"Life cannot defeat a writer who is in love with writing - for life itself is a writer's love until death." Edna Ferber
An apt description of the woman who helped found the South Carolina Writers Workshop and served on its board. Carrie Allen McCray Nickens had already lived a full and exciting life when she finally took up writing . . . at age 73! She still had works in progress when she died last year at age 94. The SCWW established the Carrie McCray Literary Awards in her honor when the organization began sponsoring the annual conference years ago. Last year the competition was renamed Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards.
And now we welcome a new generation of writers who love life. Who are they? Some of them are last year's Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards winners. Their works described such varied situations as visiting slaves' cabins in Charleston, living in the realm of psychosis and wars in Vietnam and the Middle East. Memoir, murder, mystery, romance and humor were woven into the fabrics of the plays, poetry, nonfiction and fiction that passed through the judges' fingers and caught their eyes.
Some of the writers are many of you. You are the weavers and tellers of stories that hold evidence of your love for life and love for writing, and that's what the Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards recognizes each year. What patterns, colors and textures do you bring to your work? Could it be your piece that catches the judges' eyes this year? Only if you enter.
Submissions for the competition are now being accepted and anyone attending the 2009 South Carolina Writers Workshop annual conference is eligible. There are four categories this year: poetry, nonfiction, short fiction and novel/first chapter. Registrants may submit work in each category, but only one in each. Judging for each section is done by a three-judge panel with a full spectrum of writing interests and credits. More about them later. Complete details for submitting can be found on the SCWW website. Winners will be announced Friday evening during the conference. First Place winners receive $500 and Second Place winners $100. Honorable Mentions are also awarded.
I'm sorry I never had the opportunity to meet Ms. McCray, but with the Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards, her legacy and example will be with us for years to come. And in October we'll meet the writers who have their own way of living their life through their writing. I can't wait to meet them!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Contest Entries: Update
We're having some technical issues with the blog. If you've tried to leave a comment for the contest and couldn't, just send your entry in an email to:
We have it fixed. I think. I hope.
Try to post entries as comments. If it doesn't work, send your entry to the email address above.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Weekly Contest #1 (June 29-July 4)
We're starting the contest off with a tough one. Get your pencils sharpened!
Post your entry on the comments and we'll announce the winner, along with the prize, on Sunday, July 5th. If we post your first name and last initial as the winner, please email us at conference@myscww.org with your contact information.
Here we go!
Take the following paragraph and transform it into the best opening paragraph you can manage. Entries must be no more than 250 words. Posts that go over 250 words will be deleted and not considered for the prize.
Sally Rogers, a tired forty-year old housewife, wiped the counter for the hundredth time. Her kids were so messy! She hated all these chores. She should have followed her dream. Being a showgirl on the Vegas strip was what she wanted from the time she was a little girl. Everyone laughed at her and her made fun of her dreams. If only her mom had paid for dance lessons. Maybe now she wouldn't be a hundred pounds overweight, married to a total slob and living in a rat-infested apartment in Daytona Beach. She had to get the heck out of here. But she needed some funds.
Feel free to add, subtract, alter any details you want as long as the opening keeps the same basic storyline.
Good luck!
Post your entry on the comments and we'll announce the winner, along with the prize, on Sunday, July 5th. If we post your first name and last initial as the winner, please email us at conference@myscww.org with your contact information.
Here we go!
Take the following paragraph and transform it into the best opening paragraph you can manage. Entries must be no more than 250 words. Posts that go over 250 words will be deleted and not considered for the prize.
Sally Rogers, a tired forty-year old housewife, wiped the counter for the hundredth time. Her kids were so messy! She hated all these chores. She should have followed her dream. Being a showgirl on the Vegas strip was what she wanted from the time she was a little girl. Everyone laughed at her and her made fun of her dreams. If only her mom had paid for dance lessons. Maybe now she wouldn't be a hundred pounds overweight, married to a total slob and living in a rat-infested apartment in Daytona Beach. She had to get the heck out of here. But she needed some funds.
Feel free to add, subtract, alter any details you want as long as the opening keeps the same basic storyline.
Good luck!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Major Announcement: Weekly Blog Contest
We're starting our weekly contest! Each week, until the conference, we'll be having a blog contest. I'll post the weekly challenge each Monday. You'll have until the following Saturday at Noon Eastern to post your entry in the form of a comment to the original post.
On Saturday or Sunday of each week, I'll post the winner (first name and last initial) on the blog. You don't have to be a member of SCWW or be registered for the conference to enter. You can pick up your prize upon registration at the conference. If you're not attending the conference, we will mail your prize to you after the conclusion of the conference.
We have some really cool prizes: signed books, craft books, SCWW merchandise and lots of other unique things.
Here are the rules:
1. You must be at least 18 years of age.
2. If you are a winner, you are not eligible for the following week's contest. Please sit out one week to give others a chance to win.
3. Entries that include graphic sex, violence or profanity, or are not related to the topic will be deleted.
4. All contests will be judged by the Chair or a Co-Chair of the 2009 SCWW Conference Committee. All decisions are final.
5. Conference Chair and Co-Chairs are not eligible to enter the contest.
Be on the lookout for your first chance to win. I'll post the challenge on Monday.
On Saturday or Sunday of each week, I'll post the winner (first name and last initial) on the blog. You don't have to be a member of SCWW or be registered for the conference to enter. You can pick up your prize upon registration at the conference. If you're not attending the conference, we will mail your prize to you after the conclusion of the conference.
We have some really cool prizes: signed books, craft books, SCWW merchandise and lots of other unique things.
Here are the rules:
1. You must be at least 18 years of age.
2. If you are a winner, you are not eligible for the following week's contest. Please sit out one week to give others a chance to win.
3. Entries that include graphic sex, violence or profanity, or are not related to the topic will be deleted.
4. All contests will be judged by the Chair or a Co-Chair of the 2009 SCWW Conference Committee. All decisions are final.
5. Conference Chair and Co-Chairs are not eligible to enter the contest.
Be on the lookout for your first chance to win. I'll post the challenge on Monday.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Who do I pick to Critique my Novel at the Conference?
Who do I pick to critique my novel at the conference? That was the question that I faced when I registered for the conference. Figuring out the answer took more time than I anticipated. I bet that I’m not alone in this struggle so I’m going to share my process and the key questions that I asked myself to make the decision.
What do I write?
This one is easy. I write what I love to read – romance. Specifically, I write historical romance. The person I picked to critique my novel needed to know something about what I was writing. They needed to represent, write, or edit romance. This leads to the next set of questions.
What genres do the agents attending the conference represent? What genres do the authors critiquing write? What genres do the editors edit?
These are three related questions. The list of faculty from the conference is available on the facebook group and google is my friend. I googled the names of all the faculty to see what they represented, what they wrote, and what they edited. I picked three faculty members that said they represented historical romance or wrote historical romance.
If I pick an agent, who do they represent? If I pick a writer, have I read their books?
Knowledge is power. You want to pick a faculty member that is a good fit for you. If you look at the list of books that they have sold or written and love the books, then you probably have found a good match for you. If you look at the list of books that they have sold or written and you dislike them, then you should move on to the next person.
Ok, I know that the faculty member that I pick to critique my book is under no obligation to request my work, but I want them to. Picking someone that represents what I write, gives me a better opportunity than picking someone that doesn’t represent what I write.
How did you pick your faculty member?
What do I write?
This one is easy. I write what I love to read – romance. Specifically, I write historical romance. The person I picked to critique my novel needed to know something about what I was writing. They needed to represent, write, or edit romance. This leads to the next set of questions.
What genres do the agents attending the conference represent? What genres do the authors critiquing write? What genres do the editors edit?
These are three related questions. The list of faculty from the conference is available on the facebook group and google is my friend. I googled the names of all the faculty to see what they represented, what they wrote, and what they edited. I picked three faculty members that said they represented historical romance or wrote historical romance.
If I pick an agent, who do they represent? If I pick a writer, have I read their books?
Knowledge is power. You want to pick a faculty member that is a good fit for you. If you look at the list of books that they have sold or written and love the books, then you probably have found a good match for you. If you look at the list of books that they have sold or written and you dislike them, then you should move on to the next person.
Ok, I know that the faculty member that I pick to critique my book is under no obligation to request my work, but I want them to. Picking someone that represents what I write, gives me a better opportunity than picking someone that doesn’t represent what I write.
How did you pick your faculty member?
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
If the Pronoun Monster Calls, I'm Not Here
I know I promised to spend some time on romance subgenres, and I will, but today, I have something more pressing on my mind. Pronouns.
Yesterday, I was working with an editor who wanted some changes to a manuscript. After looking over her comments and then reading through my work, I was HORRIFIED. The Pronoun Monster should have clobbered me on Page 1. Total explosion of pronouns: he, she, it, her, his----all over the page. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many she found in one paragraph. But the number is burned into my brain and I have to tell you---24!
After the inital shock wore off, I tried to figure out why I'd used so many. One simple reason: LAZINESS. In every case of overusage, there was a better, more active, way to write the sentence. Yes, there are instances where pronouns are required, but if you're using them indiscriminately, i.e. every other word, you're not paying attention. In long passages, where I was caught up in writing, I made this mistake time and time again. After I saw the passages with a reader's eye, instead of a writer's eye, it was easy to spot and correct.
Here are some examples:
Before:
Looking in the mirror, she saw the dark, sooty lines of the mascara she’d applied so carefully this morning trailing all the way down her cheeks. (3 Pronouns)
After:
Dark, sooty lines of mascara, applied so carefully this morning, trailed in rivulets down her cheeks. (1 Pronoun)
Before:
Her red dress hugged the curves of her hips like a second skin and did nothing to hide the generous swell of her breasts. And the shiny black heels she wore made her legs look even longer. (5 Pronouns)
After:
The red dress fit like a second skin, accentuating the delicious curves of her breasts and hips. And the shiny black heels made her legs look even longer. (2 Pronouns)
Before:
The feel of her, so close to him, was electric. He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and let himself enjoy the way she fit so perfectly against his body. Her breath tickled the side of his face and it took every ounce of control he possessed not to wrap both his arms aroung her and pull her as tightly as he could against him. (14 Pronouns) (If the Pronoun Monster sees this sentence, I'm dead meat.)
After:
The tantalizing press of her breasts against his thin cotton shirt sent flickering waves of desire through him. Wrapping one arm around her waist, he tightened the embrace. The two bodies fit together perfectly, as if designed for eash other. Warm breath tickled his cheek, and he fought for control. (7 Pronouns--still not ideal, but much better.)
See what I'm getting at here? Too many pronouns slow down the writing and make the brain feel tired. I encourage you to look over some of your own work and see if this is one bad habit you can fix before it's too late. (I hear him breathing. . .He's coming. . .)
Yesterday, I was working with an editor who wanted some changes to a manuscript. After looking over her comments and then reading through my work, I was HORRIFIED. The Pronoun Monster should have clobbered me on Page 1. Total explosion of pronouns: he, she, it, her, his----all over the page. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many she found in one paragraph. But the number is burned into my brain and I have to tell you---24!
After the inital shock wore off, I tried to figure out why I'd used so many. One simple reason: LAZINESS. In every case of overusage, there was a better, more active, way to write the sentence. Yes, there are instances where pronouns are required, but if you're using them indiscriminately, i.e. every other word, you're not paying attention. In long passages, where I was caught up in writing, I made this mistake time and time again. After I saw the passages with a reader's eye, instead of a writer's eye, it was easy to spot and correct.
Here are some examples:
Before:
Looking in the mirror, she saw the dark, sooty lines of the mascara she’d applied so carefully this morning trailing all the way down her cheeks. (3 Pronouns)
After:
Dark, sooty lines of mascara, applied so carefully this morning, trailed in rivulets down her cheeks. (1 Pronoun)
Before:
Her red dress hugged the curves of her hips like a second skin and did nothing to hide the generous swell of her breasts. And the shiny black heels she wore made her legs look even longer. (5 Pronouns)
After:
The red dress fit like a second skin, accentuating the delicious curves of her breasts and hips. And the shiny black heels made her legs look even longer. (2 Pronouns)
Before:
The feel of her, so close to him, was electric. He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and let himself enjoy the way she fit so perfectly against his body. Her breath tickled the side of his face and it took every ounce of control he possessed not to wrap both his arms aroung her and pull her as tightly as he could against him. (14 Pronouns) (If the Pronoun Monster sees this sentence, I'm dead meat.)
After:
The tantalizing press of her breasts against his thin cotton shirt sent flickering waves of desire through him. Wrapping one arm around her waist, he tightened the embrace. The two bodies fit together perfectly, as if designed for eash other. Warm breath tickled his cheek, and he fought for control. (7 Pronouns--still not ideal, but much better.)
See what I'm getting at here? Too many pronouns slow down the writing and make the brain feel tired. I encourage you to look over some of your own work and see if this is one bad habit you can fix before it's too late. (I hear him breathing. . .He's coming. . .)
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Genre Spotlight: Romance
Here's what Romance Writers of America (RWA) has to say about what defines romance:
Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending.
A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.
An Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love. Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality—ranging from sweet to extremely hot. These settings and distinctions of plot create specific subgenres within romance fiction.
Romance Novel Formats
There are two formats for romance fiction:
Series or "category" romances: books issued under a common imprint/series name that are usually numbered sequentially and released at regular intervals, usually monthly, with the same number of releases each time. These books are most commonly published by Harlequin/Silhouette.
Single-title romances: longer romances released individually and not as part of a numbered series. Single-title romances may be released in hard cover, trade paperback, or mass-market paperback sizes.
If you want to read more, check out the RWA site at
http://www.rwantional.org/
Tomorrow, let's talk about subgenres and how to figure out where to classify your novel.
Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending.
A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.
An Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love. Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality—ranging from sweet to extremely hot. These settings and distinctions of plot create specific subgenres within romance fiction.
Romance Novel Formats
There are two formats for romance fiction:
Series or "category" romances: books issued under a common imprint/series name that are usually numbered sequentially and released at regular intervals, usually monthly, with the same number of releases each time. These books are most commonly published by Harlequin/Silhouette.
Single-title romances: longer romances released individually and not as part of a numbered series. Single-title romances may be released in hard cover, trade paperback, or mass-market paperback sizes.
If you want to read more, check out the RWA site at
http://www.rwantional.org/
Tomorrow, let's talk about subgenres and how to figure out where to classify your novel.
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