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5 Great Blog Posts

February 26th 2010 12:34
Nanoedmo is almost upon us, and come Monday I will be posting the beginning of my March editing workshop. In the meantime, here are five great blog posts for you to read:

~The Definitive Guide To Choosing A Topic For Your New Blog is a post over at Skelliewag talking about what to do before you create a new blog. It's the first in a series and I suggest you read them all if you're looking into creating a new blog, or your first blog. I hope this helps you.

~Out Of Sight In My Mind is a post on Six Sentences, which is a place where writers submit six sentence stories in the hopes of having them posted. It's a lovely little thing about secrets.

~How I Know I'm A Writer is a post at SF Novelists talking about what it means to be a writer. I really enjoyed this post and have subscribed to the blog itself as well.

~Six Questions for Camille Gooderham is a post over at the Six Questions blog interviewing Camille Gooderham, editor of Every Day Fiction. Some of you might know its relative, Every Day Poets, which published my poem Haunted (clicky) early last year. The publications only pay a dollar, but it gets your name out there and they are high quality publications.

~The Horrible Editorial Blacklist is a post at Incipit Vita Nova, a blog I just discovered today. The post talks about the rarity of blacklists, and in the comments there's an excellent discussion about their existance and what gets a person on a blacklist.

I hope you enjoy the links and your weekend as well. Thanks for reading.
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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Fiction, Short Non-Fiction
   


Market Listing

September 17th 2009 12:10
This is a list of five different fiction markets. Sorry this is late folks, I put it on autopublish but it never published...

1.Beneath Ceaseless Skies is seeking secondary-world fiction with a fantasy feel and a literary feel. They prefer stories under 10, 000 words and pay five cents US per word.

2.Bards And Sages Quarterly is seeking submissions of any type of speculative fiction so long as it is under 2, 000 words and high quality. Payment is one cent US/word.

3.The Way Of The Wizard Anthology is looking for fantasy stories up to 5, 000 words which involve witches, wizards, sorcerers and all things magical-magic MUST play an important role in the story. Submission deadline is March 31st, 2010 and payment is five cents/word and a pro rata share of 50% of royalties.

4.Flashing Swords is looking for fiction with one of the following themes:

* Sword and Sorcery
* Sword and Planet
* Heroic Fantasy
* Epic/High Fantasy
* Swashbuckling Adventures
* Historical Adventure

They pay one cent/word US for stories up to 6, 000 words.

5.Alternative Coordinates is looking for science fiction, horror, fantasy and speculative fiction. Payment is 1.5 cents/word up to 5, 000 words, after which point it is 1 cent US.

Thanks for reading!
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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Fiction, Short Non-Fiction
   


Previous Posts: The Use Of Critiques&More

August 25th 2009 17:50
In excitement for my Critique Circle offer of a trial premium membership, I want to talk about Critiques. And on my editorial calendar that I'm experimenting with for the 31 Days To A Better Blog workshop, the post for today is supposed to be highlighting an old post in my blog.

Over the last two years I've written a couple posts here and there about critiquing. I even got a volunteer who let me critique their first chapter and post the first few hundred words of their story, and the first portion of my critique, on my blog, which was great for showing a good critique and where they can be useful.

Here are two good posts posts about critiquing:

The Use Of Critiques
A Critique-my critique of someone's first few hundred words

Over the last 2 years I've critiqued a fair bit of work. I've had somewhat less of my own work critiqued, because I don't like the free queues at Critique Circle too much, being the impatient person that I am. I do use it sometimes, and I get amazing critiques, but I just don't have the patience to put an entire novel through the system because it would take at least a year. I'm excited about the premium membership trial offer, because this will allow me to, however briefly, have my own private queue which means no waiting.

I love Critique Circle (critiquecircle.com) for many reasons. The layout of the site is great; the forums, while not as active as some that I participate in, are useful. And I get to read some amazing stories, and help some amazing authors, that I would otherwise never hear of.

Critiquing others' work allows me to read their work and enjoy it, and it also allows me to help another writer get better. When I critique other people's work, especially when it is also within my genre, I see flaws in their work that I may well find in my own. This allows me to fix them and become myself a better writer.

Critiquing is fun and educational for the critiquer and its receiver. There are many ways to receive critiques, and here are three ideas:

1. Critique Circle Obviously this is one of my most recommended websites for writers. Ever. It's a great website to submit short stories to, although again with novels I don't have the patience. If you have the money to invest in a premium account, it is totally worth it. The ability to access premium forums and to start your own Queue is worth the money they ask for. It allows you to, as long as you have the credits (which you earn from critiquing), publish your stories on your own queue at any time you want.

I like CC because it's got a good layout, great writers and a strong sense of community, and it has a Tit for Tat system, which means you have to critique others' work for credits in order to earn credits yourself.

2. Short story Group This is a group devoted entirely to short stories and poetry with a critique part of it. I don't know how well it works, but it looks like a great site and the rules for the critique group make complete sense. Sadly, with the private queues I critique for, I do not have the time to devote myself properly to another critique group.

3. Beta Readers A beta reader is someone that you probably have known for a while online, who reads through and critiques all of the writing you send them, usually with a deal that you read their work and crit in response. Depending on what they're working on for you, there are different systems for this. If it's a short story, maybe you and your beta work out a deadline for you to send it to her, forcing you to write, especially if there is also a contest deadline because you are writing it for a contest and/or anthology.

If you are working on a novel, there may be a minimum of chapters to send your beta each week and a maximum. I am sure there are as many variations on this idea as there are beta reader&writer pairings. On CC, a private queue is kind of like having a few beta readers, because they all work with you over a period of time and get to know you, another advantage to premium membership.

How do you prefer to get your critiques?
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I'm Back

August 15th 2009 20:50
Anyone who commented on the posts I've made over the last few days will notice that their comments are now being responded to-and thanks to everyone who's been reading-as I am back from the cottage.

I had a great time. I did pretty much everything I wanted to do in terms of writing except outlining the pre-Nano course I have planned. I went swimming twice every day except yesterday, when I only got down to the beach once (I wish I could've gone twice though). I watched the sun rise and set on the beach, and we had lots of fun with fire


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10 Things To Look Forward To On Fictional Worlds

August 14th 2009 00:11
This is a list of ten things you can look forward to here on this blog over the coming year. I've been planning quite a few workshops and things to do around here to make life more interesting. I've also been debating making a forum for these workshops. Anyone who would be willing to help me run it should contact me at diannalgunn@gmail.com about it.

Here are some things you can expect to see


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2 Year Blogaversary

August 13th 2009 23:40
This is my official two year blogaversary for Fictional Worlds. Today, that is. So I'm writing a special post to talk about the last two years of my writing.

When I first came here, I had never had a poem published. I was completely unknown, unheard of, and no, I could not be found on Google. But I did have one good thing going for me: a talent and passion for writing


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Best Of...

July 30th 2009 05:34
So. My two-year anniversary of blogging is coming up. (Agust 13th) I've decided that on the date itself I will be doing a special post, thanking those who have inspired me since I came here, talking about why I blog etc. etc. It will also have links to some of my best posts since January.

I'm going to do four posts, total, in relation to this. Each one will contain 10 of my favourite posts from a certain time period since I've been here


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Dear Diary 14

July 16th 2009 08:07
Dear Diary,

I've had another long day of fighting. But I fight for my sister. She's far enough away now that they won't catch her, but I fight because I still fear. I fight for the men, women and children of Appollinia who won't stand a chance if the army gets past us. I fight for my friends, my family, and my men. I fight for many reasons, and I will not abandon the fight, but I grow so tired of it


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Developing Your Voice

July 8th 2009 23:20
I often see writers on various forums asking the same questions. Usually they're questions about things like chapter length, pacing, character building-all those important things. One of the most frequent questions asked isn't specifically about your story though-it's about developing your voice.

Writers ask 'How does one develop their voice


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Working Towards Your Goals

July 3rd 2009 12:51
As writers we must set goals. Without knowing where we want to go, how are we supposed to get there? Especially considering that writing can be such a vicious industry-when we're going for professional publication, we have to be twice as willing to do the work as when we're writing for friends or family.

But once we've written our goals, how do we push ourselves to achieve them


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Struggling

January 29th 2009 04:07
So far in 2009 I've managed to blog consistently, but it hasn't been easy. There's been a lot going on in my life outside my writing, and my writing is suffering for it; it's just hard for me to write when I'm going through hard times-at least, anything other than poetry.

Things have sort of settled down now, and I'm hoping the writing will become easier for me, but I can't know for sure. We all have times when we struggle, even to do the things we love-especially for those of us who suffer depression


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Working

January 25th 2009 08:03
Writing isn't always easy. The words sometimes come only with force. Sometimes we get bogged down trying to create our worlds. We get fed up when we find out that somebody's already had the same idea. We get depressed, bored, fed up, angry with all the world and with our muses.

We get angry because everything we're writing sounds like crap. We get angry because we feel we aren't getting anywhere


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Learning

January 17th 2009 03:52
Writing is in large part a learning process. A writer needs to be open to new things; this is why we have classes and workshops and books about writing. Not all things will work for you, this is true. We're all different. You probably won't find a class that's absolutely perfect for you. A method won't always work.

But if you don't try new things, how can you possibly know? Everything changes; our writing should too. Let's take the example of a well known author, JK Rowling of the Harry Potter series


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Some Highlights

December 25th 2008 05:26
Today I'm going to highlight some of my favourite things to read. The first few are going to be actual books that I've loved and read more than once; the last few are going to be blog entries geared specifically towards writers. Reading for the cold winter months: curl up with a good book under your favourite blanket-don't we all just love it?

For those of you who have gotten Christmas money, some books to consider


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What makes a writer?

December 12th 2008 06:31
I've gone over this before, but I was reading a thread on Forward Motion earlier and it's been a while, so I felt like writing about this topic.

What makes a writer in my mind is someone who loves to write. Someone who can't help themselves; they just need to do it like most people need to breath. Writing is a passion, writing is a love; when the going gets tough we still keep going. Writers love to do what they do, and are willing to work at it


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When Everything Is Just Too Much

October 4th 2008 23:28
So let me tell you something. School is stressing me out; I'm trying to force myself to go but it isn't working very well. Things at home aren't pleasant either. I'm stressed; so stressed that I've been sick on and off for two weeks now. Nanowrimo is on the horizon.

It's times like these when anybody-writer or otherwise-starts to wonder about all their obligations and if they're worth it. It's times like these when normally I would abandon the blog for weeks at a time; I'm trying not to. It's sort of working. It's times like these when we just want to throw in the towel


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Conventional English Classes

September 6th 2008 11:22
As I'm waiting for a response from my editor, I'm going to be here today and possibly tomorrow as well. And in the spirit of the start of school, my first post is going to be about the evils of grade nine English.

As some of you may remember, I disappeared for quite a while last year from Orble, as I was stressed out to an extreme level; well, I disappeared from school, too, and as a result I'm retaking all of my grade nine classes (with minor changes) this year. Which means I'm taking English


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Why Do I Write?

September 1st 2008 05:57
I've written about this topic before. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately, so I decided to talk about why I write-not only this blog, but everything else that I write.

I write because without writing, I would be locked away with no outlet to express myself


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Write What You Love...

July 18th 2008 05:35
Some people say 'write what you know'. But if I recall correctly, Stephen King and I have the same belief-that it is best to write what you love.

Because we can all write about what we learned in school, but most of us wouldn't want to. We know it-but we do not love it. And if we are forced to write something we do not love, it is by far a lesser product than what it would be if we loved it


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Words On A Page

June 16th 2008 03:56
Writing: the art of putting COHERENT words on a page... and so much more.

Just because you can perform the act of writing words coherently doesn't make you a true writer. A true writer takes talent and hard work. To be a true writer you have to be determined to write, to want to write, to love writing


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