Vote for Your Favourite Blogging Contest Finalists

Note: Voting on this contest is now closed! I will post the results on Monday, May 16th, 2011. Thanks for your support!

Well, The First Ever Write It Sideways Blogging Contest is finally coming to a close. I’ve had such a great time reading everyone’s entries, choosing finalists, and reading all the wonderful comments on each post.

Here’s a quick rundown of the eight finalists’ articles (in case you’ve missed any of them), and instructions on how to vote for your favourites:

Offbeat Lessons from Three Late-Blooming Writers

Remember the uproar last summer when The New Yorker published their 20 Under 40 list of young fiction writers? [...] But plenty of writers publish later in life, as The Huffington Post‘s more thoughtful 41 Over 40 attests. Thank goodness, since I embarked on my writing career at age 50…

Read Offbeat Lessons from Three Late-Blooming Writers by Debra Eve

4 Places to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

One of the joys of writing is that you can do it anywhere. But just like picking a great place to meditate, get married, or raise a family, you have to pick somewhere that fits you and your style. What works for you may not work for someone else…

Read 4 Places to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing by Ashley Prince

What to Do When Your Writing Takes a Back Seat

No matter how passionate we are about our writing, and no matter how determined we are to balance the writing career we are creating with our already full-time life, there will be times where we feel as if the cosmos are against us—more often than not, finding the time to accomplish our writing goals can seem as elusive as a unicorn…

Read What to Do When Your Writing Takes a Back Seat, by Krissy Brady

Self-Publishing: What Happens Next …

In traditional publishing, as early as two years ago, the skinny was you had better give the agent and/or the editor a 99% polished ready to wear novel. On the heels of this news, we then learned … you had better be prepared to do your own publicity and market your own work. This doesn’t sound much different from self-publishing, does it?

Read Self-Publishing: What Happens Next … by Florence Fois

Use Your 5 Senses to Gauge Your Book’s Potential

You know what you want to write. You’ve defined your target audience. But how do you know if your concept is saleable? The short answer is: you don’t. But your keen senses can help you find out. [...] If your goal is to build a writing career, then salability is a question worth considering upfront, before you devote years of your life to a project that nobody wants to read…

Read Use Your 5 Senses to Gauge Your Book’s Potential by Erika Liodice

The Dilemma of the Mother Writer

I love it when my kids get hold of my camera. Really. Their photos serve as a study of daily life, and, for a brief moment in time, I see the world through their eyes. They capture a blurred vision of me in the kitchen. They frame a face peering through a doorway. [...] And, I wonder if they comprehend the tension built into an image where a checkbook sits on top of a pile of scattered mail…

Read The Dilemma of the Mother Writer by Christi Craig

Take a Chance with Your Writing

Writers are risk takers. Writing requires taking risks. [...] Writing is a bold and courageous act. Every time you type or scribble a word, you’re taking a gamble. Is it the right word to convey your intended meaning? Is there a better word, one more likely to resonate with readers and catapult your writing from good to great?

Read Take a Chance with Your Writing by Patricia Woodside

Writers Write—Creativity Is a State of Mind

I’m not a technical writer or a business writer. I’m not a creative writer, either. I’m a writer. Period. Everything I write, be it the procedure manual for my husband’s pet store, a new blog post or another chapter in one of my (many) works in progress, requires me to draw on all my writing skills, life experience and creativity. The more I write, the more I exercise that muscle, the more creative I become…

Read Writers Write—Creativity Is a State of Mind by Susan Bearman

How to Vote

• In the comment section below, leave a note clearly stating the titles of your two favourite articles.
• If you list more than two articles, I will only count the first two.
• Voting is open now (May 8th, 2011), until 12:00 EST on May 15, 2011.
• Finalists may vote for themselves or for other articles
• The two grand prize winners (those with the most votes) will be announced Monday, May 16, 2011. Read more about what the grand prize winners will receive here.

Best of luck to all the entrants!