Write Away
Intro________________________________________________________________________________
No good writer, despite how effortless they make their craft seem, is born that way. Every good writer encounters trial and error. Reaching the glorified state of being a “good” writer might take months or years.
It’s incredibly hard to translate the thoughts on your mind to a blank piece of paper. Sometimes, you know what you need to say, but you might not know how to say it.
Writer or not, I sincerely hope that every contestant has a phenomenal time writing their own masterpieces.
I have a few goals for this contest. I hope…
• Every contestant improves upon their usage of the English language. Good grammar and good writing typically goes hand in hand.
• This contest breeds intellectual thought and discussions.
• This inspires participants to constantly improve their writing. No one is perfect, and we all could strive to reach a higher standard.
o If you have more ideas bouncing around your brain, don’t fret. There’s a good chance that future contests will be held.
Best of luck on your entry! Before you enter or start writing, make sure you read the guidelines (listed below).
Guidelines__________________________________________________________________________
Your challenge is to write a piece of fiction. It should be based on one of the themes listed below:
(A) Friendship
(B) Revenge
(C) Addiction
(D) Hope
Your fiction can be loosely based on these themes. It does not take away from your score. It’s ultimately up to you, the writer.
Your fiction should have a minimum of 1000 words.
I will be “grading” each work on a rubric. The rubric is as follows.
• Grammar and Mechanics: Does the work “flow”? Or is it rough and choppy? Does the writer make little to no grammatical errors? Does the writer avoid being overly-wordy?
• Characters and Plot: Is the plot memorable? Can the reader empathize with the characters?
• Imagery and Style: Is the imagery indelible (not easy to forget)? Does it help the reader to envision the location, situations, and/or characters?
A more in-depth rubric with point values will be posted closer to the deadline. This rubric is subject to change.
Each contestant will have until September 15th to submit their entries.
Restrictions__________________________________________________________________________
As a moderator, I am using my very best discretion in this contest. I know inappropriate language occurs in the real world, and some writers utilize such for realism as well as perfecting slang in dialogue. I am fine with such language. Just don’t try to make it every other word, as that can detract from the plot and the reader’s attention, rendering it distracting and annoying to read.
With that being said, I am not allowing excessive drug use (glorified in a positive manner) or sexually explicit content.
Plagiarism (the act of stealing someone's words and promoting them as your own) is not tolerated.
If your story contains any of these traits, your entry will be rejected and you may be banned from entering future Write Away contests.
David’s Weekly Tip_____________________________________________________________________
June 17th…
One of the guidelines on the rubric asks for “indelible” imagery. What does that exactly mean, anyway? Imagery is a description of your characters or the environment that they are residing in.
There is forgettable imagery and indelible imagery. Indelible imagery is hard to forget, making your characters and environments all the more memorable.
An example of forgettable imagery:
He was tall and ugly with black eyes.
Those are some pretty common adjectives (describers) used often in daily life. Let’s see if we can expand upon that description a little bit with a metaphor or two.
He looked like a tall glass of water. A stiff breeze might have blown him away. He had a remorseless laser-gaze that he often used. His eyes were empty, as if they were made out of coal.
Because the reader doesn’t actually know the man that I’m describing, I used coal as a way to describe his eyes. Coal is black and inanimate, which describes more of the man. Most readers have undoubtedly seen coal in their life at one point or another, and they can picture what this character looks like. Hopefully this helps! –J.L
