Idea Overload, part I/Call for Submissions

Today’s blog is all about ideas. What do you do with idea overload? [Thanks, Krista H., for the inspiration of this series of blogs.] Ideas bombard you from every direction. Each time you try to develop the idea, another one pops into you mind, and you begin a new manuscript with every idea.

This is a common problem for some writers, especially in the beginning stages of a manuscript. Story ideas are like coins. New ideas are shiny and attractive, much like a hot-off-the-press dime. Old ideas that you’ve been playing with don’t pan out and they lose their sheen and become a dull as an often-spent quarter.

Writers tend to focus on writing as we do laundry, sweep, and rake the lawn. We’re thinking about story plots and character even when we can’t stop to write, so ideas are popping up around us constantly. Just how do we strain out the best ideas and develop them into stories?

Next week, we’ll look at ways we manage these ideas so that they become incorporated into manuscripts, rather than a distraction that prevents us from accomplishing writing goals.

Call for submissions for adult writers:

Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature. Recommended free contest awards publication by Sarabande Books, a high-quality literary press, for a manuscript of poetry, fiction, or essays (all genres compete together) about Kentucky or by Kentucky authors. Winner must agree to travel to readings within the state. You are eligible if you were born in Kentucky or have lived there for at least two years, or your book is set in or about Kentucky. Poetry manuscripts should be 48-100 single-spaced pages, prose manuscripts 150-250 double-spaced pages. No scholarly works, children's literature, or genre fiction. Accepts online entries.

Deadline: Must be mailed in the month of July.

Details at http://www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=1188

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