Could you use a helping hand?

You’ve come to the right place. Write2Ignite! now offers a manuscript critique service called Two4One.

Are you looking for some new input on a manuscript? Write2Ignite! offers you two separate (but simultaneous) critiques of one manuscript, from two of our Leadership Team members for the you-gotta-be-kidding fee of $45.

 What Kind of Manuscripts do we critique?

• Fiction and nonfiction magazine articles (up to 2000 words)
• Picture books
• Board books
• Easy readers
• Early chapter books
• Chapters from mid-grade and YA novels (up to 2000 words plus a book summary or outline with chapter summaries.)

If you are thinking you just might need a new set of eyes focused on your WIP you’ll find the details HERE.

At Write2Ignite! 2012 Vonda Skelton and Chris Sweizer provided workshops about writing for publication, and graphic novels for some enthusiastic and talented middle school and high school students. Looks like everyone had a great time, doesn’t it?

We hope that next year at Write2Ignite! 2013 we can offer TWO Teen Tracks – one for newbies and another for returning students. Pray with us about that, please.

Enjoy the photos and share them with your friends and cousins, please. Sharing this link on Twitter, FB, Digg, blogs and old-fashioned emails are a great way to point folks to this post. 

They say (whoever “they” are) a picture is worth 1000 words, so enjoy this economical expression of 10,000 words and be oh, so glad you don’t have to actually READ all 10,000 of them.

NEXT WEEK — PHOTOS OF THE TEEN TRACK.

As anyone old enough to remember Snuffy Smiff will agree –

‘Nuff said.

 

By Debbie DeCiantis, North Greenville University

At the end of a hectic college semester, students often tend to revert to default habits they brought with them when the course began. They dash off whatever comes to their minds in whatever order thoughts occur to them, and seem to forget the strategic writing methods or techniques we have discussed and practiced during the semester.  This is especially true of editing and revising.  I can look at an essay and recognize the same problems I had laboriously described in red, green, or blue comments on the student’s paper or discussed at length in a conference and wonder, “Why did I bother?”  Why do students neglect to read over their pieces, catch problems, and care enough to make the changes necessary to improve their own finished product, a piece of writing that represents their ability and reputation?

Time, maturity, and perspective are some of the most obvious answers.  But another reveals itself in the following blog post by a student writer at North Greenville University.  Michelle Higdon, a senior History Secondary Education major, has also identified herself as a writer since I have known her.  She has written novels as well as short stories and now enjoys the status of “collector of rejection letters” known to all writers.

Michelle regularly posts Facebook updates about her different projects and which rewrite she is working on as well as the frequent ups of “finishing” a piece and downs of receiving yet another rejection.  Attending various conferences including Write2Ignite! and Blue Ridge, writing for the DevoKids website, and submitting pieces wherever she finds opportunity, Michelle won first place for fiction in the annual North Greenville University contest (judged by outside professional writers) sponsored by the school’s literary and art journal, The Mountain Laurel.

Michelle already knows firsthand the hard work of being a writer. Her insights about the process of editing and revising shed light on the necessary component so many writers, students or otherwise, miss: pushing through the distaste to find a new taste for revision on the other side.

p.s.

Writers who recognize, as Michelle did, that their work does not spring perfectly formed from their mind through pen or keyboard, still struggle with the “ugh” factor – like leftovers or that go-to casserole we’ve had so many times we don’t want to look at it again – but sometimes, that familiar taste we’re dreading as bland or worse actually hits the right spot on our taste buds.  We wonder why we hadn’t noticed that subtle flavor before, or we realize that a certain herb, spice, or condiment could make it so much better – and suddenly, distastefulness is gone, replaced by a new taste both surprising and pleasing. 

 All it took was getting through those first few bites.

Jean Hall

A pebble tossed into a pond spreads ripples in widening circles. Those ripples move twigs and leaves floating on that pond. Minnows and tadpoles are pushed along by the tiny waves.  Even the mud settled at the pond’s shoreline reacts to that pebble.

So, Write2Ignite! influences and affects each of its constituents, who influence other writers, publishing professionals and their readers. The circles of influence keep spreading and affecting readers in our generation and the generations to come.

As the Conference Director I, too, have been affected by Write2Ignite!

Working with the group of talented and dedicated writers on our Team encourages and challenges me.

The kindness and generosity of our presenters (authors, editors, agents) reminds me that God has His people in every location and every walk of life. It also reminds me that writing for publication is NOT a lonely pursuit, but a community effort.

Meeting enthusiastic new writers recharges my enthusisam for the tasks God calls me to do.

Reconnecting with Write2Ignite! members and hearing how God is teaching them, guiding them and blessing their efforts brings me joy and makes all the hard work involved in this event well worth it.

Hearing God’s words through the voices of our speakers blesses me personally and professionally.

Hearing  and reading your stories of how God uses Write2Ignite! to connect you with people who can help you get your works into print excites me and confirms for me that Write2Ignite! is, indeed, God’s place of ministry for me at this time in my life.

Your enthusiasm,

Your dedication,

Your wisdom,

Your growth,

Your successes,

Your ideas,

All contribute to me as a writer, a conference organizer, a person and a Christian.

Thank you all for making Write2Ignite! a powerful influence in my life.

How has Write2Ignite! affected you? Will you share a little with us by leaving a comment below?