WIN: An Inspiring Giveaway - Karen Ball

When a blog celebrates its birthday and launches a new-look website, you know it’s time to celebrate. Thanks to the Literary Gift Company, we’re able to share the party with our readers. Normally, we use our ABBA blog posts to pontificate on whatever literary subject we fancy, being gloriously self-indulgent and – we hope – entertaining as well as informative. But today we’re busy eating cake and popping balloons, so we thought we’d pass the baton to you, our readers.

We can’t be the only experts on the topics of children’s books and writing. Our challenge to you is to supply a top writing tip in 20 words or less. In return, we’ll part company (sob!) with a fabulous prize, the winner selected by a random generator.

THE PRIZE
The Awfully Big Giveaway includes:
· Three ‘East of India’ book marks
· A calico bag bearing the immortal line, ‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink…’ from Jodie Smith’s ‘I Capture The Castle’.
· A literary map tea towel
· A ‘Libraries: Where Sshhh Happens’ T-shirt
· Some alphabet parcel tape
· A library bag

THE CONTEST
Post a comment below with your writing tip in 20 words or less.

THE DEADLINE
The closing date is noon GMT on 20 July and the winner will be selected by a random number generator. We will email the winner for a postal address, so leave an email if you want to win. This giveaway is limited to UK residents only.

Spit, spot! Screw your thinking caps on. Believe us, it’s more difficult than you might imagine to kernel advice in 20 words. To inspire you, we asked some of our author friends to supply their own words of wisdom. Do their thoughts ring true with you?

1. ‘Write in thirty-minute bursts to avoid distraction and reduce the allure of washing-up, dog-walking and obscure internet backwaters.’

Tracey Turner, author of ‘The Comic Strip Big Fat Book of Knowledge’, out on 5 September with Bloombury UK

2. ‘Writing is for the right brain, editing for the left brain. They function better when I keep the two separate.’

Lil Chase, author of ‘Boys For Beginners’, published on 4 August by Quercus

3. ‘Declare war on the word, "was" every time you meet it, ask yourself: Can I show more and tell less?’

Jon Mayhew whose latest book ‘The Demon Collector’ is out in hardback with Bloomsbury UK

4. ‘Invest in a dog. Long walks are perfect for writing in your head and stop your legs withering away too.’

Helen Moss, author of the ‘Adventure Island’ series, launched in July by Orion  

5. ‘Believe in your work and never stop learning and improving and writing and rewriting.’

Sara Grant whose first novel, Dark Parties, is being published in Germany (as Neva) in March 2011, in August in the US and in October in the UK.



What tips would you give other authors? Now’s your chance to share! We can’t wait to see what you come up with. Thank you for being such faithful readers, thank you to the authors for their tips and an especial thank you to The Literary Gift Company for so generously contributing this prize.

Inspiration, tips, birthdays and Internet friends. It just goes to show what a blog can do.

Over to you!


Please visit my blog at www.karen-ball.com