The lovely Hugh, one of our committee has drawn this post of information together all about the #BloggersBash
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Join in the Annual Bloggers Bash Awards Live on Facebook! #BloggersBash
The committee is gearing up – Ali’s posted all about the new Facebook group for the #BloggersBash whether you’re coming or not join the group for information and all the updates from the day. See Ali’s post for more info.
A Final Call For Entries!
This is it – Last chance to enter Esther’s fabulous Flash Fiction competition. TODAY is the deadline.
My Monday motivational blog is to remind you that my Flash Fiction Competition closes tomorrow! So there’s still time to enter or for those of you who already have, to send another story. Here’s a quick reminder of the details:
Prizes: 1st £50, 2nd £25, 3rd £10
Entry fee: £2 per story
Word Limit: Stories of up to 250 words are invited on any theme.
Good luck everyone!
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A Feast Of Fabulous Flash Fiction
This is a reminder of my wonderful tutor’s Flash Fiction Writing Competition. I hope you are all going to join me in entering. I’ve got one entry done, couple more to go.
It’s nearly a month since I launched my first flash fiction competition and the entries are starting to roll in. It’s been very exciting and thank you to all who have entered so far. In case you missed it, here are the all important details. There’s still plenty of time to enter.
Flash Fiction Competition:
Prizes: 1st £50, 2nd £25, 3rd £10
Entry fee: £2 per story
Word Limit: Stories of up to 250 words are invited on any theme.
Payment can be made by credit card or Paypal, via the website. Cheques should be made payable to Esther Newton.
Entries should be submitted as e-mail attachments in Word or PDF format. In the body of the e-mail, please detail the following: your name, postal address, e-mail address, story title and word count.
For postal entries, please include a cover sheet with the following information: your name, contact…
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Writespiration #38
When I saw this image on pinterest I didn’t even have to think twice. I pinned it immediately. Why? Because I thought it was terrifying. I have a bit of a morbid fascination with anything that makes me feel uncomfortable or scared or awkward. This photo sent ripples of chills down my back. I scrunched up my face and peered closer even though I was a bit scared the puppet might jump out of my phone at me! It also happened to get a lot of repins, I figured if it was popular on pinterest, it might also be a worthy inspiration. I hope you like it… or if not, I hope it terrifies you! :p
Here’s mine: (more…)
Markets For Writers
If ever there was a writing competition you should enter, it’s this one. Esther Newton, is one hell of a writer, and a seriously amazing tutor at the Writers Bureau. She is launching a flash fiction competition, open to any and all genres. Haven’t got time to write a whole story? Fine, that’s no excuse, the word limit is 250 words anyway! Entry is super cheap, and you can add a critique to your submission if you want to – which I strongly recommend, her feedback is second to none. So what are you waiting for? Get writing, I have already written my first entry…
My market for you this week is a very special one – it’s the launch of my first short story competition! Over the years I’ve entered lots of writing competitions and been fortunate enough to win some. There’s no feeling quite like it so I thought I’d give someone the opportunity to enjoy that special moment when they find out their story has been chosen as the winning entry. Please share this and tell everyone about it!
I’m planning to launch a range of competitions. Here are the details of the first one:
Flash Fiction Competition
Prizes: 1st £50, 2nd £25, 3rd £10
Entry fee: £2 per story
Word Limit: Stories of up to 250 words are invited on any theme.
Payment can be made by credit card or Paypal, via the website. Cheques should be made payable to Esther Newton.
Entries should be submitted as e-mail attachments…
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#AUTHORS – A NEW Promotional Opportunity you do NOT want to miss…
Thanks to Chris for sharing, If any author would like to be featured in an interview, drop me a line 🙂
Writing Tips #12 Sacha Rants About the Third Person POV
Sacha hates the third person. And she sits tapping at keys on the keyboard all she can think about are the times she has talked aloud or talked about herself in the third person.
“Everyone says you’re mad if you talk about yourself in the third person,” she exclaimed aloud.
Annoyed Sacha waved her hands angrily in the air. Irritation brewing at the thought of how long (weeks) she has tried to write this post. Her aim, was to write the whole thing in the third person, but as she jabs the keys and her blood slowly begins froths and bubble in frustration, doubt settles in… Sacha isn’t sure she can even write consistently in the third person.
Sacha wonders why some people like writing in the third person. She knows that like everything there are fashions in writing. There has been a fashion for writing in the third person for some time, but the last five years has seen a dramatic turn around with the like of young adult fantasy and dystopian trilogies taking centre stage in the popularity stakes.
And amen to that, Sacha thought.
What provoked Sacha to write this post, was her attempt at reading ‘Uglies’ by Scott Westerfield, a book that has been on her ‘to read’ pile for some time. A book that to all intents and purposes should be right up her alley. But as she read it, she became more and more frustrated at the style of writing. It was, of course, written in the third person.
Of course Sacha isn’t trying to be biased, some of her favourite books are written in the third person. However, this particular book pushed her buttons. So much so, she genuinely screen shot particular passages and had to angrily text them to a friend who had read the book.
“But this just sounds ridiculous,” she whined, “don’t you find the repetition of the name ‘Tally’ annoying and disingenuous?”
The phrases that made her send these messages were something like this:
‘Tally found herself wincing’
‘Tally found she hadn’t forgotten to bring the plate’
Sacha doesn’t want to be mistaken, she actually likes the concept in the book, and is going to attempt to finish it… at some point. But ‘Tally found she hadn’t forgotten to bring the plate’,
“REALLY??” Sacha shouted cringing.
This is the perfect example of why Sacha hates the third person. First of all, why didn’t an editor pick this up? Sacha thought indignantly. Particularly because she has her doubts about whether it’s grammatically correct. It doesn’t exactly flow, Sacha would hope that authors at least attempt to set an example for how young adults should write English.
Enough, Sacha thought, before she ran out of steam writing in the third person. Using someones name seems disingenuous, it’s impersonal. Sacha likes nothing better than feeling like she is in the head of a character. Like she becomes the character. Sacha doesn’t think you can get that as well in the third person. Playing God, and writing like your God, if you write in the third person, is just a bit arrogant if you ask Sacha. Ok, perhaps she’s exaggerating a bit, but you can see her point… just read her overly annoying, written in the third person post!
Writing Tips #9 Short Story vs. Novel Stories
Here’s the thing, NaNoWriMo was great. It really was, I finally after about two years of claiming to have a dream of writing but not actually putting any words down on the paper other than planning related words (that kept changing) I actually stopped procrastinating and stuck fingers to keys and tapped some 50,000 words in 26 days.
Writing novel length stories is so, so very different to what I had been doing though. As part of my writing course I had been writing short stories. Stories of not more than a couple of thousand words. Whereas NaNo, was all about the long game. A strategically different game all together, different everything. The problem is, after submersing myself in the story, and forgetting any writing skills I might have learnt in order to just bash words out to complete the challenge, I completely forgot how to write a short story.
When it came to trying to sit down and write my next assignment of just 4000 words, I couldn’t do it. I’d forgotten everything. I was trying to tell too much of the story, I had forgotten how to be concise and how to weave a storyline into hardly any words.
My tutor gave me a great piece of advice, to go back and reread some of my short stories I had already written. Which I did, and it helped a bit. But I still felt stuck on how to write a story in so few words. Consequently anything I have written since, I’ve hated! I can’t get it right!
I guess writing is like any other muscle – it needs constant use, and practice, or it forgets how to do what it needs to. My writing certainly forgot at any rate!
So whats the tip?
If you’re intending on writing short stories but want to write a novel – don’t forget to practice the other type of writing in the mean time.
Writespiration #6
I just love this. I saw it and couldn’t resist posting it. This is definitely one of those inspirational images that makes me want to write all kinds of crazy stories!
Why were you meant to die yesterday? How did you survive? Why did you survive? Are you being hunted? Is everyone in society euthanised? What’s the tattoo like? Where on your arm is it? What happens next? What’s your goal – Stay alive? Or take society down? Do you know what your going to die of too? The options with this one, are endless as ever! Let me know if this inspired you and if you wrote anything cause of it.
It reminds me slightly of Justin Timerblakes film ‘In Time’
Happy Writing
Sacha Black 