From Idea to Story, Part II/Calls for Submissions

Try these ideas for turning an idea into a story:

Ask What if. What if a dinosaur came to lunch. What if everyone looked the same. Probe your character and plot with the What if question to develop your story idea. When your story comes to a screeching halt and you don’t know where to go with the plot ask what if. You may be surprised at the turn your story takes and the new ideas you will explore.

Choose a perspective. Who is telling the story? Try different characters to determine which could tell the story in the most compelling way. If three kids and a dog were lost in the mountains, which character would you chose to tell the story. The serious kid? The smartest kid? The funny kid? How about the dog? Play around with the different characters to see which would work best for your story.

Try word associations. Write the first thing you think of when you see each of these words: snowballs, moon, skunk, rainbow, museum. For example, skunk and stink could work well together in a humorous tale. So could snowballs and fight. Try associations that we would usually not associate. Moon and museum could be interesting, as well as skunk and rainbow.

Call for submissions for adult writers:

Dog Fancy. Pays on publication. Seeks nonfiction, photos/artwork. Subjects: Care and enjoyment of all dogs, purebreds and mixed breeds.
Submission guidelines at http://www.dogchannel.com/dog-magazines/dogfancy/writers_guidelines.aspx

Call for submissions for young writers:

Launch Pad publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by kids and teens ages 6 through 14. We choose stories and poems that are creative and well written. We do not publish all submissions. Read some of our stories and poems to get an idea of the works we like to publish.
Submission guidelines at http://www.launchpadmag.com/write/

Check out more contests on my blog: http://nancykellyallen.blogspot.com/