Submitting a reworked story to a competition

Liz from Montrose in Scotland wants to submit a reworked story to a competition.

I was thinking about recycling a story of 700 words which was published in an anthology of my short stories I had published two years ago (all proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support).

The new story is for a competition and will be more than twice as long, have a different title, but will have much the same characters and theme as the original.

Could I therefore say that this version has not been previously published as the rules demand?

If you double the word count and change the title, you’re most probably already talking about a new story. But once you get going on the redraft, you’ll find the story will evolve into something completely different anyway, as tends to happen with major rewrites. The theme might remain the same, but I bet your characters change their actions when you have more words to play with. However, I would advise changing the character names as well, just to be on the safe side.

If, having done all that, you feel the story is too close to the original, why not drop the competition organisers a line and ask them if they would accept such a rewrite?

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Characters using sign language in dialogue

Caron Garrod asked a very interesting question.

One of my characters is deaf, and I am not sure how to set out when she is speaking in sign language. At the moment, I am putting these conversations into a completely different font (Bradley Hand 16) and not using speech marks. Is this right?

I don’t think there is a set rule about how to show someone speaking in sign language, but I would suggest using normal speech punctuation and adding narrative such as: her fingers flying in her anxiety to get her point across. I’m sure you can come up with better wording, but hope you understand what I mean. This isn’t needed every time she speaks, just occasionally to jog the memory of the reader that she is using sign language.

Anything which reminds someone it’s just a story and stops them from losing themselves in the book should be avoided. The important thing is that your readers realise the character is deaf without being taken out of the story because you’re using a different font. If the characterisation is done well, your readers won’t forget.

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Eff-di-Pee says cheerio

This will be the last post promoting Bad Moon Rising or mentioning the doings of Frances di Plino. After today, the blog goes back to what it was always intended to be, a place to post information and/or guest posts of use and interest to writers of all levels.

The reason I can be so certain that Eff-di-Pee is making her last appearance here is that she now has a brand new blog all to herself. It is still under construction at present, but will be used to post reviews of crime and thriller novels. The submission guidelines will be going up over the weekend, so if you have a crime or thriller novel you would like reviewed, please go over and have a look next week: http://francesdiplinoreviews.blogspot.com/

She also now has her own twitter account where she’ll be talking crime, thrillers and reviews. She would love some followers: https://twitter.com/#!/FrancesdiPlino

So, as this is the final post for and on behalf of Francesdi Plino, I hope you won’t mind if I mention where you can purchase her dark, psychological thriller.

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Smashwords

As Lorraine Mace, I guest posted on the Writers Bureau blog on The Value of Keeping Everything you Write – which ends this post exactly as intended – giving advice and assistance to other writers.

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Getting Inside the Killer's Head

I have a guest blog spot on writing.ie on how I managed to get inside my killer's head (and terrified my husband at the same time).

Please leave a comment over there if you enjoyed the post.

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Guest posting at Dark Central Station

I've been allowed to let my dark side out to play again - this time over on Dark Central Station. Why not pop over and see what Frances di Plino has to say about the voices in her head?

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Bad Moon Rising - free draw book giveaway

Bad Moon Rising, written under my pen name of Frances di Plino, will be released on Friday 9 March by Crooked {Cat} Publishing. To win a free copy, simply visit the Frances di Plino website and use the contact button to send an email telling us what type of e-reader you use. Only emails sent to that email address on the website will be entered in the draw.

Have a look at what Judging Covers Book Reviews has to say about Bad Moon Rising: http://judgingcovers.co.uk/reviews/bad-moon-rising

 

The competition closes midnight (UK time) on Thursday. All the email addresses will go into a draw on Friday morning and one lucky winner will receive a copy in the e-book format of their choice.

The winner will be announced on the Bad Moon Rising Launch Page on Facebook during the course of Friday.

Good luck to all who enter.

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Latest release from Crooked {Cat} Publishing

I interrupt this week’s blatant self-promotional postings to bring you news of the latest release from Crooked {Cat} Publishing (great publishers with impeccable taste – well, they are publishing my novel, so I am bound to be a touch biased.)

But to get back to the point of this post, David Robinson, a writing friend of many years standing has his book launch today. The Filey Connection is the first in a series featuring a grumpy amateur sleuth and his two long-suffering female friends. It has humour, crime and a great storyline – what more could you want in a good read?

Out now on both sides of the pond.

     
 

Critique Service for Writers
Flash 500 Flash Fiction Competition
Flash 500 Humour Verse Competition