Ever sat in an overcrowded restaurant booth? Piled into a jam-packed bus or train? Squeezed into seats in theatres and stadiums? Knees crunched up. Elbows pressed tight against your sides. Gets pretty claustrophobic, doesn’t it? So why cram your words onto the page? When submitting your work, build in some elbow room. Begin your story [...]
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Give your words elbow roomPumpkin Pie a la Prompt
10 Oct 11
Thanks for popping by. I’ll bet you thought I’d be too busy cooking for a crowd today to post prompts for WCDR’s Whispered Words prose competition. Not a chance! With the contest deadline less than two months away, I knew you’d need your Monday prompts to keep you writing. You are writing, aren’t you? And [...]
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A prize to be thankful for
7 Oct 11
These are the last prompts before (Canadian) Thanksgiving. If you get a chance to write, between stuffing the turkey and stuffing yourself, sit down with one of these prompts. You know why? Winning Whispered Words’ $1000 first prize would make you VERY thankful. A hand pulled back the curtain and a face peeked out. Lizzie [...] One contest at a time–please
4 Oct 11
This week, I received the following contest question: I am interested in submitting a short story for your contest, but have a question. The rules say the story cannot be submitted elsewhere. Can it have been submitted in the past for a different contest which is now over? Absolutely. We accept pieces that are not [...] Two-and-a-half pairs of writing prompts
3 Oct 11
Writers are always working to deadline, right? Well, here’s a deadline you won’t want to miss. The Whispered Words themed prose competition closes November 30. The prize is princely–$1000 for 1000 words. Check in Mondays and Fridays for fresh writing prompts. I post contest tips on Wednesdays. Here’s a handful of prompts to start off [...] Writing prompts to tickle your pen
29 Sep 11
Here are Friday’s Whispered Words writing prompts: Bitch! I mouth and flip her the single-finger salute. “Has anything like that ever happened to you, Gran?” “I’ll tell you, if you promise never to repeat it.” She rocks the baby to sleep with a quiet lullaby. A tear drops on his head. The fireworks hiss into [...] Word count revisited
28 Sep 11
I wrote about word count on September 23, but a couple of questions have popped up today. Does my entry need to be exactly 1000 words? No. It looks like our contest tagline is misleading you. Your entry can be up to or including 1000 words, excluding the title. How have shorter stories (500-750 words) [...] Let your words, not the font, do the talking
27 Sep 11
Want to increase your chances of winning a writing contest? Don’t sabotage your entry with these common beginners’ mistakes: A wild and wacky 18-point font. Or a teeny-tiny font that can only be read with a magnifying glass Red ink, to go with the bloody theme of the story Bold print, so it really stands out [...]
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Get writing…
26 Sep 11
WCDR’s Whispered Words prose competition closes November 30. Haven’t entered yet? We’d like to help. Check in regularly for contest tips like this one: When entering a contest, print off the rules and check your entry point by point before submitting it. In most contests, you only get one chance to get it right. We’ll [...] Listen to the whispers…Whispered Words
23 Sep 11
WCDR’s Whispered Words prose competition closes November 30. Haven’t entered yet? We’d like to help. Follow our tips to make your contest entry shine. Like this advice on word count: A few words over (or under) the contest word count? Think no one will notice? Think again. Most contest administrators do a word count on [...] |
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