Contests Of Note

Now that I am psyched to start entering some writing contests, I have three contests (no fees) that were of interest to me. I have entered all three of them.

The New Author First Annual Writing Contest
The deadline for this contest is March 31st. You can submit a short, short story and/or a poem; only two submissions allowed. Check the blog for more information. I just entered two poems for this contest last week.

Poetry and Photo Project This contest is sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. I currently subscribe to their e-newsletter (Poets.org) since I also enjoy writing poetry. I found this contest interesting and fun because it combines two things - poetry and photography and it wakes up your creativity. You need to pick a verse from one of your favorite poems (not your own) and write it on something (a sandy beach, a piece of paper, on a mirror, an egg, on your phone, etc.) and take a picture of it. Then you can post if on the Free Verse group page on Flickr, the Academy's fan page on Facebook or email your photo to freeverse@poets.org.

Gotham Writers' Workshop This is a 100 word contest. You can write about any topic in any form - fiction, non-fiction or poetry, in 100 words or less. Your entry must be postmarked by April 3, 2009. You can enter online or by mail. Go to their website for more information and contest rules.

What writing contests have you participated in?

Reasons To Participate In A Writing Contest

I have never entered into any writing contest, perhaps because I was not ready or was afraid to do so. However, since I am now more focused on writing and learning all I can from different sources, I think it is time I did. I thought about the reasons to enter into a writing contest. This is what I came up with:

1. It is something new and different to try
2. Can be fun and let's you be creative
3. It is free to enter (for the most part, some contests do charge a fee for entering)
4. May lead to other things: a story idea or a way to start freelancing
5. Might let you know how good (or not) you are
6. Makes you feel good that you are doing something with what you write
7. Possibility of winning a contest
8. Recognition
9. Monetary award or other prize
10.Another way to share your writing with other writers

What are some reasons you might participate in a writing contest?

Dialogue Pitfalls

Writing Class Notes: Pitfalls To Avoid When Using Dialogue



Pitfalls To Avoid
1. Stilted Language - dialogue that does not sound like natural speech.

2. Filler - Dialogue that does not further the scene and does not deepen your understanding of the characters.

3. Exposition - dialogue that has the character explain the plot or repeat information for the benefit of the audience (reader). My teacher did not totally agree with this, she said it would depend on what is happening in the story.

4. Naming - having one character use another character's name to establish identity. People almost never say other people's names back to them, and if they do, it is a character trait typical of a used car salesman.

5. Overuse of modifiers - using too many dialogue modifiers, such as "shouted", "exclaimed", "cried", "whispered", "stammered","insinuated", and a million others. Modifiers such as these can sometimes be useful, but are often annoying and used as a crutch for poorly designed dialogue.

What do you do to avoid these pitfalls?

Photo credit: barneygabriel

Being C.R.E.A.T.I.V.E. In Tough Times

Lenn Millbower is a trainer that likes to teach in a fun, entertaining manner so that adult learners retain what is being taught. I had the pleasure of meeting him and buying some of his books at a human resources association meeting some years ago. I want to share his latest post because he outlines how to be creative and uses an example for each letter of this word. Because we are living in these tough times, I found this article uplifting and motivating, things I am always looking for as a writer.

The Brain Stimulus Package:
How to Thrive in Turbulent Times
By Lenn Millbower, BM, MA, The Learnertainment® Trainer

The Chinese symbol for crisis is made up of two characters. One represents danger. The other, opportunity. This symbol effectively encapsulates my thoughts about the current rough economic patch everyone seems to be going through.

Small business owners see their business shrinking. Some corporate and non-profit employees are losing their jobs. Those that survive the cutbacks are unappreciated, underpaid and overworked. The distraction and angst of all this makes it hard to be creative. Ironically, people who are comfortable with their creativity aren’t much troubled by the turbulence. They welcome it. To them, danger is opportunity.

Even the worst economic situation is teeming with creative opportunities. But most adults have been taught to stifle their creativity.

Today’s vision of adulthood classroom is a remnant of late 1800s. The Industrial Revolution and the factory system popularized back then distilled all the tasks required to make a product down to the simplest elements. Society focused on producing workers capable of rote repetition. Order and control were expected. Creativity was exterminated. Youngsters were told to be quiet, to do what is expected, to “act like adults.” Eventually, most of us fell out of tune with our inner creative self.

Rediscovering that individual, unique creativity is the first step to a successful future. Listed below is an acronym, appropriately spelling the word C.R.E.A.T.I.V.E., that may help you create your own brain stimulus package.

Learning Leaders: Need to help your team focus on the positive, do more with less, and deliver effective results? Give your team a brain stimulus plan. Follow this link: http://www.offbeattraining.com/Learnertainment_Central/Seminars.html.

Challenge Assumptions
The amygdala, deep in the brain, has one primary function: to protect its owner. It does this by being cautious. Its caution causes it to assumptions about new situations based on what has happened in the past. But when the situation is new, as it is today, old assumptions become an anti-creativity trap that must be aggressively challenged.

If the current need is more effective learning with fewer resources, challenge your assumptions about what that learning must look like. If the need is to find professional growth opportunity or a new position, challenge yourself to identify different techniques and employment avenues your amygdala never let you consider before.

Refocus Energy
Negativity, spurred on by the amygdala, abounds in the workplace. It certainly permeates the news media these days. This negativity is a helpful warning function, but once warned, it can sap the will to do anything about the warning.

Change is like a stampede, distant and ominous at first but eventually overwhelming. Negatively focused people are often so caught up in bitterness about the situation that the stampede catches and engulfs them. The creatives, on the other hand, are rarely caught. They may even lead the stampede.

There is, fortunately, an easy way to refocus your brain away from negative energy: fun. Play leads to relaxation, which leads to less rigid thinking, which leads to creative solutions. In tough times like these, negativity is wasted energy. A positive and playful focus on future possibilities is more likely to produce better results.


Explore Alternatives
Less rigid thinking opens the door to alternative ideas. Creatives explore every angle. Their motto could be stated as, “What else?” Albert Einstein was once asked to define the difference between him and most other people, and he replied that if the average person, looking for a needle in a haystack, would stop once a needle was found. Einstein would instead take the entire haystack apart looking for more needles.

A creative’s motto could be stated as, “What else?” When things are difficult, like they are today, alternatives aren’t luxuries; they are essentials. Explore every possible avenue to be a more effective learning professional, a more visionary leader, a more relevant employee, to develop a more effective career, or to build a better business.

Accentuate Strengths
Once all the alternatives have been explored, the next step is to determine how your specific abilities can be applied. Creatives know what they are creative at and seek out opportunities to do more of those things. Where the failure that comes from accentuating weakness builds doubt, success that comes from focusing on strengths builds confidence.

Strengths are, fortunately given the realities of the world, transferable from job to job and career to career. In my own life, my strength as a musical composer and arranger became a strength as an instructional designer. It turned out that the same skills required to compose, logical precision and emotional intuitiveness, are required to create effective instructional designs.

Think Metaphorically
Many people absorb the specifics of an experience rather than the commonalities between experiences. Creatives seek out deeper relationships between seemingly incompatible experiences and intentionally look for ways to interrelate them. Those relationships lead directly to new possibilities.

In the current environment, the people around you, especially your learners, need comparisons for their current situation. The metaphors you create may help them cope with and define the angst they are feeling. Likewise, looking for deeper meanings and trends will help you identify your next career steps.

Investigate Unknowns
Making these kinds of connections requires a depth and breath of knowledge about a wide range of subjects. Creatives are amazingly, almost annoyingly, curious. Curiosity is a key factor in creativity. Without curiosity, it is virtually impossible to create anything. Curiosity leads to questions, and those questions lead to new creations. Most people will accept things at face value. Creatives want to know why something is true, why it works, or what would prevent it from working.

Curiosity about other people, organizations, and career paths can lead you forward. Without that curiosity, it is likely that some available options will never occur to you.

Visualize Results
Creatives also try to place their creative efforts in the context of the results they hope to achieve. Visualizing something made it easier to comprehend. Visuals aren’t bogged down in facts and negativity. The images exist separate from the current reality. Because of this, a visualized result is not restricted by logistics. The result just is.

Trainers. Teachers. Speakers. Need a brain stimulus plan? Then follow this link to the Learnertainment® Skills Development Lab <http://www.offbeattraining.com/Learnertainment_Central/Workshop.html>

Knowing what the results of the learning program look like, what relationships you value, what activities give you pleasure, what job you would perform well, and what your career goals should be will help you make more informed decisions to determine what details must occur to make the visualization a reality.

Enjoy Life
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once said, “Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us, unplayed.” That’s certainly not true of creatives. When focused individuals challenge assumptions, refocus energy, explore the alternatives, accentuate strengths, think metaphorically, investigate unknowns, and visualize results, they can relax and let the creativity flow. The result is a more opportunity to play your own music your own way.

Ultimately, there isn’t much you can do about situations that are global in nature. What you can do is recognize that your life is precious. Every day you wake up is a good day. Relax and enjoy the fact that your eyes opened. Luxuriate in the uncertainty each day brings. For with the danger comes incredible opportunity. And in that opportunity is your very own brain stimulus package.

Visit Lenn online at: www.OffbeatTraining.com

Writing Strong Endings

"The End"
Originally uploaded by OddBall7

Just as the beginning of a story is important, so is the ending. Once you get the reader hooked on your story, then your ending should be the clincher in which the reader says: "Wow, this was a great book. I can't wait to read the next one!".

My writing teacher gave us the following tips on how to write strong endings.

1. Your ending must leave your readers satisfied - even if it is unhappy, unexpected, or inconclusive. Above all, your readers must feel the piece was worth their time and attention.

2. A good ending feels like an ending and has a sense of closure. Often this is produced by a change in locale, pacing, or level of tension.

3. Your ending must b appropriate for your piece. Avoid endings that aren't warranted by the events that precede it, or that are incompatible with a character's personality, motivations, or actions. If the reader can see you in the background orchestrating the conclusion, it needs more work.

4. You don't have to have a clear, snappy, or hard-hitting ending, and you don't have to make a point, teach a lesson, or cite a moral - though you may if you want to.

5. Let your characters' actions and situations reveal the significance of your ending. Don't explain what your story means or what your characters have learned ("Sherry knew, at last, that she could depend on her uncle"). Also avoid having your characters explain to eacher other what they have learned ("Todd, I've finally realized that I can truly depend on Uncle Arnie").

6. Pay special attention to your final sentence, image, and/or line of dialogue, because your readers certainly will.

What kind of ending have you used for your story?

A Different Kind Of Journal To Keep

I bought the "Become A Better You" 2009 daily inspirational desk calendar. This calendar has daily inspirational thoughts by Joel Osteen, from his book, Become A Better You. On March 12, 2009, his thought for the day was to keep a journal or notebook and write down things that happen to you that you know is God. A door that was opened to you, a job offer, some extra money, direction on a decision you have to make, something that lifted you up when you were down, etc. In essence, this would be a list or record of the good things God has done for you. I was inspired by this because I never thought to keep this type of journal. I have experienced God throughout my life in many ways, though I did not always see it was him at work until later. I plan to start my God Journal and when I am down and out, discouraged, or feeling helpless, I can open it up and read from it and reaffirm that God works in mysterious ways.

Writing Effective Beginnings

I got this useful list on how to write an effective beginning at one of my writing classes. I find I have trouble starting a story so I found this to be a big help.

1. You don't have to write your opening scene first. Feel free to write later scenes-even your climax-first. Then, once you've immersed yourself in your tale, go back and write your opening.

2. Your story begins just before the central problem begins to emerge-no earlier. Provide only what background the reader needs to understand the problem and its significance; then start building the tension.

3. Remember that you've only got a few paragraphs to hook your reader. Give them something intriguing-an event, a setting, an image, an insight, a character, or an unusual style of writing-almost immediately.

4. Also remember that you don't have to start with a shock or surprise. Don't throw a gratuitous dead body at your reader, especially when an unexpected guest or a lucid observation might work just as well, or better.

5. A good opening should fit naturally with the rest of the piece. It should give your reader a sense (either overt or subliminal) of what is to come in the way of tone, mood, and events. It should not mislead your readers, intentionally or unintentionally.

6. Avoid using tricks or gimmicks in your opening, unless your whole piece is based on one.

7. Avoid expository lumps (long stretches of narration that explain what has happened in the past). Show your characters in action; don't bore your reader with explanations.

8. Even more strenuously avoid explanatory dialogue, where characters explain (ostensibly to each other, but in fact to the reader) what's been going on. ("Remember when we had breakfast this morning, Ted, and the waitress named Betty slapped you")

9. After you've written your next-to-final draft, look closely at your story to see if you really need all of your opening scene.

How have you handled the beginning of your story?


Photo credit: thomasthorspecken

The Write Right Story Writing Progression

Writing Class Notes: The Write Right story writing 11-step story-drafting progression

1. Plant a seed - Create an idea that launches the story.

2. Create the main character(s)- Define the core, personality, activity and sensory layers of the main character. Create the history layer as needed to explain the other layers.

3. Define the story theme and story question - Identify a story theme and, from goal, create a story question.

4. Lay out story structure - From goal define the ending point. From obstacles create a sequence of events (Plot). Identify associated risk and danger.

5. Define and create necessary supporting characters.

6. Who tells the story? (Viewpoint & Perspective). What character could best tell the story? Which perspective would best allow the reader to experience the story?

7. Map the scenes and sequels - Break the plot into discreet interactions (scenes). Define each scene and identify the climax.

8. Make it real. Make it visual. - Know each setting as well as you know your own bedroom; know each character as well as family.

9. How late can I start? How early can I end? - What is the first event which the reader must see? Is there anything beyond the climax other than answering the story question and providing a final sequel?

10. Record the first draft (s) - Say it; repeat it; then record it. Then re-record it until you are satisfied with the version on tape.

11. Write the story - Focus on detail, energy, emotion, word choice, and character feeling and information as you write.

Even though this is from 1999, I think it gives a good indication on the steps to follow for your first draft. Since I am still learning the writing craft, the information serves as a useful "guide" to keep your work in some kind of "order".

What other progressions or outlines have you followed while doing your first draft?


From Write Right! Creative Writing Using Storytelling Techniques. © 1999 Kendall Haven. Teacher Ideas Press

Character Outline

The characters in my story are the first thing I must develop before I begin writing my novel. I must know my characters inside and out, and be "one" with them. I find this to be one of the hardest things to do. In an earlier post, I wrote that you can use people you already know and use their characteristics to mix and match and make up characters of your own. However, there are things that I must also write about my characters that make them "real" to the reader. One of my writing teachers gave us a character outline as a guide to help us with this.

Character Outline
Name, Age, Weight, Body Type, Physical condition, Eye color, Hair color and style, Distinguishing features/tattoos, Race, ethnic group, Years of school-education, major/minor, degrees earned, grade achieved, Special occupational training, Skills, abilities and talents, Areas of expertise, Occupation-Past occupations, military experience, Goals, long term, short term, Short and long term needs, Personality-introvert/extrovert, outgoing, shy, quirks, eccentricities, temperament, Handling of anger and rage, Positive traits/negative, bad habits/vices, good habits, prejudices, Pet peeves and gripes, What makes them uncomfortable and embarrassed, Most painful things in life, Crime/arrest record, Political issues, Sense of humor, Fears, phobias, manias, Physical illnesses-Mental disturbances, Hobbies, interests, sports, favorite pastime, favorite TV shows, Movies, Travel, Pets, Drinking of alcohol, how much, often, alcoholic, Favorite books, Diet-Health conscious, favorite foods, restaurants, fast food, ethnic foods, Sexual attraction from opposite sex, what does the character have that turns on the opposite sex, Sexual turn ons/turn offs, Traumas and psychological scars, Dress, favorite sayings, words, Speaking style-talk too much, quiet, accent, Philosophy of life, best friend/friends, Most important thing in their life that helped mold their personality/future character, Where do they live, neighborhood, Car color, type, how do they drive, Major problem to overcome or solve and their solutions, minor problems to solve, Character growth-How are they changing, for better or worse.

What has been the most difficult thing for you in developing your character(s)?

Photo Credit: alvimann

Getting To Know Your Writer: 10 Random Things

I got the idea for this post from FACEBOOK. Jennifer Weiner, author of "In Her Shoes" tagged her friends and asked them to write 25 random things about themselves so she could get to know them better. Therefore, I thought I would share 10 random things about me (that are not on my profile) so that the readers of this blog get to know me better. When I read other blogs, magazine articles, books, etc. I like to know about the person writing these things. I feel it connects me more to them and what they write. Here are my 10 random things:

1. I played the xylophone and clarinet in junior high school and was in a band. I also like the piano and guitar.
2. I know how to crochet and have crocheted baby blankets.
3. I have a nickname: Ssisi.
4. My first pet was a dog, a black lab, named Blacky.
5. My favorite board game is Monopoly.
6. I am an only child.
7. Some of the things I thought I could do as a career: florist, photographer, singer, artist, librarian, writer.
8. I want to teach a writing class one day.
9. Things I like: carnations, unicorns, stained glass, stuffed animals, rainbows.
10.I believe in God, second chances, soulmates, and that you make your own happiness.

What random things can you share about you?