ABOUT WRITING
An Exciting Writing Challenge
The writing competition of the year — enter the Fiction Marathon now!
Back in October 2021, I wrote a post in which I told you more about the Blogable Fiction Marathon. In that post I told you what the marathon is, and how it works. If you want to know the finer points of it, please read the linked post, but for now I will just repeat this:
A regular marathon is a race where not everyone who is at the start reaches the finish. Some don’t reach the end because they aren’t fit enough, others get knocked out because they are too far behind. The same goes for the Fiction Marathon — it’s a knockout race, a competition, starting with between 15 and 50 writers, and ending with much fewer writers.
This article, however, is not about the Blogable Fiction Marathon. It’s about my experience with the Smut Marathon before it became mine.
Let me explain…
The original Smut Marathon
Where I ran the Dutch version of the Smut Marathon from 2014 to 2017, and the English from 2018 to halfway through 2020, the original Smut Marathon was the brainchild of Alison Tyler.
I was a writer for Alison’s Smut Marathon in 2013 and 2014.
During those two years, and in combination with the Dutch erotic writing group I hosted from 2012 to 2017, I learned about myself and my writing, which is why I wanted to bring the marathon to the Dutch, and later the English writing community.
Learning through participating
The things I mention below are things I have learned during those two years, but there are several posts you can read to see what others have taken from the marathon:
- How to Win (at) the Fiction Marathon by Marsha Adams
- Fiction Marathon Challenge: Jump Right In by Kinky Katie
- Get Ready to Craft Your Best Stories for the Fiction Marathon by Brigit Delaney
- Fiction Marathon by May More
What I have taken from the marathon is:
- Don’t wait to start writing after you have received the assignment, because you will run out of time. Writing a story when you are in a hurry rarely earns you the points you need to advance in the marathon.
- Get your story down on paper, to get it out of your head, and then edit it down to fit the required number of words. Editing your story takes out the unnecessary parts and strengthens your story. Sometimes you just have to kill your darlings, meaning flowery words might weaken your story.
- Never forget to check your story for grammar and spelling!
- Read the stories of the other writers and give feedback! I haven’t been able to pinpoint the reason for this, but giving feedback on stories of others helps to improve your own writing. The same goes for reading the feedback given for other stories. I never wrote stories for my writing group, but listening to the feedback given helped me improve my own writing.
- Never be discouraged by feedback you receive. Take from it what works for you and discard the rest.
What about you?
So there you have it, the things I have taken from my years of participating in and organizing the writing marathon, as well as hosting a writing group.
So why did I share this with you today?
Because the entries of the Blogable Fiction Marathon are still open until 18 March 2022, and I hope the following writers like a challenge and think it’s time to come out of your writing comfort zone:
Annelise Lords — Simone Bourn — Gemma Jones — Heather C Holmes — Marione Touvel — Joe Merkle — Julius Evans — Christine Muller — Kristen Haveman — A. Grace — Rodney Brazier — Don Franke — Emma Manzi — Ravyne Hawke — My Naughty Ideas
And anyone else who wants to challenge themselves, please join!
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