FOTM is taking a brief vacation from our world-famous caption contest. Instead, we’ll have a new kind of contest.
Are you ready for the challenge?
Do you have the “write” stuff?
FOTM’s Mike has been posting a series of tips for writing to encourage all of us to help change our culture toward the good by writing. In his words:
Today we have a nation that has turned its back on God, honor, and beauty, and embraced all manner of sin. This is due, in large part, to the influence of culture and art. This is not an accident…. It is deliberate…. This series, The Write Stuff, is about reclaiming that culture. It’s for writers and novelists who are dedicated to using their talent to honor God, elevate men and women, and add beauty to the world. If that sounds like you, welcome aboard!
Despite our best intentions, however, all our efforts are for naught if no one reads what we write.
And that’s where Mike’s tips come in — to help us write well, so people will read what we write and, together, we’ll turn our wretched culture around.
Thus far, Mike has provided us with useful instructions and advice on:
- How to hook your readers with your opening line and opening paragraph
- Secrets to writing descriptions your readers will love
- Character names, titles, and the look of your page
- Choosing what to write about
Here are the Writing Contest instructions:
- Enter the contest by submitting the opening paragraph (or two) of your story or novel as a comment on this thread (scroll down until you see the “LEAVE A REPLY” box), not via email or on Facebook.
- The winner of the Caption Contest will get a gorgeous Award Certificate of Excellence and a year’s free subscription to FOTM!
- FOTM writers will winnow the submissions to a select few, then you — our readers — will vote for the winner in a separate poll.
To get the contest going, here’s Mike’s opening paragraphs of his teen detective novel:
It was a crime that Mr. Kingman never expected, and that scared him half to death.
The math teacher had returned home after a day at work to find his living room window shattered, his front door left ajar, and his apartment ransacked.
The thieves had stolen Mr. K’s laptop computer and his prized collection of rare stamps. There were glistening stains of blood on the broken glass strewn across his floor, and more blood splattered across the top of his desk where his laptop had been.
Even now, two days later, as his heels clicked down the hall to his eighth grade class at St. Mary’s Elementary School, he felt a cold shiver run up his spine as he thought about the crime.
After reading that, don’t you want to dash out and buy Mike’s novel?
So put your thinking caps on, and write that first brilliant paragraph (or two) of your best-seller!
This writing contest will be closed in a week, at the end of next Tuesday, May 19, 2015.
For the winners of our last caption contest, click here.
~Éowyn
