Thursday, August 12, 2010

6th Annual Writer's Digest Poetry Awards Competition

Writer's Digest competition exclusively for poets! Regardless of style—rhyming, free verse, haiku and more—if your poems are 32 lines or fewer, they want them all.
Entry Deadline: December 15, 2010

Prizes

First Place: $500 and a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in New York City

Second Place: $250

Third Place: $100

Fourth Through Tenth Place: $25

Eleventh Through Twenty-Fifth Place: $50 gift certificate for Writer's Digest Books.

* The names and poem titles of the First through Tenth-Place winners will be printed in the August 2011 Writer's Digest, and afterwards their names will appear on www.writersdigest.com. All winners will receive the 2011 Poet's Market.

For more information and to enter Click HERE
Don't forget to check out www.thefamousashleygrant.com

A Short Story Competition from Writer's Digest

Compete and Win in All 5 Categories!

* Romance
* Mystery/Crime Fiction
* Science Fiction/Fantasy
* Thriller/Suspense
* Horror

The Grand Prize-Winner will receive a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in New York City, $2,500 cash, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and the 2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

Entry Deadline: November 01, 2010.



Entry Fee: All entries are $20.00 each. You can pay with a check or money order, Visa, Mastercard or American Express when you enter online or via regular mail.

Prizes

Grand Prize: a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in New York City, $2,500 cash, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and the 2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

First Prize: The First Place-Winner in each of the five categories receives $500 cash, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and the 2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

Honorable Mention: Honorable Mentions will receive promotion in Writer's Digest and the 2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

Entry Deadline: November 01, 2010

READ MORE AND ENTER CONTEST HERE
Don't forget to check out www.thefamousashleygrant.com!!!

Oh, I'm scared all right



How are things going my fellow creative geniuses?

I've written four poems today!

Yes, four!

That's an amazing feat for me.

The one who could crack out twelve poems plus a couple short stories in less than a day.

Those were my days and I feel them slowly but surely coming back.

I even *gasp* submitted a poem to an online publication yesterday.

How do I feel about it?

Scared.

I'm not getting paid for it.

Poets have to make money by selling books.

I get that.

But I just want my name out there.

I want to BE WHO I AM.

Allow me to explain.

Every time my aunt visits, I swear it's every time, she always gives me some words of wisdom.

It's like having your own yogi or something because she "gets it" in my opinion.

What I mean by that is that we share similar spiritual views.

She tells me that my focus right now is to be who I really am.

I'll admit the real me got lost somewhere in between everything that's happened with me in my personal (medical) life.

For someone who boasts pretty loudly that they don't care what the world thinks, I always have.

I'm just as insecure as any other girl.

Writing has always been my way to get that out.

Then it became the thing I just enjoyed doing above all else.

I'm starting to feel it though.

This pull to break free from whatever chains I've placed on myself and just BE.

I've had other writer/poet friends tell me that I'm "almost there" or that "if only you could just bleed, really bleed onto that paper" just to name some examples.

I get what they mean.

And to get deeper into yourself is scary.

So much muck (for me) to claw through.

So much darkness.

Pain, even.

But I've got to.

I feel it's starting to reflect already.

And I'm enjoying it as well.

This is who I am.

I'm a friggen' poet!


Reading poetry helps too.

And at night I have some on audio.

Poetry is not dead.

I'm going to prove it.

:)

But in the meantime please feel free to check out my personal blog for updates.

Wish me luck, comrades!


Sunday, August 8, 2010

When Old Stories Attack...

It's a funny thing... this business of trying to forge a name for yourself as a creative force to be reckoned with. I could go on and on about how real life gets in the way, how procrastination continually rears its ugly head, blah blah blah. But to be honest, I'm getting kind of sick of hearing myself whine about the hardships of making the time and mustering up the motivation to progress with my writing. For those of you who have yet to reach this breaking point, check the archives for my previous posts. I think it's safe to say that I've beaten that point to a bloody pulp long ago.

Anyway, on to the business at hand... even though my apartment search, full-time job and burgeoning social life have cut into the amount of man-hours I've been devoting to my creative writing i.e. the kind I'm NOT getting paid for (at least, not yet...lol), I know that I need to be returning to my dust-covered novel. It's been so long since I paid a visit to my cynical, world-weary protagonist that he's probably starting to resent me for it.

Yet, while I should be filled with a sense of obligation to better realize the universe he inhabits, I am instead finding myself drawn back to another story. Call it creative infidelity if you want, but I keep feeling like this tale - which I previously started but never finished as a screenplay - is screaming to finally be told. I've told some of you that it is my intention to turn this semiautobiographical coming-of-age love story into a trilogy of novellas. And Lord knows that the pages and pages of notes I have are more than enough material to coalesce into an AMAZING story if executed properly.

But here's my quandary: The writing gods always say never to actively begin work on another project whilst your current one remains unfinished. I've already broken this commandment once, and I'm hesitant to let the novel lie for a while longer to tell this much more personal story. However, at the same time, I don't want to let this inspiration slip me by if I'm finally ready to build enough momentum with this project to get it done.

So, in my dilemma, I turn to you, fellow writers. Should I push myself to revise my novel and get that 100% ready to go first or should I allow it to rest comfortably on the backburner while I return to my pet project, which has been simmering in some form or another for the better part of a decade?

Sound off in the comments.. and, as always, happy writing!!!

-Rob