50-Word Writing Challenge for $5 SBD
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Monetizing talent—something we’d all love to do. I’ve found that contests on Steemit are a great way to accomplish this. No, we can’t win them all. But if everybody gets a takeaway, then nobody loses.
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A LITTLE ABOUT ME AND THE FICTION WORKSHOP
I’ve been serving as co-mod of the MSP Discord Fiction Workshop channel for a brief time, and the interest and enthusiasm I’ve seen from minnow writers is unlike anything I’ve seen in other workshops. The level of raw talent is mind-blowing. Many of these writers are new to the craft, fresh-faced and eager but lacking structure and discipline. That’s no crime. In fact, that’s exactly the kind of writer I was born to work with.
I’ve been a participant in the Internet Writers Workshop (IWW) for nearly a decade. In my opinion, it’s the best critique circle on the web. But it’s a blood sport—members need a certain level of writing skill and a very thick hide to survive there. It’s no place for a newbie.
So what else is out there? Any other online critique groups to help inexperienced writers perfect their craft? I’m sure they exist. I’m not personally aware of them.
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One original vision for the Fiction Workshop at MSP was for it to be a channel where fiction writers could hang out, discuss the craft, critique and review each other’s work, and learn to produce better stories. The goal of the @minnowsupport project is to encourage, endorse, and curate quality content. These two purposes dovetail perfectly. I’ve predicted from the beginning that Steemit will eventually become a goldmine where literary agents and publishers scout new talent. There’s no better time than the present to start generating that talent, honing skills, and showcasing powerful new voices—and there’s no better platform to do that than the Discord MSP Fiction Workshop.
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LEAVE THOSE DARLINGS ALONE
When writers have been nurturing a particular work, whether it’s a novel, short story, or flash fiction, they often want feedback, but not serious critique. This is not the case every time, but I’ve learned over the years that tearing apart someone’s “darling” often results in conflict. The best way I know to introduce many ideas to new writers are writing exercises. Writing exercises don’t go after the darlings. Instead, they provide a prompt which the writer responds to and doesn’t invest as much emotion in.
EVERY GREAT IDEA STARTS WITH A THOUGHT
Today I had the pleasure of speaking at length with @anarcho-andrei about his “Descriptions on the Spot” contest. @nexusfyre was also involved in the discussion, and between the three of us, we came up with what we believe is a stellar idea. Let’s do a writing prompt contest especially for MSP’s Fiction Workshop, where entries are short enough to post directly into the chat window so we can gather ‘round the campfire and dig into to what makes each submission work, and what makes it fall short.
HERE ARE THE RULES
- Based on one of the writing prompts below, write a 50-word response that tells a story. Please do not submit poetry. We’re not qualified to evaluate poems at the Fiction Workshop. There’s a separate channel for them at MSP.
- Post this in the Fiction Workshop at MSP with these tags: @rhondak @carolkean . You don’t have to be a minnow to visit the channel. MSP has honorary whale members, dolphins, and witnesses who participate regularly. If your submissions aren’t tagged properly, they are likely to become lost in the thread and not seen by our judges.
- Deadline is Monday night, July 3, at midnight. Winner will be announced by Friday.
- Each submission will be used for community evaluation of technical writing and content. Your submission means you acknowledge and agree with this.
- The winner will receive $5 SBD. Everyone else wins, too, though. Because we will give your entry a thorough evaluation and offer tips about how you can improve and strengthen your writing.
PROMPTS:
You do not have to use the actual word or phrase you chose below in the submission, as long as you indicate in your post which topic you're writing about. In fact it may be best that you don't use the word or phrase, but simply devote all 50 words to evoking its meaning for your reader. An example follows the list, for "homesick."
- apathy
- turnabout is fair play
- team spirit
- the power of one
- homesick
It’s just a serving dish, displayed in a thrift store window. But I’d know that pattern anywhere—Indiana fruit. Mom serves fresh veggies on it every Thanksgiving. It’s probably on the table now, but here I am, a thousand miles away. Employed and in the black, but eating turkey alone.
The purpose of this contest is to train an army of fiction experts who will be on the ground and ready when Steemit explodes in the mainstream. We want the fiction platform to be rock solid, with authors of stand-out fiction who are not only creative but skilled, and knowledgeable about industry standards. Oh, and we want to have fun, too! So CLICK HERE to log in or join the PALnet MSP group, and head right on over to Fiction Workshop. We look forward to seeing you!
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Writer: "Can you read this and tell me what you think? Honestly?"
Reader: "Honestly...well, first of all, you should probably capitalize the first letter of the first sentence..and..."
Writer: "How dare you personally attack me and call me stupid! You clearly don't know the first thing about literature."
:-P I had to laugh at the sensitive nature of writer folk (self included). Thanks for this. I was just commenting earlier that there doesn't seem to be many groups dedicated to writing on Steemit. Would love to be involved, though I'm currently working on creative non-fiction, so probably wouldn't join in this contest.
Are you participating in CampNano this year? You sound like a seasoned writer, so I'm sure you know what it is. But for those who don't, basically you join a virtual cabin with other writers (though you can be alone) and set writing goals for yourself for the month of July.
There's word sprints and online 'events' - as well as local physical meet ups. Would love to start a steemit group for it.
I'm not doing Nano. I'm actually taking a stab at Pitch Wars next month. I have hopes it will keep me busy through the next few months! (Fingers crossed.)
I need to google this Pitch Wars thing you speak of :-)
Hang on and I'll get you a link. It's for completed, unagented, unpublished manuscripts, and it sounds incredible. . .if a person gets in.
http://www.brenda-drake.com/2017/06/pitch-wars-2017-details/
Yeah I found it earlier. Filing it under #writinggoals lol
Congratulations though! Are you a mentor in it? Or a participant?
I'm a participant. Those waters out there in today's publishing world are harder to navigate than a Steemit ocean full of sharks.
I self-pubbed two novels that I'm really pleased with, but I have a third one that I don't feel comfortable publishing as an indie. So I have my fingers and toes crossed that I can get someone's attention with it during Pitch Wars. It got some love during PitMad, a recent Twitter pitch party, and one publisher has it but I may not hear from them for months. So onward I go. sigh
It really is, it took my mentor 4 or 5 years to get his book published. I so look forward to the day when I receive my first rejection letter because it will mean my WIP is finally finished.
The fact that you did it - twice - is incredible. Self publishing has it's place, and (preaching to the choir here lol) quite a few authors excel and even get picked up by the big publishing houses (I can't think of her name right now...author of the memoir Dog Medicine went the self publishing route, and got picked up by Penguin)
Good luck. It sounds like you're on a real path to success, you're clearly talented and have what it takes....now it's a matter of a little bit of luck. So believe in yourself!
I've done NaNo five times and Camp NaNo four--I'm not doing it this time, mostly because I forgot, but also because there are way too many projects to work on at the moment, and creating new fiction makes it worse, not better. But I'll cheer for you, and follow you, and wish you Godspeed.
:-) Thank you. I've been slacking on my creative work, so using Nano as my 'crutch' and an excuse to make regular writing a habit again. Yay to having too many projects - that's awesome !
I needed that for a long time. Now I've got close to a million words in the bank, earning me no interest. I need editing time, not writing time! But I'll do NaNo again, because I'm an idiot and a writing junkie. First step to getting better is to admit you have a problem, right?
Haha we're a masochistic breed
Wait...so you're not saying I'm the next JK Rowling based on my two stories of less than 1000 words total...LOL
RFLMAO!!!!! I dunno--you might be the next Robert Galbraith. LOL!
RFLMAO!!!! Yes! I know exactly what you're talking about there. "Please tell me what you think" means "please tell me I'm the next J.K. Rowling." I've had the good fortune to meet some folks at MSP who don't fit that description, but over the course of my writing experience, I've met plenty who did. LOL!
YES ! haha I think we've all been on both sides of that.
LOL!!! Yep!
The Power Of One
Yes! And then I could…
No, maybe not. But what if I…
Bingo. This could work. This could actually work!
I know a guy, a girl as well.
Would he? Will she?
This’ll keep me up all night.
What do you think?
Are just fifty words, worth one upvote?
Love the concept! :)
Thank you!
I want to learn so I gave it a shot. Thanks for the opportunity :)
Awesome! I'm excited to read it. :-)
I wasn't sure if I could do multiple so I only submitted one (just held on to the others). Thank you for the opportunity to learn the craft.
This won't be the last of these contests we have, so hang on to what you've got there. ;-) I'm so excited about the Fiction Workshop and all the possibilities that it offers that I'm just beside myself. So glad you've come to be part of it!
me too im in!
YAAAYYY!!!!
I'm in. Grinning. Rhonda you are roping me into everything. Lol.
LOLOL!!! I got a crit of your ch2 up at Fiction Workshop today.
Cool, thank you so much. You don't know how much this means. Sincerely appreciated.
:-)
I worked through it- the second crit. Thanks for your effort, I'm seeing flaws in my delivery through your eyes. POV errors etc. I'm torn between writing quickly to get the story out and taking my time to line edit in a re-write.
My new plan: write it quickly and let it sit for a day or two. Re-read and edit before I post to avoid the red ink of doom. Laughing.
How does that sound?
Hugs,
J.
That is typically a very good formula! :-)
Good luck to all you fiction writers out there!
Thank you for the well-wishes toward our field of competitors, We have some great entries so far. :-)
You're welcome. And cool, maybe I'll check some of them out later!
@rhondak Awesome idea! I entered my submission on the channel!
Got it and logged it. THANK YOU!
Looking forward to reading the others!
Now we need a contest Rhonda can ENTER and show off her exemplary and inspiring writing skills. :-) Limiting her to contest judge is robbing us of her entries BUT it kinda levels the playing field for lesser mortals
Oh, @carolkean , you flatter me overmuch. LOLOL
Completely agree. Us lesser mortals would like to see Wonder Woman in action. Lol. Spandex and everything.
BAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!! You are awesome, @jhagi.bhai . :-)
I am in, I already participated in those fiftywords contests and really like the concept.
Aren't they fun? :-)
Yup, they really make you compress your idea.