Creative events - New blog to share our online writing, art and photos...and Imagination Sparks Blogfest

Hello everyone!

Today there are two creative events at my blog - first, I reveal a new initiative, the second, I have my entry for Charmaine Clancy's Imagination Sparks Blogfest.

click on image to go to my new bloghop home

INTRODUCING: Write...Edit...Publish, where you can publish FLASH FICTION, POETRY, NON-FICTION, PLAYSCRIPTS, ARTWORKS or PHOTOGRAPHS to a monthly theme - currently VACATION.

Write...Edit...Publish is my new-look monthly bloghop home to supersede RomanticFridayWriters, which Donna Hole and I sadly closed the door on recently. RFW was great, but it was a huge drain on the writing life of both Donna and myself and the 'romantic' element seemed to scare off many writers. I intended to close shop altogether, until a comment by Nancy Williams gave me the spark of an idea which has grown into my new baby.And many RFW members stated that they hoped something else would pop up to provide an audience and valued feedback for their work

HOW IS WRITE...EDIT...PUBLISH DIFFERENT FROM RFW?

Write...Edit...Publish will be much more host friendly. At RFW, we provided critiques, monthly bloghops, Featured Writers, weekly posts  etc etc -- a truckload of work.

Write...Edit...Publish will remain a monthly bloghop, where participants will create an entry, edit before publishing (if it is a written work), then accept a stated level of feedback and provide feedback to other participants if confident. No different from RFW in these aspects, except for the open genres and no requirement for a romantic element.

At times at RFW, we had disagreements about levels of critique, but one thing that we all agreed on was that our writing definitely improved, and that continues to be my main goal -- to see our writing/editing skills improve to such an extent that publication is possible if not already achieved.

All genres are welcome at Write...Edit...Publish --  all categories. In fiction, from Adult to YA and MG is fine. I have included Playscripts, Artworks, Photography to the categories we had on RFW. Of course, written entries can include your illustrations or photographs.

RFW member Madeleine Sara sent me a comprehensive link on Genres and Narrative Styles. Worth a perusal if you are flummoxed at the freedom you have at Write...Edit...Publish to choose whatever style you want. Fan Fiction is not specifically on the list, but it proved very popular with readers when we explored this style for a RFW prompt.

NOW...the first prompt is VACATION. The bloghop Inlinkz is open now in my sidebar and at Write...Edit...Publish  and eventually at other participating sites, I hope.

Please sign up now if you are interested in posting to the theme this month (as I nervously await reaction to my new initiative...:) You have until Wednesday 21 August  - Friday 23 August to get your post together. I will send out a reminder email close to the due date.

Would love to have you join us!

I am so excited! Did you notice?

I am over at Yolanda Renee's blog spreading the word. Please visit here and say hi...

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Now to Charmaine's blogfest!!

This is the IMAGINATION SPARKS BLOGFEST

In Charmaine's own words: What does that mean? It's easy. We all know at least one good warm up exercise to get our brain geared up and ready to write. That one creative task that gets your imagination bubbling with ideas. I thought we'd share them and try each other's.

Here's what I want you to do:

1. Register your blog in the link list to show you are going to try and participate. Sign up will be available from now until the end of the blogfest. If you'd like to use the image above to let others know about the blog hop - go ahead!
2. On the 1st of August (or there about - I'm not strict), post one of your favourite writing exercises that we can all try. 
3. Read other people's blogs and try some of those exercises.
4. Around the 8th, do a follow up blogpost to let people know which exercises you tried and what results you got. Visit the other blogs to see how they went with the exercises. (we all have different time zones, so anytime that fits your schedule is good for me)
5. Get new ideas and make new bloggy friends!

So I decided I'd better get cracking on this so I can try some cool warm ups from you!

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I'm a writer who likes to consider Point of View. Changing the POV means changing SO much. 

A crucial question to ask yourself when you're writing your story is:

Whose story is this?
What is the story about?

Sometimes when we write, a minor character pops up and is more interesting than the main character. Some say to kill off that show-offy character,others say to give them their own book, but I say, maybe this story should be about them.  

For the Imagination Sparks blogfest, I am posting a writing exercise from Fiction Class by Susan Breen (fabulous book) which examines POV/story. 

Think about a family gathering: a holiday (vacation), a birthday, a funeral. Imagine a scene...imagine your characters...then write about that gathering in the FIRST PERSON VIEWPOINT from the POV of a child at the gathering.

Writing from the POV of a child will change a story's tone and impact. It can heighten emotion, add honesty. Try this exercise and let me know how you go.

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• Any further questions about my new bloghop, please email me at den.covey@gmail.com
• Please consider signing up to Charmaine's blogfest. Great writing ideas...
• If you get an email from Grammarly asking you to add a few lines to your blogpost for an Amazon Gift Card, consider it -- I did this last post and am please to announce that my Gift Card has arrived. I have been using Grammarly Lite for sometime.
• Thank you for your great response to my previous post on e-books' need for editing.