Write Night!
@
Bookman's Cafe
AZ Authors Literary Contest
AZ Authors Association Literary Contest and Awards
***Entry Form***
Unpublished Published
Poems Fiction
Short Stories/Essays/Narrative Nonfiction
Novel, Novella Juvenile/Young Adult
Childrens Picture Book
Oldie but Goldie
One Grand Prize of $300
Three First Prizes of $150
Three Second Prizes of $75
Three Third Prizes of $50
Three Fourth Prizes of $25
Eight Best-of-Category Prizes
Unpublished Poetry and Short Story Best of Category will be
Nominated for the Pushcart Prize
All winners will be featured in the 2024 Arizona Authors Literary Magazine. Since it began in 1978, the Arizona Literary Magazine has launched the careers of many authors.
Northern AZ Book Festival
March 31-April 2 of 2023
Creating Effective Critique Groups Workshop
Sunday, April 2, 2023
11 to Noon
Flagstaff Coconino County Public Library
300 West Aspen Avenue
A Panel Presentation/Q&A
with
Barbara Shovers and C. Alex Smith
(FWC Co-Founders)
- How to Form a Group
- Group Models & Guidelines
(928)779-6368 for more information
Book Fest Highlights:
Friday, March 31
3pm: Author Meet and Greet
Downtown Flagstaff Public Library
Saturday, April 1
10am-5pm: Booths & Readings All Day!
Heritage Square
2pm: Spoken Word & Slam Poetry: Roundtable & Preformance
Downtown Flagstaff Public Library
3pm: Literary Editing & Publishing Panel featuring Local Presses
Liminal @ Flagstaff
3pm: Hands-on Bookmaking by Wasted Ink Zine Distro
Heritage Square
5pm: Literary Editing & Publishing Panel featuring Local Presses
Liminal @ Flagstaff
7pm: Sedona Poetry Slam featuring Mary D. Fisher
Theater, Sedona
7pm: Explore Translation
What is your relationship to the land you live on? Share a brief response to be added to a multilingual, community poem hosted by Thousand Languages Project. Responses collected by March 15th will be presented during the Explore Translation with Thousand Languages Panel.
Luminal, Flagstaff
8:30pm: That Needs Work: Humor Writing
Hosted by NAU MFA students
TBD
Sunday, April 2
11am: Create Effective Critique Groups
Hosted by Flagstaff Writers Connection
Downtown Flagstaff Public Library
1pm: Youth Poetry Council
For Younger Writers (14-24 years)
Late for the Train, Flagstaff
Announcing the Deep Editing Series
The Deep Editing Series is Back
Do you have a completed or nearly completed first draft manuscript?
Congratulations!
You're Amazing
Two hundred million Americans (81%) say they want to write a novel or screenplay. But only 10% actually do.
After I finished my first manuscript, I tried to edit it on my own. I moved or changes some of the words, but it didn't feel like the story was getting any better. So I started going to webinars and reading books until ten years later when I finally developed a method for revisions.
In 2019 I gave a year long series of workshops on revision. Since then, many people asked me to repeat the series. But we were in the middle of a pandemic that presented us with something we’d never seen before—Long Covid.
For 2023, I decided to commit the live presentations to video, so I can share them with you safely.
I am offering two ways to enjoy these presentations.
On Your Own each workshop comes with
- on a private website
- several videos you can view when it’s convenient for you
- handouts
- writing exercises.
With a Cohort of Other Writers on my schedule. This option includes
- the private website
- videos
- handouts
- writing exercises. But you also get
- three Ask Me Anything (AMA) internet meetings to go over writing exercises and to meet other writers
- 5 pages (1500 words) of your current manuscript edited by me.
The first two workshops are free to everyone so you can make sure my teaching style works for you. After February each monthly course will cost $25 On Your Own and $50 with the Cohort. If you choose to pay for the entire course at once, you get a $150 break and pay only $400 in the Cohort group, or you save $75 in the On Your Own group and pay $200 for all 13 mos of workshops.
We’ll take a top down approach so you don’t waste your time editing words on an entire chapter you end up deleting from the project.
Mo
Title
Description
Pricing
Jan
Pre-editing
Everything you need to do BEFORE you dig in to the real editing. Computer programs and apps you might want to consider. Story Drivers, Story Structures, Main Plot Points, and introduction to “Series” (Motifs).
- Class starts 1/9/23
- AMA 1/16/23 11:00-12:30pm
- AMA 1/21/23 1:00-2:30 pm
- AMA 1/28/23 10:30 am-12:00 pm
FREE
Feb
Focus Your Story
Making your MS more manageable and focused by cutting the excess. Finding "series" in your work. Writing your Synopsis.
- Class Starts 2/19/23
- AMA 2/23/23 5:30-7:00 pm
- AMA 3/4/23 1:00-2:30 pm
- AMA 3/18/23 10:30 am-12:00 pm
FREE
TBA
Story as a Whole
Working with “Series” (motifs), Themes, different Story Structures.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Scenes
Working with Scenes/Sequels, Special Scenes, making a “Character Driven” Scene, Linking scenes.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
POV
Choosing a POV and a Narrative Distance, Deep POV, Causality, and Motivational-Reaction Units.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Tension
Conflict, Emotion, Pacing, Suspense.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Dialogue
Dialogue, Attribution, Compression, Euphonics.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Action
Movement, Goals, Body Language, Subtext.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Setting
All six senses, Active vs. Static description, Visceral Response, Mood.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Thought
Internal monologue, Back Story, Exposition.
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Color Analysis
Margie Lawson’s Color Analysis, White Space
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Voice
Darlings, Rhetorical Devices, Originality
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
TBA
Final Polish
Word Searches, Backloading, Tight writing, Cadence, MS Conventions, Submission
Cohort $50
On Your Own $25
Questions:
C@CAlexSmith.com
(928)779-6368
C. Alex Smith started her writing career as a political blogger on the Daily Kos in 2008. She was invited to be one of three editors on a well-researched weekly blog concerning economics, politics, environmental concerns, medicine, and science. There, she cultivated far left celebrities to guest post on the blog including Robin Upton (host of Unwelcome Guests), Gar Alperovitz (author of Beyond Capitalism), Roger Rothenberger (author of Beyond Plutocracy), and Prof. Richard D. Wolff (Economic Update, The New School in NY). She was also instrumental in getting the blog reposted on several political news sites and maintained the blogs social media presence.
She moved on in 2014 to being the host of Spec Fix Pix, a podcast for fans of Sci Fi, Fantasy and Horror.
After moving back to Arizona in 2018, she became a co-founder of Flagstaff Writers Connection. She continues to work for FWC to maintain their internet presence, host the local Critique Circle and Publishing Club, and to provide occasional workshops and courses on writing and the publishing industry.
Since 2008 she has been writing science fiction and alternate history. She has five complete manuscripts and three partial manuscripts. Two of her manuscripts took second place at the Arizona Authors Association Literary Contest.
Write Your Novel in November
Each year on Nov. 1 about half a million writers from all over the world converge on the internet and at local Write-In locations to work toward the goal of creating a 50,000 word novel by 11:59 PM on Nov. 30. That's a novel about the size of Catcher in the Rye.
The event began in 1999, and in 2005, National Novel Writing Month became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. NaNoWriMo’s programs now include National Novel Writing Month in November, Camp NaNoWriMo, and the Young Writers Program.
Even as the Pandemic raged in 2020, NaNoWriMo had:
- 383,064 participants, including 97,439 students and educators in the Young Writers Program, started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
- 906 volunteer Municipal Liaisons guided 671 regions on six continents.
- 448 libraries, bookstores, and community centers opened their doors to novelists through the Come Write In program. (Down from 1200 due to Covid)
- 71,832 Campers tackled a writing project—novel or not—at Camp NaNoWriMo.
- In past surveys, 86% of respondents said that NaNoWriMo helped them learn what they can accomplish when determined. 89% of respondents said that NaNoWriMo made them more excited about writing and 87% of student participants in our Young Writers Program said that it made them more confident writers.
- Hundreds of NaNoWriMo novels have been traditionally published. They include Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Hugh Howey’s Wool, Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Jason Hough’s The Darwin Elevator, Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Elizabeth Acevedo's With the Fire on High, and Julie Murphy's Side Effects May Vary.
- Each year, authors offer mentorship to our participants through pep talks. Past author mentors have included Gene Luen Yang, Roxane Gay, John Green, N. K. Jemisin, Andy Weir, Veronica Roth, Ann Lamott, and Brandon Sanderson.
Become a Participant
To get started in NaNoWriMo, use this Step by Step Guide:- Fill out a Profile so other writers with similar interests can find you.
- Brainstorm a story for your Novel with Flagstaff Writers Connection.
- Announce your Novel to the world. This will help you stay the course when things get tough.
- Plan the plot for your Novel with NaNoWriMo, or NaNo Prep or C. Alex Smith. Or don't. Pantsers welcome!
- Select Flagstaff AZ as you home region.
Each region has Liaisons who schedule meet and greets and writing sessions which usually take place at coffee houses or bookstores. Our incredible Liason is Cory. You can talk to other Flagstaff authors participating in NaNoWriMo at Discord. These Write-In sessions encourage writers to collaborate and share ideas. If you’re not into the idea of writing in public, the NaNoWriMo website also has numerous message boards so you can talk to writers from all over the world. - Come November, WRITE! And earn Badges for reaching milestones.
- Get help when you get stuck. The encouragement that you receive is unparalleled. The website even e-mails inspirational quotes and messages to your WriMo inbox daily.
- Update your word count until you get to 50,000 words or more.
- About 13% of participants "win" and get to 50,000 words. Claim your Win by pasting the full text of the novel into the NaNo word counter. Winners can also claim prizes. You can even get 50% off on Scrivener for winning!
- NaNoWriMo also hooks you up with people who can help you find out what to do with your novel once it’s been completed. FWC is also planning to start a series of revision workshops this Jan.
More
from
- #NaNoPrep Tweet-chat:Got questions or advice on how to prepare for NaNoWriMo? Jump into our convo on Twitter!
- 3 Ways to Plan Your Novel — Watch our short YouTube video for three different methods you can use to plot our your story!
- Content Cathedral Story Development Series — In depth look at how to plan a story.
- How to Create a Morning Writing Routine — Over on our blog, author Benjamin Spall shares some key ways to get yourself writing first thing in the morning.
- Cherrie's Sweet Spot Word Tracker
- Write or Die
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