What's Your Writing Wish? Alchemy Inspiration Scholarship Contest

Big news: I'm giving away 5 scholarship spots in Alchemy Inspiration: Start Writing!

Let's call it the "What's Your Writing Wish? Alchemy Inspiration Scholarship Contest." (I know, what a mouthful! I have a thing for unwieldy titles.)

Class dates: Sept. 17 - Oct. 12

Contest deadline: 11:59pm (U.S. Eastern time) Sept. 13

Here are the quick details on how to enter. You can enter up to three times*. [Contest ends at 11:59pm (U.S. Eastern time) on Thursday, September 13.]

1. What's your writing wish? Leave your answer in the comments below for one entry into the scholarship contest. (Any length of comment is allowed, from one word to a mini-manifesto. Use whatever words you need to express your wish.) (Important: Make sure you enter the anti-spam CAPTCHA code that shows up after you enter your comment. You have to enter that code and click "Confirm Post" for your comment to show up.)
2. For one extra entry you can tweet about this contest on Twitter. (Include this link: http://bit.ly/Pc22Wg. And include the hashtag #writingwish so I can find your tweet and count your entry.) {See below for a few suggested tweets in case you'd like to use one.}
3. For one extra entry you can spread the word on Facebook. Visit my FB page here, "like" the status update about this contest -and- share that status update. ("Sharing" is the only way I'll be able to track and count your entry. Update: I think I was mistaken that I can track all "shares," so please "like" the status update and share it. I'll count all "likes" (on the status update) as entries. Sorry for the confusion!)

Suggested Tweets:

• I'm a wish-to-be-writer. Are you? There's a contest for us. Win a spot in the Alchemy writing e-course: http://bit.ly/Pc22Wg. #writingwish
• Enter the What's Your #WritingWish? Alchemy Inspiration Scholarship to win a spot in this writing e-course. http://bit.ly/Pc22Wg
• Win a spot in @thewordcellar's course. Enter the What's Your #WritingWish? Alchemy Inspiration Scholarship contest: http://bit.ly/Pc22Wg

Deadline: Enter up to three times (using the methods above) by 11:59pm on Thursday, Sept. 13.

Recipient announcement: I'll announce the winners Friday (9/14) morning.

Selection method: I will choose the five scholarship recipients randomly. Each comment, tweet, and Facebook "share" will be counted and assigned a number, and then I'll use the random number generator at random.org to choose five numbers. (I thought about choosing the "best" writing wishes or the ones that moved me the most, but that's not at all what Alchemy Inspiration is about. I hate the idea of ranking dreams and wishes! So that's why it's a free-for-all-randomness-choosing-kind-of-thing.)

Class starts next Monday, September 17 (and runs for four weeks, until October 12). All the details are over here. 

I'm really looking forward to working with a group of you to help you move past fear and general stuckness and start putting words together. This is a fun, no-pressure course. Okay, so all of my courses are meant to be fun and low pressure, but this one in particular is all about the permission to seek inspiration. In fact, it's about making your own inspiration and taking itty-bitty steps toward your writing wishes. I mean it when I say that Alchemy Inspiration is meant for writers and wish-to-be-writers. No expedience is required, dearies.

Good grief, I must be feeling extra jolly: Did I just call you "dearies"?

Forgive my smarminess. I just really want you to feel my excitement about this session of the course. I've been reading the "get to know you" surveys from the current registrants, and their enthusiasm is contagious.

This is going to be such a great group of writers and wish-to-be-writers.

I'm really looking forward to this session, and I want you to join us.

As I've said, this may be the last time I run this course online, so please join me if you've been thinking about it.  If you definitely want a spot in the course, hop on over here and sign-up!

If you want to play along and enter the scholarship contest, have at it!

*About the entry methods, a confession: I don't always love it when people run contests like this and ask you to Twitter or Facebook (yes, I just used it as a verb) for extra entries. But I'm doing it with this one because I need your help in telling people about the What's Your Writing Wish? Alchemy Inspiration Scholarship Contest. It only runs for three days, and class starts in just one week, so I need the collective power of this community to spread the word quickly. 

Okay, your writing wishes....go!

Comments

[Stacey Brown]

I wish to have my writing be something I no longer struggle to give myself permission to do! Why I relegate this "dream" to the only if I do all my yucky stuff first pile... I cannot justify it, but it's the truth! My wish would be that my writing would become less a treat-for-the-good-girl and a have-to-do-it-first or I'll explode thing! Thanks for the generous opportunity, JennA.

[RW]

my writing wish is find a way to somehow get all the ideas out of my head and onto a piece of paper coherently. well how about just out of the head and onto the paper. at this point I'd settle for incoherent.

[Beth H]

My writing wish is to have some inspiration... and a kick in the pants. I love to write but have not been giving myself the time or space to do so lately.

[Adrienne]

My writing wish is to be able to not feel stuck while writing. I want to be able to write and get what's in my head onto the paper and for it to be fun. I want to be able to write for myself and enjoy it enough that I can keep going.

[Naomi Rombaoa Tanaka]

Aloha Jenna! I wish-to-be-writing on this Journey with you!

[Diana Mitchell]

My writing wish is to gather my best ideas (the ones that are most inspiring and that will be most helpful to my readers) and share them in clear, engaging and compelling ways!

[Marisa F.]

My writing wish is to feel inspired enough to write something -- anything -- meaningful every day. Sure, my day job involves writing, but what I write for my company pays the bills rather than feeding my soul. My soul is hungry!

[DE]

To write some honey for the heart.

[Linda]

My Writing wish is to get something published! It's a dream, probably a long way off, but this class could be the next step along my journey

[Joy]

I'm scared to write. My writing wish is to get rid of the fear and know that I am capable of formulating one interesting paragraph.

[Angela]

My writing wish is to be able to write beautiful, meaningful stories that connect with my readers and find ways to enliven my writing. I wish to find resources that will trigger memories and tools that will help me weave beautiful and meaningful words to share with those that take the time to read what I write.

[D.M.M]

My writing wish is to write until I'm empty of words that constrict me. I wish to get all of the words out, whether good or bad because I want my readers to be able to relate to my awareness & expression of feeling.

[Lori]

My writing wish is to begin writing in a disciplined way. I just wrote this on a list of goals last night and this morning saw the contest. I decided to take a chance.

[tawnya]

To not be so hard on myself. To let myself write with errors.

[Tory]

To write, even though I fear it.

[Sherry]

I write on my blog almost daily and never have a shortage of ideas or words...they seem to flow. I very much want to write a history of my family for my children -- not just listing names and dates and boring them to death. I wan to flesh out people that I didn't know but feel I have come to know and those that I did know quite well but my children never met. As soon as I think about compiling all that information I've compiled from research and doing it in such a way as to do justice to all those lives, I freeze. I need to find my way over that wall.

[laura]

My writing wish is to finish what I start...I have so many half-written poems, stories, plays around here. My second wish is to write without fear.... Thank you for this contest!

[Laura]

I wish to be able to better express and write about all of my experiences and travels abroad.

[Virginia]

My writing wish is to become a better plotter/organizer. My story ending continues to allude me.
I'm on the hunt for a worthy, satisfying ending to my WIP.

[Brianna]

An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.- Honore de Balzac

It's time to fulfill this goal and see where it can go. #writingwish

[Britt Arnet]

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God! My wish is to share my word, word love, for love is the answer. If in doubt, love y'all, cuz that's what 2012 is really about, props to Michael Stype who said it right. So, yea, my wish is that my word, love, is spread far and wide to an ambiant expansive audience who recieve, understand and expand! Word!

[Renee Burke of HappilyEverAfterbyReneeBurke,LLC]

I have many ideas swirling in my thoughts and heart and need to pen them........but that is where I have the most issue, that transfer from heart to written word. I read others words and nod and exclaim aloud; I yearn to be able to convey what is in my heart. I am deeply rooted in the belief that it is all about connection but when I can not communicate properly I feel alone and unsettled. Thank you for this opportunity !

[Sion Dayson]

My wish is to make writing my number one priority. To be disciplined about my practice. Even though it's what I want to do, it's still a struggle to face the page every day.

[Melissa]

My writing wish(es) -- so many! First, I wish that I could get that butt-in-chair habit going strong. Next I'd like to be able to get that first draft out, forgiving myself the resulting word-vomit. A first draft is better than NO first draft, right? Why don't I ever get that? And lastly, I wish I could be braver and bolder in my fiction. I have a bad habit of writing right up to where it should get uncomfortable and then strategically shifting the scene -- despite the fact that I'm SO aware that when my writing gets uncomfortable for me, it's exactly what I should be writing. So three wishes instead of one. :) xo

[Karen Walcott]

My writing wish is to discover why it's so hard for me to get writing. I want to be a writer. I have gone to school to be a writer. Writing full time is my dream. So why is it so hard for me to sit and write? So my writing wish is simply to get writing.