September’s question of the month - How do you find the time to write in your busy day?
Some days, I don’t. I have so many duties with Dancing Lemur Press, formatting, speaking, and other things I do to make money that usually my own writing is one of the last things on the list. Which means sometimes, I don’t get to it. Weekends I have a better shot at it though and can usually get in a couple hours. Which I did do this past weekend.
Announcing the 2016 IWSG Anthology Contest!
Eligibility: Any member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group is encouraged to enter – blogging or Facebook member. The story must be previously unpublished. Entry is free.
Word count: 5000-6000
Genre: Fantasy
Theme: Hero Lost. It could be about a hero turned villain, a villain's redemption, a hero's lack of confidence, a hero's lack of smarts, etc. It can be about any kind of hero including superheroes, mythological heroes, unexpected or unlikely heroes, or a whole new kind of hero. This theme has plenty of scope and we’re open to pretty much anything along these lines. No erotica, R-rated language, or graphic violence.
Deadline: November 1st 2015
How to enter: Send your polished, previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your contact details and if you are part of the Blogging or Facebook IWSG group.
Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges.
Prizes: The winning stories will be edited and published by Freedom Fox Press next year in the IWSG anthology. Authors will receive royalties on books sold, both print and eBook. The top story will have the honor of giving the anthology its title.
We’re excited to see the creativity and enthusiasm that’s such a part of this group put into action. So don your creative caps and start writing. And spread the word!
Our amazing judges this year:
Elizabeth S. Craig writes cozy mystery series for Penguin Random House, Midnight Ink, and independently. She curates links on Twitter as @elizabethscraig that are later shared in the free search engine WritersKB.com.
Richard Harland finished his first novel in 1993 and resigned a university lectureship to become a full-time writer. With seventeen fantasy, SF and horror novels published since, he went international with his steampunk fantasies, Worldshaker, Liberator and Song of the Slums. He has won six Aurealis Awards and the A. Bertram Chandler Award in Australia, the Tam Tam Je Bouquine Award in France. Writing Tips
Laura Maisano has an MA in Technical writing and is a Senior Editor at Anaiah Press for their YA/NA Christian Fiction. She’s excited to release her debut YA Urban Fantasy SCHISM, and she’s finishing up the sequel UNITY.
Russell C. Connor has been writing horror since the age of 5, and has been in the self-publishing industry for a decade. He has published 8 novels and 4 novellas in both paperback and eBook, including the Box Office of Terror Trilogy and "Whitney," an epic horror novel about hurricane survivors fighting a washed-ashore sea monster. He also designs books for clients and assists them with self-publishing endeavors.
Dawn Frederick is the founder of Red Sofa Literary, previously of Sebastian Literary Agency, and she brings a broad knowledge of the book business to the table—with multiple years of experience as a bookseller in the independent, chain, and specialty stores; sales, marketing, & book development at a YA publisher, a published nonfiction author, and an agent associate literary agent at Sebastian Literary Agency.
Michelle L. Johnson is a literary agent, the founder of Inklings Literary Agency and has a business administration background in addition to a lifetime of working with books (sales, editing, and writing) and authors (marketing, promoting, event planning), and also has been a script/story consultant for an independent film.
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia's longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998. His qualifications and employment range from horticulture through electronics into literature and communications.
Author, Public Speaker, and Executive Producer, Lynn Tincher was born just outside of Louisville, Kentucky in the beautiful city of La Grange. She has written four books, with the fifth one currently in the making. Her first book, Afterthoughts was optioned for movie production by Kilted Pictures and Dancing Forward Productions in Los Angeles. It is currently in pre-production with plans to shoot in Louisville, Kentucky very soon.
How do you find time to write?
Are you thinking of entering the IWSG contest?
63 comments:
With your busy schedule, it's little wonder that you don't have time to write every day. The merchandise items are a great idea.
Thoughts in Progress
and MC Book Tours
Hi Diane - those gift ideas are great ... and I'm sure authors will take advantage ... wonderful Christmas presents. The Anthology is a great opportunity for people to submit examples of their work ...
Enjoy next weekend and more writing time! Cheers Hilary
Hope you get a good responsse to this wonderful contest.
Yvonne.
I'm like you, Diane. I write nonfiction for a living now. It and my blog, which helps so many writers, take all my writing time. I'm grateful to support myself writing this way and don't want anymore publishing deadlines than I already have.
Time, time, time! It's so hard to find it!
Fantasy should be fun!
Your merchandise looks amazing! How exciting. Fantasy is "write" up my alley, so I may sub this year to the anthology.
I did make time to visit your merchandise. What a terrific idea! Don't know how you manage everything...you do live in a 24-hour a day world, right? Please remember to breath, OK? Cheers.
Natalie, that is the nice thing - the deadlines are my own.
Lynn, I'm in front of my computer all day long.
I delighted the merchandise is getting such a great response.
The merchandise looks amazing!
Hope the publishing side of things starts moving at a more steady, regular pace to give you more writing time.
Very cool about the merchandise. Very cool.
I'm LOVING the theme for the contest this time, but I also happen to be releasing a book on the deadline, so um, there's no way. Which is sad. I only have a HUNDRED stories that would fit the theme. Where is my time stopper?
I don't know how you get everything done! You are a whirlwind of activity. What I want to know is where a person goes to order those customized playing cards!
Merchandise. How fun!
Love the merchandising ideas! Finding time to write is a major challenge, but I keep working at it. Looking forward to the anthology contest. Great theme!
IWSG Co-host at http://lorilmaclaughlin.com
I do want to enter and will hopefully start getting my story idea down next week. Good luck with the merchandising page. Sounds cool.
Awesome merchandise. When your life is as busy as yours, any time you can carve out is terrific.
Now I can get a set of my own playing cards!
All kinds of exciting stuff going on!
The merchandise page is terrific. Saving my pennies to go shopping.
The anthology sounds great. Looking forward to reading it. Good luck everyone.
You do have so many jobs and each one is full time. You need 36 hours in a day or a nine day week.
You do sound busy. The merchandise is great. I won a pack of those card thru Jolene's giveaway. Very nice. The contest looks awesome. Thinking of story already. Happy IWSG
Juneta @ Writer's Gambit
You sound like you have a busy life. Congrats for getting some writing in there at all!
Congrats on setting up the merchandise store!
You're one busy woman! The merchandise page looks great. :) I'm excited about the contest. I must try to think of a story for it this year.
Elizabeth, we just have a lot of releases coming up. As my husband told me, you did it to yourself.
Crystal, I'm sorry you won't be able to enter this time.
Bish, I'll email you.
Jen, we just need to find what works for us.
Susan, I've been lobbying for a 40 hour day for years.
This has become some serious business. I hope I can think of something worthy. :-)
Anna from elements of emaginette
I'm exhausted just thinking about all the work you do. Thanks, by the way. Your effort is greatly appreciated. I love my mug and my t-shirt! Now I have to decide who gets one for Christmas.
I am not thinking of entering the writing contest as I feel I need to concentrate on my novel instead of writing short fiction right now. But it's such a good idea. Some writers do write short fiction and there are not enough good places to get it published.
Nissa from
http://myantimatterlife.wordpress.com
You seem to do a wonderful job with managing your time. When I was working and had a specific schedule it seemed like I got more done. Now my life is overly random at times--fun, but not always productive.
Great line-up of judges for the anthology.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
I'm thinking about entering the contest this year. It all depends upon whether a story idea, free time, and inspiration all collide at the right time. Glad you're keeping busy at Dancing Lemur Press.
Hi, L. Diane,
Great merchandising products.... such fun! Congrats...
I am going to PUSH myself on this year's theme for the anthology.... after all I started in Fantasy and I do love it. Hopefully I will be able to come up with something print worthy!
You're one busy lady, and I never see you lazing around.
The line up of judges for this next anthology is impressive, and I'm sure they'll pick some great stories. I look forward to reading them.
I think the authors of Dancing Lemur and Freedom Fox are very lucky to have such a dedicated lady looking after them. You're awesome!
I'm digging the merch I've been seeing around today. Exciting stuff!
And every word you get in counts!
IWSG September
With all you do toward the publishing side of writing, it's amazing you find any time to write. One reason I stopped freelance editing was because it was eating up all my writing time.
Good luck to everyone who enters the anthology! It was fun being a part of the last one.
You are one busy woman,L. Diane. I'm surprised you can find any time at all! I love the merchandise - and from a couple of my favorite authors! How cool is that? Expect me to go shopping later on this month. I hope you have a blessed day and enjoy the rest of IWSG day. Eva
I love the t-shirts and coffee mugs :)
The important thing is to write whenever you can. And the merch looks really cool!
Congrats on the new merchandise. That's awesome! I'll bet you sell a ton of coffee mugs :) Good luck Diane!
Elsie
co-host IWSG
Merchandising is such an integral part of the business world. The T-shirts/mugs/playing cards are an awesome idea!
Congrats Diane! You are a productive and highly organised person!
Happy IWSG Day!
It's amazing you get any writing done. Sounds like it's full speed ahead as a publisher. Wishing all the books every success.
The contest sounds great. Hope you get oodles of entries.
Hi L Diane. You do have a busy life with the press, but these days, everyone is frantic in their own way. I have to work hard to find time to write, and I feel selfish when I do, but these days I write in 2-hour sessions. Maybe 3 of those a day ends up being a healthy chunk.
Hmm. Fantasy's not my cup of tea, LOL, but I will see if inspiration finds me in the heavens. Maybe as I ponder CONSTELLATIONS for WEP I might be lead along the right path.
Have a great month!
Denise :-)
Weekends are great for writing. I don't know who came up with the idea, but when Friday night arrives, I automatically relax. It's so lovely!
Love the merchandise!
All too often we put our writing last. All too often we have to! Gotta love weekend writing, though.
You merchandise is great - what a terrific idea. Your writers must be very happy. Of course, you're busy, but even if it doesn't lead to your own writing, you promote the writing of others. Your karma must be over the roof.
Olga said such lovely things, I can't compete! Anyway I too have the issue of finding tome to write for myself since I freelance write for others. But we each find fulfillment in helping others pursue their dreams as we work and live out ours in various ways that we are blessed. All the best and I'm definitely entering a fantasy story contest. YAY!
You can only do so much. If you do quality work (which I know you do) then each project will take time. Your activities will plant seeds for future writing. Your next work will benefit from all your efforts.
Those are some great judges! I will enter, of course. I will lose, of course. I never do well on these things, so the pressure is off! I will just do my best and have fun doing it. What's the point of writing if you cannot have fun doing it?
This looks fun and exciting. I look forward to following from the sidelines.
With all of the things you do, it's understandable that you can't always write every day, but I love your pragmatic attitude about it. You aren't just a talker; you're a doer. Hats off to ya!
Your schedule is packed, I'm not surprised you don't always get time to write, but at least you're keeping it up on a regular basis. The merchandise looks great and will definitely help the authors concerned. I'm excited about entering the anthology - just need to come up with a good idea!
You are busy and productive. I tend to write mainly on weekends.
Love the new marketing materials! I saw someone post their cover products the other day.
I love the merchandising. I'm going to have to get a Felix mug:)
Have a great weekend, Diane.
At least you are busy with activities in the writing industry. It's a wonder you have any time to write at all!
I found your blog through the #CTST blog hop and I'm glad I did. I will also be checking out Dancing Lemur Press. What a neat name! I like your blog - it's beautiful and easy to read. Good luck with all the new merchandise. Have a great weekend! www.dianeweidenbenner.com
I'm in awe of the fact you find time to write at all! Love the merchandise.
Love the merchandising concepts. Need a big to go cup for sodas :) I am looking forward to the next IWSG anthology.
The merchandise page looks great. What wonderful ideas. And the next anthology should be a winner.
I'm definitely thinking about entering the competition, and this morning, I might have struck on the idea I want to use. :-)
i love the merchandise!
and i hope i have time to enter the anthology contest =)
thanks for the info!
Are entries starting to come in for the contest?
Or way too soon?
Looks like another great group of judges this year.
Have a great one, Diane;)
Your life. Seriously. INSANE!!!!!
I'm trying to find the magic again. Lost it for a while. Hopefully it's coming back. :)
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