But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner and the runner up are chosen by a voting system, and then the editors of Authors Publish will select several additional entries from the rest to be the Editor’s Choice winners.

Below are all the winners of this week’s contest. This week the challenge was to write the first line of a novel.

The next contest starts at 9 am PST on Saturday. The challenge will be to come up with an original title.

Winner:

Runner Up:

Editor’s Choice:

I did not enjoy reading all of these books, but they all impacted my writing in some way. In addition, many compelling, helpful, and funny conversations have come out of reading these books.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White with illustrations by Maira Kalman

Most individuals encounter The Elements Of Style in school. The book is flawed but it is always worth a re-visit because of how concrete it is.

Most books on writing lack the direction and focus that The Elements of Style has in spades.  It is great for your writing to get re-rooted in the basics. I highly recommend the version with illustrations by Maira Kalman, as they add levity to the book, and make it much more engaging.

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

This is my personal favorite. It is insightful, funny, academic, and accessible. As someone that started to write after being an avid reader, I was really surprised by how much I learned from this book. The depth and breadth of it is impressive. The examples that Prose gives are concrete and excellent. I re-read this book once every year or two and each year I take different things out of it. If you are just starting out as a writer this is not the book to start with, the advice in here can be a little overwhelming. If you are just starting out, the next two books are for you.

On Writing by Stephen King

I am not a fan of Stephen King’s fiction. I think that his books tend to be far longer than necessary. However, I think that On Writing has a lot of good, specific advice. A lot of writers waver in their advice, but King’s is concise, thoughtful, and easy to implement.

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

I am one of the few people who is not a huge fan of Bird By Bird, however I think most writers find it helpful. It is very motivating. Anne makes it clear right from the start that everyone has “shitty first drafts”.

Her language is clear, her stories are fun, and the whole thing is an easy read. I do wish that she could focus more on the details of craft, but for a general book it is very helpful, particularly if you have struggled sustaining a regular writing practice.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work By Mason Currey

This is not a book to read from front to back.  Daily Rituals is an extensive list of the daily habits of writers and artists. The description of most writers habits are between a page and three long, but Currey manages to cover a lot of territory on those pages. Some authors have great practices that can teach you a lot about what it means to be a writer, others are clearly included to be cautionary tales.

They are a Christian publisher that is deeply influenced by Flannery O’Connor’s work. Because of this not all of the work they publish is overtly religious in nature and they have an imprint for work that is even less overtly religious. The publishers were influenced by writers like P.D. James and David Foster Wallace.

What they are most interested in is the theme of redemption.

They are still a new press, so they are still figuring certain things out. But they seem to be making a great deal of effort to promote their authors by having an established distributor and attending writing conferences. They also try to provide some of the services a larger publishing house would by setting up book reviews and author interviews.

Authors receive 20-50% of all book sales profits. All of the books have a similar feel in terms of covers, because they work with the same illustrator to create compelling covers for all their work. It gives the press a bit of an old fashioned, literary press feel. The books themselves make a strong impression, and I have seen several people buy them based on the cover alone.

Wiseblood only considers manuscripts by authors that have first submitted query letters. They are looking for authors whose work meshes with their publishing mission and ethos. Do attach an excerpt of the manuscript of your work to the query letter submission. They prefer that manuscripts and experts are PDFs.  All submissions are accepted through email.

Make sure that you browse their catalog and read their mission statement before editing your query letter and submitting your attached manuscript.

To learn more or to submit visit their website:http://www.wisebloodbooks.com/submissions.html

The idea for this prompt comes from an idea that I had as a college writing instructor, with the main idea being challenging the brain to think a bit differently about your approach to writing in general and in this creative exercise specifically. I used it the first time as a homework assignment and classroom contest at the mid-term semester point to break up the students’ tension from the crunch of projects at that point.

If you’re stuck in any kind of a writing rut or block, this prompt may actually be helpful. Trying to write bad prose on purpose actually can be harder than trying to write well!

The site from which the idea originated is this contest site, accessed at http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/, which awards winners for literally writing the worst or corniest beginnings of a novel that a writer can conjure.

Now, the writing prompt I am proposing to you today is in the same vein and the same spirit as this homework assignment was. There are numerous examples found on that website.

Your writing prompt here is to try to compose the first sentence (or few sentences) of the “worst beginning ever” of an essay, poem, story, or novel.

As you think about it, ask yourself if it is harder to struggle to write well as we all do, or is it harder to try to write purposefully horrible prose? That is the true point of the exercise and explanation here. And if you are inspired to enter your prose into the actual contest (see link), please follow up with us to let us know of your results.

This is meant to be a bit of an academic exercise, but please have fun with it! I wish you a positive writing experience and an even more satisfying outcome. Maybe you’ll even be encouraged to enter the actual contest, as I did after composing this prompt.

Here’s mine: ‘Despite all of the bright lights surrounding him in the usually claustrophobic work area, Simon could not help himself from falling under the sensuous spell of the green-eyed, red-headed siren on the flat-standing surface before him where he assisted in her dress and appearance. “Red,” as he had nick-named her several months ago since they had begun seeing one another, had proven herself to be both a giving and receiving lover of epic proportion, and he cherished her flexibility and openness to his desires. Unfortunately, his boss at the department store where Simon was in view of the street-side window displays during the over-time holiday season, came around that one day and told him, “Dammit, Simon! I told you to stop rearranging the mannequins that way in the front window display! You’re fired!”’

Enjoy your writing, and have fun breaking the rules a bit!

They like poetry, both lyric and narrative, with energy and muscle, and they shy away from the sentimental and simplistic. You can get an idea of what they publish by reading samples of poems in past issues online.

Each yearly edition of Barn Owl Review contains work from about 40 poets. They accept submissions from June 1^st through November 1^st. Poets may submit three to five poems, and should submit no more than once per submission period. Submitting poets can expect a response within about three months.

Barn Owl Review accepts submissions online, but not via post or email. They accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that poets withdraw work immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere. They don’t accept previously published work.

Barn Owl Review also accepts books of poetry for review. Reviews may be published online or in their print publication. They especially like to review first books and small press titles. Not all books received will be reviewed, and they don’t accept unsolicited reviews.

If you’d like to learn more or submit to Barn Owl Review, please visit their website at http://www.barnowlreview.com/submissions.html.