Friday Writing Essential—Good Stuff—September 25th, 2009

I don’t know how many members read Writer’s Digest magazine, but the October issue contained some great information I’d like to share here today.

Do you own your own website (or blog) or know a writer who does?

Nominations are now open at WD for “Best Writers’ Websites 2010”. Sites must be created and maintained without outside design help, and will be judged on presentation, ease of use, and marketing effectiveness.  Send nominations to: writersdigestfwmedia.com with “Best Writer’s Website” as the subject line. You can win a $250 grand prize and 9 runners-up will receive 1-year subscriptions to WritersMarket.com. All 10 websites will be listed (with screenshot) in the October 2010 issue of WD.  The article does not provide an entry deadline, but I contacted WD, and was told the judging will take place in July 2010, so you have plenty of time to nominate your favorite site—even your own.

Here are the 2009 winners you might want to check out:

1) Brian Wask                           www.brianwask.com

2) Melinda Feucht                    www.freelance-foodie.com

3) Rebecca Crump                    www.ezrapoundcake.com

4) Chrystle Fiedler                   www.chrystlecontent.com

5) Virginia Smith                      www.virginiasmith.org

6) Michael Wojciechowski       www.mikewojciechowski.com

7) Celeste Stene Duckworth   www.celestesduckworth.com

8) Tracy O’Connor                   www.ihatemymessageboard.com

9) Patrick Brown                     www.patrickdbrown.com

10) Barbara Boughton             www.barbaraboughton.net

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November is National Novel Writing month and that means NaNoWriMo — where writers knock out a 50,000-word novel in one month.

Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, says first-time novelists and more experienced writers who have difficulty finding time to write benefit most from participating. The community spirit is fun and helpful, and best of all, it’s free to join (although they do accept donations). You can sign up at www.nanowrimo.org, and there’s a Young Writers Program for those 17 and under at www.ywp.nanowrimo.org.

Since it’s inception in 1999, traditional publishers have bought about 30 NaNoWriMo manuscripts. In 2007, Sara Gruen’s Water For Elephants made it to No. 1 on the NY Times bestseller list—and was her second NaNoWriMo book to be published.

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For those who wish to join an online community of writers, there are a couple fairly new (5 years or less) options you might like to consider.

Backspace (www.bksp.org) was founded in 2004 and basically is a group of writers helping other writers. The cool part of this community is that 6 literary agents regularly look at their forums and answer questions, and about once a month, agents, acquisitions editors, publicists, book reviewers, and bestselling authors also conduct Q&A sessions on the site. If you sign up, you get a free 5-day trial. The annual membership fee is $40.

Authonomy (www.authonomy.com) in a HarperCollins project that began in 2008. There are 24,000 registered users and over 5 times that many monthly visitors. 23 books have found publishing homes since it’s beginning.

Readers and writers are both welcome, and publishers and literary agents regularly visit the site.  To register for free, you simply need an email address and password. Optionally, you can upload a manuscript (10,000 word minimum).

*To learn more about NaNoWriMo, and these online communities and others, go to www.writersdigest.com/article/online-communities where you'll find more Q&As with the group founders.

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Not to exclude our many poet members, check out Poetic Asides: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides. Written by Robert Lee Brewer, poet and editor of Writer’s Market and Poet’s Market, Poetic Asides provides interviews, prompts, poetic forms and more.

Since today’s article was just a small sample of the wealth of information available from Writer’s Digest, I’ll share 2 fun writing prompts from their website.

M&M Candies "Melt in your mouth, not in your hands." Miller Lite "Tastes great, less filling." Describe yourself (or your writing) in ten words or fewer.

Forrest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get." What is writing like? Write a simile that starts with the phrase, "Writing is like ... ."