Drawing for Free Membership to Write Now Online Writing Workshop

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Injoy

Flash Fiction is a literary form that takes a few basic elements (larger than life character, thought-provoking story line, quick conflict), and tells a story very quickly.

Charles Dickens could probably take 14 pages to describe the wart on someone’s chin (because he was being paid by the word), but Flash Fiction tells a story in less than 1000 words, complete with interesting characters, compelling plot, established setting, etc.

Writing a Flash Fiction story, gives you another great tool to have in your writer’s toolbelt! You will be surprised at how difficult it is to write Flash Fiction–but it will also feel very good–like stretching your muscles during a workout makes you feel healthy and fit.

In this eight-week session of Write Now, we’ll take you through the process of writing a Flash Fiction story and explore:

how to pick a topic
theme
character development
ways to use dialog and setting to enhance the story
and then we’ll write it, and revise it, talk about it, and share it!
And you might be invited to publish your story!

One winner will receive an eight-week membership to Write Now for this Flash Fiction session.

You can have more entries by sharing, too! Tell your writing friends and share this on your Facebook pages!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Student Writing Contest Winner Announced

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Injoy

We narrowed down the original entries to 63 student finalists and semi-finalists, who won a free membership to Write Now online writing lessons, and were invited to submit a professional book proposal for consideration for the grand prize. After reading, rereading, and rereading again, Injoy, Inc. has finally selected the winner of the Student Writing Contest.

The winner of the Grand Prize Student Writing Contest is:

[quote]Rachael M. The Dawn Bringers’ Prophecy[/quote]

Rachael is fifteen years old. Her interests vary widely, but her true passion is to create honest stories that her readers will enjoy. She strives to execute those stories well, so that the struggles and strife of the characters, and their ultimate victories, encourage her audience by reflecting the hardships of real life. This led her to write about Audren, a young, out-of-place prince who lives in a time when the world is turned upside down, and there seems to be no way to turn it back again.

Rachael also enjoys the art and storytelling style of Japanese-style animation, and is currently writing a graphic novel, called a manga, and dreams of eventually animating it. She has won numerous writing awards, such as the Master of the Written Word award, and several 4-H awards for presentations which she wrote and presented at both regional and state levels.

She is also passionate about training and riding horses, and is currently training her two horses to compete in endurance races. She enjoys broadsword and kung-fu lessons, as well as longbow and compound bow hunting in the mountains around her home, and often draws upon her knowledge of weaponry in her writing.

The Injoy Team is looking forward to working with Rachael to design her book cover, help her complete her book, and then edit and format it, print it, help her market it, award her free copies, and publish it to e-book and print.

Flash Fiction; How To Write A Short Story

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Injoy

Anyone can write a book, but it takes talent to write a short story!

To establish interesting characters, create a compelling plot, and weave in conflict and resolution in less than 1000 words takes skill and effort!

Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature that can be as short as 300 words, or might be capped at a 1000 word limit. It’s kind of a break-time story; flash fiction is the kind of story you can sit down and read while eating a candy bar during break-time. And wouldn’t you like to write a story that leaves the reader going back to work wondering about what might happen next?!

The next session of Write Now will explore the elements of a good short story.

When you subscribe to Write Now, you will have the opportunity to participate in online classes that contain some of these features:

writing lessons
feedback and critique from authors and writing coaches
opportunity to interact with other writers
chances to see your writing published
videos and other resources
encouragement
writing tips
Q & A and more

The fee to sign up for a whole month of Write Now writing lessons is less than you would pay for one piano lesson or one movie; you can unsubscribe at any time.

Click here to enroll in the next session of Write Now for the student rate of $7.95 per month; you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button.

To unsubscribe at any time, click the unsubscribe button:

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Write Now Online Writing Workshop: Point of View

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Injoy

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.
[/quote]

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

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Injoy

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

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.

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:

Meet Our Graphic Designer

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Laurel

Laurel Popejoy is our head Graphic Designer. She loves coffee, studying food and cultures of the world, photography, graphic design (of course :D), Neckties (check out h er Etsy Account!), Crafting, good books, comfy window seats, warm southern weather, and sweet tea!

Here are a few examples of Laurel’s bookcovers! Need a cover designed? Email us!

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

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Injoy

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!

photo credit

How’s Your Writing Sample Coming Along?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Injoy

[box_dark]

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.

[/box_dark]

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.

Writing Contest FAQ’s

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Injoy

[pullquote_left]Q. What if I’m not sure I can finish my book by the deadline? Can I still enter?[/pullquote_left]
A. Absolutely. Part of the prize is having the Injoy team help you finish your book. The finalists are selected from the quality of their writing sample and book idea. We’ll work with the finalists to submit a professional book proposal that has a few sample chapters, a time-line for when the book is expected to be completed, and other info that a publisher wants to see in a book proposal. The grand prize winner will then work with Injoy to publish their book based on the deadlines they have helped establish in their time-line—it’s the real publishing process you’ll be experiencing.

[pullquote_left]Q. Can I enter more than once?[/pullquote_left]

A. Yes. You may submit more than one entry in the writing contest. Students (eighteen and under on April 30, 2013) can even enter both the student and the adult contest with the same entry. The finalists are selected primarily on the quality of their writing sample, so just be sure to submit your best work for each entry.

[pullquote_left]Q. Can the finished manuscript be longer than 30,000 words?[/pullquote_left]

A. Yes. The length of the finished manuscript will be determined by writer and publisher in the proposal process. Some books are complete at 30,000 words. Some–are much longer! Finalists will work with the Injoy team to estimate an appropriate word length for their proposed manuscript.

[pullquote_left]Q. Can I submit a nonfiction writing sample in the contest?[/pullquote_left]

A. Yes. Finalists will be selected on the quality of their writing, and their book idea. Nonfiction books require a different proposal process than fiction books, but the Injoy team will help finalists prepare a nonfiction book proposal to enter for the grand prize.

Student Authors

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Injoy

Injoy, Inc. promotes and encourages students in their creative writing projects. Be sure to check out the student writing contest, with an entry deadline of January 31, 2013.

[box_dark]Although the deadline for this writing contest is closed, you can enter the regular writing contest that is open to all ages right here; the deadline to enter that contest is February 28, 2013. We’ll have more student writing opportunities in the future, so be sure to like the Injoy, Inc. Facebook page (click here) to get firsthand information about contests and other writing opportunities.[/box_dark]