Photography and Writing | Don't be scared

Script Frenzy starts today. 30 days. 100 pages.

I’m going to set a goal of 3 pages per day, every day (a few more on the weekends just to make up for the 10 pages). I’m going to use the same approach I used during National Novel Writing Month: plow the row, don’t look back.

If anyone is interested, there are useful resources at their site, including a nice, brief section on how to format a screenplay. In addition to instructions about screenplay formatting, they also include templates for writers using MS Office or OpenOffice.

If you’re going to try it … no pressure … please feel free to post your progress here and let us know how you are doing. But make sure you also register with Script Frenzy so you can get all of the encouragement from other frenzied writers.

I’ll post my progress weekly.

Stephen F. Austin State University Press invites submissions of manuscripts for its fiction series prize. The series is open to all book-length manuscripts by a single author of at least 150 pages. Stories or excerpts previously published in periodicals or anthologies are eligible for inclusion. One winner and up to three finalists will be published in 2011.

Deadline: March 31

For more information: sfapress.sfasu.edu

© Ronda Birtha

CreateSpace has just announced the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. This contest will award the winners a $15K publishing contract with Penguin USA, along with distribution of the winning novel on Amazon.com.

One award will be given to the writer of an English language, unpublished or self-published manuscript in the General Fiction and Young Adult categories. Submissions are being accepted until February 7th, or until they have received 5,000 entries in each category.

The contest is going to be conducted like a tournament in which contestants will be shuttled through First-round, Second-round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals. Check out CreateSpace for specific information about the judging and the key dates.

Dry Creek Rd., Stecoah Valley, North Carolina

The North Carolina Writers’ Network is taking submissions for the 2010 Doris Betts Fiction Prize. Short stories of up to 6,000 words can be submitted. The Betts contest will award the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. There is a $10 entry fee, one entry per writer. Writers must  be legal North Carolina residents to register for this contest. Deadline is February 1.
Check out the NC Circuit Writers website for more information.

Do you have a script in you? Even if you don’t, why not exercise your brain, stretch muscles you may not normally use and participate in the 2010 Script Frenzy this April. The challenge is to write a 100-page script in 30 days. Do you win anything? Pure satisfaction of having completed something, or having started something.
If you’re reading this and saying, “I don’t know what to write,” or “I’m not a writer”, you need to check out the overview.

Conducive to Creative Meditation - The porch at the CDS

This award is sponsored through the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University in Durham, NC. A prize of $20,000 is awarded to a writer-photographer team each year. Again, I apologize for the short notice. Deadline is January 31.

Go to the CDS website for more information. This application process is involved so if you’re  going to shoot for it, you need to get moving.

Deadline for the 2010 Stella Kupgerberg Memorial Short Story Prize is January 29th. This is short notice, but if the $1000 first place prize offers you any incentive, have at it. Learn more about the story and submission requirements.
Incidentally, if you don’t do it already, you should check out Selected Shorts. It’s a weekly program that features contemporary and classic short stories read by screen and stage actors. In my corner of the universe (far western North Carolina) I listen to it Saturday mornings from 7am to 8am on 91.3 WCQS out of Asheville.

You can also subscribe to the podcasts on iTunes, MyYahoo or Zune, and listen at your leisure.