PROSE & POETRY COMPETITION

2006 Kansas Writers Association


Adult Division – Prose

!!New Category!! The Mike Klaassen Prize in Juvenile Short Stories – Sponsored by Mike Klaassen, author of The Brute. Two sections in the category: Ages 5-8 and 9-12. Word count 3,000 for either section. In the upper left corner of the first page type in which age group you are entering.

The Criser & Mardis Prize in Creative Non-Fiction – Sponsored by Criser and Mardis Chartered -- Article, essay, memoir using fiction techniques to relate an incident or opinion based on fact. Limit: 2,000 words.

The Watermark Prize for First Pages of a Novel – Sponsored by Watermark Books and Café - Mainstream or genre. Include prologue if there is one. Up to 20 pages.

Short Fiction – Any subject. Any genre. Limit: 3,500 words.

The KWA Prize for Stories About Wichita – Fiction or non-fiction. Must take place in Wichita, Kansas and this must be obvious by the story text. Limit 3,500 words.

Adult Division - Poetry
The Susan McKnight Prize in Free Verse – Any subject, any style, 40 line limit.

Rhymed verse – Any subject, any style, any form. Limit: 40 lines.

Young Writers Division - High school age and younger.
Vina Marie Hatt Prize in Youth Poetry – Free verse or rhymed. Limit: 40 lines.
Prose – Any style, any form. Limit: 1,500 words.

Best of the Firsts
All first place winners from all nine categories will be judged for top prize based on literary merit.
Deadline: October 31, 2006. Postmark determination.
Entries may be turned in to any officer prior to the above date or mail entries to 2006 Competition, KWA,
P O Box 2236, Wichita, KS 67201-2236

Questions? Contact Colleen Johnston, 316-684-7847 or KWACompete@aol.com.
Entry Fees:

Adults: Members, $5.00 per item entered. Non-members, $7.00 per item entered. A check or money order for total fees must be included with entry. Make payable to Kansas Writers Association. Young Writers Division: $1.00 per item entered. Deadlines and other rules same as for adults.
Rules:
1. Enter as many items as you wish, as many categories as you want. There is an entry fee for each story, novel or poem entered.

2. All entries must be typed or computer printed and legible. Manuscripts must be on opaque white paper.

3. Do not put your name on any page of your entries. Enclose one cover sheet listing all your entries. At the top of the cover sheet print your name, address, city, state, zip code, telephone number and email address if you have one. List categories and titles of each entry below.

4. Entries must be original, previously unpublished material. Do not enter anyone else’s work. Any work which won first, second or third place prizes in previous KWA competitions may not be entered again.

5. Prose must be double-spaced; poems may be single-spaced. Only one poem per sheet.

6. At the top right hand corner of each page of your manuscript type the title and page number.

7. Entries will be judged on their literary merits; neatness, spelling and grammar count.

8. If you wish your entry returned include an SASE with sufficient postage. All entrants will be sent a copy of the January 2004 issue of the KWA newsletter announcing winners.

9. KWA reserves the right to publish any or all winners in an annual anthology to come out next spring.

10. Deadline for entries is October 31, 2006, postmark determination. Winners will be announced at KWA’s December Holiday dinner meeting. All winners will be notified in advance to ensure their possible attendance.

11. Prizes for each category will be awarded as follows. First Prize $25 and one year membership in KWA. Second prize, $15, Third Prize of $10. Honorable Mention certificates as deemed worthy by judges. Prize for Best of the Firsts - $100.

12. Entries violating competition rules will be automatically disqualified. Pornography is not accepted.

13. Judges will be chosen by the KWA Board. Decisions of the judges are final.

14. Any communication or question regarding the competition should be directed to the competition chair at any meeting or by email to KWAcompete@aol.com. If email, put Competition in the subject line.

TeleSeminar: The Five Ingredients of the Scene

Tuesday, October 24

from Emily Hanlon and The Fiction Writer's Journey


Receive an E-book when you register!

The E-book includes:

1. Example of Point of View and Dramatic Action Driven by Characters Inner Thoughts. Excerpt by Kurt Blankmeyer

2. Example of Going In and Out of Flashback. Excerpt by Emily Hanlon from her novel, Mistress of the Labyrinth

3. Example of Mood Driving Description, followed by an exercise.
Excerpt by Terry Purinton, from his novel, The Wind Harp.

4. Editing Versus Rewriting, by Emily Hanlon

5. The "What If" Game, followed by exercise, by Emily Hanlon



In the TeleSeminar you will learn:

• The mechanics of writing the scene.
• How the five ingredients weave together to make the scene.
• How to open to new characters and stories with the all powerful technique of Point of View. (POV)
  

The Five Ingredients of the Scene that we will be exploring are:

• Point of view or who's story are you telling... POV puts you inside your main character's head, heart and gut -- you are seeing the world through the eyes of your character.
• Dialogue is one of the fastest ways into character and allows characters other than your POV character to reveal who they are. Letting the dialogue "roll" often offers up unexpected "what happens next?" and other surprises. Dialogue is a great way to show tension. Glance through at a novel. Most novels are anywhere between fifty and eighty percent dialogue. Think you can't write dialogue. You can. I promise. Why am I so sure? You talk, don't you? You can write dialogue. I've never worked with anyone who can't write dialogue, only with people who think they can't.
• Dramatic Tension/Action. You can't have a story without dramatic tension. There are many different ways to create dramatic tension, which can come from something outside the character or something internal.
• Mood, some people call this description. Thinking "mood" instead of description is more apt because mood is character driven. How does your character see a scene? In other words, what the character sees is more important than what you, as the writer, want to describe.
• Flashback is a scene from the past that informs the present and tells the reader something important about the character. Once you are in the flashback, you are once again in scene. All of the above applies. People often worry about transitions into and out of flashback. We will explore these transitions.

TeleSeminars are easy and fun!

TeleSeminar and audio download: $20. register now!

Once you sign up, you will receive a telephone number and an access code. When you call in, you will be prompted for the access code. That's all you have to do!! The TeleSeminar will run an hour to an hour and a half. You will be able to ask questions. Tuesday, October 24, 1 pm Eastern Time.

Can't make the TeleSeminar? No problem... the program will be available as a download to everyone who signs up, whether or not you attend.

TeleSeminar and download: $20
If you purchase the TeleSeminar after it is recorded, the price will be $25. Save $5 and sign up early!

Countries in Europe with country call-in numbers:
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK

register

The Creative Spark

Creativity is forged in the fire of the unconscious and the unfathomable depths of the unknown where nothing is predetermined and everything is possible. Its presence is often heralded by the seductive "spark" of an idea or image that brings with it feelings of flight and the godlike brilliance.

And yet, for the tens, hundreds, thousands of ideas that burst up out of our unconscious, very few if any get carried to fruition. No sooner does the spark rev us up with the feeling that we can do anything, than we find a 101 reasons to cast away the idea, worse yet, stomp it into the dust bin of possibilities that might have been our lives.

Clearly, not all our sparks are worth the time and effort it would take to carry them out; not all are even viable -- but the problem for many of us is that we indiscriminately throw out the baby with the bath water. For our creations are truly our babies, born of us, male and female, as surely as our flesh and blood children.

Exploring the Risk of the Creativty

Picasso said that artists (and I will change that to creators) are "destroyers of nicely ordered systems."

What could he mean by destroying “nicely ordered systems?” I believe he meant that the first nicely ordered system we must destroy is our own: the persona or the face that we show to the world. For our persona is not a reflection of our deep, inner or true self. Our persona is built by the dictates of the mind, not the dreams and truths of the heart and soul.

Kathryn Hepburn said, "You cannot change the music of your soul."

Those of us who can hear the music of our souls are lucky indeed. For to hear that music we must break down old barriers, the old ordered systems of our lives that keep everything neat, tidy and acceptable. There is nothing neat and tidy about creativity. You have to be willing to not only get your hands dirty, but also to slug through the mud, to bushwhack through unexplored back country, to dive into the chaos, and walk, run, fly, or crawl through all those unknown, unseen magical places where the music of the soul can be heard.

TeleSeminar, Oct 24, The Five Ingredients of the Scene in Writing

Tuesday, October 24

from Emily Hanlon and The Fiction Writer's Journey


By popular demand, the first TeleSeminar will be The Five Ingredients of the Scene in Fiction Writing. During the TeleSeminar, I will simplify and demystify fiction writing techniques that are also applicable in memoir writing, fictionalized nonfiction and even journaling.

In the TeleSeminar you will learn:

1. The mechanics of writing the scene.
2. How the five ingredients weave together to make the scene.
3. How to open to new characters and stories with the all powerful technique of Point of View. (POV)

Explore the TeleSeminar further...

http://www.thefictionwritersjourney.com/Teleseminar_5_Ingredients_of_the_Scene.htm

Become a Warrior for Your Creativity 2

There is a very large difference between destructive and constructive criticism. The former will flatten you, the latter will allow you to fly.

Be careful with whom you share your budding works and fragile creativity. Have your antennae carefully attuned. Protect yourself. Protect your creativity.

Here's an exercise that may strengthen the Warrior in you!

LIST WAYS YOU LEAVE YOUR CREATIVITY OPEN TO BEING NIPPED IN THE BUD. OBSERVE YOURSELF AND ADD TO THE LIST WHEN NEEDED.




LIST WAYS YOU CAN PROTECT YOUR CREATIVE WORKS SO THAT THEY CAN BE NOURISHED AND FLOURISH. OBSERVE YOURSELF IN THE COMING DAYS AND WEEKS AND HIGHLIGHT YOUR SUCCESSES.




Tip 4:
Being a creator is risky business. Don’t underestimate the tremendous emotional and psychic risks the journey demands. Learn to push ahead even when you are afraid. Learn to love the risk.


You cannot change the music of your soul.

KATHERINE HEPBURN


This exercise was taken from Emily's workbook, The Art of Fiction Writing or How to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole Without Really Trying....

Wonderland as Metaphor for The Creative Journey

WONDERLAND AS METAPHOR

Falling down the Rabbit Hole into Wonderland is a perfect metaphor for the creative journey which can never take place in the “real” or conscious world. Writing, whether it be fiction, poetry or nonfiction, finds its origins in the dark, fertile chaos of the unconscious. If you don’t meet Cheshire cats and Mad Hatters, Tweedledees and Tweedledums, mad queens, dragons, flying monkeys and monsters, or your version of the above, then you have not fallen. This is not to say you have to be writing fantasy or horror to open to your unconscious, but as you will see, the journey for the writer must hold metaphorically a good sprinkling of both.

Explore Emily's workbook, The Art of Fiction Writing or How to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole Without Really Trying....
Now you can purchase the workbook and tapes as a set and also separately!
And the 5 journeys on the tapes are available as audio downloads for your computer!

Creativity, A Call to Awakening Workshop

A new and inspiring workshop led by Emily Hanlon


October 13-15, 2006
The Country Place Retreat Center, White Haven, PA


The multifaceted journey of creativity is not limited to the arts. There is another level of creativity that beckons us: awakening to the deeper truth of who we are, or who we would be.

Labyrinth as a Metaphor for the Journey

There is a large, beautiful labyrinth at the retreat center; it is on a small hill that is bathed in sunlight. Taking advantage of such inspiration, we will work, among other things, with the labyrinth as the metaphor the journey inwards.

In the ancient myth of Ariadne, her half brother, the Minotaur, half-man, half-beast, is imprisoned at the heart of the labyrinth and fed the brightest and most promising youth of Athens in sacrifice each year. It is Ariadne, muse and guide to truth, who gives Theseus the golden thread that leads into the labyrinth, where he slays the Minotaur and then follows the golden thread back into the light.

Each of us has a Minotaur caged inside us. We, too, feed this beast the best and brightest of our creativity. In the workshop, we will use writing and other creative methods as Ariadne's golden thread!

Using the image of the labyrinth is a bridge into the deeper mystery of self is a powerful creative experience that shifts our relationship to self and allows us to hear our true voice.

"Back into the labyrinth, where we are found or lost forever."
W.B. Yeats

Explore the workshop at:
http://www.thefictionwritersjourney.com/Creativity_The_Call_To_Awakening.htm