And the Winner Is...

Thanks again to everyone who participated and voted in the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest. It was a huge success. I enjoyed reading all the stories and getting to know some of our fellow bloggers' writing styles. Thanks so much.

And, now, without further ado, the winner by popular demand of the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest is...

(*drumroll*)

MARGO KELLY

author of "Never Hit a Woman"

Congratulations, Margo. Be sure to email Charity (charity.bradford@gmail.com) regarding your prize.

Vote for Your Favorite Story from the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest

First, I want to thank EVERYONE for participating in the Hone Your Skills Blogfest on Wednesday. This was the first blogfest either Charity or I have hosted, and I think it was a great success. All the stories were fantastic, and showed a diversity in styles and genres, as well as a love of writing. So THANK YOU to the writers, and THANK YOU to everyone else who visited the different stories to leave your comments.

As a part of the blogfest, Charity has kindly donated a $20 gift card to Amazon for the top story among our participants. Charity and I have chosen our top 5, and now YOU!! get to vote on your favorite. Just click on the name of your favorite on my side bar.

And now, before announcing the top favorites, thus forcing you to scroll down through ample paragraphs of my own waxing philosophical, I will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of...

(Charity): Psst.

(Rosie): What?

(Charity): Maybe you shouldn't make the people wait.

(Rosie): It's really important.

(Charity): Watch your adverbs.

(Rosie): *sigh* Right. Okay...


Rosie and Charity's Top Five Picks from the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest, in no particular order:

"Reasons" by Cleveland Dietz II

"Never Hit a Woman" by Margo Kelly

"Untitled" by Teralyn Rose Pilgrim

"Esperanza" from Pawny's Pen

"Driving Me Crazy" by Jane Isfeld-Still


Make sure to vote for your favorite on my side bar. Voting will run through NOW! until 11:59PM on Thursday, US east-coast time. I will post the official winner on Friday (although my post may go up a little later than my normal 7AM, as I expect to be asleep by midnight).

Thanks again to everyone, and be sure to vote!

HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest!

Welcome, everyone, to the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest! I'm so excited that this day has finally come :)

Be sure to check out all of the entries. I'll repost the list at the bottom.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Charity and I will pick our top 5 short stories from the entries. Those five stories and links to them will be posted HERE on Monday, the 21st. Then YOU will have a chance to vote. I'll have a poll on the sidebar. ANYONE can vote from the options. Voting will be open through Thursday, the 24th, and the winner will be announced on Friday. The winner will receive a $20 Amazon gift card, courtesy of Charity.

Here's a reminder of the guidelines:

1. On March 16, post a short story around 750 words, no more than 1000, in any genre you like.
2. Read and give a critique for the person before and after you in the Linky List (and as many others as you can/want to). When you critique: a) find at least two things that really work, and b) at least two suggestions for how it can be tightened or improved.  
3. (Optional) When you post on March 16, list one or two (online) journals where you plan to submit your piece after making revisions.

Regarding my post specifically, I want to thank you in advance for reading. I'm not great at the short story. This has been a difficult exercise for me.

Also, I STINK!! at titling things. Any suggestions on a better title would be greatly appreciated!

Please be aware that I'm not happy with how this turned out. There should be plenty in this story to critique :) But because of this—and because I haven't had much time to find places—I'm not planning on submitting this story right away. However, if you're looking for places, the Texas Observer is holding a short story contest.

If you have a longer critique, or want to discuss anything in more depth, feel free to email me at rlconnoly01 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Finally, again, be sure to stop by everyone else. I'll post the list again below my story.

Thanks!

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Daughter's Departure 

Aurelia’s hands gripped her knees. Knees together. Back straight. Maintain the pleasant, soft face. Almost smile. She watched as her mother evaluated her posture. Aurelia received a tiny nod of approval. She listened while her father concluded the final arrangements for her future as if he were conducting a business transaction.

The foreign gentleman dropped a bag of coins onto the table. The thud marked the seal of the transaction. “This is only the beginning. I will send the rest when we arrive at my estate.” The gentleman turned to her and flashed a grin from beneath his mustache. Men in her town never grew mustaches. They considered them messy, dirty, a product of laziness. Aurelia adjusted the pleasant look for faux-interest and lowered her eyes.

Light danced from the ring on her finger. After the gentleman’s arrival, negotiations had led to the wedding a mere fortnight later. The ceremony had happened so quickly that Aurelia still felt dazed. The thin band, now encircling on her left ring finger, bore great significance in the gentleman’s home country, where it had belonged to a princess or a queen or someone. Now it belonged to her.

But who had she become? The wife of a foreigner? The gentleman’s chivalrous demeanor impressed her, but his personality remained a mystery. In recent days, he had spoken of business and promises of the future, though had revealed little of himself. What were his fears? What foods did he eat at home? What was his mother like? Any time she had tried to ask, her mother had accused her of interrogation. She knew nothing. She had once found the gentleman’s country on a map and knew it to be far away. She knew no more.

“We must be leaving soon,” the gentleman said.

Aurelia raised her head. “Do I have time to say goodbye to Martina?”

“Of course.”

She stood and smoothed the fabric over her corseted waist. With a nod of thanks, she exited the room. Once out of sight, she picked up her skirt and dashed up the stairs two at a time as she and her sister had always done.

The door stood ajar, but Aurelia still knocked. Her wide skirt rustled against the door as she slipped inside. She sat on the bed and took her sister’s hand.

“Are you going now?” Martina asked. The words wheezed through her tightened throat.

“Soon.” Aurelia squeezed her sister’s hand. “And then you’ll be all better.”

“But you won’t be here when I’m well.”

“I’ll come to visit.”

“It’s very far…” Martina rolled away, coughing.

Aurelia rubbed Martina’s back until the fit subsided. “Don’t you worry. You’ll see me again soon.” She hoped the good Lord would not strike her for her lie.

“I’ll miss you.”

Aurelia leaned over and kissed her sister’s forehead. Her lips felt the heat before they reached the skin. Aurelia allowed herself a moment’s rest there, holding back the tears. When she felt composed, she pulled away, and wiped away Martina’s feverish perspiration from her own lips.

“I’ll visit so often,” Aurelia said, “you’ll get sick of me and ask me never to return.”

“If only that were possible.”

Aurelia told her sister of her love and affection, and fled through the door. She hadn’t realized her departure would be so difficult for her, but her family had no other options. Aurelia’s marriage to the foreign gentleman and the money associated with it gave her family a chance to improve their position. Her father could travel again for his business. Her sister could get the medicine she needed. Her family needed her more now than when she had darned socks and patched the sheets. They needed her more now than when she had made dinner for four from two potatoes and some water. She was worth more to them gone than living under their roof.

Aurelia straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin, and descended the stairs. She found her parents and the gentleman awaiting her.

“The carriage is packed,” the gentleman said. “We must be on our way.”

She hugged her mother. Despite Aurelia’s words to Martina, she feared she may never see them again. Her father kissed her cheek.

The gentleman offered his hand. She took it with a slight bow of her head. He guided her through the door. The recent rain had made the cobblestones slick. The sunlight glared against the shiny surfaces. The gentleman’s servant jumped forward and threw open the carriage door. The gentleman continued to hold her hand until she had seated herself.

She wanted to turn, to see her mother and father one last time, but worried about her composure. She did not turn. She placed her hands on her knees, sat up straight, and fixed the soft smile on her face like her mother had taught her.

The gentleman seated himself next to her. The carriage pulled away. Aurelia did not once look back.

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The Full-Body Writing Workout

First, remember that there's still PLENTY of time to sign up for the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest, hosted by myself and Charity. It's a chance to try your hand at a short story, get feedback from fellow writer-bloggers, and encouragement to try and publish it. We'd love to have you, so just click the link above or on the sidebar to join.

Okay, as for the rest of this, hang in there until the end. I promise this relates to writing.

Over-Indulgence and Reining It In
Over winter break, my husband and I went to his parents' house in Arizona for three weeks. This is always a great trip, full of shopping adventures with my sister-in-law, seeing my niece perform in Ballet Arizona's annual run of the Nutcracker, talking about music with my nephew and politics with my mother-in-law—AND eating too much food. Because, really, what are the holidays about if not food and family, right?

Well, too much indulgence led to my gaining close to ten pounds. I attribute it to the fudge. It was good, and plentiful. And dangerous.

So I've spent the last eight weeks trying to work it off. The regiment has included going to the gym four times a week for cardio. My gym partner's not too interested in weight machines, and I followed her lead. After four weeks, I hadn't lost any weight. Not even a tenth of a pound.

The blini that I didn't eat... yum...
Photo by Adam Julian

Frustrated, I took on other challenges for myself. Muscle toning work and yoga on non-cardio days. Portion reduction. Taking the stairs at school instead of the elevator. Eating more vegetables. Not eating the beautiful blini at last night's Maslenitsa celebration in my department.

Since I've made some of these changes, I've started seeing results. The pounds have slowly but surely been slipping away. Yesterday the middle number finally decided to drop down by one. It was a happy day.

And This Connects to Writing... How?
Yeah, I know. You're not super interested in reading about exercise, at least not from me. So how does this relate to writing?

First, skillful writing takes endurance. You can't do it every once in a while and expect to have an amazing novel or short story. Daily practice (or close to it), and regularly pushing yourself a little further. I don't mean in terms of time, but maybe in genre, or vocabulary, or imitating the style of one of your favorite authors (for yourself as an exercise).

Second, just working on the novel is not enough (the novel in my scenario is the cardio). You have to do other exercises to tone your writing muscles. Check out some online writing prompts and write some flash fiction (try here, for example). Try your hand at poetry. Write something beyond your novel (or normal area) for a few hours per week. Not only does it help you train your mind in terms of style and structure, it gives your mind some time to rest and think about the other work, and you'll be more refreshed when you return to it.

Finally, you have to nourish your writing. READ. Yeah, we all know this, right? Don't be a writer with a reading disorder! It's not just good for your writing. It's good for the soul.

And at the end, your novel will have Laura Croft arms...

Oh, wait a sec... That's not right.

Want to develop your writing in a different way?

Join us for the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest. Try your hand at writing something different, and get feedback from the community. There are still a couple of weeks left, so you have plenty of time.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Guest Post: Margo Benson

Today Charity and I would like to welcome Margo Benson as a part of our series to promote our HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest. Margo's here to talk about how short fiction has helped her in her own development as a writer.

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Thank you so much, Charity and Rosie for inviting me to guest post about short story writing on your blogs, I’m delighted to be here.

I love reading short stories and I love writing short stories! I always have a book of them alongside anything else I’m reading. They don’t have to be read in any particular order and can often be consumed in one sitting. I find I can dip my toes into otherwise ignored genres without the commitment to a longer book. I have two on the go at the moment, one insect related horror, the other, stories of modern China.

I haven’t been a serious writer for very long and wasn’t sure whether I should (or could) distract my mind from the full-length novel currently in progress. I found I couldn’t resist, though! I find short story and flash fiction writing cathartic, experimental and fascinating. My main genre is romance but writing these smaller pieces has unearthed several other ‘voices’ from within. My flash fiction includes poignant moments and dialogue, which have come from observations that wouldn’t find a home in my romance writing.

I hadn’t long started my novel when another character popped into my head demanding attention. This one had paranormal aspects – no place for her in my countryside romp! Her voice, along with her
world and her liking for cooking has become The Sybil Chronicles, short stories, each culminating in a recipe which, I hope, will form a collection of it’s own one day.

At first I felt guilty abandoning my gorgeous hero and heroine with their anxieties to go and have fun over in Sibyl’s world, but it was no good sitting there with my mind in two places. Once I released Sybil, all kinds of new wonders emerged from my writing, all for the better. I know this won’t suit everyone but my writing has become fuller since giving myself permission to go off and explore shorter projects.

What I love about the short story is sparse prose. One of my very early pieces was for a blogfest and was limited to 700 words. I found the discipline so good for my style and vocabulary. A limited word count in which to convey a whole tale is a fun exercise and can often be the taster for something bigger in the future.

I also take part in a weekly Haiku/Senryu challenge. Creating an atmosphere in 17 syllables is another wonder in my writing life. Sparse writing indeed!

I’m a member of a three-piece band and we have started to write our own material. One band member had written a verse, bridge and chorus of a potentially beautiful song and thrust the words toward me saying, ‘Go on, you write the rest!’ I’ve never written a song before but I called upon my Haiku experience, picked appropriate words for the story, fitted them to the rhythm (I had to make rhyming couplets too!) and was happy with the tale I had to tell in short verse and definite syllables.

Blogfests and challenges do take up time in a writer’s life but I have found such experiences in flash fiction and short story writing to be as important and useful as writer’s workshops and conferences. The short story can propel an idea, which had no outlet otherwise, ‘out there’ and give the writer free rein for exploration.

Until a few days ago I wouldn’t have thought I was capable, let alone eager, to write horror. I dropped some beads on the landing at the top of the stairs and one looked slightly different from the rest…..hmm….I’m thinking a flash story of something nasty lurking in the bead box……..

_____________________________


Ack! I'm already frightened :) Something in the bead box, and then you dip your hand inside... *shivers*

Thank you so much to Margo for her great words. Think she's got a point? There's still time to sign up for the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest. One short story of 750 words (no more than 1000), and help from your fellow bloggers to HONE it to its best shape. It will help you develop your skills as well as bring thoughtful feedback so you can feel confident enough to send it for publication (if you want, of course).

What alternative ways do you try to hone your writing skills? Poetry? Haiku? Song lyrics?

Guest Post: Hart Johnson – Wonky Trails

Today Charity and I are both pleased to host Hart Johnson, awesome naked mistress extraodinaire, and author of some upcoming cozy mysteries.

Hart and I frequently see virtual-eye to virtual-eye. We both came back to writing through fan fiction (though not the same subject matter, since mine is a Buffy obsession). So I asked Hart if she could talk about how fan fiction helped her get to where she is today.

Since I've started writing again, it's taken me a while to realize that my one way is not the only way. I can't just write a novel, query it, and become the next JK Rowling. Granted, I wrote fan fiction at the early stages, but I wrote it for me only, without any thoughts of posting it somewhere. Now, I'm looking for different ways to break in, and I'm open to suggestion.

This is part of the reason why Charity and I are hosting the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest. Many of us only focus on novel-length fiction, but we all have different means to get in the door. One way (though not Hart's) is to join us in our blogfest by writing short fiction. We're interested in helping each other build our resumes, hoping an agent will be more willing to take a chance.

All that aside, I'm pleased to welcome Hart Johnson to talk about how she broke into the market. For those of you who know her, you already know she never follows the traditional route... for anything :)

And so, without further ado....
_________________________________

First of all, I really want to thank Rosie and Charity for asking me to play. Most kids are worried what their mothers will think, so it's nice to have people take a chance. Seriously though, I've gotten to be good friends with Rosie and I think if it weren't for geography and maybe about fifteen or twenty years, we would have hung out together for real. That's one of the things I love about this blogosphere... meeting people you actually have... I guess it's similar processors to... because on paper I'm not sure we have so much in common, but we assess things very similarly.

Anyway, Rosie asked if I'd address my...erm... alternative route... I never do things the way they say you should. It's just not the way I roll, but somehow I've managed to slide in there sideways...

Thus... Wonky Trails

Once upon a time I wanted to be a writer... but it was the same kind of desire as wanting to be a model or an actor. It seemed some OUT THERE unattainable thing. I would plot stories and write a couple paragraphs and then bury them as even more embarrassing than the angsty poetry that filled several dozen notebooks in my teens. At 26, the summer between my first and second year of grad school, I suddenly had 'time on my hands' (when full time work and full time school cut back to only full time work *rolls eyes*) and even managed about 250 pages of an (amazingly bad) horror novel (set partly in Portland, and partly at Lake Coeur d'Alene—pic above). But I was under the disillusion that a person wrote as they went and was just inspired... and I didn't know where that dumb thing was going... the combo of getting busy again with school and not having a clue what came next was enough to drop it.

Enter a decade or so and a Harry Potter obsession...

Before Harry Potter I had maybe a dozen books I'd read twice. None more than that. But when my daughter brought the first one home from the library (she was a first grader) I fell in love. Santa brought the set (4 at that point) so I read them to me, and then I read them to her... and then I read them to her again when the fifth came out... and then my son wanted to read them all... So in the wait for Half Blood Prince, the writer in me was itchy to predict what would HAPPEN next... I found HPANA and a FABULOUS group of people who (I swear have changed my life) debated endlessly, supported by canon, finding the clues... and in spite of myself I learned that a well done book, and ESPECIALLY a well done series has a PLAN (buwahahahahahahahahaha –excuse me. That is my plan demon).

I had a WILD theory that because Voldemort had killed his father, (and because of some things in the timeline—death years) that Voldemort made his death eaters kill THEIR fathers to prove their loyalty to him... which led to Snape... Would Snape have had to kill his father? Well, OBVIOUSLY!

Nobody would believe me.

So I wrote it. I ventured into their fan fiction forums with my story from an Eileen Snape point of view... about her life... a brother sucked into Voldemort's realm... killed for his doubt... a plan for revenge...

And I learned what it takes to finish a story... and I wrote more.

I am a deep believer in fan fiction as a training ground because as a writer, you can work on a couple angles at a time. There are already developed characters, so you need to think about things like consistency. We had debated so much that we thought about things like WHY certain characters were the way they were (thus my goal of explaining much of Snape's bitterness... and how a WITCH allows herself to be abused by a muggle). That first story was a PREQUEL, so I knew where it ended... all the things we have in the books had to be consistent with my ending...

But I also wrote a 'book 7' before Deathly Hallows was out where I got to plot ahead. It is a really nice system for being able to not have to think about everything at once.


The REAL Book (because of course fan fiction is imaginary *shifty*)

 Not very far into the writing of The Other Prince (because of course it was posted serially), one of my readers, Rayna Iyer, told me I should consider writing a regular book. I'd had an idea niggling at me for (literally) years and I started to write down some of the details. I wrote a couple scenes, then got another idea... and FINALLY had an epiphany about how to fit the two ideas into a single story that had a lot more meat to it.

I continued to write the fan fiction because of course... my readers wanted me to! (the other bonus... you are accountable) but I also wrote Confluence... took 2 ½ years... and then another 6 months before I thought I was ready and queried my 204,000 word book *dies* (oh yeah... nobody said there weren't bumps)


That's about when I started BLOGGING

Now here I need to explain something... I envision myself as erm... dark and mysterious... I write SUSPENSE *shivers *...

But when it was time to blog, I sort of looked at what I had to work with, and honestly, I'm sort of a nut... possibly insane... definitely delusional... my strength is in my ability to PLAY. So I thought, 'fine, let's work with that.' Suspense readers are hiding under their beds shivering anyway, and I had networking to get to.

I found a few successful bloggers, and I stalked 'em like a good blogger... and I met some people... and I bet I hadn't been doing it three months when I heard 'you should write cozy mysteries.' (say what?) I stored that in my hat, or something, because frankly, the idea of mystery scared the crap out of me. It seemed like finely honed CRAFT, far more organized than... you know... me.

But last February an opportunity arose for an 'audition' of sorts... now most books are written in full and submitted to agents, revised, then submitted to publishers (with about a hundred layers of rejection built in) but some genres have such avid readers that there is a bit more of a... system... This exists for romance, and it exists for Cozy Mystery... The various editors define some parameters and give writers a chance to 'try out' with the first 50 pages. I had a referral to an agent to help me with this and... I GOT IT... It's a three book contract, the first of which is with my editor right now—hopefully the feedback will be positive, but I am waiting to start the second in case she envisions a different direction.

So see... while a more normal path might be and MFA program, or writing short stories for literary mags... I snuck in the side door. And what I've learned, is CONSTANT VIGILANCE! The way in may NOT be the one you expect.

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Thanks, Hart!

While Hart was definitely lucky to have found the side door, I know I haven't found it yet.

Have you found a different door? Or are you trying to squeeze through the front with the rest of us?

Remember, join us for the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest, in which we help each other build that resume. There's still three more weeks before D-Day, so there's plenty of time to focus on a short piece of fewer than 1000 words!

Guest Post: Theresa Milstein

In honor of the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest, Charity and I decided to invite a few different authors to our respective blogs to discuss their journeys, including writing in mediums beyond the novel (which we all love, of course). What helped them develop and get their name out there?

So today, I'm pleased to welcome our first guest, Theresa Milstein from the Substitute Teacher's Saga. She's agreed to share some of her writing experiences, and especially how she came to write short stories above and beyond her novel aspirations.

**wild applause**
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Short Story Journey

Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because the reader has made a different commitment.

—Lynn Abbey

When I began writing nearly five years ago, it was a middle grade novel that wound up being 65k words. Then I made a leap to YA, and most of my stories hover around 50k. Since blogging, I’ve gobbled up advice on how to be a successful writer. One constant has been to write for magazines to get my name out there and build a resume.

One problem.

A few years ago, I had tried to take my first manuscript and turn it into a short story. After sending it to three or four places, I received all rejections. I didn’t understand that I couldn’t create a short story by pulling the first chapter (or two) of a novel. Longer stories introduce too many elements in the beginning and they don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Those rejections convinced me to stop wasting my time.

Sometimes I’d come across a writer’s blog, mentioning some contest or upcoming anthology that requested short story submissions. I’d comment, “Thanks for the link, but I don’t write short stories.”

It was with the same conviction as when I’d say, “I only write fantasy,” because every time I had tried to write a manuscript without a magical element, I’d lose interest.

Then I wrote this YA vampire manuscript Aura. Agents and editors said nice things about it, but they didn’t want to take a chance on another vampire story. I knew this was the possible outcome the day I couldn’t ignore the story forming in my mind and began to write it. After a bunch of rejections, I shelved it and began something new.

Then my blogging friend, Aubrie at Flutey Words mentioned an upcoming YA anthology called Fangtales from Wyvern Publications. They’d previously published Fangtales and Mertails.

Aubrie is the most prolific chick I know. She’s always got a long piece and one or more short pieces she’s working on. She submits everywhere, and it’s paid off because she has a list of publishing credits.

While I had ignored all her other links for short story submissions, I couldn’t deny this one interested me. YA and vampires. Should I take Aura and reduce it? I loved her voice and didn’t want the manuscript to gather dust in my hard drive. But if I revised it to make a story that fit the 2k-5k guidelines, would I be able to do anything with the full story in the future? By now, I also knew pulling chapters didn’t create a quality short story.

One thing I liked about Aura was her strong voice. Most of my female characters start off unsure, but then obtain moxie later on in the story. Not Aura. As I mulled over what to do with my old story, a new one began to form in my mind. One Saturday, I sat down and began to write “Allured”.

What type of writer are you, a plotter or a panster? I’m a panster. I get a first line or a basic idea of the beginning, and then I just write. There’s nothing more exciting to me than bumbling along like a rock skipping down a stream to see where my story takes me. I wrote the same way I did longer pieces, but had to be sparer with my words. Each one had to count so I could keep the word count under control.

But I had newfound confidence because as a blogger, I’d learned to write pieces at just around 1k. Now I just had to write at least 1k more, and make it fiction instead of nonfiction. I could do that, right?

I’d often eye my number of words at the bottom of the document. When I reached what I thought was the middle – the turnaround moment – I realized I’d be fine.

One thing I’ve learned from reading short stories is that there’s always some big unanswered question at the end. As I wrote, and the end became clear to me, I got more and more excited because I had a most short-story-like ending, which has less closure than a novel.

After I completed the story, I did the usual editing, and gave it to three readers who gave suggestions, and I edited again. The difference between a novel and short story is it all happened quickly. A short story has fewer plots, and therefore, fewer plot HOLES. There were fewer characters to keep track of, fewer words to mess up with spelling and grammar errors. Was I beginning to like writing short stories?

Whether or not my story is going to be accepted, I don’t yet know. The decision will be made in March. But if it’s not chosen, I will consider revising again, and search for another home for it.

In January, a short story anthology was advertised for 500-1000 words – the length of my typical blog entry.

No problem!

(Want to read the rest of Theresa's Story? Visit Charity's blog for the second part of the saga.)
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A HUGE thank you to Theresa for sharing her story with us today. If you haven't already, be sure to check out Theresa's blog.

Has Theresa's story inspired you to try your hand at shorter fiction? Join us for the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest. Write a short story (750-1000 words) and get instant feedback from fellow bloggers.

Have you ever tried your hand at short story writing? Have you had anything published? Would you like to share your story? Email me at rlconnolly01 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Hone Your Skills Blogfest! (Come Sign Up)

Today is a special day. Charity Bradford at My Writing Journey and I have pooled our resources for a spectacular event.

In an effort to both push ourselves and support each other in the blogging community, Charity and I have decided to co-host the HONE YOUR SKILLS BLOGFEST.

The whole idea behind this blogfest is to improve our own writing skills by attempting a hone the story and the prose down to the basics while still being compelling. Not an easy task, to be sure. Check out this post from Charity for more discussion.

But we also need to remember that we do not write in a vacuum, and we cannot improve alone. We want help, but we also want and need to help each other. This is an INTERACTIVE blogfest in which we can share our own skills to help each other.

Here's the idea:

1. On March 16, post a short story around 750 words, no more than 1000, in any genre you like.
2. Read and give a critique for the person before and after you in the Linky List (and as many others as you can/want to). When you critique: a) find at least two things that really work, and b) at least two suggestions for how it can be tightened or improved.  
3. (Optional) When you post on March 16, list one or two (online) journals where you plan to submit your piece after making revisions.

Charity and I, as hosts, will make it to everyone's post. She and I will also pick what we believe to be the TOP FIVE short stories. We will announce our top five the following Monday (March 21), and allow you to vote for your favorites. The winner will receive a $20 Amazon gift card.

Here are a few places to start looking for online journals.

• Write 1 Sub 1's Short Fiction Markets/Contests page
• See the sidebar on Charity's blog (down a bit) for SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America) Qualifying markets
• Estrella05azul has some online and print publications in her far right column
• Duotrope's Digest allows you to search publications by genre and story length

Are you ready? Are you excited? Sign up below! We're looking forward to your latest short story :)