WEbook Blog: A Writer's Resource

The High School Writing Contest Winners

Like we said in the challenge description, high school is a time rife with struggle, new experiences, and the desire for things to be different. Almost all of the entries to this challenge tapped in to those dramatic elements in some way—and it was a pleasure to read through them. For some WEbook staff, our high school years occurred…some time ago. Yet these entries had us right back in those hallways, among those lockers, and sitting in those desks.

It wasn’t always pleasant. But it made us feel something.

Winners!

Corruption by Eloquent_MJ

Besides tight and specific writing, this entry delves into the myth of high school. The perception of how things "should" be. A lot of budding youths believe in that myth, and a lot of them wind of disillusioned. It's a sad truth, but it is the truth.

closure by RawkinParadox

We loved the symbolism of the character's names in this entry. A high school romance ending not with a bang, but a whimper, the author captures the quiet, lingering pain of first heartbreak, suggesting the important growing experience it often can be. 

Getting To Know You by Nekrostelos

Talk about your twist endings! This one started out as a traditional, albeit well-written, high school romance...and then dared to go beyond sweet high school love. The shock at the end is delivered subtly - this is one that sticks with you. 

Stretching Fashion by JayneGrey

Not only did this entry take us back to high school, it took us back to the eighties. That's always a good thing. This entry also illustrated a key high school behavior: caring so much about one (insignificant) thing, that you lose total perspective on everything else. Whether it's a pair of jeans, a video game, or a girl's attention, things had a way of getting blown out of proportion in those years.

See Me After Class by J_Hucke

This entry tackles a difficult subject - domestic abuse - with courage and compassion. This one is also told through dialogue, and conveys the intense emotion of the situation powerfully, stopping just short of melodrama. 

Prometheus by KenWebb

Unless you've worked as a teacher, it's easy to forget they're real people. We're not trying to be mean, but it's easy to remember high school and think of teachers givers of tests and lectures, and not much else. But they were students too, once. They have good days and bad days. Regrets. Mistakes. They have whole lives that most students never know, hear, or care about. This entry made is remember that.

Honorable Mention

Corndog by simonmabee

Congratulations to the winners! You will receive your PageToFame coupons shortly.

If you didn’t win, chin up. There’s another writing contest afoot, a love is in the air. The “OK Cupid” writing contest is open for submissions. So, dig into your romantic side and write a love scene. 

 

 

The Revenge Challenge Winners

Oh, you vengeful writers. You captains of comeuppance, masters of malevolence, and puppeteers of payback. Well done, you have earned your reward: the grim satisfaction of retribution. We hope is tastes good, even if it was cold.

The Revenge Challenge winners!

Smells Like Revenge by Sabrawing

This entry won because it really sucked us into the perspective of a child carrying out a self-assigned mission of revenge. The details of the muffled feet and avoidance of the reflection in the T.V. were minor, but critical for building atmosphere. And the weapon of choice was…well...let’s just say children have to use the tools available to them.

All's Fair in Love and Parking by PhillipNorhill

Any entry that involves exploding candy is going to get our attention. Back that up with some excellent (but gruesome) details, and it’s a pretty clear winner. Sure, this seems like a bit of an overreaction for a parking space feud, but we figure someone who builds an exploding candy bar is prone to overreaction in general.  

Brood Parasite by Atrees

Atrees made a few changes on this while the contest was open, particularly the last line. We’re glad he did, because we wouldn’t have gotten the twist (we won’t give it away here) without it. A quick romp through a certain Wikipedia article, and all those careful references in the setup made a whole lot more sense!

Game craze by DS_Gane

We liked this entry because it exemplified that tendency among some people to become totally engrossed in trivial and inconsequential games. It’s an interesting character trait, and a very amusing one when looked at from this angle.

Blackbeard and The T-bone by ShanaPupik

We’re a fan of entries that personify animals because it gives us a chance to examine human motivations in a different context. Animals mostly care about food and being petted, so it makes sense that this revenge quest would be centered on a steak. Moreover, we feel like we can see this type of thought—the balancing of penalty and reward—going on in a few pets of our own. Right before they strike.

Care-Taker by JRBeck

This entry won because of its deliberate and well-paced progression. Backstory and present action were intertwined in an unforced and—dare we say—artful way that’s appears effortless, and yet we all know requires a great effort indeed. Well crafted, well done!

Congratulations to the winners, you will receive your PageToFame coupon in your WEbook inbox soon.

The next writing challenge will be released soon. We’re going to do a bit of extra preparation and offer some extra-juicy rewards this time around. Stay tuned. In the meantime, why not read a few recent entries to PageToFame?

The High School Writing Challenge

High school is a prime setting for all kinds of fiction—YA, literary, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. Some of major classics of these genres all take place in the halls of different high schools around the world. Why is this? Well, a lot goes on in these formative years. Children begin the long and slow process into becoming adults, a lot of “firsts” occur, romances blossom and die, and people struggle to pass calculus quizzes.

It’s a time rife with struggle, yearning, and new things. And this month’s challenge is about tapping into those feelings and themes.

Write a 300 word scene that takes place on the campus of a high school. The content of the scene is entirely up to you, but the best entries will evoke a larger theme about high school life. The theme, too, is up to you.

The deadline for this writing challenge is 10:00 PM, EST on December 31, 2011. WEbook will choose six winners and award them one free entry to PageToFame, our flagship writing contest. 

To enter the challenge, start a new chapter in this writing project. Enjoy!

And don't forget to check out the winners from last month's challenge.

 

 

Winners of the BBQ Challenge

So, uh, this is kinda awkward. We did the whole "something going on underneath the surface" theme for this BBQ challenge. And the contestants totally went with it. It's just that...well...there was a lot of cannibalism. Don't get us wrong, we're all for Cormac McCarthy and The Road, it's just that there were a lot of BBQ's where people got eaten. We're not judging, but we had to comment. 

Winners!

The Invited Stranger by ctalaman

Great atmosphere, descriptions, and underlying theme going on here. But what really won us over was the voice. It was sarcastic, dark, but not without some levity. Ctalaman had us at "reteller of unfunny things." We know of people who fit that description all too well. 

Dessert Storm by simonmabee

Very Brian Jaques-esque. We're all for legendary figures, especially when they're squirrels that have something worth dying for. 

Over Done by Jvd9

A couple no longer in love may not be the most original underlying theme in the world, but when it's described this well and you throw in a bit of a twist at the end, we're all for it!

The View from Spooner Hill by JulieDaniels

With kids these days, it seems like they carry on conversing in an invisible and digital world of texts, tweets, status updates, and emails. Thumbs can do an amazing amount of communication. But the real world is always there, lurking above the touchpads and mini screens. JulieDaniels gets that. 

Apocalyptic Tamarind by J_Hucke

Yeah this was a cannibalism one. But we liked it. Had a bit of that McCarthy spice in it to boot. Solid descriptions of the post-apocalyptic BBQ as well.

The Police Benefit Barbecue by ErikModi

This entry really evoked a larger world. A PI/demon hunter, werewolves, vampires, and a police BBQ that sounds like it's about to get serious, it's all fantastic. Well done.

Congratualtions to the winners. You shall recieve your PageToFame coupons shortly. 

The Revenge Challenge has just wrapped up, but stay tuned for the next writing challenge, coming soon.

Q & A with James Brogden - Part II

Last week, we posted Part I of James Brogden's Q&A with WEbook. James recently signed a book deal with award winning indie press, Snowbooks. Last week, James gave us a ton of great info about the writing process and development behind The Narrows. This week, James tells about what happened when the book was finished, and it was time to start looking for a publisher. 

Once you completed The Narrows, did you query traditional agents first? How did you choose the agents that you contacted? Did you receive any feedback?

I went through the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook with a highlighter, picked every single UK-based agent who said that they considered fantasy, science fiction, or horror, and started sending out samples. To date the feedback has been universally ‘thanks but no thanks’, but I’m hopeful that with The Narrows being published, agents will look more favourably on my next project.

How did hear about WEbook? What was your experience with PageToFame?

I heard about WEbook purely by accident – I teach Media Studies and I was researching the concept of user-generated content and the different uses of social network sites for my students, and came across a newspaper article about the way writers are using the internet to collaborate and self-publish. I wasn’t interested in self-publishing, but I followed up the reference to webook.com and thought that if my submission was successful then it would be something else I could mention in a letter to agents. If Snowbooks hadn’t picked it up then that’s exactly what I’d be doing right now.

PageToFame’s greatest strength lies in the objectivity of readers’ feedback. There are other sites where writers engage in a lot of favour-trading, promoting work which in some cases is pretty dreadful, but there’s nothing in it for webookers except, I guess, trying to rate like a publishing pro, so that keeps it more honest, I think. It can be a frustratingly slow process at times, though.

How did you first hear about Snowbooks and what drew you to submit The Narrows for their consideration?

Just straightforward, cold research and a methodical approach to submitting samples. They were listed in Writers & Artists as being interested in genre fiction, and when I looked at their website I found that they are one of a very small minority of publishers who will consider unsolicited manuscripts. I was impressed by the amount of explanatory detail they went into about their submissions process, and even though I knew this meant it would take a long time for them to get through the slushpile to my MS I felt that they were the kind of people who would give it a fair read. In my original email I even used WEbook as a selling point, as the Narrows was at 92% in Round 2 at the time. Hopefully that made a difference.

What was the submission process to Snowbooks like? 

It took just over four months to hear back from them, which is not unusual (I just recently got a rejection letter from an agent I approached over a year ago, which was a lovely surprise, especially since I’d forgotten that I’d even written to them by that time), and by a weird coincidence I got their email on exactly the same day as the email from WEbook telling me that The Narrows had made it to the Agents’ Showcase.

Once they made the offer things went very quickly; I had a contract in my hands three days later. They were particularly helpful with this, recommending that I join the Society of Authors to take advantage of their free contract-reading service. They’ve produced a very detailed and helpful author pack explaining the timetable of their publication process and giving clear instructions as to what they need from me at each particular stage, and my editor Anna has been great at answering my questions and keeping my paranoia to a mostly manageable level.

What’s been your favorite part of working with Snowbooks so far?

Oh look, everything. The whole thing. This is all a completely new adventure for me, so even little things like going back through the MS to change all the double quotation marks to single ones is fun because it’s getting me one step closer to having my first novel published. I would say that if anything, their embrace of technology is the thing I value most; I don’t understand why in this day and age there are still publishers who won’t accept submissions by email, for example. Just from reading their blog you can tell that they’ve got a good handle on the directions that modern publishing is moving in.

When will The Narrows be published? We can’t wait to read it!

It’s available for pre-order from Amazon (released January 9^th 2012), so save your Christmas book tokens. And watch out for the Winter Solstice in the meantime; that’s when the monsters come out of the Narrows

That's all from James for now. So keep your eyes peeled for The Narrows in 2012. Congratulations James!