More About the First Annual (First Ever) NOVELWritingSite.com Writing Contest

Again this week, let me remind you about our first ever Annual NOVELWritingSite.com contest.

Hopefully throughout the fall semester, you’ve been trying out some of your new skills on stories of your own. Is it working?

We’re offering you the opportunity to have professional writers take a look at the first twelve pages of your story and give you some positive feedback and ideas.

I realize that may sound a little scary for some people. When I started writing, there were many stories that I didn’t let anyone read. Not friends. Not even family. Sometimes especially not friends or family. I put a lot of myself into those stories, so I was really sensitive about people’s responses. Suggestions that my story was flawed in any way made me feel like I, personally, had failed to meet approval. But who would understand those fears better than a fellow writer? It’s safe to say that your entry will be read by kind and sympathetic volunteers who like stories and like to encourage people who write them.

If that doesn’t make you feel more confident, try this: In at least the first round, no one will know who wrote the story. Names will be removed, so we won’t know who you are until it’s time to send out the results. If this is your debute, we’ll let you “sing from behind the curtain”–totally incognito.

Sounding better? 🙂

Here’s what to do:

• Select a story that you feel reflects your best efforts–something you wrote independently.
• Make sure you’re subscribed by email or RSS Fed to www.aNOVELWritingSite.com. Only regular readers may enter, but subscribing is easy. Just follow the directions in the left side bar under “Subscribe.”
• Send the first 12 pages of your story by midnight, May 1, 2010 as an email attachment. Your submission should be typed, double-spaced with 1″ margins, in Times New Roman font (12 pitch size) and saved as a Word document in Rich Text format. Please use a header to show the title of your story and the page number on each page, but do not include your name in the header. If you know the genre of your story, you may include that information also.
• In the body of your email, please be sure to tell us your name and the name of your story. If you could tell us something about yourself, how far along you are in your story, or how long you’ve been writing, that would be interesting as well.
• Entries will be critiqued by one or more of our contributors.
• Categories will depend somewhat on how many entries we receive from writers of various ages in each genre. Winning entries in each category will receive a full critique and a copy of A Novel Idea: Best Advice on Writing Inspirational Fiction, a compilation of tips from best-selling Christian novelists. This is a really good book!

So be brave! Take the challenge! There’s really nothing to lose but your jitters. 🙂 And don’t forget to subscribe to receive this blog regularly.

Best wishes for a happy new year from your friends at aNOVELWritingSite.com!