Writers Sauce - WWC - MWS 25-January-2022
Welcome to Writers Sauce. We have four new topics for you to check out and it’s all about writing techniques, winning prize money and your blog promotion. See CONTENTS below.
Here’s what Christopher Kong said about World Writers Collective:
“Hi Mat - I came across your World Writers Collective site, including your post covering ‘editing tips’.
I’m writing this note to say a big THANKS. I think your site is a wonderful resource, and I really resonated with your comment on the benefit of giving/receiving feedback via writers groups. Despite your evident experience, I appreciate how your sharing comes across as very humble and accessible.
I’ve been working on a piece of creative non-fiction. Look forward to connecting and exchanging more ideas (and writing?) with each other!”
Adrian, John, Ayanda, Lily, Ben, Diana, Daniel, George, Megan, Germaine, Les, Tom, Freddie, Alex, Chris and Maria are our our newest subscribers. We now have 349 subscribers. You’ve joined a great group of writers :)
If anyone would like to invite friends to join us, forward this email to anyone anywhere in the world.
Become a paying member and you’ll get your own author profile page on WWC as well as the ability to promote yourself and your books via our main page. It’s only $20 a year, which helps to cover the costs of the website. Everyone who works on this website does so for free.
www.worldwriterscollective.com/wwc
If you want to add to this email with your own words of wisdom, let us know. Get in touch with us to let us know anything you think writers would like to know. We can also/otherwise add info to our NEWS section on the WWC website.
It’s all done for free and it’s off our own backs’. Please get involved if you have the time.
Thank you,
Mat Clarke
www.worldwriterscollective.com/mat-carke
Contents:
(Look for the *NEW* stamp below for content you haven’t read yet)
1. Book Review (more reviews on books wanted)
2. Writing competitions - BIG CASH PRIZES *NEW*
3. Promote your blog *NEW*
4. How to: Write your way to a more miserable life - Part 5 *NEW*
5. The Story Mint
6. Breakout Writers Festival success!
7. Writer volunteer Jobs
8. Melbourne Writers Social Group events *NEW*
9. All Write! upcoming events
10. We want to hear from you
11. Join us and we’ll promote you
12. Essential Information for Writers
13. Important links
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1. Review a book title - It will be posted on the WWC website
READ MORE HERE: www.worldwriterscollective.com/writers-sauce
Are you someone who likes to review books (poems, short stories, movie scripts, blogs, non-fiction, etc.) and give honest feedback on content, interest, characters, structure, or if you think it was just really good reading? Submit your review via this email.
For 2022 please review any book or script or poetry you like (yes, you can submit a review done on your story if you like).
Here’s a review by Magz Morgan of Cecile Ravell’s story: https://ravellc.wixsite.com/ravell-the-writer
‘Coming, Frankwen’. The voice of the three-year-old child calling to her brother and hero, opens Child Magical. Cecile Ravell’s story is a memoir of a childhood in transit, from Brooklyn, New York, to Malta then Melbourne, Australia.
In a series of poignant and funny cameos, seen through the eyes of a little girl, Ravell brings to life an intimate immigrant tale. The vignettes follow this feisty little girl from moments of triumph, to moments of indignation, as she becomes aware of her position as an outsider in a society that values fair-haired children, and as a girl who plays second fiddle to a family culture that reveres boys.
Child Magical provides valuable insights into the reality of what it feels and looks like, for a girl, growing up; in particular, an immigrant girl.
Read it slowly, savour it in your favourite armchair, or read it quickly on public transport. Either way, Ravell’s story is a good read, piquant and thought-provoking.’
Magz Morgan, author, ‘Motherlands’.
2. Competitions - managed by Ray Stone
Marion Tremlett is our newest Flash Fiction winner!
Title: Young Andy
“I am thrilled to be informed I won the flash comp with my little story”
Read it here: www.worldwriterscollective.com/flash-fiction
Current and upcoming competitions:
Short story competitions - World Writers Collective
A. The big one - WWC Golden Pen Award - Win $250 First Prize
Second prize is $100 to spend in a Red Bubble store and one-year membership of Creative Writers Collective. The third prize will be a FREE entry to any one of the competitions for a year and one-year membership of Creative Writers Collective.
All winners will be published in the anthology.
B. This is the FIRST TIME we are introducing a non fiction competition. Check out the details via our competitions tab and start writing.
Coming up:
The Quick Creative - limited words and limited time. Join us and win cash!
Need help with writing short stories? Go to our competitions tab page 1. We have added hints and tips to help you write the best short story ever. There is a video by Ray Stone, which is a great resource. Our writing competition winners have given their tips and Mat Clarke has added his thoughts. You can also check out our editing tips page.
www.worldwriterscollective.com/writing-competitions
www.worldwriterscollective.com/editing-tips
www.worldwriterscollective.com
Become a World Writers Collective member, which helps support everyone in the group as indie writers and allows you to collect prizes if you win.
Want to get published or publish your own works and have our members spread the word about your works, book launch, or other? It’s only $20 a year to join which helps pay the few hundred dollars it costs for the domain and host the website each year.
www.worldwriterscollective.com/join
If you are one of the top winners of the competition, you will be included in the 2022 anthology. That's just one of the great reasons to get involved with the anthology!
We also want to promote you and your writing. All you have to do is say the word. When you are a member, it’s free!
3. Promote your blog
We want to promote your blog. Email us a link of one of your blogs and an explanation of why WWC people would enjoy reading it.
We want to promote your blog. Email us a link of one of your blogs and an explanation of why WWC people would enjoy reading it.
Here’s a few from Magz Morgan and the positive comment she received:
THANK you both, and the writers’ collective for all the moral support. When I get a message like this, I feel like crying. Maggie
“I just read both of these pieces and found them to be exceptional. You really have developed your talent. When I read the article on writing, I felt that I had a tutor sitting next to me sharing her secrets, while the short story was a delicious gossipy tale that I friend might share. I think that the first article gave me an insight into how hard you have worked to hone your skills. I am impressed with the quality of your writing. Don't stop.”
Linda Douglas
Here’s another by Cecile Ravell
www.artsish.org/artists/cecile
4. How to: Write your way to a more miserable life - Part 5
“Writing is a pursuit naturally fraught with difficulty. But don’t worry, you have the power to make it much worse.”
By Laura Gilmartin
Link: www.linkedin.com/in/laura-gilmartin-ab97bb218/
Happy New Year and welcome back! In this month’s instalment, we will discuss how to become more miserable by developing a dysfunctional relationship with getting our work published. We can do this one of two ways:
A. Focus on nothing but getting published
OR
B. Reject the prospect altogether
Let’s explore these concepts in greater detail.
At the core of A is the idea of writing as an identity. In my previous instalment we explored the glorious pitfalls of deciding one is a writer based on the fact that in grade 4 we got our pen licence early, as opposed to something healthy like regularly making time to write. However, even if you are compelled to write each week, you can still keep your sense of worth on rocky ground by believing that you are only a writer if other people say you are. Obviously I mean the right people, as in publishers, not your mum and her besties.
To fully put your self-worth in the hands of publishers, you should be submitting work constantly to three or four top publications only. Take rejection from publishers extremely personally and absorb “Constructive” feedback into every fibre of your being until you wear it as a sort of cloak that makes everything you do a touch slower and more pained. Practice producing work in-line with submission guidelines until you forget what you even care about anymore and resist the urge to take a break from submissions to focus on just enjoying yourself. Your daily affirmation if you fall into this camp is, ‘My byline is, therefore I am.’
Crossing over to B, we shift our focus to the dysfunctional nature of the book publishing industry, and possibly the short-story journal industry and the poetry industry as well (Which is actually less like an industry and more like a bunch of poor university students neglecting assignments to trawl through hundreds of poems a month). Maybe you submitted a few short stories or wrote a manuscript that you couldn’t get in anywhere, so now you’ve decided you can’t be bothered with all the politics and want to spend your precious time creating instead. Of course, you would never admit that the few times you did submit your work and it was rejected, it felt like someone shivved you with a fountain pen, because then a friend will inevitably step in with some comments on how normal rejection is and some strategies on how to use it to your advantage. No, what you do is shrug, say, ‘External recognition just doesn’t matter that much to me,’ then cry in the shower.
It’s important to acknowledge that there is truth at the core of both of these ideas. For scenario A, seeking out professional feedback on our work is a legitimate goal and can be really helpful. After all, there are rules and conventions in all writing formats which, if mastered, can take our writing from objectively good to phenomenal. By the same token, there is merit in regularly ignoring publishing prompts and just writing for the joy of it, as relates to scenario B. But notice my wording - joy. As writers, we can’t be miserable if our brains are all stretchy and open to the nuances of either situation. We need to throw ourselves into one or the other and never look back.
It would be remiss of me to ignore the idea of self-publishing here, specifically that if you want to be miserable, I recommend you steer clear of it. Yes, it can be expensive but, in my experience, self-publishers tend to be happier than people in a maladjusted relationship with the publishing industry. Is it that optimists are more likely to self-publish? Or that putting your work out there is satisfying, even if it doesn’t come with free publicity? I don’t have answers to these questions, I just work here.
This will be the final installment in this series. Teaching fellow writers how to be miserable has made me so happy, so obviously I can’t continue. But in finishing, let me say this: Having a calling is as challenging as it is life-affirming, and only through trial and error do we work out how to get from it what we find useful and meaningful. So whatever that is for you, I wish it to you in spades. And if one day you feel the need to include me in your Acknowledgments section, I’d be honoured and would love the chance to read the manuscript first.
5. The Story Mint
Join Part 2 of our "From STEM to STEAM" series to explore how we can successfully put the Arts into STEM and involve those skills we learn through the Arts (particularly writing!) to achieve great results. webinar: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/create-lesson-plans-with-the-arts-writing-in-mind-tickets-194124861687
Join Our Lockdown Writing Competition for Students!
Why are we doing this?
We know lockdown can get a bit much with the same routine day in, day out, staying indoors, unable to meet with friends. Students are feeling it, parents are feeling it, teachers are feeling it.
We wondered how best to add some fun into the day-to-day reality of lockdown while still keeping everyone safe. So…let’s write!
Link to more information: www.worldwriterscollective.com/the-story-mint
How do I enter?
The competition is free to enter for all school (including home-schooled) students Y4-13 in Australia and New Zealand, and gives you full access to the Stylefit software so you get instant visual feedback as you write!
All you need to do is flick an e-mail to anna@stylefit.org saying you’d like to participate. Let us know if you’re a teacher wishing to enter your students or if you’re a student entering individually*. We’ll get your free writing account set up so that you can have direct access to the software and its feedback throughout the whole competition.
What do I write about?
We’ve got a few visual prompts set up in each category (Year 4-6, Year 7-8, Year 9-10 and Year 11-13). You can find these here[link to updates site page]. Inspire your imagination with the image OR pick a topic of your own choosing. As long as you stick to the word count, we’ll eagerly read your work!
What are you waiting for?
Send an e-mail to anna@stylefit.org and get writing! There are prizes to be won!
6. Breakout Writers Festival success!
by Mat Clarke
An amazing Writer Event streamed to you online.
We had contributors from all over the world and different writer groups involved, including World Writers Collective, The Story Mint and Melbourne Writers Social Group.
The great news is you can enjoy the entire event or sections of the event you believe you will find interesting right now. All you have to do is visit our webpage: www.worldwritercollective.com/breakout-writer-conference
7. Writer volunteer jobs
We would love you to join our network of writers as a creative leader and help you further everyone's knowledge of writing. No doubt, you'll learn more about yourself and your writing as well. Have a read below and see what fits your personal skills and lifestyle. Commit to what you can and we'll see you in the trenches. Most of all, have fun!
Opportunities:
Manager of writing competitions - Ray Stone has taken on this role
Website manager
Information officer
Assistant to managers and officers
Writing Competition Judges
Event host - multiple required (Melbourne only)
Further details: www.worldwriterscollective.com/job-vacancies
These are all volunteer positions.
Your position includes free membership, a discount for any events you attend, free access to catering (if supplied) and an allowance for the manager positions (see position details).
Commit for 12 months or longer.
8. Melbourne Writers Social events
Recently we talked about our favourite books to read and linking to each other via Goodreads. We would like to start linking to each other so we can recommend books to each other and promote the few authors in our group. Post up your Goodreads link via comments below, if you are reading this on our blog, or post it via our Facebook groups:
www.facebook.com/groups/570847673015529
www.facebook.com/groups/169777419779168
Mat Clarke - link to me and find others: www.goodreads.com/author/show/6898385.Mat_Clarke
Our main flagship event runs at the Wharf Hotel on the third Tuesday of the month. Please join us - all are welcome, even if you are only thinking of starting out in a creative field.
Click here to RSVP, check time and place of events: www.meetup.com/Melbourne-Writers
We meet online every Monday from 6.30pm and show each other our work and chat about everything creative.
South Bank Write Now: Second Saturday of the month. The venue is generally quiet, opens early, free wifi, good coffee, food as well as drinks if you need them for later ;) There is music, and it is a cafe-bar, so bear this in mind and wear head phones if you need them while you write.
Melbourne Central: One Sunday a month. We are nestled in the back corner of the upstairs food court near the windows, past the colourful piano, behind the big clock. We meet to write mostly, but you are free to chat with others who would like to do so.
Not currently running: Eastern suburbs meet. Laura, Stephanie and Mat are exploring a cafe in Croydon to meet at, which will be run on certain Sundays. We will get back to you soon on how it will be run and what the format will be. Likely it will involve the return of our writing games event with prompts to get you writing and enjoy yourself.
Not currently running: Writers of the South, let’s write: This is for southern Melbourne, down as far as the Clayton and Mentone area. Anyone can attend and join in and write your heart out (and have ice cream).
Not currently running: Writers Workshop: If you want to work through a piece, then come along to the Eltham Library and let us help you create your best work.
Not currently running: Treehouse Writing: Join us in Olinda for a sanctuary in the hills where we write and relax.
As with all our events, please get in touch if you would like to help with running events. The best way to do this is to come to one of our events and chat to the current event hosts about what you would like to do. We prefer to have two event hosts at each event, so where there is an opening we are happy for you to get involved.
There are many other Writing groups in Melbourne that you may be interested in as well. Go to them all and see what you like . . . but then come back to MWS and bring more great people with you. Haha ;)
www.meetup.com/Melbourne-Writers
More links below
9. All Write! upcoming events
A place where you can write in Melbourne Central. All you do is turn up and write with others. You can chat to other writers as well if you like and grab a bite or a cuppa.
Most of all, enjoy yourself.
www.meetup.com/Melbourne-Writers
More links below
10. We want to hear from you!
Yes, we really do.
We want feedback in any way shape or form. Even if it is to tell us you love us.
Stuff you may wish to reply about for our next Writers Sauce:
1) A few sentences on what writing means to you.
2) A paragraph or two about how you became a writer (or want to).
3) A great skill you picked up regarding editing, writing, publishing, etc.
4) The best place to write.
5) How chatting to others about writing made you a better writer.
11. Join us and we’ll promote you
You're Not Alone
Come take the journey with us
Become a member for $20 per year
This is a collaborative group created so that in greater numbers we will be heard rather than forgotten
JOIN
Your $20 helps to pay for this website and member writers platforms
12. Essential Information
Sites Authors Should Know
This is an unofficial list I have created as a useful writer’s tool. I receive no royalties, or kickbacks from any sites below. Use as advice only.
-(Dean MacAllister)
SELFPUBLISHINGADVICE.ORG- Before submitting to a publisher or self-publishing I highly recommend you check out the ‘Writers Beware’ section of this site! It has lists of scams to look out for and lists the less-than-reputable companies that have ripped writers off globally. Learn from the mistakes of others.
Smashwords- Creates and publishes E-books in all formats for free.
Takes some getting used to and has to be done properly. For a small fee people on site will convert your file through the “meat-grinder” converter for you.
Kindlepreneur- Writer who joined most author sites to compare.
Links to the best author friendly tools. Marketing advice included. Free website with free manuals. (Highly recommended!)
Goodreads- Author/Reader site. Many discussion forums. Very popular. Good place to find fans, create an author profile and source reviews.
Librarything- Poor-man’s version of Goodreads, but much less commercial.
READ MORE HERE: www.worldwriterscollective.com/writers-sauce
13. Important Links
Post news about your writing, book launch, events, or event just a link to your latest blog/post/tweet: www.facebook.com/groups/1629658520414716
Important information about writing in general, and the Melbourne Writers Group: www.facebook.com/MelbWriters
Discuss anything you like that’s creative: www.facebook.com/groups/169777419779168
For people who want to discuss writing on a forum that is for everyone around the world: www.facebook.com/groups/570847673015529
Information on writing, writing competitions, professional editing, getting published, and more. Become a member for discounts: www.worldwriterscollective.com
Near Melbourne? Come to our group and meet other writers and chat. Everyone is welcome: www.meetup.com/Melbourne-Writers
Previous email-outs with great information.www.worldwriterscollective.com/writers-sauce
The Story Mint newsletter for even more information. Subscribe here: www.thestorymint.com
Writers Sauce - WWC
World Writers Collective
