Children’s Writing | Cathy C. Hall Writes

I cannot believe it’s already August, but calendars don’t lie (they do, however, mock you) so we need to get down to some writing business. Happily, it’s writing funny business!

I saw where Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader is having an Inanimate Object Photo Caption Contest. How fun is that? You only need to come up with a caption. Just a couple of brilliant words. That’s easy enough for the beginning of the end of summer, right? So take a look at the examples (I laughed out loud at the drunk octopus), grab your cameras, and start clicking and captioning.

I also saw that Pockets is having their Fiction Contest once again, and that should be fun if you’re in the mood to write a children’s story. Or maybe you have a story that just needs a bit of polishing before you send it out. Or maybe you’re going to take the story that you sent to the last Pockets Fiction Contest, change the names, and try again.

Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, take a look at their Writer’s Guidelines to get a feel of the Pockets kind of story and get ‘er done before the 15th.

And extra points (and a bronze medal, at least) if you can get those done while watching the Olympics.

Don’t you just LOVE serendipity? Here’s what happened:

I had said to myself last night, whilst pondering my Things To Do list for tomorrow, “Self, quit fooling around and post on Finders & Keepers!” But here is what I wrote on my Things to Do Note for Monday: “F & K: ? ” And I had no idea what to write about when I woke up this morning.

Time passed, and the working day was nearly done. And STILL no post for F & K. But wait! I decided to zip through Facebook one last time before calling the workday quits. And there I found a post from my buddy Margo Dill who blogs over at “Read These Books and Use Them.” (A very fine blog with lots of wonderful reviews of children’s books for all ages.) She commented about a contest for 4th to 8th grade writers!

Oh, frabjous joy! So then I zipped over to Clara Gillow Clark’s blog to find out about her wonderful contest. In a nutshell, she’s giving away a copy of Spilling Ink, a Young Writer’s Handbook. But young authors can also win cash prizes and other autographed books by a slew of wonderful writers! The contest ends on May 1st, and you must write something based on the prompts provided.

Now, dash over to Clara’s wonderful blog post here to get ALL the details, and may the best 4th to 8th grade writer win!

(P.S. You do know that you don’t have to be a young writer to appreciate this writing handbook, right? Or to enjoy the website, for that matter. And you’ll want to drop in on Clara often, too. Oh, how I LOVE serendipity!)