Power of the Pen workshop!

If you're looking for some extra help with your Power of the Pen entry, I'll be running a critique workshop tomorrow (Wednesday) at Stoney Creek branch, 2pm. It should be an awesome opportunity to meet other writers, get some feedback on your entry and get creative.

Hope to see you there!

Power of the Pen Reminder!

Just a friendly reminder that you still have almost three weeks to submit your Power of the Pen poems and stories.

Even if (and maybe especially if) you're not confident in your writing, I really encourage you to submit and get some feedback. You could win an iPad just for entering!

Get the details here!

Also, a shout out to everyone who has already submitted. You're all submitting in the correct formats and it's making my life so much easier. High fives all around!

100 Writing Tips

Working on your entry for Power of the Pen or the Postcard Fiction contest?

Here are 100 tips from Canadian writers to get you started and make you a better writer. Embrace the eccentric, feel - don't think, focus on the subject, and more.

Check them out now.

(thanks to our awesome communciations officer, Antonella, for the tip!)

Writing Contests!

Our 18th annual Power of the Pen awards ceremony is coming up on January 18th (and if you haven't RSVP'd yet, please do!).

There are also other Canadian writing competitions going on right (write?) now!

All you have to do is finish this paragraph:

I felt like I had been shot out of a cannon.  Who were these people? Where in the world was I? Before I could even get my bearings I was almost run over by. . .

and you could win a set of books by Eric Walters! Get more details here!

There is also the... 

Book Week 2013 Writing Contest

where you could win $250! The deadline is February 1 so get on this one soon! Get more details here.

Power of the Pen deadline!

Just a reminder to submit your Power of the Pen entries by Friday!

Here are some tips in case you haven't submitted yours yet:

• make sure you check the word count on your short stories - it has to be under 2500 words!
• double-check spelling! Spellcheck is not the be-all and end-all of editing. Have someone you trust look over your entry for spelling and grammar. There's nothing worse than a beautifully written poem with a typo in the title. 
• You don't need to put your name on your actual submission. We blind everything for the judges so they don't know whose is whose.
• Read your entry aloud to make sure it makes sense. Sometimes you skip a word and don't realize it
• This one is obvious but - don't plagiarize! We're checking all entries for plagiarism.

Best of luck to everyone who has submitted so far. I've been glancing at them as I get them ready for the judges and they look phenomenal. Even if you don't win, I think you can all be extremely proud for entering.

You can look at the official rules and enter your submission here!

If you have any questions about Power of the Pen, leave me a comment or email me at kdrennan (at) hpl.ca (Except, put the @ symbol where it's supposed to go).

Write Across Ontario

Check out this cool writing competition for students in Ontario. You can win up to $500!!

Basically three authors have started a story and your task is to finish it. Story Starter #2 has caught my eye - a dark mysterious stranger? Sounds interesting... but check them all out and see if you get inspired.

You can find all the contest details here. You have until December 15 February 1, 2012 to enter. Good luck!

edit: The date has been extended to February 1! Hurrah! Keep writing!

Nanowrimo!

Nanowrimo is right around the corner. Are any of you participating?

For those who don't know, Nanowrimo is a challenge to write a novel (~50,000 words) in the month of November. You can use the official Nano site to keep track of your words, chat with other writers and more.

I hope some of you try this great challenge! If you do, there are tons of great writing resources in the library to get you started. Pop into any branch of HPL and we'll help you find them.

Writing Contest from Wattpad

Just got this interesting email from Simon and Schuster (a publishing company).

Want the chance to win a trip to NYC and get the inside scoop on publishing? Well now you can! Lisa McMann, the author of the Wake trilogy and The Unwanteds, and Pulse It have joined up with Wattpad to send one writer to NYC! You could win: A trip to NYC, home of the publishing industry! 2 nights in a hotel (with a parent/guardian) A day at Simon & Schuster's offices (a.k.a Pulse It HQ) to shadow an editor! A one-on-one meet & greet with Lisa McMann! Plus – get tons of extras throughout the contest! An exclusive extended first look at Lisa's new middle-grade novel The Unwanteds An exclusive sneak peek at Lisa's new teen novel coming out March 2012 — Dead to You Other exclusive content from Lisa like a playlist for Dead to You and why she wrote The Unwanteds To get the full lowdown, go to www.wattpad.com/contests! Or click the banner below!

It seems to be open to anyone 14-18 in US or Canada, so take a look and see if you're interested. The writing prompt at least looks very intriguing!

A Big Post on Writing, Collaborating, Getting Published, etc.

Prompted by a question in the shoutbox, I thought I'd talk a bit about creative writing and places to get your writing seen and maybe one step closer to being published.

A disclaimer: I'm not a published author, I only write creatively for fun.

Writing programs

When it comes to actually writing, you're going to find you prefer one word processor over another. If you don't have one, you can download Open Office for free, which does many of the things Microsoft Word does.

If you're going to be collaborating, consider signing up for a google account and using Google Docs. Google Docs allows more than one person to work on a single document - at the same time! You can see what the other person has been writing and vice versa. Even if you're not collaborating, if you're looking for someone to edit your work, GDocs is a nice way of e-mailing a document to multiple people.

A lot of writers I know use Write or Die as a persuasive tool to get them writing. Basically if you haven't typed a character in a while it blares out awful music until you start writing again. The theory is it will get the creative juices flowing (or something!)

Writing sites:


So you've written something and you think it's okay. What's next? You probably want people to read it.

Ink Pop is a creative writing forum for teens run by HarperCollins (a publisher). The top five projects on the site actually get read by editors so it might be a good way to get your writing seen. That being said, I've never used the site so have no idea if it's easy to upload your work, comment, etc.

Fiction Press.com is another place to upload your work and read other people's. It's fairly huge (over a million users) so you might find an audience there.

There are LOTS of other places to post writing (livejournal.com has a fairly large writers community, for instance). Poke around the internet and see what niche you can find. Comment on other people's stories and become part of a writing community. It's also helpful to find someone who will edit your writing - at first it's going to be a bit painful getting all that criticism but it's going to make you way better.

Getting published:


There are a lot of levels of getting published. For instance, What If magazine is a literary magazine for Canadian teens that you can submit things to.

If you win the Power of the Pen contest here at HPL, we will also publish your writing in our magazine and on our website.

If you're looking to publish something like a novel, Kiersten White (author of Paranormalcy) has published a guide to getting published here.

There are also lots of books like The Essential Guide to Getting Published at the library.

But really, the most important thing is to actually write. No one is going to publish the novel that you don't write. (Right?)

P.S. If you have favourite sites, tips, etc. Please feel free to leave them in the comments box!

NaNoWriMo!

HAPPY NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH!

In case you didn't know, November is NaNoWriMo (or national novel writing month). Best of luck to all you writers attempting it this year - 50,000 words is a LOT to write in a month (and I would know - I tried a few years ago). If you want to get involved, click the link above. The site seems to be down right now but I'm relatively sure that is the correct link. Try again later if it's not working for you (or google nanowrimo). If you're attempting this year, feel free to link to your nanowrimo accounts in the comments section.

In other writerly news, the winners for the Power of the Pen competition will be announced in the next week or so. Watch this space!

(sorry for the multiple posting... You can tell I've been away for a week when...)

Power of the Pen: Deadline extended

For those of you scrambling to finish your poems and short stories by the end of the month, you can breathe a little easier. The deadline for Power of the Pen has been extended to August 7th at 5 p.m.

(For those of you not in the know, Power of the Pen is Hamilton Public Library's annual teen writing competition. You can win prizes up to $100 and there's a nifty awards night at the end of November. For more details, click on the image or the link above).

Best of luck to those already entered and to those still trying to figure out if that semi-colon belongs there.

Arts of August

Interested in fashion? Art? Photography? Poetry? Then read on!

Arts of August is an arts competition put on by Living Rock. Submit works of art by August 16th on the themes of Peace, Equality, Love, and/or Diversity and have your artwork showcased at the Arts of August Grand Finale Showcase on Thursday August 26th at the Pearl Company. You can submit your art at any Hamilton Public Library branch or Living Rock downtown.

That's not all! There's also a fashion show tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Globe downtown (on Main between James and McNab).  Admission is only $2 and goes towards a great charitable cause.

Click the poster for more information. Interested in volunteering at either event? E-mail Living Rock and they'll let you know what they need.

Power of the Pen!

The deadline for Power of the Pen, HPL's annual writing competition, is coming up! If you haven't submitted writing so far, you have until July 31st. Check out the teen page for more information and to fill out an entry form. You can also read last year's winning entries. If you're on facebook and want to keep up to date with PoP, you can join our group.

Best of luck to everyone who has entered so far! I hope that $100 prize is yours!