Long and Short Reviews has just opened their submission box for their 2024 Winter Blogfest.
Who can participate: Anyone who has published at least one book (or who will be seeing their first book published soon).
What you will get: Free promotion of your book on a busy, well-known bookish site and exposure to new readers.
What you‘ll need to provide:
- A 250-500 word guest post about winter or any winter holiday (Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, New Year’s, etc)
- A small prize. Previous participants have offered stuff like a free ebook, bookmark, $5 gift card to an online bookseller, etc.
- A short biography of yourself. Think 2-3 sentences on average, although longer is perfectly fine, too.
- A picture of your book cover (and one additional photo to illustrate your post, if desired)
- Links to your website, social media accounts, etc. (if desired)
Last day for submission: December 10, 2023 (or sooner if all 50 spots are taken before then).
How to submit: Follow all of the instructions on this page. If you have any problems with your submission, there is an email address on that page you can contact for assistance.
Publication dates for submissions: December 18 through December 29, 2023.
Your exact publication date is influenced by a few factors, including how early you submitted it and which winter holiday you picked because they try to match up submissions with the winter holidays that are currently happening as much as possible.
So, for example, Winter Solstice posts are usually scheduled at the beginning of the Blogfest. Christmas posts tend to be published in the middle of it close to Christmas, and New Year’s posts are generally saved for the last few days of the Blogfest.
This is such a fun event. I hope to see you all over there as guest bloggers and/or commenters.
r/1500isplenty
r/Meditation
r/AskFantasy
r/AbandonedPorn
Writing this post took longer than I expected, but I’m ready now.
As one of my relatives said recently, “don’t believe everything you think.”
I’ve been through multiple periods of writer’s block over the years. In retrospect, some of them were caused by my inner critic speaking so harshly about what I was working on that I was no longer sure where to go next.
It’s been my experience that quieting the mind does wonders for creativity.
There are so many things that are out of our control as writers, creative people, and human beings in general.
Have you ever taken a moment to think about how weird the writing process can be?
Some people might eavesdrop for juicy gossip or to learn things that they know others wouldn’t want them to hear.
The upside of all of this research is that I’ve studied all sorts of topics that most people with similar backgrounds probably wouldn’t know.
There’s something about talking to your characters that makes it easier to iron out plans for plot twists or future character development in my experience.
Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I’m writing that I forget what time it is.
Last month I took a two week break from any sort of writing at all.
There are books to read and movies to watch that will take you anywhere you want to go, including places that weren’t accessible to mere mortals at all except through our imaginations!
One of my college professors sent us out to eavesdrop as part of a creative writing assignment. We were instructed to write down the conversation and then analyze the flow of it in order to make the dialogue in our stories more realistic in the future.
Listening to the way people really speak was also incredibly informative. The conversation I overheard was filled with friendly interruptions and all sorts of detours into other, mostly-related topics.
None of these anecdotes have made it into one of my stories (yet?), but they have taught me about the ways people think and how many different ways the same tale can be told depending on whose perspective you look at.
On any given day, I’m brainstorming, writing, or reworking blog posts, my latest novel, future social media posts for myself, future social media posts for the organizations I volunteer for, book reviews, and more. If one of these writing styles isn’t working for me, I’ll switch to another one.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to my characters. No, I generally don’t speak out loud to them, although more power to you if that works.
For example, I generally find it much easier to write the middle of a story or novel than I do the beginning or ending. Beginnings need to draw the readers into the plot quickly while at the same time developing the character’s personalities and giving a good overview of what the world they inhabit is like.
No, I’m not saying you need to publish what you write or that you need to start an entirely new project altogether. I’ve written plenty of scraps of things that will never see the light of day.