Category Challenge

I wanted to get a quick note written regarding the category romance challenge I ran last month and highlight one common idea that I found in many of the submissions.

When writing category, it is VERY crucial to know the line inside and out. The guidelines for many of the category lines may seem to blur from one to the other, but if you carefully examine each of the lines, the differences really scream out at you.

I think one of the things I enjoy most about seeing the category lines, is the amount of freedom writers have within the lines, but how each really does follow a very strict theme.

Let me explain one in particular. The Harl. American line is really does much more than simply tell stories that take place in America. These stories scream out what it is to be American and even more so, each story really taps into the common themes that we see the everyday American work with daily. I guess I really see this as going back to the idea of The American Dream. It is the job of the writer, therefore, to demonstrate this American theme.

I recently read one that was set in corporate America. In this case, we sas the idea of competition and winning driving not only the action in the story, but the GMC of each of the characters.

When I looked at the submissions that came in for the contest, the one thing I really noticed was that lack of really tapping into the theme each of the lines was shooting for.

I'll take some time this week to highlight the things each of the winners did. I'll take a look at both the good and the bad things in the hopes that we can make some significant improvements.

Congratulations to those that one.

Scottc