execs and writers. We're all liars. The best among us can lie right to your face and keep you coming back for more. So what's the secret?
I've always told lies based on the "Three C's" ( I honestly just made these up off the top of my head): Creativity, Consistency and Confidence
Creativity - Obviously as a writer this is a biggie. You take mundane events and jazz them up until they're actually interesting to read about. Say you had a best friend in third grade: that's reality. Then maybe, she happens to be an orphan and a bit of a social misfit. Turns out, your best friend actually possesses telepathy that she uses to pass her tests and charm her teachers. Oh and she gets that ability from her parents, one of whom is an alien and the other is a vampire (why not?) That's escalation from reality. That's creativity (it can be argued.)
Consistency - The easiest way to spot a lie is when the liar flubs the facts. If you got beat up by a guy who was 6' tall and 200lbs one minute, don't change him to 6'8'', 300lbs the next (unless he has a very severe pituitary problem.) While a little bit of embellishment will get their attention, if it's too inconsistent you'll lose them pretty quickly.
Confidence - Every bit as big as the first two, maybe the most important. Stick by your facts and categorically deny that it happened differently. Usage of the phrases "I swear!," "It happened just like that!" and "I know right?" tend to be thrown in for dramatic effect. In written work, having your in-scene characters react to a particularly crazy situation in a realistic way will show that you're confident in handling your own lie. I happen to enjoy it when said characters remark on how ridiculous a certain event is, all the while going through with the business at hand.
So practice the "Three C's." Lie to your friends, family and loved ones. See what lies work, see where embellishment helps and where it goes too far and see how they react in each situation.
In summary, if you want to be a better writer, lie your ass off!
~VK
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Distillation
Since our multitude of writerly news congealed (it's all about word choice) so well last Monday, I'm going to make it a regular thing. To know what people are talking about THIS week, you need to know what happened LAST week, especially when half the people are griping about Amazon while the other half are praising them.
As always, I'll start with Nathan Bransford who starts off our wrap-up by sifting out all the Amazon shenanigans. Sprinkled in the post are snippets from across the web, a plug for his upcoming debut children's book and an Old Spice commercial. You know the ones:
Now you're probably asking yourself: Self, what do Hemmingway, The Situation and prison literature have to do with each other?
Well, if you check out Pimp My Novel's Weekly Round-Up, your self can answer...yourself. (By the way, it pains me...PAINS me to ever post any "Jersey Shore" related news, especially when it concerns a book deal. Ugh, mortal wound.)
And finally, a wrap-up that uses the entire English alphabet an astonishing 1 trillion times in a single post, I give you the Best Articles This Week for Writers! If you can't find one thing in there that grabs your attention, then what the heck are you even doing on my blog?
Stay thirsty my friends,
~VK
As always, I'll start with Nathan Bransford who starts off our wrap-up by sifting out all the Amazon shenanigans. Sprinkled in the post are snippets from across the web, a plug for his upcoming debut children's book and an Old Spice commercial. You know the ones:
Now you're probably asking yourself: Self, what do Hemmingway, The Situation and prison literature have to do with each other?
Well, if you check out Pimp My Novel's Weekly Round-Up, your self can answer...yourself. (By the way, it pains me...PAINS me to ever post any "Jersey Shore" related news, especially when it concerns a book deal. Ugh, mortal wound.)
And finally, a wrap-up that uses the entire English alphabet an astonishing 1 trillion times in a single post, I give you the Best Articles This Week for Writers! If you can't find one thing in there that grabs your attention, then what the heck are you even doing on my blog?
Stay thirsty my friends,
~VK
Friday, July 23, 2010
Contest-a-palooza!
When presented with the opportunity, always always always take the Mystery Box:
Er, maybe just stick with the boat. And if you're ever given the choice of picking a numbered door, curtain or box, always follow this equation: (Highest number) / (number of choices) = WINNER!
Outside of "Let's Make a Deal" or "The Price is Right," my next favorite games of chance are writing contests. There are some great ones out there that are run by agents, publishers and authors alike. Prizes vary from cash money to signed copies of books to manuscript critiques! You could even win a boat!*
Let's roll the dice:
Over at "The Clarity of Night" there's a writing contest to win cold hard (Amazon gift card) cash and a signed copy of Stephen Parrish's "The Tavernier Stones." I plan on entering this one, so back off!
For the mere price of a kindly comment, author Michelle Davidson Argyle is offering a slew of prizes in her contest. Check out the upcoming release of her novella, "Cinders."
The folks over at The Literary Lab are taking submissions for their 2nd annual literary contest, Notes From Underground. If you like to write things like:
"The seven cardboard mushrooms struggled out of orange jumpsuits" or can spell five pages of a story entirely in numbers or maybe you like to put different shoeprints on pieces of paper and fill in the empty spaces with a story (that's not a bad idea come to think of it...), then this contest is for you!
Follow the link or click the graphic on the side. Also, I believe their "Genre Wars Anthology" is still for sale with all proceeds going to a non-profit writing group!
Anna Staniszewski (debut author of the MG novel "My Un-Fairy Tale Life") is sponsoring a contest that ends tonight! Get crackin'!
And finally, celebrating her first query being sent out into the world (and the ensuing ability to finally find enough time to feed her cat), Jayne Ferst is holding a contest with prizes that are decidedly vintage.
Good luck and have a great weekend!
~VK
*No boats can be won in any of the above-mentioned contests.
Er, maybe just stick with the boat. And if you're ever given the choice of picking a numbered door, curtain or box, always follow this equation: (Highest number) / (number of choices) = WINNER!
Outside of "Let's Make a Deal" or "The Price is Right," my next favorite games of chance are writing contests. There are some great ones out there that are run by agents, publishers and authors alike. Prizes vary from cash money to signed copies of books to manuscript critiques! You could even win a boat!*
Let's roll the dice:
Over at "The Clarity of Night" there's a writing contest to win cold hard (Amazon gift card) cash and a signed copy of Stephen Parrish's "The Tavernier Stones." I plan on entering this one, so back off!
For the mere price of a kindly comment, author Michelle Davidson Argyle is offering a slew of prizes in her contest. Check out the upcoming release of her novella, "Cinders."
The folks over at The Literary Lab are taking submissions for their 2nd annual literary contest, Notes From Underground. If you like to write things like:
"The seven cardboard mushrooms struggled out of orange jumpsuits" or can spell five pages of a story entirely in numbers or maybe you like to put different shoeprints on pieces of paper and fill in the empty spaces with a story (that's not a bad idea come to think of it...), then this contest is for you!
Follow the link or click the graphic on the side. Also, I believe their "Genre Wars Anthology" is still for sale with all proceeds going to a non-profit writing group!
Anna Staniszewski (debut author of the MG novel "My Un-Fairy Tale Life") is sponsoring a contest that ends tonight! Get crackin'!
And finally, celebrating her first query being sent out into the world (and the ensuing ability to finally find enough time to feed her cat), Jayne Ferst is holding a contest with prizes that are decidedly vintage.
Good luck and have a great weekend!
~VK
*No boats can be won in any of the above-mentioned contests.
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