The Three Decisions Writers Must Make Before They Start A Book ProjectWritten by Marvin D. Cloud
First, bad news: there is no magic formula, potion or pill that will turn story idea in your head into a manuscript. Words will not automatically appear on paper. All of necessary elements for a “purpose-driven” book will not fall from sky and converge in your lap as a completed literary work. It is entirely up to you. The burden is on your shoulders. You are one who must do research, interview persons, recall conversations, develop an outline, create a draft, make your characters come to life, and keep readers interested enough to continuously turn to next page. The good news is, you can do it. Remember, whether you believe something is possible or not, you’re right. However, I invite you to follow this compelling model for effectively writing a personal bestseller: M.I.N.E. (Motivation + Inspiration + Narration + Eternization). The right reasons (motivation) move you (inspiration) to capture words on paper (narration) for future generations (eternization). But before you can get full impact of M.I.N.E., there are three commitments that you must make to yourself before you can make any progress in writing a book: 1. Make a decision to write. Since you have already thought about writing a book, there is really nothing else for you to think about. Stop thinking and start doing. Before you leave this page and before you finish this paragraph, make a decision to write. It can change your entire life. If you don’t take new action, you haven’t made a decision.
| | A Simple Contest with a Strong Message for All Writers: Wake Up Your Writing SpiritWritten by Shelley Wake
The Blogfest 2005 Writing Contest has only been running for two weeks and already results are overwhelming. And not because we’re getting far more entries than we expected. It’s because along with entries, we’re also getting heartfelt messages from writers all over world. I’ve run a few contests before and received quite a few entries, but I’ve never been personally emailed and thanked by so many writers. What’s difference with this contest? I think main reason is that idea actually came from writers. Even though writers at our company work in publishing, they find it a little sad that there’s so much focus on writing what can sell instead of writing what truly matters to you. They wanted a contest that would allow people to write whatever they wanted to write. From that idea came Blogfest, a contest designed to encourage all writers to get project of their dreams done. Unlike most contests, we decided not to offer publication and not to pay prize for a completed work. Instead, we decided to offer prizes based on how much writing project means to writer. This is one contest that isn’t about whether or not your work can sell or about what your writing will mean to someone else. It’s about what it means to you. To enter, we asked writers to tell us about one thing they’ve always wanted to write and to tell us what it would mean to them to write it. Now, after only two weeks, we have an inbox full of emails from people. Entries so far have included grandparents wanting to write their life story for their grandchildren, aspiring novelists, professional writers looking for chance to write something for themselves and not for money, and a young woman wanting to capture and preserve her mother’s family recipes.
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