Time to Write

Writing contests with no entry fees

One of the reservations I have about writing contests is that often the entry fee is too high compared to the prizes on offer. Fortunately, the Published To Death blog has a list of 53 writing contests with March 2017 deadlines--none of them requiring any entry fee.

A few of the deadlines have already passed, and you'll see that some of the contests have very specific requirements.

For instance, in one case entry is restricted to Irish residents of the UK, in another the entries have to be poems about Nantucket Island.

The good news is if you fit any of these, the odds are tyou won't have the same number of competitors that you'd have in a more generic contest, so your odds of winning are greater.

You can get the list here. Good luck!

The inspiring language of Joyce...in small doses

Although I admire his use of language, I've never made it all the way through James Joyce's Ulysses. How about you?

If you also found it too rich in larger doses, you might enjoy getting it in Tweet-size bits that allow you to savor his words.

The Twitter feed @UlyssesReader offers you the entire book, one short selection at a time. For instance:

"his eyes, from which he had suddenly withdrawn all shrewd sense, blinking with mad gaiety."

If you like warming up before you start a writing session, these Tweets might provide a good prompt. For instance, if the day's tweet was the one above, how would you describe the eyes of your protagonist? 

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For writing advice from the great writers of the past and present, get a copy of my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.