Elora Writers' Festival Writing Contest: A Journey...

Where will your journey take you....?
(Photo T.J.R. Mills)

“The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair,” claimed 20th century American writer Mary Heaton Vorse.

If you’re a writer – or you want to be – then the time has come to adopt Heaton Vorse’s credo as your own because, yes, it’s writing contest season.

Start thinking about this year’s contest theme: A Journey. Let your imagination wander. Feel the creative energy start to flow.

Then apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, and write!

Contest Details:

Enter your short story (1500 words maximum) or poem (75 lines maximum) in the 2012 Elora Writers’ Festival Writing Competition by Friday, April 27.

·         Title Page:   Category, Title of Entry, Writer’s Name, Address, Email

·         Short Story or Poem:   with title (Writer’s Name on Title Page only)

·         Category 1:    Include Entry fee

·         Category 2-4:    Indicate age on Title Page

·         Deadline:    Postmarked by Friday, April 27, 2012

Send double-spaced, printed entries (with entry fee for Category 1) to:

EWF Writing Competition

c/o Elora Arts Council

Box 668

Elora ON N0B 1S0

Winners will be announced 12 p.m. ET, Saturday, May 26, 2012

on the Elora Writers’ Festival blogsite

You can find entry details on the contest flyer here,

and a list of Frequently Asked Questions here.

Questions? Contact Contest Chair, Jean Mills, at jrmills@rogers.com

My Favourite Client: Highlights of a Season of Champions

On the job in Saskatoon: Writing World Junior reports
 while waiting for the Bronze Medal game at the
 2012 Tim Hortons Brier to begin (Photo D. Mills)

When I took on the role of writer/editor for the Canadian Curling Association website last summer, I was looking forward to a season of writing about - and helping other writers write about - a sport I love. The job was everything I thought it would be, with some unexpected challenges thrown in.

Where to start? How about with some of the challenges:

1. With five high-profile national/international events being held in Canada this season, and a number of others involving Canadian teams on the world stage, the website was the hub for news as well as marketing. That meant at least five - usually more - stories a week requiring editing, photos, links and posting on the website. Because each post involved individual event teams made up of mostly volunteers, an event coordinator, a writer, and an editor, the process relied on clear, timely communication among all participants - and that communication chain sometimes snapped. More than once I found myself doing a last-minute edit late on a Sunday night for a post that was scheduled for first thing Monday. Part of the job, and we all got it done, but not my favourite way to operate, particularly when I juggle other jobs and clients along the way.

2. Some of the writers I worked with this season were not writers - they were contributors with essential expertise and experience in aspects of the sport. They sent me copy; I had to turn it into something readable, entertaining and informative. That's not always easy - especially when I was determined to maintain each writer's distinct (and sometimes quirky!) voice. What a challenge, and what fun for the writer in me: playing with other voices. 

Highlights? There were many!

1. Writing about the grassroots of curling in my bi-weekly column, Around the House, allowed me to speak with curlers and curling club managers around the country about the sport we all love. I had a chance to tell their stories, and that's my favourite thing to do. From writing about the brand-new club in a little town in Quebec, to the massive sports and entertainment complex that just opened in Moose Jaw, I loved sharing curlers' stories - and they were generous with their efforts to answer my questions and provide photos.

2. Writing summaries of games at The Dominion Curling Club Championships, the first-ever Youth Olympic Games, the World University Curling Championships, the World Juniors, National University and most recently, the World Men's Curling Championship. Did I get to attend these events? No - this was long-distance reporting. It was exciting to follow the action online, using line scores from the event (sometimes in the middle of the night for international events!), then incorporate news from the official media release into the story, wait for photos to be posted on the CCA or event image gallery, write, edit and post the story - quickly! And when Canada won medals, as they did at every one of those events, it was even more exciting. 

As a writer/editor, this has been one of the most satisfying and enjoyable contracts I've ever worked on, and here's hoping there will be more in the future. Thanks, CCA! You are my current favourite client!

Real Estate Agents: You need an editor.

Anyone who never turns off his/her inner editor (yes, I'm putting my hand up) will know that reading the listings in the local newspaper's real estate supplement is torture. Please allow me to relieve my anguish by sharing a few anonymous zingers I encountered this morning. Note: The following examples came from the same publication. No, I am not making this up.

The classic its/it's battle - and a hint of overcompensation:

"Best in it's Class!"

"Country Living At Its's Best!"

Please consider proofreading for typos/spelling and other goofs:

"Cut as a button from the great layout to the great yard."

"If your looking for a great place to invest money & your life into, [address] might be for you."

"The wide open spaces of the great room, country kitchen and deck compliment the private nooks of the study, porches and balcony." (This line was part of a description that appeared in two separate listings. Different houses. Same description. Not very complimentary - or complementary, for that matter!)

Comma splices are okay in advertising, right?

"Come and see for yourself, you will be glad you did."

"Don't worry about bringing your decorating ideas, the owner has tastefully updated & decorated with unmistakable quality."

Punctuation? Who cares?

"...on a magnificent 190' foot deep professionally landscaped lot..."

"While most new freehold towns are much more than this to build. These owners have priced this one to sell."

"[Address] is a beautiful tree lined street..."

Let's just invent new usage, shall we?

"Bright 3 bedroom, 1,436squft unit..."

Sigh.

Calling all Realtors: If you want to impress potential clients with your ability to communicate clearly, concisely and correctly, please consider asking someone to look over your listings before publication.

Better yet: hire an editor!

My Annual Writing Contest Adventure: The Elora Writers' Festival Writing Competition 2012

Volunteerism is something that most of us take seriously. It's hard to find the time and energy in a busy life to commit to an obligation outside of family and job. 

This wolf is on a journey in the Yukon...

And if you're a writer, as I am, it's even harder to give up potential creative time in order to contribute to a cause or organization.

But we do it anyway, don't we? Not for glory and not for thanks: we do it because we believe strongly in the causes we support.

Outside of health, happiness and the well-being of those I love, I don't think there's anything that means more to me than writing, so when I have the chance, I do my best to help support writers and spread the word of books, reading and writing.

One of my favourite volunteer commitments, the annual EWF Writing Competition, is about to rev up for another year. The Call for Entry is almost ready to go, and the Frequently Asked Questions page is drafted and waiting. A few more loose ends need to be tied up and then - the official announcement.

Stay tuned here at Writer's Life and also at the Festival blog, Elora Writers' Festival, for all the news on this year's adventure.

Psssst! Want a hint? This year, the competition has a theme: A Journey....

 

Business Writing: The Three-M Email

Like many communications professionals, I receive and send a lot of email.

My college students communicate with me daily - and poorly. Clients and colleagues often hit the "Send" button without re-reading. I'm sure (in the heat of a deadline-driven panic) I have done the same. But it's inexcusable. Email messages deserve the same respect that the disappearing art of handwritten messages do: think before you write, read before you send.

For example, here's an email message sent to me by a student who rarely showed up to my college-level writing class:

"Hello, my sources were on the back of the essay, did you not get them? And i will touch up the argumentative essay, and also hand in the 2nd essay. Thanks for understanding. And tomorrow, the 11th, i may not be able to make it to class if so ill be late due to a physio thrapist appointment, its very hard for them to fit me in there schedule, which kind of bothers me. In the the meantime ill be working on the reading responce summary and the 2nd essay. Please let me know what/ if i miss anything important tomorrow."


Tone: All "me"; no "thee"
Correctness: Lacking (I mean, really. "...ill be late"? "its very hard for them to fit me in there schedule"?)
Coherence: None
Purpose: All over the place
Overall effect: "I don't care."

The 3-M Rule should apply to every email message you write:

Manners

Be nice. The reader can't see your eyes or facial expressions. He can't hear the tone of your voice. Your word choice has to provide the cues.

"John - I need the registration numbers" is a clear enough message, but it's also curt and abrupt. Not nice.

"Hi John - Please send the registration numbers. Thanks, Mary."  Getting ride of "I need" and using "Please" changes the tone of this message, as does the "thanks" as a sign-off. Clear, correct, concise - and nice.

Why does being "nice" - the art of using good manners - matter in email communication? See "Marketing", below.

Message

Did I mention "clear, correct, concise"?  Choosing familiar words, spelled correctly, in a variety of simple, compound, and compound-complex sentences, creates a smooth and effective message.

Say what you mean. Choose precise words: "now" instead of "at the present time"; "concerning" instead of "with respect to". (Need some help? Google "wordiness" or "wordiness exercises" and you can find lots of online practice. Here's one to start with: Polishing Your Writing.)

Proofread for correctness and typos. Use Spellchecker (although you should also be aware of its pitfalls). Better yet, compose your message in Word, with all its useful tools, and Copy/Paste your message into your email. Leave the recipient's address field empty until you're sure your message is ready; that way, you won't accidentally send an error-filled draft.

Marketing

Every time you hit "Send", you are sending an image of you - your strengths, weaknesses, intelligence, abilities, attitude, general savviness - into someone's Inbox. Even the briefest message says more about you than the actual words do.

You have the opportunity to market yourself every time you send an email message, and that's a powerful tool.

So use it! Make every message count. Be aware of Manners, Message and Marketing.

And the student who sent that ineffective, error-filled message?

Yes. He failed the course.

The perils of gender-neutral pronoun use

Trying to teach correct pronoun use to college students is - well - challenging, to say the least. Students often like to blame their confusion on previous teachers.

"But that doesn't sound very polite," is the common response I get when indicating the correct use of subjective and objective pronouns after a preposition.  "My teachers have always corrected me and said to use 'I' instead of 'me'."

The committee gave the prize to Sam and I.  Really?

But of course it should be: The committee gave the prize to Sam and me. An object case pronoun is required after the preposition to.

I'm not buying this "My teacher made me do it" explanation. Teachers have also, apparently, told my students never to start a sentence with the word because. Hmmm. Does the term "subordinate clause" ring a bell, anyone?

Pronoun agreement raises even more issues. A student should always bring their textbook to class.

Their? Since the pronoun is referring back to the word student (its antecedent) which is singular, then the pronoun should also be singular: he or she, or even the clunky he or she. But inexperienced writers tend to think they are being gender-neutral, and therefore more politically correct, in selecting a pronoun that is neither "male" nor "female."

The Globe and Mail showed the way to gender-neutral pronoun use in a recent article published online: One Supreme Court nominee confident at hearing, one struggles.  The article contains the following paragraph:

Each nominee spoke of his humble roots: Judge Karakatsanis as the daughter of Greek immigrants who opened a restaurant; Judge Moldaver as the son of a scrap-metal dealer and a homemaker-mother.

Each nominee is singular. The pronoun reference his is also singular. Correct usage.

But one of the nominees referred to later in the sentence is a "daughter" and one is a "son." The gender of the nominees isn't clear in the opening clause, and his is gender-neutral - at least as far as the English language goes.

The crux: One problem in English grammar, especially in pronoun use, is that current social sensibilities want to make everything "politically correct" (and oh, how I hate that term!). It's grammar, people! These are structural rules to help regulate the construction of sentences, not a comment on social order or male-female equality.

The antecedent each nominee is singular; gender is unspecified. The referring pronoun his is singular; gender is as neutral as English gets. 

One way to avoid this gender-selection issue would have been to revise the clause: Both nominees spoke of their humble roots.

But I love that The Globe took the tricky, singular route, with its built-in gender challenge.

"Each nominee spoke of his humble roots." Perfect!

Won't somebody publish my YA novel, please?

Yes, this is a rant.

Twenty-two years ago, I had a couple of YA novels published. I then took some time off to focus on my young family, and when I returned to writing and querying, three years later, it was as if that initial success had never happened. I was a beginner again.

Fair enough. I started over.

But I'm beginning to wonder if that was a good idea.

For all the years, and manuscripts, and query letters and rejection letters since, I've slowly been descending into an awareness of what it means to lose confidence in a dream shared by every writer: to see my story published.

Should I feel encouraged that the regular feedback I get from editors and other published authors is "This manuscript deserves to be published"? (That's a quote from Red Deer's Peter Carver). Do Ontario Arts Council grants, invitations to speak at a writers' festival, participate in writing workshops for kids and be a Writer-in-Residence really mean anything? Successes in my business writing career and a few self-publishing projects keep me going. But still...

Won't somebody publish my YA novel, please?

I received another "thanks but no thanks" from a publisher today:

"The title is well chosen; the tone is lively and engaging, and Isabel is a sympathetic and believable protagonist..." followed by a "however" and two suggestions, both good, but neither requiring substantive rewriting.

In other words: "Close, but not quite."

The kind editor took the time not only to offer concrete feedback, but also to urge me to "Please consider pursuing other avenues for the manuscript." She included contact information for the Canadian Children's Book Centre, which is helpful - except that I've been writing and querying so long that I'm already familiar with all the resources the excellent CCBC offers want-to-be-published writers.

The truth is, I'm discouraged. Oh, I know all the stories of authors - Madeleine L'Engle comes to mind - who queried for years before achieving success. I know the "never give up" attitude preached (so often) by those who are already successful.

Coming close so many, many times isn't a great feeling. I'm tired of the disappointment. I'm tired of seeing my stories crash land after months and years of intense creative effort. For most of my writing life, that effort has been a magical experience of transformation and joy. But lately, writing fiction has lost its lustre - and for me, that's the greatest loss of all.

What to take away from this?

1. My writing is obviously good enough to catch the eye of an editor - fact.

2. This most recently rejected story needs some work - maybe. (My first novel might never have been published if I'd heeded the advice of an acquisitions editor who told me it would be better if I completely changed a crucial plot point; I didn't change it, and a second publisher snapped it up because of that plot point. Who to listen to? Acquisition editors, or your heart?)

3. The next step is all up to me: write, rewrite, revise and continue to submit - or not.

Many questions, and no clear answer yet.