Are Restraints Holding You Hostage?

As a visiting author, I’ve been extremely fortunate. I love working with kids, love teaching the writing process to kids, and love their excitement when they share the writing. For the last few weeks, I’ve been working with 3^rd, 4^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders, primarily focused on informational and nonfiction pieces. Every day, they amaze me with their creativity and enthusiasm. I especially appreciate word choices and phrasing that distinguishes their personalities through writing. Voice. The concept of grasping the personal uniqueness of writing is not an easy task, yet I see it in these young writers. It makes me wonder why it can be so difficult for adult writers.  

Maybe it’s because the students are fearless in placing thoughts on paper. Adults have a contract hanging in the balance, so maybe we can’t capture the voice because somewhere in our minds someone told us that a particular word or phrasing was not acceptable with some editors. Maybe it’s because we try so hard to write a marketable piece that the manuscript becomes too commonplace to stand out. Maybe we’ve allowed our imaginations to hover, rather than soar.

Let’s shake off our restraints and write to please ourselves. The worst that can happen is no contract. Conversely, a new style of writing may evolve from our fingertips.

Call for Submissions for Young Writers:

Skipping Stones. Writings (essays, stories, letters to the editor, riddles and proverbs, etc.) should be typed or neatly handwritten and limited to 1,000 words and poems to 30 lines. We encourage writings in all languages with an English translation, if possible. And, we love illustrations! Please send originals of your drawings, paintings, or photos to our post office box address below. Include your name, age, and address along with your submission. We welcome electronic submissions as well. We prefer Word.doc. or .docx.files or text.edit files. Art and photos can be sent as .jpeg or .tiff files. Please DO NOT send us zip.files.

Submissions guidelines at https://www.skippingstones.org/submissions.htm

Skipping Stones. Our readers, ages 7 to 17, hail from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. We want to make their reading of Skipping Stones an active experience, relevant to issues confronting them locally and globally. Writing and artwork by adults should challenge readers to think, learn, cooperate and create. 

We encourage adults to submit creative informational stories rather than pure fiction. We prefer submissions focusing on your own culture or experiences. No adult poetry, please. 

Submissions guidelines at

https://www.skippingstones.org/submissions.htm#adult

Trimming Excess Words

Today, I’m continuing my series on trimming excess words? Try these tips:

Read books in the same genre in which you’re writing to determine how and where longer descriptions work. Read a book first for the entertainment value. If you enjoyed it, read it again to analyze how long and short descriptions were woven into the story.

Read your work aloud and concentrate on the description. By reading aloud, your mind will be more attuned to awkward phrasing and will hone in on other mistakes, such as excessive use of words.

Avoid information dumping at the beginning of a story. Information dumping is offering too much information about a character or situation in the opening chapter. If you spend three pages telling why the character is upset, the reader will be even more upset. Long exposition slows and sometimes stops the action. Too much detail and backstory are not necessary and will fail to hook the reader.

Find useless words and zap them. Some useless words I am guilty of using are just, even, felt, like, really, seems, thought, very, that and more.

When my tummy turns queezy at the idea of cutting words, I remind myself that it’s not about the words, it’s about the story.

Next week, I’ll look at more ways to put your manuscript on a diet and achieve success.

Call for Submissions for Young Writers:

INSIGHT WRITING CONTEST—Deadline July 31, 2014. Categories are student short story,
general short story, and student poetry. Prizes range from $50 to $250. Winning entries will be published in Insight. You must be age 22 or under to enter the student categories. Short stories are limited to seven pages. Poetry is limited to one page.

Submission guidelines at http://www.insightmagazine.org/contest/rules.asp

Call for Submissions for Adult Writers:

Gotham Writers. It may be apocryphal, but the story goes that Ernest Hemingway won a bet by writing a short story that ran fewer than ten words. One version of the story places the bet at the famed Algonquin “round table.” Whether true or not, there is an actual bet-winning short story attributed to Hemingway:

For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.

You have to admit it’s pretty good. It builds, and there’s a whole world of background and emotion lurking beneath those words.

We would like to make a similar bet with you. Write a great short story in ten words or fewer. (You may use a title, but that goes into the word count.) Submit it to our contest. Entry is free. Winner of the bet gets a free Gotham class.

We did this contest last year, and here’s the winner:

Remnants of beard peppered her sink. He left nothing else.
A. Crossley Spencer
Summerfield, North Carolina

The Details:

·        Submit an original, unpublished 10-word short story.

·        Entries must be submitted online by midnight Eastern Time, May 18, 2015. Only online entries will be accepted.

·        Entry is free. Limit one entry per person.

·        Entry must consist of no more than 10 words. You may use a title but that goes into the word count. Longer entries will be disregarded.

·        Entry must be original and unpublished.

·        Entries will be judged on originality, quality, spelling, and grammar.

·        Gotham will post the winning entry at GothamWriters.com

·        The winner will be notified by June 3, 2015.

Deadline: May 18, 2015.

Submission guidelines at http://www.writingclasses.com/ContestPages/10W.php