All Things Writing: Short Story Contest Opens Today!

Summer...it brings a writer all kinds of inspiration. For some, it brings back memories of childhood. For others, it reminds us that it's time to relax, maybe let our hair down a little as we sip a margarita on the beach.

Personally, it makes me think of spending quality time in amusement parks. Six Flags, Disney World, Schlitterbahn (the hottest, coolest time in Texas)--these places are always over run this time of year with people looking for fun.

But what happens when things go wrong at an amusement park? What happens when chaos breaks out? And just what kind of chaos would break out in your story?

That's your assignment for this writing contest!

The theme for our summer writing contest at All Things Writing is Mayhem and Amusement Parks. Write a 2000 word short story with this topic in mind and submit it to us here at All Things Writing. The open submissions deadline begins on July 1 and runs through July 31. There is no entry fee and all genres are welcome.

The winner will have their story posted on the All Things Writing website. In addition to that, they will also have the opportunity to guest blog and be interviewed about their writing process. If you are an indie author looking for exposure, this is a great contest to enter!

A few rules:

Your story cannot be over 2000 words.

The tale should be about mayhem in an amusement park---not at church, not at school, not at your job (unless your job is at an amusement park!).

Mayhem doesn't have to mean gratuitous violence or sex with animals. Just sayin'.

Your story should not be printed anywhere else. Original work please!

Submissions: We're keeping it pretty simple as far as how you are supposed to submit. Just be sure to follow the rules! Those that don't will not be considered in the contest.

Please submit your 2000 word short story in the body of an email to maryannloesch@hotmail.com. Do not send an attachment. It will not get opened.

Be sure to included your name and email address in the email.

In the subject line, please write All Things Writing Short Story Entry. If that's not there, your email will not be opened.

Happy summer and we look forward to reading your work!

Rejections are Just an Invitation

I used to teach classes on writing resumes and the interview process. One of the things I always used to tell my students was that if you don’t apply, you’re guaranteed not to get the position. If you want the position, you have to apply for it. If you’re looking for a job, you have to keep your resume circulating among the places that are hiring.

Sending off stories to potential markets is a lot like that. If you don’t submit your work, it’s guaranteed not to be published. You have to keep the stories circulating among the markets that are publishing stories.

I know, you want it to be as good as it can be, and don’t get me wrong; you should polish your work. But the process of polishing can have diminishing returns. At some point, it’s time to kick your story out of the nest and let it fly.

Will you get rejections? Certainly. And if you don’t send it out, it won’t get rejected. Another way to look at it is if you don’t send it out, it can’t be accepted.

My advice? Keep sending those stories out. Keep them in circulation until you find that perfect market for your story. The way I figure it, a story sitting on my hard drive is doing me no good. A rejection is just an invitation to send it off to another market. And sometimes you get good advice in a rejection on how you can improve your story.

So don’t let your stories sit on your hard drive. Get them out there! Let them fly. They may come back to you, but if they do, just send them off again. Sooner or later, they’ll find the market where they find the wings to fly.

~Doug McIntire
http://www.dougmcintire.com/

One Day to Submit Them, and in the Darkness Bind Them

I’ve been writing stories for a few years now and I have a lot of stories in various stages of completion. One thing I’ve noticed that in a given week, I have anywhere from eight or ten stories I need to submit to potential markets.

That sounds easy enough, but it takes a lot of time, looking at markets in an attempt to determine which market is right for a given story. That adds up to a lot of work.

The problem with that is it detracts from me actually writing. I know it’s important, and I’m not willing to ignore the need to submit material to markets, but I have to admit that I became a writer because I like to write. And there are already enough things that take away time from my writing. So I’ve come up with a plan.

From now on, Sundays are my days for submissions. I’m calling them Submission Sunday and my goal is to make all the week’s submissions during this one day. That way I’m free to write on all the other days of the week, with one less distraction.

And I’m even going to post updates on Twitter. At first it will be #Submission Sunday, but as it catches on – and I know it will – I’ll be able to abbreviate it to #SS. So, if submissions are getting you down, then do what I do. Make it fun and tweet about #Submission Sunday.

Stay tuned for next week’s #QueryThursday. Okay, I might be kidding about that.

~Doug McIntire
www.DougMcIntire.com

Six Sentences

If you haven’t run across the Six Sentence website (http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/) before, I’d like to turn you on to it.

The idea behind Six Sentences is that you get to write about anything you want; you just have to do it in Six Sentences. To get your six sentences published, you have to actually go through a submission process and face an acceptance or rejection, based on the quality of your work.

From a writer’s perspective, that’s wonderful. It’s not your great American novel, it’s not that memoir that you cried writing, it’s just six sentences. It seems almost blasé. In other words, it’s safe to submit your work because it’s only six sentences. There’s no stress. There’s no harm. If they don’t like it, so what?

But it gets you out there. You can’t be published if you don’t submit your work, and six sentences is a great way to get started. Now I’m not going to lie. Robert McEvil, the editor of Six Sentences, doesn’t publish just any old six sentences. It took me several attempts before I finally had a piece published.

And the surprise for me was that I really fell in love with Six Sentences. Not only has it helped me get me submitting my work, it taught me to write tight. Believe it or not, you can get an entire story arc in six sentences.

Give it a try. Write about whatever you want. Just do it in six sentences and then submit it. Maybe you’ll fall in love with Six Sentences too.

~Doug McIntire
http://www.DougMcIntire.com/.