Comments on: Writing and the Honest Heart

By: Blog Segullah : The Tinker Stage

Blog Segullah : The Tinker Stage — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 01:04:37 +0000

[...] here. And I have a few final ideas for you as you revise your contest essays. You’ve got the honest heart; you’ve structured the pieces of your story in a cohesive way. Here are some more things to [...]

By: Blog Segullah : Post: Structure

Blog Segullah : Post: Structure — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:02:50 +0000

[...] have a writing contest going on right now (Deadline December 31!). In my last post I talked about writing with an honest heart; I have to say that’s still the first thing I try for when I write, that non-wallowing, [...]

By: cindy baldwin

cindy baldwin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:51:13 +0000

Thanks, Emily – that helps!

By: Emily M.

Emily M. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:30:04 +0000

Lisa, you gotta be kidding! I love your writing (what I’ve read of it. Send more!).

Yes, it is always harder to write scenes like that with other people. I can see that. And you do it so well–this essay about your relationship with her is honest and real, and also kind and merciful. So well done.

By: Emily M.

Emily M. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:22:55 +0000

Thanks, Diane!

And Ginger–I answered Cindy’s question, but I neglected to tell you thanks for your kind words. Thank you! And also, just FYI, I wrote the first things I ever submitted to Segullah as assignments for that BYU creative writing class. It was so helpful to me to have deadlines and goals. I had never published anything before “Ultrasound” appeared here. So, go for it! If you aren’t planning on entering this year, start writing for next year. I am proof that you don’t have to have a lot of previous experience to learn to write with an honest heart.

By: Lisa H

Lisa H — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:19:53 +0000

Ah, Emily. Thank you for the kind words about my essay on a day when I had decided that writing might not be worth it. Incidentally, in this essay, it wasn’t as hard to write about my bathtub experience, as it was to write about walking in on my sister’s similar experience years earlier. We had never talked about that episode until it appeared in the essay.

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:00:22 +0000

That’s why we keep coming back…for the honest and raw emotion in writing that you describe! Thanks to you and all for sharing your talents.

By: Emily M.

Emily M. — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:17:13 +0000

Cindy, we have moved to two issues a year instead of three, and our Spring issue is in production right now, so I think the contest winners will appear in our Fall/Winter 2009 issue.

The contest is open-themed, however, You can write about anything you want, any holiday (even non-Fall/Winter ones). We do have themed issues, but we leave the field wide open for contest entries.

Thanks for asking (and if anyone else has questions, ask away).

By: cindy baldwin

cindy baldwin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:40:26 +0000

I have a question about the contest – theoretically, when would winning entries be published? If my essay has to do with Christmas will that rule it out? Thanks!

By: Ginger

Ginger — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:20:27 +0000

Thank you so much for these mini tutorials. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge about writing with the rest of us. I am not entering the contest, but I have been toying with other types of writing, and this post has been extremely helpful, even for wanna-be writers of fiction.
If DH gets a contract he is trying for at the moment, I am all over that creative writing course BYU offers online. I have never taken creative writing… but I love reading all the past essay winners. I love all the blog posts here. You all have such an amazing way of making your words become images, and I love reading everything here!