Read Like A Writer

There are two ways to learn how to write fiction: by reading it and by writing it. Yes, you can learn lots about writing stories in workshops, in writing classes and writing groups, at writers' conferences. You can learn technique and process by reading the dozens of books like this one on fiction writing and by reading articles in writers' magazines. But the best teachers of fiction are the great works of fiction themselves. You can learn more about the structure of a short story by reading Anton Chekhov's 'Heartache' than you can in a semester of Creative Writing 101. If you read like a writer, that is, which means you have to read everything twice, at least. When you read a story or novel the first time, just let it happen. Enjoy the journey. When you've finished, you know where the story took you, and now you can go back and reread, and this time notice how the writer reached that destination. Notice the choices he made at each chapter, each sentence, each word. (Every word is a choice.) You see now how the transitions work, how a character gets across a room. All this time you're learning. You loved the central character in the story, and now you can see how the writer presented the character and rendered her worthy of your love and attention. The first reading is creative—you collaborate with the writer in making the story. The second reading is critical.


John Dufresne, from his book, The Lie That Tells A Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

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Friday, July 26, 2024

The Vellys: Kindle Vella’s Exciting Writing Contest



The Vellys: Kindle Vella’s Exciting Writing Contest

Are you an aspiring writer or an established author? Kindle Vella invites you to participate in its inaugural writing contest: The Vellys! This exciting competition celebrates episodic fiction that resonates with readers.

What Are The Vellys?

  • Contest Duration: Submissions are open from June 25, 2024, until August 20, 2024.
  • Eligibility: The contest is open to all authors, whether you’re penning your first story or have a string of published works.
  • Prizes: A total of 15 cash prizes, amounting to $62,000, are up for grabs!
    • Grand Prize: $25,000
    • Newcomer Prize: $15,000 (for the best story from a first-time author)
  • Judging Criteria: The Vella team will evaluate stories based on originality, creativity, character development, and plot depth.
  • Winners Announcement: Mark your calendars for September 17, 2024, when the winners will be revealed.

Why Participate?

  • Royalties and Monthly Bonus: Not only do you have a chance to win cash prizes, but all contest entries are also eligible for royalties and a monthly bonus.
  • Literary Vibes: Kindle Vella’s platform is perfect for serial fiction, allowing you to engage readers one episode at a time.

How to Enter

  1. Write Your Story: Craft your captivating episodic fiction.
  2. Submit: Visit Kindle Vella’s official page for submission details.
  3. Connect with Readers: The more readers and followers your story attracts, the better your chances of winning!

So, whether you’re a seasoned storyteller or a fresh voice, dive into The Vellys and share your literary magic. Happy writing!!!


For more information and to nominate your story, visit the official Kindle Vella Vellys page. Good luck!!!


The Vellys: Follow your favorite stories to vote.
Come back for new submissions as they are added.


Friday, January 13, 2023

Short Story Award For New Writers

 

ABOUT Short Story Award For New Writers

Submissions Open Until January 31!
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Winter is coming! The Masters Review’s Short Story Award for New Writers is a bi-annual contest that recognizes the best fiction from today’s emerging writers. Judging 2022-2023’s winter contest is Morgan Talty, author the story collection Night of the Living Rez. Winners and honorable mentions receive agency review from five agencies as well as publication. The winning story earns $3000, while the second and third place runners up receive $300 and $200, respectively. Participating agents include: Nat Sobel from Sobel Weber, Victoria Cappello from The Bent Agency, Andrea Morrison from Writers House, Sarah Fuentes from Fletcher & Company, and Heather Schroder from Compass Talent. Our mission from day one has been to support emerging writers. We want you to succeed. We want your words to be read.

Guidelines:

  • Winner receives $3000, publication, and agency review
  • Second and third place prizes ($300 / $200, publication, and agency review)
  • Stories under 6000 words
  • Previously unpublished stories only
  • Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed
  • Emerging writers only; writers with book-length work published or under contract with a major press are ineligible. (We are interested in offering a larger platform to new writers. Authors with short story collections are free to submit new, unpublished work, as are writers with books published by indie presses or self-published.)
  • International English submissions allowed. No translations.
  • Double-spaced, 12 pt easy-to-read font (i.e., Times New Roman, Garamond, etc.) please!
  • $20 entry fee
  • Deadline: January 31, 2023
  • All stories are considered for publication
  • All submissions will receive a response by the end of April
  • Winners will be announced by the end of May
  • Friends, family and associates of the final judge are not eligible for this award. Consider submitting to the Summer contest!
  • A significant portion of the editorial letter fees go to our feedback editor, according to the rates established by the EFA

We don’t have any preferences topically or in terms of style. We’re simply looking for the best. We don’t define, nor are we interested in, stories identified by their genre. We do, however, consider ourselves a publication that focuses on literary fiction. Dazzle us, take chances, and be bold.

JUDGING

Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation where he grew up. He is the author of the critically acclaimed story collection Night of the Living Rez from Tin House Books, which won the New England Book Award, was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers, and is a finalist for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. His writing has appeared in Granta, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative Magazine, LitHub, and elsewhere. A winner of the 2021 Narrative Prize, Talty’s work has been supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts (2022). Talty is an Assistant Professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in creative writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. Talty is also a Prose Editor at The Massachusetts Review. He lives in Levant, Maine.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Free event: Write Creative Nonfiction with Courage

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Liquid Story Binder Writer's Word Processor

 Liquid Story Binder Writer's Word Processor

Aspiring and accomplished writers alike know that disorganized thoughts can be a maddening hindrance to creativity. Especially when all of those disorganized thoughts are spread across a maelstrom of notebooks, Word files, post-it's, emails, magazine margins, storyboard sketches, and whatever else.

Liquid Story Binder is designed for authors, poets, writers, novelists, anyone writing a book or anything at all really! No matter what your ability level, Liquid Story Binder is the ideal program for writing, and will provide you with all the tools you need to create, outline, organize, timeline, revise, storyboard, conceive, diagram, and format your work.

It even includes a built-in audio recorder in case you want to listen to the pacing and phrasing of a particular section, paragraph, or sentence!

Liquid Story Binder is completely customizable. Choose a color scheme that suits you, save window positions and open files, create workspaces, open dozens of windows simultaneously or just a simple textbox centered in the screen... it's up to you, your comfort zone, and your writing style!

Can't remember where you wrote that important paragraph? A Universal Search feature makes finding it a snap. Search every Chapter, Note, Builder, Timeline, Storyboard, Outline, Dossier, Sequence and Backup for a single lost word or phrase. Plus, the Repetition Visualizer helps you to find and weed out repetitive words and phrases, at-a-glance!

Extremely adaptable, Liquid Story Binder utilizes common TXT, RTF, and ZIP file formats, guaranteeing future access. It can be stored and executed off of a portable USB drive, and automatically creates an easy-to-access backup file with an entry for each day's changes. Liquid Story Binder is the ultimate software for writing.⁸

 

 

[ Download Demo]

[Liquid Story Binder XE ]

 

 A Portable Text Editor that Keeps You Organized

 

Liquid Story Binder XE is a uniquely designed word processor for professional and aspiring authors, poets, and novelists. Writing software for those who require the editing ability of a commercial text editor as well as a document tracking system. It is for those who want the freedom to create, outline and revise but are tired of losing track of their work.

Dossiers

Create Dossiers for major characters and settings.

Timelines

Plot your novel by organizing cards along colored timelines.

Storyboards

Combine images and text to create a visual reference board.

Journals

Create a writing journal, or even fictional journals for each one of your characters.

Outlines

Create a collapsible tree of plot ideas.

Mindmaps

Link ideas together using lines and text.

Image Galleries

Organize your reference images into galleries.

Checklists

A list of titles and captions with checkmarks.

Contrasts

A two-columned list for direct comparisons.

Builders

Organize complex scenes using titles, descriptions, and color indexing.

Position Memory

Liquid Story Binder XE remembers just where you left off.

Manuscript Building

Combine multiple chapters into a single manuscript automatically.

Printing

Preserve your font and paragraph editing with Format Printing.

Workspaces

Preserve your favorite window layouts for quick access.

Project Goals

Words per day, words left to write, days remaining, multi-document word counts.

Color Schemes

Create the perfect writing environment with your favorite window colors.

Recordings

Record yourself reading your own novel. Test for pacing and time.

File Listings

Organize all your files into easy-access file trees.

Backups

Every Chapter has its own backup repository. Never lose a single word with automatic version and session backups. Compress your whole archive into a single ZIP file.

Shortcuts

Quickly access your favorite external software and documents.

Statistics

Times, Word Counts, Goals, Sessions, Versions, Days.

Reader

Read over your work in a easy to view columned window, free of editing distractions.

Music Playlists

Add your MP3s and sort them into playlists. Set the mood for writing.

External Editing

Open your work outside of Liquid Story Binder.

 

    [ Download Demo]

    [Liquid Story Binder XE ]

Liquid Story Binder


Sunday, December 4, 2022

The Anatomy of Genres: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works | #WritingBookoftheDay

The Anatomy of Genres: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works

is finally in stores and I couldn’t be more excited about it. 

 

Genres have more to do with how your story works than any other element — any other idea, plot device, character archetype, beat sheet, methodology, or prescribed structure — by far.

 

Whether you're writing for movies, TV, or novels, the game is won or lost in genres.

 

This book tells you exactly how to write the 14 major genres from which 99% of stories are made. 

 

They are: Horror, Action, Myth, Memoir and Coming-of-Age, Science Fiction, Crime, Comedy, Western, Gangster, Fantasy, Detective, Thriller, and Love Story.  

 

The first half of each chapter tells you how to execute the 15-20 specialized genre plot beats that must be in your story if you are to compete successfully with everyone else writing in your form. 

 

The second half tells you how to transcend your form and really separate yourself from the crowd by expressing the deep life philosophy found in that genre’s theme

 

Here’s what advanced readers are saying:

 

“Essential storytelling guidance... we're given the tools and techniques to make certain that our own specific stories can include the depth and beats necessary to illuminate advanced themes and complex plot in the most effective (but not formulaic) ways.” Christine Toy Johnson

 

“During my first pass, I stopped several times to capture thoughts and notes for my current work. This is perhaps the highest compliment I can offer - when a book prompts you to act immediately, the author has achieved something remarkable.” Michael Maloof

 

Get your copy of The Anatomy of Genres: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works

 

 


Tuesday, November 15, 2022

How Can ProWritingAid Help Your Writing?

 

 

ProWritingAid

 

How Can ProWritingAid 

Help Your Writing?


ProWritingAid provides more features than any other manuscript editing software on the market, including many that are unique to our product. We want to help you make your writing the best it can be.

Whatever kind of writer you are, ProWritingAid will help you improve your writing and get your ideas across more clearly.

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Improve your writing quickly and efficiently with 1000s of grammar, spelling and readability improvements delivered in real-time as you write.

20 In-Depth Writing Reports Go Way Beyond Grammar

ProWritingAid has more writing reports than any other editing software. The editing tool highlights elements like repetitiveness, vague wording, sentence length variation, over-dependence on adverbs, passive voice, over-complicated sentence constructions, and so much more.

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Improve the Style and Strength of your Writing

Good writing is about more than just good grammar. Style suggestions improve the power and clarity of your writing. Our team of copy editors has hand-coded thousands of rules to cover the most vital style improvements you can make.

Learn as You Edit

In-app suggestions, explanations, videos, and quizzes help you build your skills as you write.

 


Eliminate Embarrassing Errors

Nothing makes a writer lose credibility faster than spelling and grammar mistakes. Submit clean, error-free writing.

Find the Right Words

Our Word Explorer and contextual thesaurus help you find the perfect words.

Better Integrations Save You Time

ProWritingAid easily integrates with MS Word/Outlook, Google Docs, Scrivener, Open Office, and Final Draft so you can edit wherever you write.

Our browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari let you check your writing on almost every website, including Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Medium, Wattpad and more.

ProWritingAid for Microsoft Office
ProWritingAid Everywhere for Windows
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Customize ProWritingAid to Your Specific Needs

ProWritingAid allows individuals and organizations to create their own style guides and dictionaries. Automated rules and suggestions help ensure consistency across you and your team.

Data Visualization Provides In-Depth Understanding

Charts and graphs allow writers to see their writing in a whole new way. Graphics provide valuable insights around readability, sentence variation and more.