Being a Writer

This Week's Writing Prompt Challenge

 

Image by elvis santana 

 

This week's writing prompt challenge, due Sunday, June 27th, 2010

 

A priest is attacked for being a pedophile. He is innocent of the crime but guilty of something far worse.

 

Don't forget to enter. Remember...when you're finished writing your story based on this writing prompt, post it to your blog and then come back to this page and leave a comment along with a link to your story so that others can appreciate your talents and perhaps offer you some constructive criticism.

Good luck and I can't wait to see what you come up with! Happy writing.

All writer's prompts come from The Writer's Book of Matches.

Freelance Writing Jobs for Friday, June 18, 2010

Check out these freelance writing jobs that I found.

Copywriting

Freelance Copywriter for top fragrance company - New York

SEO Copywriter needed to write 2500 word articles for dating website - Telecommuting is okay

Writers needed for social networking - telecommuting is okay

Copywriter needed for direct mail piece - Austin, Tx writers only

Copywriter needed for newsletter and content site - Telecommuting is okay

Freelance Copywriter/Project Manager needed for DHLExpress

Blogging

Blog/Content Writer Needed - Telecommuting is okay

SEO Blogger needed to write daily posts for technology firm - Tysons Corner, VA

Film/New Media Blogger needed - Los Angeles

Journalism

Journalist for local newspaper needed - Belleville

A Shortcut to Improved Writing Skills

 

Image by FOTOCROMO 

 

Are you someone who feels that becoming a great writer takes years of training and experience? Do you think that there is no shortcut to greatness--or even to written competency? Well, think again.

Copywriter and journalist Simon Townley believes that there is, indeed, a shortcut to developing your writing skills and/or assuming a particular writing style--it’s called imitation.

Imitating Great Writing--Word for Word

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it is also (according to Townley) the way to strengthen your writing skills.

Townley suggests that you take a piece of text that you admire--this can come from some text by your favorite author, from a piece of prose that has struck your fancy, or from a piece of advertising copy--and write it out by hand, word for word, on a piece of paper. Then write it out by hand again. And again. Keep writing the text until, says Townley, “it seems like it’s part of you.”

Though this seems absurdly robotic and much too easy, Townley says that this is a shortcut to improved writing skills that really works. But why and how can imitating--copying, actually-- another’s written text make you a better writer?

Well, Townley says,

“It’s great way…to learn the rhetorical tricks and techniques used by master writers, or to get a feel for how they express their ideas using a unique voice. This technique won’t necessarily give you full conscious awareness of the writing techniques being used in the original. But you will learn the lessons on a deeper level."

Makes sense to me. I’m so intrigued by Townley’s suggestion that I plan to try it myself and see if it really works. Have you ever tried this or a similar shortcut to improved writing skills and what were the results?

 

Female Playwrights Wanted

 

 
Image by Raven3k 

 

I have always wanted to be a female playwright--well, I’ve got the female part covered, at least. I have had fantasies that I was the toast of Broadway, creating compelling plays that challenged society’s views on a wide variety of topics. In my daydreams, I am Lillian Hellman or Marsha Norman (‘Night Mother) or Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues).

Though I wrote a screenplay once--it sucked--I have never actually written a stage play. Imagine my excitement, then, when I discovered that there are theaters that actually require that their plays be written by women.

Female  playwrights.

And right down my alley…and perhaps yours.

Here are several theaters that need you, theaters that that are willing to read your work--but only if you’re a female playwright.

20 % Theatre Company - Minneapolis, MN

From their website: The 20% Theatre Company Twin Cities aims to produce new and progressive work by female, transgender, and gender-queer theatre artists, while also supporting the same gender minorities artistically behind-the-scenes.

And Toto Too Theatre Company - Denver, CO

Requirements as per their website: 

Women Playwrights only

Never Produced in Colorado

Full Length: any genre except musicals and children's

6 characters or less

Minimal set requirements

Potluck Productions - The Kansas City Women's Playwrighting Festival

From their website:

We continue to accept submissions for the next Kansas City Women’s Playwriting Festival. The Kansas City Women’s Playwriting Festival is open to all female playwrights writing in English, including students enrolled in a BFA or MFA playwriting program. In a strictly juried selection process, six to ten plays will be chosen to appear at the festival. Special attention is given to emerging Kansas City area writers.

The Women's Theatre Project - Ft. Lauderdale, Fl,

From their website: The Women’s Theatre Project seeks submissions of full-length plays with ALL FEMALE casts by female playwrights for our intimate, professional black box theatre.

 

 

Killing off the Protagonist

You’ve (probably) done it. I have done it. Sooner or later, every fiction writer does it--kills off their protagonist, that is.

But experts consider this to be a big fiction writing sin. The reason that these nameless, faceless experts condemn protagonist-cide (my term) is that such a plot twist is too easy. You must make your protagonist struggle through to the bitter end, they say, and that bitter end must not include the protagonists own death.

But why?  In real life, people die all the time. Some are murdered. Some die in accidents. Some commit suicide. Why can’t I allow my protagonist to suffer a similar fate?  

How I Leaned the Rule about Killing a Protagonist

I leaned this rule against protagonist-cide the hard way. (Actually, I already knew the rule, but I think that I was just testing the waters--and my classmate’s patience.)

In response to a flash fiction assignment in my college creative writing class, I wrote a story about a woman who suffered from bipolar disorder. Due to her mental illness, her formerly upscale suburban life had begun to unravel. One night, she went to a motel room for a one night stand with a sleazy salesman. Disgusted at herself and her life, she shot herself with the gun that she had begun carrying in her purse for that purpose.

My professor and classmates read this story and viciously (I felt) attacked me for writing such an ending. I was hurt because I felt that I had made a perfectly reasonable, artistic decision in bringing my story to such a climax.

But this is what really bothers me…

If I had been a famous author, killing off my protagonist would have probably brought me critical acclaim. They would have praised me for my creative genius. My story would have been required reading in all creative writing classes--okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit with this one.

Anyway…

Have you ever killed off your protagonist? How do you feel about authors who kill off their protagonists? Do you believe that only famous authors should be given the creative license to commit protagonist-cide?

 

 

 

 

 

Freelance Wrting Jobs for Monday June 14th, 2010

Check out this week's job openings.

Online Content Writers

Women's online magazine seeks content writers

Alternative fitness/health expert needed to write content for website

Finance writer for Quant Network

Contributing writer needed for The Alliance for Youth Movement

Freelance writer for online beauty and appearance company

Copywriting

Copywriter needed to rewrite website and provide ongoing articles

Copywriter needed for online ad agency project - Los Angeles, CA

Assistant Copywriter - New York, NY

Freelance Copywriter for HBO

Journlists

Agressive Investigative reporters needed

This Week's Writing Prompt Challenge

Image by Fran Gambín

 

This week's writing prompt challenge, due Sunday June 20th, 2010 is:

During his third night out of town, a traveling businessman discovers a voodoo doll in his hotel room.

Don't forget to enter. Remember...when you're finished writing your story based on this writing prompt, post it to your blog and then come back to this page and leave a comment along with a link to your story so that others can appreciate your talents and perhaps offer you some constructive criticism.

Good luck and I can't wait to see what you come up with! Happy writing.

All writer's prompts come from The Writer's Book of Matches.

Getting More Article Viewers on StumbleUpon

Hey, I just stumbled upon a great way to get more article views on StumbleUpon--only, this should have occurred to me before.

I am so used to submitting my articles to StumbleUpon, only to get one viewer--myself. But I recently submitted two recent, but related, articles to StumbleUpon and guess who many article views I received? The first one got 74 views and the second one got 77 views--both in one day.

So how did I accomplish this feat?

Well, if you’re familiar with StumbleUpon then you know that there is a place to write a review of the article when you submit it. Because both of these articles were posts of two different parts of the same article, this is what I wrote in my review:

Part 2 of Celeste Stewart's article on how she became one of the top-selling writers on Constant-Content. Follow these tips and you might be at the top of the sales list too!

(For the last article, I wrote the same review, only I prefaced it with “here’s the third and final installment of”)

That’s it…and I got viewers galore.

So what did I learn from this little accidental exercise?

If you build a foundation of profitability for the reader--by offering them information that could lead them to make a lot of money--they will come…

In droves!

Do you have any advice on how to get more viewers on StumbleUpon?

Don’t be a Writer for Seed.Com

 

Image by Svilen Milev 

 

If you have any self respect as a writer, don’t write for Seed.com. I doubt that I will ever do so again.

Owned by AOL, Seed.com is a fairly new content mill (much like Break Studios or Demand Studios) that I recently discovered. Because it is owned by AOL, I thought that I would give it a shot.

Yes, I had my reservations because, unlike Break Studios or Demand Studios, when you accept an assignment at Seed.com, you are usually not the only writer who is accepting it. Rather, you are competing with other writers for the same piece of content. When all of the writers submit their content, Seed.com will either:

1.   Select the best one, or ones, to publish and pay that writer, or writers, accordingly. (All of the other writers get--well--nothing for their hard work, not even a chance to revise their content to meet editorial requirements).

2.   Choose to publish all of them and pay each writer the full price for each article.

3.   Reject all of the articles because none meet editorial requirements. (In this scenario, none of the writers get paid for all of their hard work--again.)  

Excuse me but…what is AOL thinking? I have never heard of a more unethical business practice, much less one that screws over freelance writers like this.

Nevertheless, I decided to try my hand at one of their articles. I know, I know…have I no shame? But I had a good reason to write this article--200 of them, actually. You see, one of the editors at Seed.com individually selected me to write this article--for $200.

Article Assignment for Seed

In a previous post, I wrote that I came across an article assignment titled “Mean Girls: Bullying Among Girls.” When I clicked the listing to read the details of the assignment, this was the first sentence of the description:

You have been individually selected for this assignment by the editor.

I was hooked. I had to accept this assignment now. A nameless, faceless editor had selected me to write it--the $200 fee didn’t hurt either. (Of course, I also knew that anybody could accept this assignment and--individually selected or not--I could well put in all this work and find that my article has been rejected.)

But I tried anyway. Per the assignment instructions, I did a mound of research on the bullying behavior of girls. During my research, I interviewed several experts on this subject and I even interviewed two girls who had been victims of female bullies. I had completed all of this research in record time, and I had 7 days left until the deadline. I was planning to sit down and start writing this 700 word article tomorrow.  

But I got this email--from Seed.com--tonight:

Dear Seed Contributor:

We wanted to let you know that we have received the desired number of submissions for the assignment entitled "Mean Girls: Bullying Among Girls," and the assignment is now closed.  We will not be accepting any future submissions.

If you have any questions related to this assignment, please send us an email at contact@seed.com

Sincerely,

The Seed Team

Whaaat!!! When I accepted this assignment, there was no mention of a cut-off limit of submissions nor is there mention of such a concept in their rules. (If they had such a rule, they should have mentioned it in the assignment specifications, don’t you think?) As you can imagine, I am very upset about this. I just finished sending them an email expressing my displeasure. But the damage has been done.

They’ve just lost this writer. If you have any self respect as a writer, learn from my experience and take my advice--don’t writer for Seed.com.

Using Search Engines to Find Freelance Writing Jobs

I just came across in interesting YouTube video that shows you how to use search engines to find freelance writing jobs. It has some great information. Check it out!