Writing while marooned on a desert island

It seems as if the pandemic quarantines have marooned each of us on our tiny islands, far from shore and friends. But writers are luckier than most—we can write anywhere! Give us a computer, paper and pencil, a stretch of sand and a stick, and we’re good. But we’d be even better if we could share that writing with others, get some recognition, maybe even cash. (Hey, coconuts aren’t free!) 

And though I’m picking my way carefully through the Texas-centric coconuts that have dropped, cancelled by COV-19, there’s still a lot of online fruit, conventions, contests, even parties, to keep us busy through the summer. 

Conferences. I’m treading warily here. Some favorites, including the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, have already been cancelled, but others are still open—or have gone online:

May 2-3: The Austin SCBWI 2020 Writers &Illustrators conference on children’s books goes online with breakout sessions for writing, professional development and illustrations, critiques, pitches and more. Nonmember prices from $110-$200. See the site for details.

Julius Silver from Pixabay

June 26-28: 2020 Agents & Editors Conference of the Writers League of Texas is still up and running, at the Hyatt Regency Austin, 208 Barton Springs, in downtown Austin, Texas. Panels and workshops, networking, plus one-on-one conferences with agents for writers with finished manuscripts. Registration: $529 nonmembers, $469 members. See the site for details.

August 7-9: ArmadilloCon may be the best little conference for writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. At the Omni Southpark Austin. Its writers’ workshop covers a wide range of topics, with small group, instructor-led breakout sessions to exchange critiques. Workshop participants must present a writing sample of speculative fiction. Cost is $95, which includes membership for the entire conference. The due date for submissions is still to be determined as of this writing, but from past experience will probably be mid-June. Write like the wind!

Contests:

May 4 – June 13: DL Hammons’ WRiTE CLUB runs on schedule, despite the cancellation of its sponsoring DFWCon conference. As one of this year’s slushpile readers, I’m scrambling to submit my top 30 picks from the scores submitted by this year’s contestants before the bouts begin in this readers’ choice contest. Writers are pitted anonymously each week, hoping for enough votes from readers to advance to the next week’s round. Leave a brief critique for the contestants and you, too, may be eligible for prizes.

May 4: Early bird deadline for the annual writing competition of Writer’s Digest. The competition's nine categories offers chances for cash prizes, interviews and a paid trip to the Digest’s 2021 conference in New York City. Early bird entry fees: $15 per poetry entry, $25 per manuscript entry. See the site for details.

May 15: Dallas-based Carve Magazine’s annual Raymond Carver Short Story Contest offers chances for publication across five writing formats. Cash prizes and publication of prizewinners in the magazine’s October issue. Up to 10,000 words. Entry fee: $17 (online), $15 by mail. See the site for details.

May 31: The Masters Review Flash Fiction offers a $3,000 cash prize for the best story under 1,000 words, plus additional cash prizes for second and third-place winners. Prolific author Sherrie Flick will select the finalists. Entry fee is $20 (allows for two story entries), and all stories are considered for publication. See the site for details and submission portal.

June 4: #PitMad is the Twitter party where writers tweet a pitch for their completed, polished, unpublished manuscripts to agents and editors. 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. EDT. Free. See the site for details. 

July 31: The theme of the 2020 Ageless Authors contest is “Coping with Crisis.” Cash prizes available in categories of creative nonfiction (essay), short story, and poetry. But take care—writers must be at least 50 years old to qualify! Entry fee is $20 per prose or poetry entry. See the site for details and submission guidelines.

July 31: Christopher Fielden’s to Hull & Back contest for any style of fiction—with humor! (This item from Ralan.com caught my eye after I read some of the amazing humor submissions from the WRiTE CLUB slushpile.) See Ralan’s contest page for details, entry fees and prizes.

Writing contest roundup – spring into a new season

How long as it been since I posted about writing contests? Well, that’s too long! In the press of other business, I’ve let some of these nearly get away. So, get a move on – I’m listing this potpourri of spring contests in order of urgency.

Now-April 14: WRiTE CLUB. I've posted before about this fun, free and totally anonymous writing contest from the brain of MG/YA writer DL Hammons but the deadline is coming up. It's a readers' choice contest, pitting pairs of writers – their work, that is – against each other. Each writer submits a sample – 500-word maximum. Or two. Slushpile readers (like me!) pick 30 starting contestants who advance round by round until a panel of publishing pros determine the final winner, to be announced at the DFW Writers Conference June 22-23. All genres of fiction, memoir, and poetry included. See DL's site for how-tos. 

Also, note – WRiTE CLUB’s final official Twitter party will be held tonight (April 11) from 6-7 p.m. CDT. Hear what slush pile readers (including me!) have to say, including, possibly answers to your most burning questions.

Now-April 15: Book Pipeline Fiction Competition . This contest seeks new works with potential for TV and film adaptation. Open to published or unpublished books, graphic novels or comics, short stories, and plays. No genre restrictions and judging is weighted between concept originality, marketability, and overall talent. Prizes include $5,000 to the winner, $500 to the runner-up, long-term circulation and promotion to producers, and more. Fee: $35. See the site for details. 

artist: Frederick Remington

Now – April 30: Glimmer Train New Writer & Family Matters contests. These are the final contests for this great story magazine whose last issue comes out this fall. If you've always wanted to add publication in this family-run journal to your resume, time is running out. As always, the rewards are tempting – $2,500 for first place winners in each category, lesser cash or possibility of publication for second and third place winners. The New Writer contest is limited to emerging writers. Family Matters contest welcomes stories about families of all configurations. Word count in each contest is 400-12,000. Reading fee: $18. See the site for details. Stories will also be accepted for publication outside the contests through May 15.

Now – May 6: Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Contest. Lots of categories for short writing, including genre and literary fiction, memoirs/personal essays, articles, inspirational and poetry, theatrical and movie/TV scripts, and children’s/young adult fiction. Grand prize winner receives $5,000 cash plus promotional aids. First place winners in each category take home $1,000, second place winners $500. May 6 is the early-bird deadline, with discounted fees of $20 for first poetry entry ($15 for additional poetry entries), and $30 for first prose entry ($25 for additional prose entries). After May 6 through the final deadline June Final deadline: June 3, fees in each category increase by $5. 

Now – May 15: Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. The annual competition of Carve magazine (www.carvezine.com) seeks literary short stories (up to 10,000-word maximum). This year’s guest judge is prize-winning author Clair Fuller. The contest offers $2,500 in total prizes, publication in Carve’s October issue, and readings by three literary agents. Fee: $17/entry for online submissions, $15 for mailed submissions. 

Now – June 30: Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest. And now for something completely different – a contest inspired by the notorious opening sentence of Victorian novelist George Edward Bulwer-Lytton, "It was a dark and stormy night. . ." and continuing for some 50 additional words and almost every conceivable punctual mark. No cost and virtually no prize except "bragging rights," the site proudly proclaims. Entries in a multitude of categories must be an original, previously unpublished single sentence of any length (although judges who beg for mercy strongly suggest not exceeding 50-60 words). See the site for additional rules, inspiring examples from past winners, and entry form.

June 6: #PitMad (https://pitchwars.org). The pitch party on Twitter where writers tweet 280-character pitches for their completed, polished but unpublished manuscripts to agents and editors. (Subsequent #PitMads on September 5 and December 5 this year).  

Still crazy for contests? As always, check out the listings in New Pages and Ralan.com, which may be perused at no cost.

Give it our best pitch! Pitch Wars & #PitMad

For everybody (like me!) who thought there could be nothing more terrifying than formatting a nine-sentence literary query letter for a novel-length manuscript, contemplate condensing that pitch to Twitter’s 280-character format. Welcome to #PitMad – which I can only guess is Twitter-ese for pitching madness!

First, the long version – Pitch Wars, the annual scramble to gain the mentorship of established writers/editors/publishing industry interns who each pick one writer. They’ll read that writer’s entire manuscript and offer suggestions on how to make it – and a query letter -- shine for agents. Mentors on the Pitch Wars site are grouped by reader age category (middle grade, young adult and adult). Check out what they write, what they want to see, and pick up to four to pitch to.

The Pitch Wars submission site opens at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight time August 28 and closes at 10 p.m. EDT August 29. Mentor wishlists are already on line, along with links to their own social media sites for additional information on what they like.

Writers chosen by mentor will be announced October 12. Finally, February 6-11, 2019, literary agents will get their peek at those now-polished query letters and opening manuscript pages. 

Please note that Pitch Wars is only open to unpublished manuscripts that have not already found an agent. Submit only one manuscript, and be sure it’s as complete and polished as possible before being set before the eyes of potential mentors. See the Pitch Wars site for complete information and the submission form during the August 28-29 submission frenzy.

image: pixabay

No sooner had I stumbled onto Pitch Wars and gotten positive comments from fellow critique group members than somebody mentioned #PitMad. 

For something to do other than biting our nails while waiting for nibbles from Pitch Wars mentors (and later, possibly agents), log onto Twitter for the #PitMad pitch parties from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. EDT September 6 and 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. EST December 6. 

Again, only pitch complete, polished (but unagented) manuscripts, using the Twitter 280-character limit. For this one, writers may pitch multiple manuscripts, but no more than three tweets for each. Agents/editors may request manuscripts by favoriting tweets. See the site for details.

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Still writing your manuscript? Or maybe writing another? Don’t forget to check out the NaNoWriMo resources, including low-cost, online classes for past (or future) WriMos as mentioned in Tuesday's post. Classes start September 1 to allow time for completion before NaNoWriMo's official November 1 starting date.