Month: February 2012

Writing Exercise Competition Week 9 Voting: The Dream

The time has arrived for IU readers to begin voting in this week’s Flash Fiction Competition. On behalf of the IU staff, I want to thank all the entrants for doing such a great job with the writing prompt and the merciless constraints of the exercise.

This week, there are seventeen entries from which to choose. You may review the entries here. Please spread the word and encourage your friends to vote by using the share buttons at the bottom of the post!

The poll will be open until 5:00 PM MST Thursday

Select the entrant with the best story for the IU writing exercise competition, "The Dream."

  • 9. William C. Busch (27%, 8 Votes)
  • 3. HJ Daly (20%, 6 Votes)
  • 2. Yvonne Hertzberger (17%, 5 Votes)
  • 1. Reggie Ridgway (13%, 4 Votes)
  • 6. Elisavietta Ritchie (10%, 3 Votes)
  • 8. A. L. Kaplan (7%, 2 Votes)
  • 5. Kay Weeks (3%, 1 Votes)
  • 7. RG Bud Phelps (3%, 1 Votes)
  • 4. Carolyn Tody (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 30

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34th Nimrod Literary Awards

NimrodThe 34th Nimrod Literary Awards is now accepting submissions for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction & the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry.

The prize for first place is $2,000 and publication; the prize for second place is $1,000 and publication.

Postmark Deadline: April 30, 2012. Entry/Subscription Fee: $20 includes both entry fee & a one-year subscription (two issues).

For more information, please visit their website.

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Indies Unlimited is pleased to provide this contest information for the convenience of our readers.  We do not, however, endorse this or any contest/competition.  Entrants should always research a competition prior to entering.

 

 

Inside the Mind of a Killer: Researching your Antagonist

Author DV Berkom

So there I was, minding my own business writing one of those truly twisted novels that grabs hold of you and has to come out when I came to the killer’s debut. I’d never attempted to write a character quite so creepy and wasn’t relishing that first passage. In fact, I continually wrote around him, putting off the scene until I felt I could do justice to him instead of creating a killer cliché. Yes, I could have abandoned the effort and gone on to something else, but a disturbing dream I’d had several months prior provided the inspiration for the story and I felt compelled to follow it through.

How do you write a fresh psychopath? Readers today have been clubbed over the head with serial killers (pardon the pun) to the point that it’s become a joke in many literary agencies and publishing houses. The only way I could think to do it was to go to my default: research. Continue reading “Inside the Mind of a Killer: Researching your Antagonist”

Write!

Forget everything you know. Tear down the gilt statues. Destroy your inked idols. Paint your words across the sky in bright vermillion. Whisper them on butterfly wings. Dance the dance of your forefathers, wrapped in silken words. Create for them a beautiful implosion. They are as blossoms falling. They are like wondrous corpses. Let the colors swirl and shift.

Continue reading “Write!”