Contests

Sick of political memoirs yet? Get revenge at New York magazine with the Political Fictions Contest.

Between now and Dec. 7, the magazine is accepting short stories, movie treatments, or mini one-act plays about real life political figures--Washington DC fan fiction. The contest will help promote the new issue's short political fictions by writers like Mary Gaitskill and Paul Rudnick. The best stories will be featured on the website. Judges will pick three winners for prizes.

Here's a list of the fabulous prizes: The first-place winner will receive a one-night stay at Washington, D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel, site of Client No. 9's infamous dalliance with Ashley Dupre. Second place: dinner for two at Blue Hill, Barack and Michelle Obama's date-night destination in May. And third place: a copy of Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin--plus a one-month membership to Playgirl.com, of course."

The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) marathon has yielded 676,900,348 words in nine days as writers around the country struggle to compose a 50,000-word novel draft in a single month.

If you need some inspiration, check out our NaNoWriMo toolkit or find a NaNoWriMo homebase. Twitter is crowded with NaNoWriMo scribes, and the tweets come pouring in every minute. Here are a few choice tweets from harried writers as they toil under a massive deadline:

BarelyKnit: "It might be that I'm just not a novelist. Maybe I'm more of an...essayist. Or maybe a rodeo clown."

shawnaatteberry: "Next year: going to do grocery shopping for the month before #NaNoWriMo starts."

lauriek: "mechanic son of Italian immigrant parents just became Jewish son of a lawyer and a psychiatrist. he's still a delinquent, though."

As National Novel Writing Month continues, Ravenous Romance editorial director Lori Perkins emails us that she's willing to have a look at any completed manuscripts that come out of NaNoWriMo. "One of our writers told us that a lot of agents and publishers on Twitter have refused to even look at NaNoWriMo work, so we really want to get the word out," Perkins says. "I know there's some really good work being written right now and I'd love to find and publish it at RR... As a publisher that buys over 300 new short stories a year, I am sure we will find some exciting new voices in erotic romance fiction."

Yes, as Perkins specifies on the Ravenous Romance blog, she's interested in "just about every category of erotic romance, [though] our readers are anxious for more M/M/, paranormal and menage." With the genre boundaries in mind, any NaNoWriMo manuscript (in the vicinity of 50,000 words) submitted to Ravenous in December 2009 is eligible for publication along with a $200 advance.

Our own feelings on the subject are as follows: If an agent or a publisher says they won't look at a NaNoWriMo manuscript, don't tell them about it, at least not when you're submitting. Afterwards, if somebody wants it, then you've got a cute backstory about how you were inspired to write the novel, but for now, let the work stand on its own merits. Which brings up an even more fundamental point: Why would you even think of submitting your NaNoWriMo manuscripts in December? If you're fortunate enough to have a workable first draft on November 30, you take a couple weeks off to refresh yourself, then you start revising!

But most importantly, we just want to remind you: It's National Novel Writing Month, not National Fantasizing About Selling the Novel You Haven't Written Yet Month. Act accordingly.

Today the twenty semifinalists were announced in the "Next Best Celler" contest, a search for the best cellphone novel on a serialized writing site.

The contest is being held on the cellphone literature site TextNovel, a socially networked community created by Soper Literary Agency. The shortlist was created by counting total votes and subscriptions by readers. Dorchester Publishing editors will determine the ten finalists by November 16th, and choose a winner early next year.

The most popular book on the shortlist was written by Lillie Spencer, who has racked up hundreds of votes for her cellphone novel-in-progress, "Manhunt." Here's the ultimate prize: "The winner will receive the $2,000 prize as an advance and a publishing contract with Dorchester."

Yesterday, we shared some tips from a toolbox for National Novel Writing Month participants no matter where they may be—but here's an opportunity of special significance to GalleyCat readers in the New York City area: The Center for Fiction is opening up its Writers' Studio at 40% off the usual membership fees. The Studio is located on the top floor of the Center's midtown headquarters, and members can make use of "a desk, a personal locker, access to an up-to-date reference library, comfortable chairs, electrical outlets for portable and laptop computers, wireless access to the internet, access to a refreshment lounge located on the premises, and all the privileges of general membership—including access to our 75,000 volume library, discounts at our bookstore, and marked down tickets for all our events, reading groups and writing workshops."

Membership options extend from an evenings-and-weekends plan (usually $100/month) to full access from 9 a.m. to midnight or 6 p.m. on weekends ($130); to snag the discount any time this month, email programming director Kristin Henley and put "NaNoWriMo" in the subject line.

Meanwhile, here's some of the best advice for NaNoWriMo participants we've seen yet, from Merlin Mann: "Read the next sentence out loud to yourself three times. No, do it: When I’m reading about writing, I’m not writing." As Mann points out, the top habit of amazing writers is pretty simple: "They write."

(Note: Senior editor Ron Hogan curates a reading series at the Center for Fiction.)

National Novel Writing Month began yesterday, as thousands of writers struggle to pound out 50,000 words in a single month. Last year 119,301 writers participated, and 21,683 actually completed the writing marathon. This year, writers have a number of freebies and discounts to make the writing process more exciting.

CreateSpace is offering successful NaNoWriMo winner a a free proof copy of their book. Scrivener has a special NaNoWriMo trial edition of the novel writing software that authors can use for free.

Finally, Rachel Kaufman interviewed Jessica Burkhart about her 2006 fairy tale ending to her NaNoWriMo experience. Here's an excerpt: "When the month-long writing spree ended, Burkhart started revising Take The Reins, a story about tween girls at a competitive equestrian school. A month later, an agent found a blog post she'd written about the novel and asked to see the manuscript. The rest is history: The Canterwood Crest series is now five books long, with seven more to come.

How many words do you need to tell a story about an inanimate object? Smith magazine has teamed up with Significant Objects for an interesting contest--asking writers to compose a six-word story about that photograph.

Here are the details:"Can you create Significance for this Object in just six words? The winning response will be published on the Significant Objects site, and more to the point, on its eBay store. Proceeds from that auction go to the author of the winning submission."

Ernest Hemingway created the first six-word story about an inanimate object as well, famously writing a tragedy with two simple sentences: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." The Smith magazine contest ends on Friday, November 6, at 8 pm EST--submit your entry today...

For all the literary Halloween-lovers in the audience, Omnilit has just launched a Halloween Costume Contest on Facebook.

Omnilit is a digital bookstore run by the women behind the All Romance eBook store. Between now and midnight on October 31st, readers can submit a photo of their Halloween costume for prizes.

Read all about it on the website, but here are the main details: "Starting now through midnight, October 31st, we’re having a Facebook Halloween Costume Contest. Here’s how it works. Take a picture of yourself with your Halloween costume, then upload it to Omnilit’s Facebook Wall. Prizes include $50 Omnibucks Gift Certificates, for downloadable purchases at Omnilit.com. The grand prize is a silver Sony Reader Pocket Edition ebook reader! The contest theme is 'My eBook Fantasy.'"

Quality Systems consultant and writer David McKenzie has won the 2009 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, writing the world's worst opening sentence to an imaginary novel.

This prize is part of an annual bad writing competition that began in 1982 at San Jose State University. The contest was named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, an author famous for writing the opening line: "It was a dark and stormy night." Read the winning sentence here, and check out the runner up as well--recounting the adventures of a kidnapped Irish Wolfhound.

Here's a taste of the winning sentence: "Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish..."

The website wowOwow has launched a new reading project called "Words Move Me," asking readers and literary celebrities to explain which books inspire them. Editors Note: An earlier version of this post referenced a Sony Reader giveaway that has already ended.

If you need inspiration, here are of a few of this GalleyCat editor's favorites. Salon.com senior writer Rebecca Traister confessed her love for Willa Cather's "My Antonia;" "Practical Magic" author Alice Hoffman cheered "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte; and finally, "Prospect Park West" author Amy Sohn explained her feelings for Mary Gordon's "Final Payments."

Here's a post from Judith Martin (Miss Manners) about the book that moves her: "For relief I turn to Henry James' "The Death of the Lion" for the best description of the sort of newspaper editor I used to work for..."