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Contests & Activities: January 27, 2016 Issue [#7450]

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Contests & Activities


 This week: A New You
  Edited by: Leger~ Author IconMail Icon
                             More Newsletters By This Editor  Open in new Window.

Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

The purpose of this newsletter is to highlight some of the current contests and activities on the site, help educate members on how to host contests and activities, and provide clues to submit quality entries to contests. Write to me if you'd like something in particular covered.

This week's Contests and Activities Editor
Leger~ Author Icon


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Letter from the editor


Now What?


The season of resolutions is slowly melting away, and for some of us the snow piles are growing. While you have a little downtime before the season of love next month, review your aspirations for the upcoming year. If some of them included a new activity or contest some time in the future, the time to act is now.

Say you're going to run a Spring activity. If you know what type of item you're going to use, why not set it up now with place holders for things like the [banner] or [judge names] in the formatting. This gives you some time to set up your rules, step away from them a bit and come back to see if they're succinct and cover every inevitability. It also gives you time to chat with your network of friends and see who would be willing to step on board and give you a hand.

This prevents those panic emails "I need help judging TOMORROW, can you read fifty stories for me?" This way your helpers can set aside a few quiet evenings to give you a hand and make your contest or activity look like a well-oiled machine. A contest or activity that looks like it has it's act together will get more interaction. Isn't that the purpose of this website?

And speaking about the upcoming month of Love, it's time to brainstorm. Many contests use similar prompts year after year, right? Why not take a look at older, closed contest prompts and brainstorm some story ideas to have in your pocket when the new contests open. Maybe jot down a few character ideas and a few scene locations. It's easier to hold a story line in your head if you're not brainstorming for a good description of a coffee shop.

While you're at it, have a good cup of coffee and Write On!

This month's question: Do you peruse old contests to start new story / activity ideas? Send in your answer below! *Down* Editors love feedback!


Editor's Picks


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Scary Animal tales Open in new Window. (E)
A short story contest. Show me the monster.
#2068383 by Danger Mouse Author IconMail Icon

Excerpt: Animal Horror - Animals as Ghosts, Zombies, Vampires or Psychopaths. Any monster will do.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2040737 by Not Available.

Excerpt: Can you take the challenge to write me a story or poem in the equivalent of a tweet - 140 characters or less?

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2055579 by Not Available.

Excerpt: All you need to do, is to write a story or poem as if the object itself is actually an animate character. Give the object animate (human) thoughts, feelings, family, body parts, emotions etc.

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Sweetheart's Contest Open in new Window. (13+)
Winners Posted- See you in next time! Bring me your best poems, happy or heartbreaking!
#598466 by Lexi Author IconMail Icon

Excerpt: All entries must be based on love, relationships, or romance, but they do not necessarily need to be happy. I'm also a sucker for unrequited love.

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The Dialogue 500 Open in new Window. (18+)
Dialogues of 500 words or less.
#941862 by W.D.Wilcox Author IconMail Icon

Excerpt: This contest uses only spoken words or internal dialogue!

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1926503 by Not Available.

Excerpt: Would you like an upgraded membership, but do not have the funds to get it? Well this is the contest for you! Get your running shoes on, check out the rules and get started! You may end up the winner of a beautiful upgraded membership, built to last for three months!

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The Soundtrack of Your Life Open in new Window. (18+)
Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!
#1970896 by Jeff Author IconMail Icon

Excerpt: Your entries can be anything: biographical, poetry, short stories (not to exceed 1,000 words and please include word count) or a variety of all of the above ~ whatever your favorite music inspires you to write that day!

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2070763 by Not Available.

Excerpt: I decided to start the year challenging myself since I've wanted to get back to short story writing and haven't done it in between everything. I work best to challenges and deadlines. My first thought was one a week all year long, but I'm a Nanowrimo writer and December is full of Christmas and family activities, so I'm going from January through October.

Since I've had interest from others, I'm setting up this forum for anyone who wants to join us and talk about how it's going. You don't need to make it Jan-Oct. You can choose to skip two other months that are too busy for you or simply make it 44 stories within the year.

Who's in? Post a message with your book item or folder where you'll post at least the starts of your stories and I'll add them here so we can easily visit each other.


 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2070194 by Not Available.

Excerpt: This group serves to enable fellow members to promote spiritual, supernatural, scientific, archaeological, astrological, paranormal, esoteric writings, world affairs affecting spiritually aware people; and everything closely related to these.. The intention is to read, review and rate writings; and to share in fellow member's research and findings.

We intend hereby to raise humankind's awareness of these realities by enlightenment from our writings, and to promote a consciousness awareness.

 
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
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Ask & Answer


This month's question: Do you peruse old contests to start new story / activity ideas? Send in your answer below! *Down* Editors love feedback!

Last month's question: What are your goals for the upcoming year?


Curious Traveler Author Icon replied: Rather than set specific quantity goals such as write a chapter, a book etc, I have decided to keep a tally for the year. This would encourage me to review my progress frequently throughout the year. While I do love goals I find that a full year goal has a tendency to be ignored and become irrelevant by 12 months later. So I guess my goal could be: to keep score or my progress.

dejavu_BIG computerprobs Author Icon sent: Goals for this year, new computer, get back to reviewing and finish,edit my novel, Eyes of Destiny.

GaelicQueen Author Icon responded: Great article! My goals for 2016:
1. Write 1,000 words every day.
2. Conquer fears of rejection and submit stories for publication or self-publish.

Slove Author Icon announced: I met my goals this year, YAY! I wanted to complete my Biology, and Geometry classes in order to graduate in 2016, and I did that, and I wanted to begin illustrating for a book I wrote for children in the beginning of the year. I finally took some online art classes and I have begun the process of illustrating my book. This has been a productive year and a busy one, and I look forward to the upcoming year and sharing with writing.com my reviews, submissions and friendship. Thanks for an awesome site.

CasualWriter~thanks, Anon! Author Icon said: I had a pretty aimless 2015. My only goal for the new year is to keep setting goals and to keep challenging myself throughout.

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