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W R I T I N G W O R L D
A World of Writing Information - For Writers Around the World
http://www.writing-world.com
Issue 7:11 16,300 subscribers November 1, 2007
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SPECIAL NOTICE: Please DO NOT REPLY to this e-mail; any messages
sent in reply to the newsletter are deleted. See the bottom of
this newsletter for information on how to subscribe, unsubscribe,
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CONTENTS
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The Editor's Desk
The Publisher's Desk:
NEWS from the World of Writing
THE INQUIRING WRITER: Writing Advice, by Dawn Copeman
FEATURE: Blueprints-Building A Home For Your Characters
by Elizabeth Chayne
The Write Sites -- Online Resources for Writers
THE WRITING DESK: Characters, by Moira Allen
WHAT'S NEW at Writing World
WRITING CONTESTS with no entry fees
The Author's Bookshelf
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I FINALLY FOUND A WAY TO MAKE A LIVING AS A WRITER
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lucrative business: http://www.thewriterslife.com/iff/wwa6/
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FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
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NaNoWriMo - Or Lots Of Coffee Please!
-------------------------------------
It might have escaped your attention, but NaNoWriMo starts today.
For those of you who haven't heard of it, this is National Novel
Writing Month. It runs every year from the 1st to 30th November
and the idea is to write 50,000 words of your novel, from scratch,
during the month.
This seems like a crazy idea! And it is, but even so some 79,000
writers around the world tried it last year; me included. I didn't
manage to write 50,000 words though, although 13,000 writers did.
But I did manage 17,000 and I know that's 17,000 more than I would
have done if I hadn't been taking part. NaNoWriMo is the brainchild
of Chris Baty, who started the whole event running in July 1999.
The idea has snowballed since the first year, when only 21 writers
took part. 13 books started during NaNoWriMo have been published,
some have gone on to become bestsellers and the concept has grown
so much that they now run a special Young Writer's Program too.
But apart from being a crazy idea - an idea where you are scraping
together as much time as possible in front of the keyboard, living
on coffee, adrenalin and not a lot of sleep - it is also an
inspired idea. It's a spur to get you to actually write the book
that is living in your head. And it is also a way of giving
something back.
Because NaNoWriMo is more than a great, once-a-year writing group;
it also does charity work. In 2004 they gave half their profits,
$7000, to Room to Read, its Cambodian libraries program, which was
enough to establish threechildren's libraries in Cambodia. Last
year this figure was over $22,000 dollars.
However, as 1667 words a day (the amount you need to write to
complete NaNoWriMo) is a hard task, at our sister site,
http://www.newbie-writers.com, we're running a mini Nanowrimo. This
has a target of just 5000 words by the end of the month, or 200
words each day. Now 200 words a day is easily achievable and whilst
it won't get your novel completed in a month, it will enable you to
at least make a start on it. Plus it's good practice for writing
every day, which, realistically, is what we need to do if we're
ever going to get our masterpiece finished.
If you do fancy having a go at NaNoWriMo, either in its original
glory or in a mini-version, sign up at http://www.nanowrimo.org
anytime until midnight on November 30 (yes that is the deadline!)
And if you are taking part, then over at newbie-writers we have a
special forum for you to share your experiences.
And as it is NaNoWriMo month, we've got lots of advice for you on
how to craft your bestseller. So take time out from your writing
schedule to have yet another cup of coffee and check out our
article on how to build a home for your characters, something which
many of us overlook, and Moira's advice on whether characters
really do 'come alive' and take over your story.
Plus, if you missed last month's issue, check out Marilyn
Henderson's article, "Can I make a living as a novelist?" online
at: http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/novelist.shtml. And don't
forget, we have articles covering most genres online too! So, when
you next take a break from writing, surf along to
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/index.shtml.
See you after NaNoWriMo!
-- Dawn Copeman, Editor
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CHILDREN'S WRITERS
Improve your competitive edge and publishing record with this vital
monthly newsletter of editors' wants and needs, market studies, and
genre analyses loaded with editors' tips and insights into subjects
and styles they're looking for right now. Get a Free Issue and
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FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESK
=================================================================
The Harvest Season
------------------
Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. I love the leaves,
the crispness of the air, the squash and pumpkins and all the other
elements of "harvest time." Something about the air always makes
me restless; I find myself digging into the craft cabinet, wanting
to "create."
For a writer, however, every season can be "harvest time." But we
reap a harvest only if we also consider every season to be
"planting time" as well. Writing is truly a business where one
reaps what one sows. By sowing "writing time," we reap a growing
word-count. By sowing "practice," we reap improvement. By sowing
queries, we eventually (hopefully) reap assignments. By sowing
submissions, we reap sales.
There have been many discussions as to what distinguishes a "real"
writer (published or not) from a "wannabe" writer -- and perhaps
one way to make that distinction is through this analogy of sowing
and reaping. The "wannabe" writer is the writer who longs for the
harvest; he or she wants to reap, but not to sow. The wannabe
wishes to pluck the perfect fruit from the apple tree -- but
doesn't want the chore of planting and tending the tree! The
wannabe sees that pile of glowing, gorgeous golden pumpkins at the
harvest stand and thinks, "I could have a pile of those," but never
quite gets around to tilling the field and planting the seeds.
The "real" writer -- again, published or unpublished -- is the one
who does not shy away from the hard toil of "sowing." A farmer is
well aware that he can spend arduous weeks and months plowing,
planting, and tending a crop, and still end up with a harvest,
quite often through circumstances beyond his control. But he sows
anyway, because he also knows that if he DOESN'T, then "no harvest"
isn't just a chance but a certainty. Real writers are the same.
They know that their hard labor may, in fact, go unrewarded. The
critique group may not like their story; the queries may go
unanswered; the submissions may be returned with a form rejection
note. But they also know that while hard labor still involves the
CHANCE of failure, no labor ensures the CERTAINTY of failure.
If there is a purpose to Writing-World.com, it is to help in that
sowing. It is to encourage, and point the way, and provide tools,
and again to encourage, because let's face it; this can be a pretty
discouraging business! But eventually, the harvest comes -- and one
of the best things about being a writer is that "harvest time"
doesn't just come once a year.
Fall, however, does -- and I hope you're all enjoying it as well!
-- Moira Allen (editors"at"writing-world.com)
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BECOME A BETTER WRITER:
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NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF WRITING
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POD AND AUTHORS' RIGHTS - AN UNEXPECTED PROBLEM
-----------------------------------------------
In the good old days, if your book wasn't selling and was
officially out-of-print, the rights to that book reverted back to
you as the author. However, Simon & Schuster decided that if a
book exists anywhere, even in electronic form ready to be
downloaded from the internet or printed-on-demand, it is not
'out-of-print' and therefore the publisher will not return the
rights to the author. This decision caused outrage at the Author's
Guild and eventually Simon & Schuster revised their decision to
allow rights to revert to the author once revenue dips below a
certain level. There are concerns, however, that the existence of
books in electronic format, awaiting POD, could have long-term
effects on author's rights on both sides of the pond. To find out
how read: http://tinyurl.com/2l3f7p
AMAZON LAUNCH AUDIOBOOKS STORE
-------------------------------
Amazon has launched a new audiobook store fuelling fears that it
might soon sell audiobooks as downloads. Whilst Amazon has always
offered audiobooks, this move to setting up a dedicated store
enables it to focus on its wide range of audiobook titles and to
offer audiobook customers the same range of functions as other
users of the site such as reviews, bargains and bestseller lists.
For more information visit: http://tinyurl.com/3a38sl
DORIS LESSING WINS NOBEL PRIZE
----------------------------------
British novelist, Doris Lessing has, at 87, become the oldest
person to ever win the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is also the
11th female to have received the $1.5 million award as well as
being the second British winner in three years. Harold Pinter won
it in 2005. Describing her as "that epicist of the female
experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has
subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny", the Swedish academy
gave her the award in recognition of over fifty years of published
works. Lessing will receive her award from King Carl XVI Gustaf of
Sweden in a ceremony to be held in Stockholm on December 10.
For more information visit: http://tinyurl.com/2jcxzm
RAPID GROWTH IN ONLINE USERS FOR UK NEWSPAPERS
---------------------------------------------------
Four of the UK's newspapers have seen a record surge in the number
of online users. Figures released from the Audit Bureau of
Circulations Electronic (ABCE) show that The Times, The Telegraph,
The Guardian and The Sun all enjoyed higher than ever visitor
numbers in September. The Guardian is the UK's most-read online
newspaper with over 16.7 million users, an increase of 3 million
users in the past year. The Times had over 12.5 million users, an
increase of 2.3 million users in just a month. The Sun recorded
10.7 million users whilst The Telegraph has passed the 10 million
online readers mark for the first time.
For more information visit: http://tinyurl.com/2lg7gb
THE GUARDIAN LAUNCHES IN AMERICA
---------------------------------
As well as scooping the highest number of online readers in the UK,
the Guardian is going global and has now launched Guardian America,
an online-only offering to attract US readers. Guardian America
hopes to capitalize on the 32% of unique users of Guardian
Unlimited (the online edition of the newspaper) that are American.
Guardian America is based in Washington and will cover US as well
as international news stories in a multi-media format.
For more information visit: http://tinyurl.com/33dk2w
REUTERS TRIALS CELLPHONE REPORTING
-------------------------------------
It used to be that to become a journalist you needed to know
shorthand. Now it seems an ability to use Twitter and Flickr is
more appropriate. Reuters has revealed that its reporters are
testing the use of a lightweight reporting pack of a specially
adapted Nokia videophone to file their stories. Using the kit,
stories can be filed and published without any additional technical
or editorial support, as the phone can interact directly with the
in-house editorial system. Sky News is another proponent of this
new style of journalism and regularly receives news from cell
phones, with Twitter being used to input text and Flickr for photos
and videos. For more information visit:
http://tinyurl.com/2tpp2m
REMEMBER, INKSPOT NO LONGER EXISTS
----------------------------------
Debbie Ohi, creator and co-editor of Inkspot would like to remind
people that Inkspot no longer exists. It was one of the first
writers' websites on the web before it was closed down by a
subsequent purchaser. Debbie emailed us to say "I've been
encouraging people to delete their links to Inkspot. It turns out
so many people are STILL linking to the old Inkspot pages that
Google still gives it higher priority than it should ... and now
that Writing.com has the domain; all traffic is being funnelled
into their site instead." For more information on this visit:
http://tinyurl.com/2saens
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THE INQUIRING WRITER
=================================================================
by Dawn Copeman (editorial"at"writing-world.com)
Last month I wondered whether you've ever taken writing advice from
unusual sources. If so, what were these sources and what was the
advice? More importantly, did the advice work?
Well, I only got one reply to this question. But given that we've
got an information packed issue for you, that's no problem. In
fact, Francine Allen (no relation to Moira) not only supplied a
reply, but also a new question for us all.
Francine writes: "I recently came across two bits of texts that
could be applied to writing. One is from Mark Twain - (I found it
at the back of an Oxfam catalogue!): 'Twenty years from now you
will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by
the ones you did do. Explore. Dream. Discover.'
"The other is from French author La Rochefoucauld, taken from his
Maximes. I shall translate as best I can from the French: 'Those
who apply themselves to too small things ordinarily become
incapable of doing big ones.' This seems to complement nicely what
you mention in your last but one paragraph of your editorial.
"Too early to say if the advice works since I have only recently
decided to give myself permission to explore who I am. Rather a
difficult one. So, I thought a good start would be to try to
develop the things I was best at and enjoyed most at school:
writing and art. And, you'll ask, what's so unusual about that?
Well, I have now reached 65. So, the lines above speak directly to
me. If I don't do it, and now, when will I ever?
"Any other 'later bloomer' amongst the readers? When did you start?
And how are you getting on?
"Looking forward to your reactions/opinions/advice/experiences...!"
So, do we have any more late bloomers amongst our readers? If so,
let us know when and why you started writing and how you are
finding it.
Email me with the subject line: late bloomers to
editorial"at"writing-world.com."
Till next time,
Dawn
>>-----------------------------------------------------<<
Dawn Copeman is a freelance writer based in England. She is the
author of over 100 articles and is the editor of Writing World
and also of Newbie Writers, http://www.newbie-writers.com, a site
for new and aspiring writers. Dawn is also a copywriter as well
as a contributing editor and columnist at
http://www.timetravel-britain.com. Visit her website at
http://www.write-away.biz
Copyright (c) 2007 by Dawn Copeman
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BLUEPRINTS: BUILDING A HOME FOR YOUR CHARACTERS
===================================================================
by Elizabeth Chayne
Whether you're writing a mystery, a historical novel, or a
contemporary romance, your characters will probably need a place to
live, be it a stately manor, awe-inspiring castle, or humble hut.
In that case, you'll need a house plan.
The immediate advantage about drawing a house plan for your
characters is that it can give you a fairly concrete idea of what
sort of house your hero lives in. Of course, it's never going to be
the same as actually standing in a real house, but if you don't
have a substantial bank account to buy a real-life model, house
plans are the next best option. Even if it doesn't get included in
the final book, it's kind of fun to create a house on paper. You
can plop sinks, bathrooms, not to mention expensive furniture
you'll never be able to afford, anywhere you want to.
It can be pretty difficult to draw a house plan after you've
finished the manuscript. (Difficult, but not impossible.) Since
you've probably thought out all the scenes scene by scene, adding
furnishings wherever it suits the atmosphere, you may find that
there's a bookshelf at the top of the stairs in page one, and a
grandfather clock in that exact same spot on page three. For that
reason, it's better to figure out a layout before you begin, or
when you're just beginning, the story, so that the furniture and
rooms of your house will stay constant.
If the sound of the word "drawing" calls up torturous memories of
high school art classes, you might want to go for the simple
sketching method. All you need is a pen, a ruler, and some grid
paper, if you can get it. (If not, normal paper will do just fine.)
Just draw a few rectangles and figure out symbols for doors and
windows, and you'll have a basic plan.
If you know your way round a computer, you'll find house plan
drawing comes with a few more options than the DIY method. One site
I really recommend is Small Blue Printer
(http://www.smallblueprinter.com). It's an online program (read: no
tedious downloading time!) that enables you to draw the walls,
windows, and doors of your home. The site also gives you an
isometric view and a 3D walkthrough of the house. (And if you also
want to plan out a garden, you can try out their garden planner.)
Microsoft Word can also be your new best friend in the house plan
drawing business. By putting a few rectangles together with the
help of the "auto shapes" option, you can create a
semi-professional looking sketch.
When planning out your house, keep an eye on room placement. Don't
let bathrooms open out on dining rooms, for instance. Also remember
to do research on the time period you're working. Kitchens may have
had fireplaces before more modern equipment, and toilets may have
been outside the house before plumbing came along.
Once you've got the basic plan ready, decide which rooms are which,
and make a note, either by writing in the corner of the room or on
the back of the paper. If there are multiple floors, check that
you've put the stairs in the same place on every floor. Add
furniture such as tables, chairs, and beds with the help of simple
squares, circles, and rectangles. Smaller accessories like vases,
lamps, and the like can be "placed" in the rooms simply by writing
their names down wherever you want to put them. But don't think
that just because you've got small writing you can put tons and
tons of stuff on a table or in a room--readers may be surprised by
how many lamps your bedside table has the capacity to hold! When in
doubt, use a tape measurer to help you get a feel for sizes and
distances.
There are a large number of decorating programs online, but I don't
seriously recommend any of them unless you're planning to become a
decorator in your spare time. Most of the programs need to be paid
for, and it's simply not worth the cash to draw one or two house
plans every year or so. (If you like, however, you can take
advantage of the free trials some of these programs offer, and see
how you feel about decorating programs in general.) Decorating
websites, on the other hand, are sometimes worth a look, as their
descriptions and product pictures can help you when describing the
house in your story.
During the course of your tale, the furniture may be moved around,
broken, or stolen. Remember to update your house plan whenever that
happens so that you won't have characters absent-mindedly admiring
vases that were broken into bits a couple of chapters ago. Just put
a little pencil cross or some other mark you'll recognize later
over the item in question, and add a few notes such as "stolen",
"broken", "given away", so that you won't have to comb through the
book afterwards to find out exactly why the furniture is no longer
there.
You don't have to get the whole house, down to the food in the
fridge, all mapped out at one time. Little details can be added as
the story calls for them, and some rooms may never come into the
story at all.
Even if your final house isn't as dreamlike as you hoped, as long
as it serves its purpose, it'll do. Remember, you're drawing this
to help with your writing, to give you an idea of the setting, and
to aid you when "blocking" complicated scenes--not to enter in an
art contest. It's okay if a few lines are crooked or if you make a
spelling mistake. After all, no one but you will be seeing it.
Drawing up a house shouldn't take too long; about a week at the
very outside for a novel, a day or two for novelettes or longer
short stories. For flash fiction, a five to fifteen minute rough
sketch should be all you require. The extra time you spend making
sure your house plan is "perfect" should be better used for
writing. Again, this is just a writing tool, so it shouldn't take
up too much of your actual writing time.
It's not as if you're going to live in the house, is it?
Editor's Note: Several home style magazines, such as Country Living
in the US, offer home advertisements with floorplans in the "back
of the book." Log cabin home magazines area another good source of
floorplans.
>>-----------------------------------------------------<<
Elizabeth Chayne has been a professional translator and interpreter
for over seven years, working with a large number of international
organizations and language schools. She also enjoys writing fiction
in her spare time.
For more information on writing novels, (and boy, do we have a lot
of information on this) visit:
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/index.shtml
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WORLDWIDE FREELANCE WRITER - You can download a free list of
writing markets if you subscribe this week. Discover almost 2,000
writing markets from USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Australasia.
http://www.worldwidefreelance.com
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THE WRITE SITES
=================================================================
Hitthosekeys.com
----------------
A warm and friendly, well-written site with useful tips on how to
get unblocked and get writing. Click on the 'tips' button in the
welcome words for a full run-through of what the site can do for
you.
http://www.hitthosekeys.com/
PapersnPen.com
--------------------
New site for new writers.
http://www.papersnpen.com/
HowtoBooks - Writing
-------------------------------
Useful little site I've just found with articles on writing
fiction, nonfiction and novels.
http://www.howtobooks.co.uk/leisure/writing/
Technical Writing Tips
----------------------
Ever wanted to be a technical writer? This site tells you what one
is and how to set about becoming one.
http://www.klariti.com/technical-writing/index.shtml
bbc.co.uk/getwriting
---------------------------
A range of free, online, creative writing courses taught by
creative writing tutors from British universities. The courses run
at beginner, intermediate and advanced level and cover most fiction
genres. Start whenever you want to and study at your own pace.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting/minicourse
Apostrophe Protection Society
-------------------------------
This site does what it says on the tin. If you need to learn how
to use an apostrophe or want to see how they are being abused -
check out this site.
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
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NEW AND ESTABLISHED MARKETS FOR YOUR WRITING. Up-to-date
submission guidelines/leads for poetry, short prose, and book
projects. You'll receive your FREE report TODAY via email
NEWSFLASH. Visit http://www.writersrelief.com or call toll-free
(866) 405-3003. Absolutely no subscription or purchase
necessary. We'll share our know-how with you. In our 14th Year!
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Write It Right: The Ground Rules for Self-Editing Like The Pros
shows you how! $17.95 + s/h.
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*****************************************************************
THE WRITING DESK
=================================================================
By Moira Allen
Do characters really "come alive" and take over a story?
---------------------------------------------------------
"I'm in the process of reading a book called "Scene and Structure"
by Jack M. Bickham. He declares that "characters don't take over
stories" and that characters are purely imaginary; one should not
think of them as "real." Now, while I understand what he's getting
at, and I even agree to a point, I think basically he's wrong. I
like to give my characters their head and see where they take me.
Sometimes they take me places I hadn't thought to go and give me
new, more interesting twists. I also believe that if you think of
your characters are not being real people, but as figments of your
imagination, you won't spend the time needed to flesh them out into
characters that people will sympathize with. There's also the
danger that if you don't let your characters talk to you sometimes,
if you force them to act in ways that you want them to, in order to
forward your plot, your scenes will feel stilted and unrealistic.
Do you agree with My. Bickham or not? Do you think of your
characters as being real people, or only figments of your
imagination?"
First, I tend to disagree with a lot of what Jack Bickham says.
Bickham strongly emphasizes the "formula" approach to writing a
novel -- use this formula, and you'll have a marketable novel.
This may be true, but it doesn't mean you'll have a good one.
Bickham tends to boast of the number of novels he has sold, using
his techniques -- but how many folks really remember them? This is
the man who brought you "The Apple Dumpling Gang."
My own reaction to "characters coming alive" is mixed. I don't
consider my characters "real", in the sense of having an existence
outside my head -- but within my head, I find that they have
unexpected lives and dimensions beyond what I might have
deliberately "plotted" for them. In other words, yes, they can
indeed surprise me.
I think there are several factors involved in characters who "take
over" their own stories and destinies. One is that we have a lot of
subconscious information in our heads about people, how people
think and work and behave and interact and so forth. So while we
may sit down to "script" a character who is "supposed" to have a
particular personality, set of behaviors, etc., what we are
scripting may run up against the reality of what we actually "know"
about real people. We want a character who has X background, Y
characteristics, and Z role in our story. But (I think) when those
components come together, our subconscious minds may start to tell
us what a person who really has these characteristics would be
like, rather than what we want this person to do on our pages.
As a hypothetical example, suppose you want to write about a young
woman who has grown up in a repressive, possibly abusive
environment. Chances are, you know people who have grown up in
similar environments. For the purposes of your story, you want
this woman to be rebellious, always flouting the rules, because she
has learned to hate oppressive rules in her past. Maybe you also
want her to have a hard time building solid relationships -- she's
always keeping people "outside," keeping her personal life behind
walls. These behaviors are going to be key to certain plot
developments in your story.
But as you write about this character, you find that she evolves in
a different way. She's angry, yes -- but instead of being a
flagrant rebel, you find that she keeps her anger locked up inside;
outwardly, she is a lot more quiet than you intended. You keep
wanting her to behave outrageously -- but each time you write such
a scene for her, it feels forced -- because you just can't convince
yourself that this woman would behave in such a way. Perhaps,
also, instead of pushing people away from her, she has a mixture of
responses to relationships -- she craves closeness and fears it, or
she tends to get involved with the wrong sort of person. And you
find that you're having a lot of trouble making this woman "fit"
the plot you had in mind for her.
What just happened here? What happened is that you gave a
character a history and a set of personality traits that didn't
actually support the "type" of character you wanted. You had a
character "in mind," -- but when you began to "write" this
character, what began to emerge was, in fact, a more realistic
person based on your conscious and subconscious knowledge of "how
real people work." When you try to "force" your character to
behave the way you wanted her to, for the sake of plot, it feels
wrong, because subconsciously you know that the character you
created probably wouldn't behave this way in "real life."
The character didn't "take over." What took over was your deeper
knowledge of how people tick -- which overrode the "invention" you
were trying to create.
Another issue is trying to make your character fit your plot. Some
stories are plot-driven, and characterization in such stories tends
to be secondary. Other stories are character-driven, in which case
plot may actually be somewhat secondary. (Read Orson Scott Card's
"How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" for a better overview of
this issue.) If characters, and the development and interaction of
your characters, are the "most important" part of your story, I
believe one of the worst things you can do is try to bend your
characters to fit your plot. They'll end up looking contrived and
unreal.
As your characters evolve into real people, I believe you should
try to let your plot evolve out of the potential reactions and
interactions of those characters. Give them a situation, then step
back and ask, "In this situation, what would these people do?"
rather than ask, "How can I make these people do the things I want
them to do in my plot?" If you try to bend characters to plot,
there are going to be times when the reader (and the writer) is
going to wonder why these people are behaving in ways that are hard
to believe.
On another note, I also believe it's dangerous to allow yourself to
"become" your characters. Once you do that, it becomes much more
difficult to control them -- as you end up with this sense that
things "really happened" a particular way -- and then you can't
"change" how they happened. It also poses the risk of each
character actually being you, or a part of you -- rather than being
drawn from a broader base.
>>-----------------------------------------------------<<
Copyright (c) 2007 by Moira Allen
Moira Allen, publisher of Writing-World.com, has published more
than 350 articles and columns and seven books, including How to
Write for Magazines, Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer,
The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals, and
Writing.com: Creative Internet Strategies to Advance Your Writing
Career. Allen has served as columnist and contributing editor for
The Writer and has written for Writer's Digest, Byline, and various
other writing publications. In addition to Writing-World.com, Allen
hosts the travel website TimeTravel-Britain.com and The Pet Loss
Support Page. She can be contacted at editors"at"writing-world.com.
For more information on characters, visit:
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/index.shtml
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Writing for Young Readers, Worldbuilding Considerations for the
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Can I make a living as a novelist? by Marilyn Henderson
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AMY WRITING AWARDS
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DEADLINE: December 31, 2007
GENRE: Nonfiction
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PRIZE: $1,000 Grand Prize - $2450 total
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Website Editor: MOIRA ALLEN (editors"at"writing-world.com)
Newsletter Editor: DAWN COPEMAN (editorial"at"writing-world.com)
Copyright 2007 Moira Allen
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