  Contests & Activities
This week: Outside the Box Edited by: Legerdemain  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to highlight some of the current contests and activities on the site, help educate members on how to host contests and activities, and provide clues to submit quality entries to contests. Write to me if you'd like something in particular covered.
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Writing Outside the Box
A great way to stretch your imagination is writing for contests. There are many available on our site; different genres, different types of prompts and different lengths of time in which to write. This is a great way to not only keep up with writing every day or every week, but a way to stretch your comfort zone by writing in different genres or time frames. If you're the type that likes to write a few lines and then go back and edit, try writing out a whole short story and then go back for a longer edit session.
If most of the stories you have written are historical romance, try something for a sci-fi contest. If all your characters usually shrink at some point in your story, try a new platform for your character; perhaps an unwilling hero in a national disaster or an international spy. And going back to contests on our site, these are great opportunities to get to know your character better by writing a short story for them. Writing a few stories for your characters outside the one you have planned can give you a better three dimensional view of their personalities and motivations.
Another way is to join some activities on the site. There are many groups to join, including review groups. Reviewing gives you the opportunity to read other's work, brush up on grammar rules and certainly meet other members. Networking is an essential part of writing and publishing. Not everyone's opinion is the right one, but it's helpful to see your work through other people's eyes. Reviewing in genres you're not comfortable in may help you familiarize with that genre's writing style, and pick up a few pointers along the way. Even if you don't care to write vampire stories, looking at the work with a slant to how the technical style is written can help. Knowing these particular quirks can help when writing cross-genre scenes or stories.
Give it a shot. Try something new or something you don't feel comfortable in. It's like a new leather chair - at first you slip off the leather and it's cold and impersonal...but soon it becomes your best friend.
This month's question: How successful are your attempts with new genres? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Each month, a prompt will be given, and each participant will have the choice to write either a poem or short story based on the prompt. Each month, there will be a poetry winner and a short story winner.
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This will be a short-story fantasy contest of no more than 4000 words. Prompt: A time traveler confronts, or is confronted with/by a dragon.
Quick! Enter!
This week I would like you to take a nursery rhyme and twist it into an outrageous story. For example, The Three Little Pigs, maybe one is a homeless bum, the second is a middle class whiner and the third is a rich playboy that has to call on all of his resources to rescue his brothers that he hasn't seen in years.
Prompt for August 2012: Your character has committed a crime and a family member finds out and confronts him. Tell the story of what the crime is and how the character reacts to being caught and confronted.
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A list of four fantasy books of varying subgenres will be listed and voted upon by members, for each reading session. Vote on your choice today!
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Accepting new authors. If you're interested, send a review or an email. About the Story: Asher Gaving decides to spend the last of his inheritance on adventure and sets off to pursue the bounty on infamous pirates. His foolish mistake lands him on the deck of Captain Phoenix, leader of the ruthless all-female pirate crew. Recognizing his status, she holds him ransom, but before she can wash her hands of him, his older brother attempts to harness the power of the Okena, the ancient Sea Lords trapped by the more powerful Earth Lords, the Xantara, eons ago. Jaspen's skill is too weak and instead of harnessing the Okena, he sets them free. They want revenge on the Earth Lords and their people. Phoenix must find the Xantara, who have been missing for two thousand years and convince them to stop the Okena before they gather the power they need to lay waste to mankind.
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Excerpt: Approaching the door with a healthy dose of caution you examine the lock. The door is, most unusually for a dungeon is open. Either your captives are fools, or they have very good guards. You hope for the former, but suspect the latter, so the first thing you want to do is find your equipment.
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The purpose of this group is to hone our members innate storytelling abilities through shared knowledge and constructive reviews of our work. We will hold at least one live-chat spotlight review of a different member's work each week. There is no mandatory amount of activity or reviewing required but we need to help each other improve, if we hope to be the best we can be. Activity is encouraged and rewarded.
Toss water balloon cNotes and soak your friends for a good cause!
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Contests & Activities: August 15, 2012 Issue [#5207]
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