Help for Writers/Harper Collins Wants New Writers

Writer’s Thought for the Week: …the story doesn't  happen on the page.  It happens in the reader's imagination. ~ Philip Gerard    

WRITER’S KNOWLEDGE BASE

Writer’s Knowledge Base is a free searchable collection of articles relevant to writers. Search on whatever you need help with and the site bring up a list of titles and links to articles.

If writing realistic dialogue is a challenge for you, search on “realistic dialogue” for a list of articles on the subject. You’ll find articles with such titles as “The Rhythm of Dialogue, “ “6 Fillers to Avoid in Dialogue,” and “Balancing Dialogue and Narrative,” among others.

If your plot seems dull and you need to increase tension, a search on “increasing dramatic tension” brings you “The Four Types of Dramatic Tension.” 

 

Need a quick explanation of ballistics for the mystery novel you’re writing? It’s in here.

HARPER VOYAGER

HarperCollins’ science fiction and fantasy imprint is accepting complete and unagented manuscripts now until October 14.

Voyager seeks an array of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly novels written in the epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural genres. After reading the guidelines, authors from around the world can submit their English manuscripts here.

Free Writing Analyzer/Fantasy Story Competition

Writer's Thought for the Week: God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much, the reader ceases to get under the bed. ~ Mark Twain

Free Manuscript Analyzer from Christopher Park

In my critique group, we often comment that a manuscript repeats a certain word or words. A free program that you can run online or download to run under Windows analyzes your writing and list all words and their corresponding count. It also flags “FOs” or “frequent offenders”: words like “just” and “that” and phrases such as “old as the hills.” You can customize the list of words and phrases that the program flags so it captures your own personal nemeses - or Twain’s thunder and lightning.

ANNUAL SCIENCE FICTION-FANTASY-HORROR WRITER'S COMPETITION

5,000 to 20,000 words

This free competition runs until May 5, 2012 but they accept submissions year-round. Entries received after May 5 will be considered for the upcoming year's competition.   

The Zharmae Publishing Press (TZPP) holds the competition as one way of recruiting qualified authors to work with for full-length books. Many of the winning writers, especially those in the Top 5, get offers to work with TZPP on future works. In addition to cash prizes, all winners receive publication in their annual anthology plus three free copies of that anthology.

Cash prizes: 1st Place $400, 2nd Place $350, 3rd Place $300, 4th Place $250, 5th Place $200