Amazon Break Through Novel Contest

I received notification today that Amazon is sponsoring a "Breakthrough Novel Contest" for unpublished and self-published works. Details here.

Sounds like an incentive to plant the ass in the chair and write, hmmm?

Now why am I such a bastard about this sort of thing (Getting ass in chair and all that)? Well, it's because it's one of the easiest gifts I can give you - fun and happiness.

Here's the breakdown:

When you're creating something - you're having fun. Rest assured it's hard work - sometimes to the point of exhaustion - but when you get right down to the nitty and the gritty it's fun.

But even better than fun, is that moment when you actually finish something. That's called happiness. Boy is that happiness a sweet cocktail - far sweeter than fun.

In the current issue of Script (available at your local newsstand or bookstore) there is an article on "The Agony of the Unproduced" about people who are having the fun...

But have totally missed out on the happiness of having been produced. It's agony to work so hard on something only to lead to no result (that's not quite true as you do learn something from every script you write, but you understand the point I'm attempting to make here).

In today's world, there are so many different ways you can get your writing, art, music, video, design, whatever work out into the world... and you can feel the happiness in people who put it out there. There has to be happiness for creative endeavors to truly work.

So go get yourself a slice of happiness, and have fun doing it.

Edit to Add: And it just occurred to me that maybe... just MAYBE it might be a fun idea to hold a "pulp novel contest" of some sort duplicating the conditions under which an actual pulp novel was written: editorial/style restrictions, deadline, content, etc...
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