Gold Coast Writers Writing Competition

Gold Coast Writers' Association

On Sunday, 14 June 2015, the 2015 Writing Competition was launched at the Gold Coast Writers Association's 25th Anniversary Literary Luncheon.

ADULT COMPETITION

If you are a writer wanting to be published by a traditional publisher, this is an opportunity to by-pass the slush pile and get your work in front of a traditional publisher.

Editor, Annette Barlow of Allen & Unwin is the final judge for the fiction first prize.

Editor, Libby Turner of Pan Macmillan is the final judge for the nonfiction first prize.

Second prize is a line edit and proof read from AS Editing & Proofreading for both fiction and nonfiction genres.

The competition is open to all writers over eighteen years of age within Australia and internationally. Entry fee is $30. Closing date is 30 August 2015.

For the competition guidelines and other important information click here: http://www.goldcoastwriters.org/competitions-gcwa/

CHILDREN'S COMPETITION

Two prizes will be awarded in the short story competition for ages 7 - 10 years and 11 - 13 years. A prize of $50 will be awarded to each of the first place-getters in each age group.

The theme is open and entry is free. Closing date is 15 September 2015.

For the competition guidelines and other important information click here:

http://www.goldcoastwriters.org/competitions-gcwa/

Sharpen your pens and/or flex your fingers and get writing.

These are opportunities don't come very often.

Happy writing and best of luck!

ANZAC - Lest we forget

Lest we forget.

It is 100 years since the ANZACS stepped ashore at Gallipoli. I've been watching movies and real life videos set in and of that time. What astounded me beyond belief was the hand to hand combat that our men faced during that battle. It cannot have been easy for the soldiers to climb out of those trenches and come face to face with the enemy with only a rifle with a bayonet sticking out of the end of it. Their bravery and their dedication to serving their country is extraordinary. The ANZACS paid the ultimate price and since then others, too, have lost their lives serving on foreign shores.

Our Australian soldiers are second to none. They are brave, well-trained and are ready and willing to leave our shores at a moment's notice aware they may never see Australian soil again. I am proud of our soldiers. We will remember them always. Lest we forget.

I want to be a writer...

The last few weeks have been interesting. A few people have come to ask me how to start writing. I get excited when people say they want to write. Writing is so much a part of my life now. I need to write as much as I need to breathe.

The people who approached me were genuine in their curiosity about the craft. My first thoughts were that they were expecting a full-blown description of a magical formula on how to write. There is no formula. If you want to write, you just write. Pick up a pen, select some paper and just start writing words, one after the other, as they come into your mind. You are writing. It is that easy. When I saw furrowed brows I realised something wasn't connecting. They had obviously started writing and it wasn't working for them in some way. After further discussion what they really wanted to know was what do they write about. This is a fair thought. You want to write something interesting and inspiring for your reader.

                 My daily notebook

I believe there are two questions that must first be answered. Are you writing for yourself? Are you writing for publication?

If you are writing for you, the task is easier. Some people write because they want to explore their minds and their hearts as a thinker. Others write to record their life journey and try to make sense of what has happened and where they want to go for the future. Both of these approaches to writing are therapeutic, and so is writing for publication. When you share your work with readers, reactions will vary. Some will resonate with your words, others will reject the work. What's important is that this is how you see the world and no one else can see the same world as you. It is the differences that make the writing life so interesting.

If you are writing for publication, your approach to writing will be different, although the process may be similar. You still have to put one word after the other on paper or screen. It is so easy to publish your own work these days. The common denominator though is the quality of the work. You don't want work out there that is of a low standard. More about this in a later post.

The important thing is to pick up a pen and place it on the paper, or sit at the key board and start forming words from your thoughts and don't stop moving the pen or your fingers until you have words on the page or screen. They may not be good words. It doesn't matter. Editing will come later. Get those raw thoughts down and then shape them into what you want to say. In "Writing Down The Bones", Natalie Goldberg gives great ideas on how to do this and additional exercises in writing practice to help you let go of your inhibitions about writing.

After a major change in my life, I adapted Natalie's method to my own and have been writing this way for the past three years. This new method of writing has opened up my heart and mind in ways I'd never dreamed possible. Be prepared for times when your pen will be flying across the page and other times your pen will slow and eventually stop. No matter how hard you try you can't move on. Natalie Goldberg says to just keep writing even if you only write: 'I don't know what to write' until you break through. It works for me. Many of my notebooks are filled with that sentence resulting in long days at the keyboard. I have a theory on this which will be revealed in my new website that is currently under development and will be live in a few months. I am working on it with an inspirational team of developers who are putting my new ideas together. It will be interactive, including fun things to download.

I have been through some dark years where I have pulled back from the world to discover who I really am and heal those areas of me that needed some attention. I want to share the lessons I learned and I hope to encourage you on your journey, too. So for whatever reason you want to write, take up your favourite pen, and a notebook (it doesn't have to be anything fancy) and get started. I use an A4 spiral notebook and have done so for several years. I started using these notebooks after filling all the lovely notebooks friends have given me as special gifts over the years.

So, get started...now, and have fun. Leave me a message to let me know how you're progressing.

Success is showing up

Be successful...show up.

How do you define success?

• Having lots of money in the bank?

• Being the go-to guru in your specialist field?

• Retiring before legal retirement age?

For me, success is all about the effort and attitude I put into my project. Little effort means not much to show for the time spent on the project. I can't regain time I spend. I can only move forward and choose to use my time to work toward my goal. If I put a ho-hum effort in to write my book each day, it's going to take me a long time to finish the book. If I arrive at the keyboard bursting with energy with the intention of getting lots of words on the screen, I know I've already succeeded. My attitude has gotten me on my way to achieve my goal.

Aiming for success is applying yourself to today's task - now, in this moment.

Some days showing up at the keyboard is difficult. It's usually because I feel distracted by random thoughts about all kinds of subjects demanding my time and wanting to be written. This includes my characters knocking on the door to come inside with me, too. To help me achieve the success on these crazy mind days, I take 30 minutes to an hour of my time to write out my thoughts and then I meditate to still the mind so that the creative process can begin. This hour is time well spent because it makes me more productive. It's better to spend an hour to clear the mind than to fight my way through the hundreds of things I'm trying to remember.

A computer works best with no bugs tripping the process and so our mind works best with fewer random thoughts.

Are you succeeding today? Have you shown up for success this week? I'd love to hear how easy or hard it was for you.

Passion, the centre of your life

Let passion be at the centre of your life.

Do you have a passion? A passion to write, to paint, to create something the world needs? Have you followed that passion?

My passion started in year one at school when I opened my first reader. Who were the people on the page and what was their life like? It sparked a curiosity in me that has been with me ever since. In year four I walked into the library and I found rows upon rows of books. Intimidated by seeing so many books, I stepped cautiously into that world of silence. My pulse raced as the different coloured spines drew my attention. The more spines I looked at the more overwhelmed I became. How I was ever going to read all those books? My teacher assured me I only had to read the ones I was interested in and it would be a good idea to read something outside my interest every now and again as I grew older, she said.

I took her wise words to heart and I lost myself in the world of words, characters and foreign lands. This passion for reading has led me to write and now writing is as much a need for me as breathing. The simple task of sitting at my keyboard and typing words or using a pen, which I often do, puts me into a different level far away from my everyday life. You could call it escape, but that's what I want to do: help my readers escape from their everyday struggles and take them on an emotional journey where they will become good friends with my characters so that they live in their hearts for a very long time.

My next novel, Mr Bojangles is the sequel to African Hearts. I've been writing this story on and off while I wrote Dusty. Justin and Kizza floated into my mind every now and then reminding me their story wasn't complete. I pushed them back saying I wasn't ready, but they insisted it was time, so here I am enjoying being with them as they take the next step into the future out of their village, Gumboli to Bond University at the Gold Coast.

My process with this novel has been different. I've made notes whenever Justin and Kizza have entered my conscious and taken time to write a few scenes. This week I looked at these scenes in detail and discovered they don't fit the story I want to tell. These young people aren't just learning about medicine, they are learning about themselves and growing in ways they had never thought. They are young people with loving hearts and the desire to be loved by their peers. This need for acceptance challenges them in ways that have surprised me. Their presence is so strong now they have overtaken the story showing me their journey into the future instead of me writing the story.

My passion for writing this story is well and truly on fire and is all consuming so that I now can't not write the book. Has your passion taken hold of you and consumed all of your waking time? Is it a passion or is it something you think you'd like to do because you've seen others doing it? A passion will grab you and it won't let you go no matter how hard you try to push it away. A passion demands attention and you had better give in to it and follow it, otherwise you will be miserable. Are you feeling lost and irritable and unable to focus? I used to be like that when I was in the world of numbers. It has taken me a long time to take that numbers shirt off and put on the words shirt. It feels good in my words shirt. I've come home and I've settled in with Kizza and Justin and I have accepted they have as much to teach me as what they will learn on their journey.

So what's your passion? Are you following it? What's stopping you? Start making small changes toward your project and eventually you will find your passion shirt is just the right fit for you. I'd love to hear how well your shirt fits in the comments below.