For those of you who keep up with the Muffin’s daily posts, you may remember a post I made back in December about the writing goals I wanted to achieve for 2010. One of my goals was to branch out into another genre that I don’t normally dabble in. Well…I did it! At the time, I was just finishing up a manuscript for a YA novel and not only did I finish it, I entered it in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. And now I’m so nervous.
I don’t usually enter contests. There are so many out there and competition can be stiff. But I thought the Amazon contest would be a great one. Hey! I know I may not have the highest chances of winning it but I know that I’ll get some valuable feedback I can tuck away for future projects. Plus contests like this one also give you an idea of whether you need to polish up your pitching skills.
The story is a personal experience from my early adult life that I wanted to tell but not from a Nonfiction view. So, I created an awesome fictional character to tell the story for me (He is about ten years younger than I was when I went through the same experience and, I think, made much better choices than I did.) Once I created a ‘storyteller’ so different from me, I found it was much easier to let go and tell the story. Fiction is a lot harder for me to write but, in a way, the element of telling a story is the same whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, right? You still have to capture your audience, make sure your facts are accurate and tell your story just right. Hopefully, I’ve done that. I guess we’ll see!
I have a lot of admiration for you fiction writers out there. Thank you for giving the rest of us some inspiration to give it a try!
So, how is everyone else’s writing goals going? Has anyone else entered the Amazon contest? I’d love to hear from you.
Until next time…
Chynna Laird
2 comments:
I'm too scured to enter that competishun. I got a story about a little groundhog who love to get he grub on and it get him in all sorts of trouble. I think it cute, and I tell it to Lil' Junebug next door, and she like it, but still I'm too shy to share it with anybody else.
the deadline for the memoir (and) contest i planned to enter was last night at midnight. sometime around 9pm i realized i'd rather miss the deadline than send something that i didn't feel was my best work. now, i need to make it shine.
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