Idea Overload, part VI/Call for Submissions

This is the last blog in this series.

If you have more story ideas than you know what to do with, try these tips: 

There is no magic fix for any story. You simply have to keep writing and revising to get the story polished. Good writing comes from rewriting. Sometimes we want to abandon a manuscript for a new idea because we don’t know what to do with the one we’re working on. This happens all the time. Focus on the characters and plot. Concentrate on one idea at a time and how that idea can move the story forward.

Don’t fall in love with your writing. All writing can be improved upon. Instead, fall in love with completing your writing. Getting sidetracked undermines your goal of getting a story completed.

When you finish the manuscript to the point that you have done as much as you can with it, ship it to potential publisher; then begin another project with a shiny, new idea.

Call for submissions for adult writers:

From October 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2013, The Jim Henson Company and Grosset & Dunlap of the Penguin Young Readers Group will be accepting writing submissions to find the author for a new novel set in the world of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. This author search is open to all professional and aspiring professional writers.

This new Dark Crystal novel will be a prequel story set at the time of the Gelfling Gathering, between the Second Great Conjunction and the creation of the Wall of Destiny. We will be placing all known lore from this era on DarkCrystal.com, the definitive home of The Dark Crystal. There you will find all the knowledge available for you to shape and build your story—and all we ask is that you share your stories with us. 

Your submission should be an original story set in the era outlined above. The final novel will be upwards of 50,000 words, but please send in 7,500-10,000 words that represent the story you would tell in a full-length Dark Crystal novel. It can either be the first chapters, final chapters, a collection of middle chapters, or a short piece that would form the inspiration for a novel-length story.

Details at http://darkcrystal.com/authorquest/

 

 

 

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