Bookmarkable! 25. 11. 7. 4.

It’s Bookmarkable Friday!

Don’t worry. You don’t have to stretch your brain to figure out what the next number is in the sequence. 🙂 The following bookmarkable blogs are strictly by the numbers. Enjoy!

Top 25 Reasons Submissions Are Rejected

This post from The Blood Red Pencil is from last September, but I just discovered it this week.

“Tips from the Surrey, B.C. Writers Conference (Oct 22-24). Each year agents and publishers conduct an exercise, where they read aloud the first pages of writers’ submissions to see how far they would read before it would be rejected.” Read More

11 Ways To Write an Irresistible Intro To Your Blog Post

Feeling stuck on how to start your next blog post? Mary Jaksch on always solid blog Write to Done offers 11 suggestions with examples for how to keep your readers reading.

“5. Offer the ‘why’ of your post.
Write about what triggered this topic in your mind, or in your life.

Example:
When I started the 8-Week Fitness Challenge, I had no idea what the response might be. I was amazed when about 100 people joined the Challenge! It seems that there is a quiet revolution in progress...”

Read More

7 Creative Questions: An Interview with Spoken Word Poet and Writer Ami Mattison

I fell in love with Ami Mattison’s work on her blog, poetryNprogress, as soon as I found it, so I was happy to see an interview with her this week on Dan Goodwin’s blog, A Big Creative Yes. I’m always interesting in learning more about the process of creativity, and Ami speaks to the interesting relationship between ritual and creative work:

“Because I love my creative work so much, I go to bed at night thinking how I get to wake up and work in the morning, and as soon as I wake, I start working—sometimes, even before I make a cup of coffee. So, my creative work is an impulsive desire—an impulse towards pleasure. As a result, my creative impulses aren’t intricately linked to rituals per se, but I do have a very simple routine. I wake up, go to my desk, and I start writing. I suppose my writing desk is a kind of trigger then. The simple gesture of sitting down at my desk suggests that it’s time to create.” Read More

4 Tips on Writing Contests

I was thrilled recently to discover fellow writer Pam Parker in my own backyard! (This also gives me a chance to mention Erin Reel’s wonderful focus for March, supporting our literary neighbors.) As I continue with my goal of submitting a new short story each month for 2011, I’m considering which of those submissions will be to contests, and Pam’s post this week on tips for submitting to writing contests offers some good starting points.

“3. Research options close to home. In Wisconsin, there are several contests open only to Wisconsin residents — by limiting entrants, the numbers alone increase your odds. While I haven’t had a big win, I have had some success with these. Honorable mentions won’t help me get published, I know that, but they are motivating.” Read More