Posted: Mar 23, 08 8:02am

It's strange. The ongoing writing contest doesn't appear to be getting any commentary and I thought that if I started a discussion, it might allow others to join in - if you care to.

Writing contests have many purposes and this one can be a stimulus for both good writing and commentary about writing that helps anyone entering to have a better understanding of some of the principles of writing that make for a good story. I don't know who or how many will enter, but a writing group is an opportunity to look behind the scenes at the mechanics of writing. I've read - but not been discouraged by - the few militant nay sayers who proffer, "I write what I want. I don't have to follow the rules." Don't try that in a contest! Or, the ones who say, "I am not writing for publication." My friends, when you post a story here, it is published! The definition of publication at its simplest is writing in a forum where anyone can read it. If it is posted only one person chooses to read it, it is published because other can choose to read. If it is private, it is a letter. If it is for your eyes only, it is a diary or a journal.

I jokingly say that you can break all the rules you want when you cook because the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The same is true of writing. You cook for the eater. You write for the reader. A contest will tell you what readers, hopefully chosen for some ability to judge writing, have to say. It is not really possible to say which story is best but it is possible to say which is best written.

Which story develops characters so that the reader can take them home after the story is done? Which uses dialogue that the reader wishes she had used or even said in real life? Which story had no roadblocks like the wrong words in the worst possible place, a misplaced modifier, tense changes, strings of adjectives instead of nouns that ring, adverbs that flatten a passage, verbs that tell the time - the verb to be - yeah, "he is, was and will be" but at the end of all three, he is standing in the same place - and sentences that are all monotonously alike - subject, object, predicate. For God's sake would it hurt to turn a few of them around so it isn't like watching a processional? And finally, any writing where a pronoun introduces a character and the character is never named or given any characteristics.

Writing in a competition prepares writers for writing for publication. Although, publication ideally should be based on its merits, it is not that way at all. A magazine may publish one story a month. Ten thousand may submit for that one spot. Does the best story get published? Not necessarily, but the best ones will find a market somewhere. That is why writers submit to a hundred publishers rather than listening to what the publishers say: "Multiple submissions not permitted." If you don't submit all over the place, you will not get published unless you already have a name that people will read automatically. And if you are a new writer, there only way to have a name is if you have fame or notoriety in another field.

Writing in a competition makes a writer aware of how important an opening sentence can be. The old saying, you get one chance to make a first impression is so true. Have you ever read an ad in a magazine or newspaper that misspelled a key word? That could affect your decision whether or not to buy a $300,000 product, like a house. If you were looking for a used car on the "buy from the owner" market, would you go to the ad that is spells the word "car" with a K? The first sentence in a story is your ad. it tells the reader, "Hey, this guy or gal can write ... or not."

I don't know how many people are entered or planning to enter the contest. I'm not. It wouldn't be fair. I've already been confirmed in the marketplace. I hope others who have been published take the same position. This contest appears to be a good place for someone to get an early confirmation of the quality of his or her writing.

If I were going to enter, I would open with a person engaged in an action against an opposing force that blocks him or her from proceeding. I would NOT open with a weather report as so many stories do. My feeling about weather reports is that writers use them until they can think of something to say. They never seem to be part of the story. If the weather was important to the story, I would not have the rain fall until the reader cares about the person it will fall upon.

The most important decision after you have your character and plot in mind is: Who is going to tell the story? Your narrator, a most overlooked part of writing is the key to how the story will work. Not only first, second or third person, but specifically, what voice will he or she have? In too many of the stories I read on line, most of the narrators are so colorless that nothing the characters do or say can save the story. Even neutral narrators have intelligence ... or not. Speak in a whisper or a shout ... with intent. Are they locked in the present or the past? Very few writers write in the future tense. It is too difficult to attain believability because you have to project what will happen next. It would sound like this. "On June the First, John will go to the bank. He will say to the teller ..." You have to keep it in the future tense throughout and it makes the story incredulous. You can plan the future but when you predict it for an entire story, you have to be God!

I noticed that the rules of the contest say "1500 word limit." That makes the writing more difficult to accomplish. You have to use nuance to replace windy description. One word has to do the work of fifty.

Another trick of writing is knowing when you have said enough about a topic and moving on. When you have but 1500 words to work with, you will not have room for a decent ending if you spend a segment describing John's necktie. Maybe it can be left out altogether unless it is like that late-in-his-career Alfred Hitchcock movie where it was used to strangle someone and the rest of the movie was about the character proving his innocence.

I hope lots of people will choose to enter the contest. After it is over, maybe the writers will post their stories here to see how the group reacts to them.

Writing is about learning - except for those who think they know it all or whose egos are unable to accept criticism. Admittedly, some of the criticism is off-target. Some is painful. Most of it has at least a kernel of truth in it about something. For instance, I usually write to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. If someone screams bloody murder, I've done my job. I just refuse to believe I was put on earth to waste words and unless someone approves and someone doesn't, I haven't done my best.

Without feedback, no writer ever got published. Writing is like giving birth. There is pleasure in the conception, pain in the birthing and agony in getting it through the process of growing up!

Thanks for your eye ... and ear.

Lollipops and unicorns.