• The Finalists – Part Two

    Yesterday I introduced five of the top 10 entries in my writing contest. Today, five more. If yours isn’t here, take heart, you’re still in the top 35. And I will have another contest, too. Lots of them if people keep reading my blog. I already have the prize picked out for the next one. Well, half of the prize, anyway. If you’ve been to the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, you’ll be familiar with it. Here’s a hint: Mold-a-rama. Google it and be entranced by injection molding technology for the zoo-going masses. And now, on to the rest of the top 10. * * * * * * * *…

  • The Finalists – Part One

    Before I explain how this works, let me say one more time how impressed I was by the quality of the submissions to the writing contest. They ranged from “needs work, but not a bad start” to “that’s amazing.” Even if you didn’t make the top 10, you can rest assured your entry wasn’t horrible. If that’s not reassuring enough for you, consider this: judging writing is a subjective thing. What I love may be very different from what another editor (or agent, or publisher) loves. Please don’t throw rocks at me if you disagree with my selections. Here’s how I chose. First, I read each entry once through without…

  • Brief Sunday Update

    A quick thanks to all of you who entered my contest. There were a total of 35 entries, and while that may not seem like a lot, I’m very pleased with the response. After all, this blog is only 4 weeks old and the contest demanded your careful thought and time. So…thank you, truly. I’ll be going through the entries in the next two days and will announce the winner on Wednesday. It’s gonna be tough, because there are some great ones. Meanwhile, I wrote a short story of my own last night – one of those midnight creations. It’s not a 200-word piece involving a wristwatch. Just something inspired…

  • A Writing Contest Tease

    It’s Friday, so I can do whatever I want here on the ol’ blog. So here’s what I’m going to do – plug the contest one more time. You’ve got until midnight tonight to throw 200 words together and toss them in my general direction. Click here for details about the contest, then check your watch, put pen to paper, and write like your life depends on it. Just for fun, I thought I’d show you a tiny glimpse of what’s been sent so far. If you don’t see a sentence from your story here, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. This is just a random tease to show…

  • Pause, Consider, Caption

    I’m swamped with work so I’m taking the day off from writing a post. Why don’t you use this time to work on your entry for the Help Keep Stephen Off Prozac Writing Contest Extravaganza? The competition is really heating up. I’m thinking of posting a few teaser excerpts on the blog tomorrow. The promised post on how to make your second novel better than your first will appear next week. But since you took the time to click and visit the blog today, I have to give you something, right? So here’s a photo I snapped last summer in Chicago at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Hey, I know… why don’t you…

  • Help Keep Stephen Off Prozac Writing Contest Extravaganza

    UPDATE: A big ‘thank you’ to all who have already entered the contest. Each one of you is brilliant and beautiful (and/or handsome) and deserves to win for your writing skill, apparent compassion and Santa-Yoda covetousness. Now, tell all your friends, okay? (Don’t worry, they’re not quite as talented as you are. No way they can win that Santa-Yoda. But by asking, you’ll make them feel special. And that’s a good thing.) I tend to get a little bit depressed sitting alone in my tiny garden-level apartment writing these blog posts, wondering if anyone out there in the Interworld cares about the blood, sweat and tears that I pretend to…

  • Titles, a Sentence and Contest Plans

    Friday Item The First – Titles I like book titles. I make them up all the time. In fact, most of my short stories began as nothing more than a title. If you’ve memorized James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure, you know that on page 38 he lists “making up titles” as a great way to spark plot ideas. Well, continuing the spirit of generosity I began yesterday, I thought I’d just go ahead and give you five titles.* Now all you have to do is write a great novel around them. You can do that, right? Kick the Mountain The Truth About Climbing Trees A Modest Collapse Thief of Seasons…