In November, your challenge was to write a wacky excuse letter.

Janet Hartman sent this winning entry.

Dear Mr. Jones,

I know this was the tenth Friday I've missed this year, but it wasn't my fault.

I stood waiting for the subway when someone pushed me from behind and I fell onto the tracks. Fortunately, I missed the third rail, but had to scrunch down between the tracks to avoid the approaching train. I felt a tug when it passed over me, but luckily I was not injured. No one noticed the incident and the train left the station with me still on the ground. I climbed the steps to the now empty platform and started walking home to change clothes.

I assumed the sudden chill I felt was due to shock and stopped for coffee to warm up and settle my nerves. When I sat down, I realized the seat of my pants was missing, totally exposing my you-know-what. To avoid embarrassment, I waited for the morning rush to clear the coffee shop before getting up. Just my luck, when I walked out the door two policemen stopped for coffee and tried to arrest me for lewd behavior. They detained me quite a while before giving me the benefit of the doubt.

After they escorted me to my door and left, I rushed to change clothes. My foot caught in my torn pants, causing me to fall backwards and hit my head. When I regained consciousness, it was after noon. Unfortunately, I found no other clean pants and had to miss work.

Apologetically,

John

Freelance writer Janet Hartman writes articles for boating magazines based on her experiences living and traveling aboard a sailboat on the East Coast. Now back on land, she also writes flash fiction and had an essay accepted for a Carolina music anthology.

The more I read how the successful authors do it, the more I realise that, like successful people in all walks of life, they all do things in common that contribute enormously to their success. So how can we learn from successful authors to ensure our own success in 2008 and beyond?

We can start by adopting what I call "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Authors". Adopt these 7 habits and you just may find that 2008 is the year you break through your own writing barriers!

1. Write about something you care about.

Whether you are writing fiction or non fiction, it is imperative you write about something you care about. The successful authors have some emotional connection to their content or story. If you are writing fiction, then write from a place of emotional familiarity. Your genuine experience will come through in your writing and your readers will connect with that. If you are writing a non fiction piece, choose a topic you are passionate or enthusiastic about. After all, if you are going to invest your precious time in what you are writing, you owe it to yourself to write with passion, feeling and enthusiasm.

2. Take risks

Don't be afraid to put your head, or your hands, on the chopping block when you write. In the world of fiction, you will have no doubt heard about creating characters that are "larger than life". That doesn't mean they are giants, it means they go above and beyond and take risks and make decisions that we would not have the courage to take in our own lives. After all, it's not about what we would do when we are tethered by the restrictions of polite behaviour, it's what we would do in our wildest imaginations that make our readers sit up and take notice.

For the non fiction writer, it's time for you to take a stand. Take a view and stick with it, presenting your case with conviction and vigour. No one listens to someone who writes meekly, or with a wishy washy hand. Stick your neck out, and don't be afraid to get it chopped off. All the greatest journalists are the ones who are not afraid to speak their minds. Get into that habit and you're well on your way to being that next great journalist.

3. Plan

This is definitely the most ignored but equally the most important phase of the writing process. Planning is essential to the success of any undertaking and writing is no different. J.K. Rowling spent 5 years planning the entire Harry Potter series before she put pen to paper on a single word that appeared in the books. If you are writing a short story, novel or screenplay, planning the story before you begin writing is as essential to your success as ink in your pen or power to your laptop. There are some writers who claim to just start with an image or a sentence and then the whole thing just unfolds before them, but the writers who can do this with any degree of success are few and far between. Take the time to plan out your story, at the very least know where your beginning, middle and end are. The more planning you do, the more enjoyable the writing process and the less rewriting and editing you will have to do. The same goes for non fiction pieces, where it's always advisable to have an outline in place before you write your article or book.

4. Write every day

Joyce Carol Oates said that she would write, even when her soul felt as thin as a playing card, because somehow the act of writing would set it aright. There are going to be times when you just "don't feel like it", but like any other job or activity that is important to you, you must still, somehow, sit down every day and write. It has been said that it is by sitting down every day to write that one becomes a writer. Stephen King writes every day, including Christmas Day. Whether you are working on a book, story, article or nothing, still sit down and write something every single day. Even if you only write one page every day, that's 365 pages in a year and that's a whole book, isn't it? When you are a writer, you cannot not write, and writing is like breathing. You have an urge to put things down in print, so to keep that fresh and alive, you need to turn that tap on every day. It's more than practice. It's life.

5. Be prepared to work hard

I read somewhere once that John Grisham worked for 4 hours per day and made $20 million per year. Whether that is true or not (about the hours worked or the money he makes) doesn't matter. It is far more common to hear tales today of the world's most popular commercial authors working their proverbial butts off to keep up with deadlines, promotional commitments and the ins and outs of their everyday lives. Janet Evanovich gets up and writes every morning at 5am so she can get a full day's writing in before she has to answer mail, emails and deal with her other affairs of business, Jodi Picoult has a wonderful stay-at-home husband who allows her the luxury of writing through school pick ups and travelling for long periods to do research for her novels. J.K. Rowling also said she (misguidedly) thought that life as an author would be a Jane Austen-type of affair, sitting in a room overlooking a field and writing in anonymity. Of course her life is a whirlwind of book launches, movie premieres, media commitments, school commitments, and of course she has a family with three children. And while we all no doubt wish we had her "problems" it is very obvious that in the early part of the 21st century, the life of an author, successful or not, is a hard-working life. We are either working hard to get noticed, working hard to stay noticed, or working hard to avoid being noticed. Any way you look at it, if you have an aversion to hard work, you need to look elsewhere. Successful authors work hard. Period.

6. Persistence

It is said that persistence outstrips all other virtues. I have a card propped up on my desk that says, "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go". Almost every successful author I have studied has said that their success is due, at least in some part, to pure persistence and determination. If your manuscript or article is rejected, rewrite it and submit it again. Or submit it to someone else. The first Harry Potter novel was rejected by every major publishing house before Bloomsbury picked it up for a song. Even so called "overnight successes" have a story behind them about how many times they were rejected, or how many novels or articles they've written that have no value other than as fire kindling. The authors that succeed are the ones who don't stop until they do. It's that simple. Never give up. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

7. Let it go

And finally when you have written your article, book or screenplay and have submitted it for publication or approval, let it go. If you've done the best you can with it, let it go and trust that it will make its way to where it needs to be. And start something else straight away. Regardless of whether what you have submitted is accepted or rejected, you are a writer and a writer writes. Once you finish one manuscript start immediately on another. If the one you've sent is picked up, they'll be happy that you've got something new already, and if not you're well on your way to finishing your next manuscript.

So those are the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Authors. Adopt these habits yourself, and before you know it, you too will join their ranks!

Suzanne Harrison is the Director and Founder of Writers Central, an innovative online creative writing school and community, offering creative writing, short story, novel and screenplay courses, news, reviews, articles, professional services, competitions and tips for writers. She can be found at wwwwriterscentral.com.au Suzanne is also a popular and inspirational speaker and workshop leader, renowned for her motivational style and her passion for story. Suzanne believes that the everyone who can speak and think can write, and she is committed to helping you become the very best writer you can possibly be. She begins her unique process by helping you to hitch your writing arm to your unconscious mind, then guiding you through the basics of story structure before taking you step by step through a process to write award-winning short stories, then onto the ultimate, planning and writing a novel or screenplay that sells.

Article Source: www.EzineArticles.com/?expert=Suzanne_Harrison

Susan M. Heim, author of It's Twins! Parent-to-Parent Advice from Infancy Through Adolescence and Oh, Baby! 7 Ways a Baby Will Change Your Life the First Year, is pleased to announce that she is collecting stories and poems for her next book, Chicken Soup for the Soul of Twins.

Do you have an inspirational, heart-warming, humorous or tear-jerking story or poem about twins or multiples? Whether you're a twin yourself, raising twins, related to twins or merely fascinated with twins, we'd love to read your amazing stories of 300-1,200 words. If your story is published, you will receive $200 upon publication ($50 for poems).

Send submissions or questions to chickensoup@twinstalk.com.

Story guidelines are available at www.chickensoup.com.

Deadline: June 30, 2008

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Indie Excellence Awards Seeks Entries

The National "Indie Excellence 2008" Book Awards presents a wonderful opportunity for all Independent Publishers, Print on Demand, Self-Published books, and Small Presses.

Complete information available at: www.IndieExcellence.com

Entry Deadline: March 31, 2008

Winners and Finalists will be announced Nationally at Book Expo America held in Los Angeles in June 2008.

IndieExcellence.com Exposure: All winners and finalists will be listed on the official website of the Indie Excellence 2008 Books Awards.

Winners and Finalists will receive National Media & Industry Exposure! We will send out a press release announcing the results to our list of national media, print and radio contacts.

We also will promote the results within the publishing industry and have a presence at the 2008 Book Expo America Convention in Los Angeles.

Promote Your Work as an Award-Winning Title!

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77th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition

Grand Prize: $3,000 cash and a trip to New York City to meet with editors and agents.

Entry deadline: May 15, 2008.

For rules and entry form, visit: 77th Annual WD Writing Competition

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IdeaWeaver www.ideaweaversoftware.com is a writing/creativity tool that helps writers get more writing done more quickly. It takes the old "index card" approach to writing and translates it into digital form. IdeaWeaver is designed to give you a place to store and organize your ideas as you think of them. Instead of forcing you to think linearly, you can put ideas in as soon as they pop into your brain. This approach lowers stress and increases your productivity.

Using IdeaWeaver, you can brainstorm ideas, reshuffle and rearrange your writing until it works, and then export the work for layout in your favorite word processor or desktop publishing program. IdeaWeaver runs on Windows PCs and you can download a fully functional 30-day trial version from the IdeaWeaver site. A license costs $49.95. Those writers who are members of SPAN (Small Publishers of North America) or the NAWW (National Association of Women Writers) receive a discount on the license fee as one of their membership benefits. Also, the $10 discount code is SHMZ6S2E.

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NothingBinding.com is the premier global stage for Independent Authors to promote their books, attract new readers and connect with fellow writers. The gateway for writers to tap into a worldwide audience through audio and video, biography, inspirations and excerpts from their books and from their hearts.

What's more, readers can discover hidden gems-truly without boundaries-that just are not available at traditional booksellers and other venues. Now finally, unheard voices and untold stories can be shared and heard, savored and enjoyed. NothingBinding unites Authors and Readers everywhere, across the globe. The strength of the independently published book is the great numbers of authors and readers around the world, that log on from near and far to congregate at www.NothingBinding.com

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Sniplets

"At Sniplits, we're simply crazy about short stories. We think more of them should be published, and we've decided to do something about it. So, we're working furiously toward launching as a new short story publisher. Our goal is to make Sniplits the single best place to find wonderful, short tales for downloading to your MP3 player, cellphone or whatever. We're accepting and reviewing manuscripts now, and we welcome the work of new as well as established authors."

SNIPLITS - Audio short stories to go

Submission Guidelines: www.sniplits.com

Pays: $30 - $150/story

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Bobbie Christmas is the "Book Doctor" and Author of Write In Style, a triple-award-winning textbook for writers of fiction and nonfiction, available wherever books are sold.

Bobbie loves to receive questions from writers and offer her expert advice. If you have any questions you need answered, please e-mail her at: Bobbie@zebraeditor.com

For the latest Q&A with Bobbie, go to AskTheBookDoctor on the CS4W site.

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If you have an announcement you would like to share with us, please send it to: sandy@coolstuff4writers.com with "Announcement" in the subject line.

I love to hear from you!

Peace,

Sandy

email: sandy@coolstuff4writers.com

phone: 732-364-3993

web: http://www.coolstuff4writers.com