Sydney Writers' Centre blog

Aspiring crime writers – Debut Dagger Competition 2011 open for unpublished authors

We get so many emails from passionate crime-story readers asking us to run a crime-writing courses, so we know that this will be very welcome news for many of you. The Debut Dagger Competition for 2011 is calling for entries up to the 5th of February.

This Award is open to all writers who have not had a novel published commercially.  Entrants are required to submit the first 3000 words of their crime-themed novel, plus a 500/1000 word synopsis.

The short-listed entries are circulated to all the editors and agents who are members of our Association, and the shortlist is increasingly being sought from Crime Writers Association by other agents and editors.

So if you’ve written or are writing a crime novel, or know someone who is, this is a wonderful opportunity to jump the slush pile and get their work seen by editors and agents.   

Head to the Crime Writers Association website for more details.

Rave reviews about past student Jessica Shirvington’s book Embrace on goodreads

It’s no secret that the Sydney Writers’ Centre team are very proud of  Jessica Shirvington’s success. With her first book being reprinted for more sales, the cover splashed across the back of buses and another book coming out in April, Jessica is living the dream that many of our students are working towards.

Enbrace is currently scoring 4.29 out of 5, a remarkably high average from 56 reviews on goodreads. Here is what people are saying about Embrace:

“WOW. I was absolutely blown away at how much I enjoyed this debut novel! I was getting tired of reading Angel stories, but this one was so blissfully different. I highly recommend it!” – Brittany M.

“A brilliant book – I will never forget this one” – Alishia

“LOVED IT, LOVED IT, LOVED IT! :0) THE MOST INTERESTING STORY I HAVE READ SO FAR IN ANGEL THEME. COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. Can't wait for "Enticed" the sequel to "Embrace" coming in 2011...I really will be hanging out for this one!” – Allison Begnell

Congratulations Jess! We also can’t wait for the next instalment.

Ready your scripts and films - The 2011 Australian Film Festival Call for Entries Announced

If you’ve got an Australian feature, documentary, short film or 15 minute scripts, the time has come to submit your masterpiece to the Australian Film Festival, who have announced their call for entries for the 2011 program.

We received this email yesterday, so it may well be too late for submitting a short film or script that are due on the 24th of December 2010, but features and documentaries are due on the 14th of January.

The 2011 Festival will be held over 12 inspiring days with the iconic Randwick Ritz Cinema as the screening HQ. The festival includes a series of features, outdoor screenings, the Australian Short Film Festival, FutureFilm screenplay competition, seminars and workshops, fringe events with Q & A's by Australia's best filmmakers, the Spot Food & Film street festival and the Australian Film Walk of Fame.

There are some incredible prizes up for grabs and if your work is chosen for the festival, you will have the opportunity to screen your work to top industry professionals. Past judges for the short film competition have included Rachel Ward, Phillip Noyce, Jeremy Sims, Roy Billing, Andrew Mercado, Peter Castaldi and many more industry professionals. Already confirmed for the 2011 Festival are Jack Thompson, David Field, Gary Sweet and Sigrid Thornton.

Head to the Australian Film Festival website for more details, and enter your film via Without A Box.

Tip: Fulsome or full

I see and hear this mistake so often that it’s rapidly becoming a pet peeve. Many people believe that fulsome is closely related to full or fullest, and it is, but definitely not as a synonym.

Fulsome means excessive, off-putting or cloying to the point of disgust. Apparently full and fulsome do have similar etymological roots, but the two words must not be confused because such an error would completely change the meaning of your sentence.

For example, these two sentences explain a very different situation:

Maria was uncomfortable with Claire’s fulsome praise of her latest story.

Claire was full of praise for Maria’s latest story.

Or
James made fulsome apologies for his late arrival.

James apologised, and took full responsibility for his late arrival.

QUICK: University of Queensland Press is accepting unsolicited manuscripts of children and young adult work this January – but ONLY from 14-31 January 2011!

If you’ve been trying to get you story for children or young adults published, this January might just be the break you’ve been waiting for.

The University of Queensland Press will be accepting unsolicited manuscripts for this category from 14 January 2011 until the 31 January. Below are the guidelines on what they are (and aren’t) accepting.

Please note UQP are not accepting the following genres of children’s and young adult manuscripts:
 

• Fantasy and speculative fiction for children and young adults
• Picture books for children
• Poetry for children and young adults
• Series fiction for children and young adults

 
UQP are only accepting:

• Young adult fiction
• Middle reader fiction
• Younger reader fiction
• Non-fiction for children and young adults

So dust off your stories, do a re-read and re-edit, whip up a submission letter and send your story in! Make sure that your submissions follow the UQP guidelines.

Did you know: Is your new character “ingenious” or “ingenuous”?

The confusion curse of Microsoft Word spell check has struck, correcting my rushed typing out of the word ingenious with ingenuous. In my defense, the key vowels are all in a line on my keyboard, but I was intrigued by how close the spelling is of the two words, and researched their origins.

Ingenuous means to be honest, open and sincere and it comes from the Latin word igenuus that is very similar to our modern word and almost means freeborn and generous. Interestingly, the Latin root word for ingenuous can also imply ingenious, but the modern word ingenuous does not. Ingenuous can also mean innocent, unworldly and naïve, and you’re probably familiar with the character archetype of the ingénue, often a girl or young woman who is endearingly innocent and usually has the best intentions.
 
This is clearly different from ingenious, which means to be brilliant and creative, and is usually used in association with inventing something, or a new idea or insight. The term ingenious comes from the Latin word ingenium that means inherent talent and the ability to cleverly devise new ideas and solutions.  This root word has no link to ingenuous.

Tip: Is it possible to aggravate a person?

The words aggravate and annoy are often used interchangeably in conversation. But the two terms have quite distinct meanings, and are less synonymous than  many people realise.

Annoy means to irritate, exasperate or provoke someone. It’s a word we use a lot, especially moving into the hotter months when everything begins to become that bit more irritating. It is helpful to remember that word annoy is best used when referring to a relationship or situation which involves people, because annoy is primarily an emotional term.

Aggravate means to “worsen” and does not necessarily mean to generate negative emotional responses. For example you can aggravate a situation, but you can’t annoy a situation. Also you can aggravate a skin condition, but you can’t annoy it.

While one can argue that annoying someone worsens their temper (and day) it makes your meaning clearer if you distinguish between the two terms, and resist the temptation to go for the bigger word to describe a more irritating person or event.

Australian Traveller launches Virtual Intern Program for those looking to get their first break into the travel writing industry

If you’ve recently graduated from one of our Feature Writing or Travel Writing courses, chances are that your head is bursting with ideas, and you already have evocative sentences waiting to be shared with the world.

   

Australian Traveller magazine is calling for people to choose a destination or experience that you love in your local area, and enter 600 words about it. You can write your piece as a review, a guide-book style piece or a portrait of colourful locals. The editors of Australian Traveller will select their favourite entry each month and publish it on their Website.

For more details and to enter click here. This could be the first time you get published, and any of our published graduates can tell you that you’ll never forget the first time you see your name as a byline.

Best Librarian/Library EduBlog 2010 Competition Open

We were very excited to bounce into the office on Monday morning and see a tweet from one of our graduates Ian McLean. His blog BookedInn has been nominated for the Best Librarian/Library EduBlog 2010 Competition. Congratulations Ian!

The Edublog awards were created in 2004 because the Australian librarian community was concerned that the schools and institutions were blocking access to learning and teaching blog sites. This competition seeks to encourage and endorse these blogs, so that people become aware of the educational value of online media.

You can find out more about the awards and vote for your favourite one here. There are a lot of quality resources and ideas on the nominated blogs to explore also.

Script submission call for Bare Boards Brave Heart Festival

Sydney-based indie-theatre company subtlenuance is calling for script submissions for their Bare Boards Brave Heart Festival by the 14th of January 2011. This event is a festival of work for solo performers and the team at subtlenuance is looking for great scripts in any genre, that explore the theme of “empowerment”. 

The scripts should be written for a single actor, run for 5 to 25 minutes, have not been performed before and be self-contained. Writers are also encouraged to not rely on lighting or sound to share their stories, as both will be limited. This is a wonderful opportunity to strip your script back, and create a work where the words are magical and moving.

You can submit work by emailing it to subtlenuance28@yahoo.com.au.

Entry is free, and all you give is permission for the play to be performed at the festival. You will retain all copyright and performance rights.

If you know playwright, please forward this blog to them. You can find out more about subtlenuance at their website here.