Contest
Finally, we have ourselves a winner! Someone will soon be receiving a big, heavy box brimming over with ALL of these fabu tomes:
, which comes with a ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to WritersMarket.com
So who is it? After tallying and taking out duplicate IP address entries, we’ve verified that the winning entry is…
Read MoreThanks to everyone who participated in Writer Unboxed’s CONTEST, CONTEST!
Kath and I enjoyed this word-creation contest even more than our Alphasmart contest, if that’s possible. Each of the over 200 words submitted had a unique bent, but we had to choose just ten finalists. Our process? We alphabetized all the entries, sans reference to their owners, so there was no potential for bias. Then we eliminated any words found in the online urban dictionaries or that were being used gratuitously on the ‘net, and gave props to entries that were 100% unique and 101% inspired.
(We’ll post the complete list sometime soon and acknowledge honorable mentions.)
Now we need everyone’s help to help decide who gets the big prize.
At stake: a set of fabulous market guides:
, which comes with a ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to WritersMarket.com
(Insert drumroll here.)
THE FINALISTS ARE…
Read MorePsst…new books & business links are up on the Google Notebook. Check them out HERE. And have you submitted your entry in Writer Unboxed’s CONTEST CONTEST yet? Why not? Time’s running out! Check all the details (and read our hilarious entries) HERE.
Write on, all!
Read MoreWho’s the new favorite for the Booker Prize? Who’s going to make newspaper history by using scented print? Who’s experimenting by releasing chapters on Facebook? Check out the latest Books & Business news HERE.
And keep going with those great words! (See the latest additions to the contest and get all the info HERE.)
Write on, all!
Read MoreUPDATE: WRITER UNBOXED’S CONTEST, CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED! THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED. KATH AND I WILL BE NARROWING THINGS DOWN TO THE “TOP TEN.” STAY TUNED FOR PHASE THREE, WHERE YOU WILL VOTE ON THE WINNER.
Thanks to the ultra-generosity of
Thanks to everyone who voted for Writer Unboxed in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll! We appreciate it so much!
Many of you have probably already heard about the death of the controversial Sobol award, beaten down by critics across the country. Now there’s a new contest, which though seemingly more respectable and trustworthy, is still gaining a few raised eyebrows: The First Chapters Writing Competition, sponsored by Borders and Gather.com. First off, let’s clear up the most obvious problem with this contest: it’s NOT actually a first chapters competition, though the first chapters of your novel will be posted online. What is it is a full manuscript competition, as you’re not allowed to enter without having completed a saleable book-length novel of “commercial fiction”.
So naturally, the announcement has started a groundswell of chatter among the writer blogs. Can this contest be too good to be true? Is it a legit opportunity to break into the business?
Read MoreWriter Unboxed is in the running to be named one of the best Writers’ Resource sites in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll. Love us? Hop on over HERE and vote for us. (Scan down; it’s alphabetical.) Voting runs through Monday, January 15th. Thanks!
Read MoreToday’s post comes from guest blogger and winner of the Writer Unboxed AlphaSmart 3000 contest Kelly Boyce, who has a great blog site of her own called It Was A Dark & Stormy Night. We asked Kelly if she would like to elaborate on the killing of her muse for WU and she said she’d be happy to. So without further ado, heeeeere’s Kelly…
The Death of the Muse
My muse and I have always had a rather rocky relationship. You see, I’m a bit of a workhorse, nose to the grindstone type of girl. If I have something I want to accomplish, I make a plan and I go to it. My muse on the other hand isn’t in possession of the same work ethic. In fact, I’m not sure she has a work ethic at all. She shows up late, if she shows up at all, keeps odd hours, can be belligerent and unmanageable. But every time I had reached my limit with her, she would surprise me with something brilliant and I’d make the decision to keep her around.
After all, what’s a writer without a muse, right?
Right.
My muse teased me all through my twenties. Tossing one inspiring idea after another into my lap and then taking off just when the work needed to begin. I floundered, stared off into space, tried to call her back, coaxed her, threatened her. Nothing worked. She still showed up when she wanted to regardless of whether it was convenient for me. Meanwhile, the ideas lay fallow in my mind, gathering dust.
Then she delivered an idea so inspiring I couldn’t let it go. The characters begged me to tell their story. I decided to try a different tactic. I would buckle down. Write every day. Ignore my muse. Five days a week I went into the office early and wrote from 7-9 AM. Some days were hard; others I was so far in the zone I didn’t realize the time until my co-workers began to arrive and settle in. Six months later I had an epic 800 page novel. My first historical romance. I had done it. Without the muse.
I should have killed her then, but I thought I still needed her. After all, she had provided the original idea. But by 35, with no other manuscript to my credit I realized this wasn’t working. At this rate, I’d never make this a full time gig. I thought back to the time I wrote my first completed manuscript. The process of sitting there each morning for two hours working regardless of how easily the words came–or didn’t. The thrill of getting up each morning, knowing that was how I would start my day.
That’s when it dawned on me. It wasn’t about the muse.
Read MoreDeciding on the best entry in the Writer Unboxed AlphaSmart 3000 Contest was a wee more complicated than we thought it might be (a little like juggling three trumpets, maybe).
Wanting to rule out any possible bias, we asked Kath’s hubby to take all the entries and plop them–without names, links or any identifying info–into a Word document. Then Kath and I moved to our separate corners, read, then came together to chat…and chat some more.
We really struggled deciding who to crown the new King or Queen of Unboxed-ness. There were so many fabulous entries.
Entries about daily struggles, like stealing time at 3 a.m. to write haikus on the shower wall after changing a diaper.
Entries relaying inventive stories about dragons, madness, four-footed vampires, WWII lovers and habanero pepper lip gloss (oh, my!).
Entries from people who love being unboxed or who choose what boxes they do have wisely.
Entries from people dedicated to learning all they can about craft–even when they’re waking at 5 a.m. to do it–but who also know they must stop obsessing about how things should be done at some point and write from the gut.
Entries from people who are true storytellers; who dream in rhyme, type to music, muse poetically, snub fear and embrace critique; and who’ve learned that nothing in the writing life should be dubbed sacred, because that sort of labeling cries out for a box to stick to.
We had a blast with this contest, and we hope you all did too. We enjoyed reading all the entries and getting to know all of you a little better.
In the end, we did finally make a decision, because there was ONE entry that caught our attention, and that made us stop and think and nod. And so, the winner of the Writer Unboxed AlphaSmart 3000 (plus chocolate) contest is,
Read MoreI’m turning into a hack. That’s right: this morning I outsmarted Blogger. First by uploading an old template when our old one “failed” (not showing anything of our site but the first three posts), then figuring out how to link to a picture outside of Blogger without actually using Blogger’s wildly temperamental upload software (which wasn’t working again). I have to say, I’m feeling pretty smug right now.
But that’s not what this post is about. This post stems from an e-versation I had this past weekend with a respected blogger-in-the-biz after lamenting that we had less than a dozen entries in our WU AlphaSmart 3000 contest, even though about a gazillion people visited to read all about it. He said he thought he was unboxed but would be hard-put to explain how in order to enter. Besides, he mused:
“How do you claim to be something that’s clearly a superior kind of human being without sounding bragadocious?…especially on the Internet, where what you say lasts forever and goes around the world.”
Two other writers I know said something different:
“Great contest. I’d love an alphasmart!”
But when I encouraged them to enter the contest they said:
“I don’t think I’m unboxed enough. Maybe I’ll buy an AlphaSmart.”
The blood on my keyboard is not from overtaxed fingers today; it’s from banging my head against it. Still, all of this clarified something for me: maybe Kath and I needed to explain what unboxed means to US and why every writer is at least a little unboxed, whether they know it or not.
Which is exactly what we did…
Read MoreIf you’ve sensed any delirium around Writer Unboxed lately, there’s good reason for it. Not only have we been busy lining up some seriously kick-heinie interviews for you, we’ve been making plans for a cutover to a new site at WordPress. Inkygirl Debbie Ohi is designing our new masthead, so we have every confidence it’s going to be spectacular. We’ll be doing away with our two-unboxed-girls-breaking-into-the-biz look for a reason; first, we’re inviting someone with a Y chromosome into our ranks, and second, we’re inviting someone who’s already broken into the biz to join us as well. We’ll be officially welcoming our new friends within the next few weeks, but we’re seriously jazzed to have them as part of WU and couldn’t wait to at least hint that they’ll be a part of the scene soon.
Kath and I have also been brewing up a contest idea for many months, and we think now is the perfect time to unveil it. To win this particular contest, you’ll need to write a short blurb about what makes you an unboxed (wildly creative) writer and then send it to us at writerunboxed@writerunboxed.com.
Wanna know what you’re playing for?
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