At our Writing Hour last week, one of the topics we talked about was how to raise submissions for the Whyville Times. Submissions have been pretty low lately, and we want to get it back up to the numbers we used to have.
We all love the Times Awards, but those are only once a year. The idea came up to do monthly competitions. So, let's get on with our first one!
This month's competition will start this week and go through the end of April. Articles published between March 29th and April 26th will be eligible.
To start us off with our first competition, we'll have two topics.
Our first topic will be: What inspires you to write? Tell us how you find your inspiration. Is it by your relationships? By your mistakes? Is it by your dreams or your failures? Do you find inspiration in poetry, artwork, music, your friends, your teachers, etc? Your article can be in any category. It can be an interview, a piece of artwork, a poem, a review, anything. Just tell us how you are inspired to write.
Our second topic will be: Random Holidays - Where did they come from and why do we have them? April 1st is April Fool's Day. What is the history of this holiday or other random holidays throughout the year? It sure seems like we have a lot of random holidays. This can be a series about different holidays. What ways do you celebrate our random holidays? April 13th is Scrabble Day. Will you play Scrabble that day? How do you actually get a holiday recognized and if you could create a holiday, what would it be?
I will pick the top published articles from each topic. Then you, the readers of the Times, will vote for the best ones. The number of nominees and winners may change depending on how many submissions we get. This is our first round of this competition, so bear with me as we work out the kinks!
Also, we're still working on our prizes. But they will be a combination of clams and a new face part award.
So Happy Writing! And Good Luck!
~AMae
