Category Archives: Author Tools

Flash Fiction Contest

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Flash Fiction writing lessons; online Write Now; injoyinc.comMore details coming soon!

But basically, we’re hosting a Flash Fiction contest for short stories less than 1000 words. Yeah–that takes real skill!

We’ll be selecting about 50 winners to be published in a compilation book, so if you’ve never been published, this is a great opportunity!

If you’ve never written Flash Fiction, we encourage you to sign up for the next online writing workshop on the subject of Flash Fiction. You’ll learn valuable skills for writing a flash fiction story, and might even increase your odds of winning a spot in the published compilation!

To sign up for the class click here. Students under 19, be sure to sign up for the reduced rate.

And mark your calendar for October 18, 2013, the deadline to enter the Flash Fiction Contest. Be sure to like us on Facebook to get all the latest info about contest rules and deadlines.

How to Write A Fable

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Write Now online writing workshop

How To Write a Fable: Exploring Characters, Plot, and Theme

Fables are one of the most interesting story styles. They are generally short, but include interesting characters, a plot that contains a wallop, and a theme that keeps you thinking long after you finish reading the story–possibly coming back to your memory years later. Remember the tortoise and the hare?

In learning to write a fable, a writer hones their story telling skills, builds an interesting and memorable plot with conflict and humor, develops interesting characters, and weaves it all together with a theme that has value–a moral to the story.

Sign up for the Online Writing Workshop to learn how to write a fable. Students younger than nineteen can subscribe at the special student rate.

Injoy, Inc. is also offering a basic FREE Summer Writing Program for students to learn how to write a fable. Sign up here. The difference between the FREE Summer Writing Program How To Write a Fable, and the Write Now! Online Writing Workshop is that students in the writing workshop have individualized instruction with a writing mentor, which includes feedback, critique, revision, editing, and important constructive critique that will help students hone their writing skills. Students in the Write Now! Online Writing Workshop will write several fables over the course of the 8-week class, with an opportunity to submit all of their fables to the Fable Contest.

Write Now Online Writing Workshop

Write Now is an online writing workshop experience which includes weekly writing help in the form of optional assignments, encouragement, writing tips, and critique to make your story even better. You will have access to writing exercises, Q&A, chats, and more. The cost to participate in the Write Now online workshops is $9.95 per month; $7.95 for students. You can cancel at any time. To enroll in Write Now, simply click the subscribe button.

To cancel your subscription to Write Now, simply click the unsubscribe button.



Student Writing Lessons

We also offer a special discounted Write Now! for students. The student rate for writing lessons is $7.95 per month. To enroll in the Student Writing Lessons, click the subscribe button.




To unsubscribe at any time, click the unsubscribe button:


Write Now Online Writing Workshop: Point of View

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Write Now online writing workshop

Point of view is how the story-teller views the story.

What do they see? How? Why?

Common Points of View:

  •     First Person (a character is telling the story, and you only know what they know). Uses I, me, my a lot.
  •     Second Person (written as though the reader is the main character: you jump out of bed, and suddenly realized that you aren’t in Kansas anymore). Uses you.
  •     Third Person (written from a character or narrator or some other observer’s point of view). Uses he, she, they, it.
  •    Omniscient and Limited Omniscient: the person telling the story is all-knowing. They know what everyone is thinking, and feeling, and what they have done or are going to do. Uses person’s names.

[quote]For example, if Tommy drops a glass, and it shatters, how do we know what Mother is thinking? In first person, second person, and third person, we can’t read her mind, but we can read her mood by her words, her actions, and her facial expressions! In omniscient POV, we can jump over to Mother, and read her thoughts, and her feelings, and her mood from her own point of view.
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Writing Exercise:

Just for fun, take a common nursery rhyme, and retell it from a different point of view in less than 300 or 400 words. Use the selected example of Humpty Dumpty, or pick another one you like– maybe Jack and Jill, or Alice in Wonderland, or Mary had a little lamb.

Example:  Humpty Dumpty is told from third person (they couldn’t put him back together again). Try writing it from another point of view.

  • First person: I was sitting on a wall, and the wind began to blow, and I began to totter, and. . .
  • Second person: You’re sitting on a wall, and suddenly you’re not. Suddenly you realize you have egg on your face. . .
  • Third person: Try writing this from the perspective of a bystander, or one of the king’s men. “Hey, does anyone have any superglue?” one of the men called out, as he knelt beside the wall. . .
  • Omniscient: There was a loud crack as the egg splatted on the ground. Meanwhile, in the castle, the king’s men were putting on their armor. . .

After you finish your point of view writing exercise, try writing from another point of view. Then go to your bookshelf and see if you have an old nursery rhyme book, and identify all the points of view in the rhymes. It’s good practice!

To subscribe to to Write Now online writing workshops, click here.

To sign up for Student Writing Lessons for $7.95 monthly, click the subscribe button.

 

Write Now Online Writing Workshops

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Write Now online writing workshop

Special Christmas offer for students! Double your classes by clicking here.

www.injoyinc.com

Write Now Online Writing Workshop

Write Now is an online writing workshop experience which includes weekly writing help in the form of optional assignments, encouragement, writing tips, and critique to make your story even better. You will have access to writing exercises, Q&A, chats, videos, and more. The cost to participate in the Write Now online workshops is $9.95 per month. You can cancel at any time. To enroll in Write Now,  simply click the subscribe button.

To cancel your subscription to Write Now, simply click the unsubscribe button.



 Student Writing Lessons

We also offer a special discounted Write Now! for students. The student rate for writing lessons is $7.95 per month.  To enroll in the Student Writing Lessons, click the subscribe button.




To unsubscribe at any time, click the unsubscribe button:


What If I’m Not Even Close to Finishing My Book?

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That’s where we can help!

Injoy, Inc. specializes in helping authors go to the next level with their writing.

Our writing contest isn’t just to pick a winner, but to help develop a writer.

If you have talent and ability as a writer, we want to recognize that talent and help you to develop it.

Do you have a great idea for a book? Do you envision interesting characters, a suspenseful plot, an underlying theme that tells a great message?

We can help you finish your book. We can help you publish your book.

We will select the writing samples that show promise and talent, and we will work with you over four to six weeks to develop a proposal that outlines your book, puts together a timeline for completion, and defines your characters, plot, setting, and story line. From the proposals, we’ll select the grand prize winner, and work with the winner to complete their book, and then let them watch as it goes through the process of having a cover designed, manuscript edited, text formatted, book published, and more. In the publishing world, it takes many months to go from manuscript to market. We want to begin the process and get you on the road to a successful journey as a writer.

So, you don’t have to be close to finishing your book to work with Injoy, Inc. Have you check out the Writing Contest? Part of the prize of the contest is having the Injoy Team help you, and encourage you, and offer tools to help you finish your book. That’s the fun of writing–the process, and we want to share that with you!

Injoy!

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How’s Your Writing Sample Coming Along?

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These writing contests are now closed, but be sure to like our Facebook page and sign up for our author newsletter to find out about other contests.

 

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Are you busy writing, tweaking, and revising your writing sample for the Injoy, Inc. writing contest?

You don’t have to write a whole book. You don’t have to be almost finished with your book.

We just want to see a sample of your writing so we can see your writing style, and how you put words together, and what kind of characters and dialog you use in your fiction writing. If you’re writing a nonfiction book, we just want to see how your express your ideas on your topic.

Your sample can be one chapter from anywhere in your book. Your sample can be one chapter from the front, and one from the middle OR back of the book.

Maybe you haven’t even started writing your book, and you just have a great idea. Well, go to one of your favorite spots where you can think. Take a notebook and a couple fresh pens, and begin writing. Just begin to create your characters and your world—or just jump into the middle of the story and write a really fun and interesting scene!

Writers love deadlines, and even if you think you don’t have time to enter this writing contest, YOU CAN STILL WRITE A WINNING ENTRY by February 28th!

A good writer can sit down and write for a couple hours, and then lay it aside, come back and review it, lay it aside, and go away and think about it, and then come back and revise and proofread and edit, and be ready to submit their writing sample for the writing contest right here.

If you are selected as a finalist, then we’ll help you put together your proposal (some sample chapters, your characters outlined, a listing of calendar dates of when you will submit your chapters and the final manuscript, and your ideas for the final book). From those proposals, we’ll select the grand prize winner, and help them finish and publish their book.

You could be our next author. Check out these book covers from some of our other student authors.

Have more questions? Read our Frequently Asked Questions, and if you still have a question, you can contact us here, or come over to our Facebook page, like it, and ask your question there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student Publishing Package

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How would you like to get your book published for less than your cell phone plan probably costs?

At Injoy, Inc., we specialize in helping first-time authors get their book published, and we have a plan for you.

Student Publishing Package includes:

  • Cover Design
  • Copyright
  • ISBN
  • Formatting
  • Editing
  • Webpage
  • Social Media Support
  • Online Training Sessions
  • Free author copies
  • E-book
  • Marketing Package
  • Low monthly payment plan

Contact us and tell us about your book!

And be sure to check out our Writing Contest, which will award a Publishing Package to a student author. Deadline to submit 1-2 of your best chapters is January 31, 2013.

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Sign Up For the Injoy Author Newsletter

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Sign up for our FREE author newsletter for important information emailed to your inbox. Don’t worry–we don’t send out mass emails. Just an occasional author newsletter with information about contests, online workshops, tips for writers, and more.

Just insert your email address right below in the subscribe box or click here:

Sign up for our free newsletter!

 

 


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Using Pinterest For Your WIP

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With so many online tech tools for writers to choose from, here’s one that is just plain fun!

Pinterest is an online bulletin board that allows you to capture and organize pictures and links to websites.

[quote]It’s basically a graphical idea file![/quote]

You might already use Pinterest to track your favorite recipes and home decorating ideas, but have you ever considered using it to organize your ideas for your writing projects?

I’ve just begun to use Pinterest, and you can go follow me at Shari Popejoy to see how I have begun to collect character, setting, and cover design ideas.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use Pinterest to help you organize your creative writing projects, sign up for a FREE online writing workshop. Our graphic designer and savvy Pinterest user, Laurel will show you how to use Pinterest to make your characters and setting come alive right before your eyes, both for your own creativity, and to help in the design process.

Go here and like Injoy’s Facebook page, and we’ll post the date and details about the FREE online writing workshop coming up in December. Or sign up for the next issue of our FREE newsletter for details about the online writing workshop, writing contest, and more.


 

 

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Writing Contest For Students

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[box_dark]ATTENTION: This writing contest is now closed. But be sure to like our Facebook page at Injoy, Inc. to find out about future writing contests and opportunities for student writers. We’ll begin announcing finalists mid to late February, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook![/box_dark]

Injoy, Inc. is pleased to announce a writing contest for students eighteen and under (not older than eighteen on April 30, 2013).

Deadline to enter is January 31, 2013.

Easy entry rules:

  1. Submit your story concept and 1-2 of your best chapters by January 31, 2013.
  2. If you are selected as a finalist, we will help you submit a proposal before March 31, 2013 for the grand prize of getting your manuscript published.

Not finished with your book? No problem. Just submit 1-2 chapters (1500-3000 words) before January 31, 2013, and if you are a finalist, we’ll help you put together a proposal, and you have until March 31, 2013 to submit your proposal for your book.  (Final manuscript must be submitted in an MS Word Doc format, double-spaced, and should be at least 25-35,000 words.) Student must affirm that the manuscript is original material.

Prize package includes a no-cost publishing package which includes cover design, formatting, editing, marketing, and webpage, 10 free copies of your prize winning book (a $1770 value), plus an opportunity to publish your book with Injoy.

First step? Go here and like our BRAND NEW Facebook page so you will get important announcements about the contest.

Don’t have a FB? Then sign up for the free newsletter, and we’ll send you details soon in the next FREE newsletter which features important information about the contest.

Learn more about our Student Author Publishing Package.

[quote][/quote]Not a student? Older than nineteen? We have a writing contest for adults, too! Sign up for the newsletter for details!

 

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