Monday, May 23, 2011

The Power of Tension Blogfest


We all know that in fiction, tension is vital. Tension ramps up the emotional stakes for your characters and keeps readers burning through the pages to find out whether that tension is resolved. Tension comes in many forms – it could be animosity between family members built up over many years, sexual tension between strangers, or jealousy between work colleagues as they vie for a lucrative promotion.


SO... 
*finger-drumroll on desk* 
*finger-cymbal-crash on mouse*
The Power of Tension Blogfest has arrived!

What do I do?

Give us an excerpt (up to 300 words) from your manuscript or recently completed work (or just a random scene) that just drips with tension and will tie us up in knots wanting to know more. It doesn’t matter what the piece is about, as long as it screams tension.


What are the prizes?

  • 1st prize: $15 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
  • 2nd prize: $10 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
  • 3rd prize: $5 Amazon voucher


Prizes? I’m in! What are the rules?

  • The blogfest runs from TODAY Monday 23 May to Friday 27 May.
  • Post your entry on your blog and then add a direct link to your post to the linky tool at either Cally Jackson Writes or Rachel Morgan Writes before 11.59pm Friday 27 May.
  • Come back on Thursday 2 June to see the six finalists (chosen by us), and then again on Monday 6 June to see the winners!
  • All genres and forms of tension are welcome, but if your entry includes anything graphic, please include a warning at the beginning of your post!


Anything else I should do? 

Glad you asked. These aren’t mandatory, but they’d definitely be appreciated :-)
  • Include our badge in your sidebar during the duration of the blogfest (download the image above)
  • Post and/or tweet about the challenge in the weeks leading up to spread the word.
  • Throughout the challenge week, check out as many other entries as you can and give the entrants some comment love!

Can’t wait to read all of your entries!
The linky list is below :-)

PLEASE LINK DIRECTLY TO YOUR POST AND NOT JUST TO YOUR BLOG HOMEPAGE.



20 comments:

Libby said...

all signed up, now to find that one super tense scene!

Talli Roland said...

If I had one ounce of brainpower to spare, I'd be there!

Shari said...

I'm going to have to find a scene now! I have no idea what or where, but I'll keep searching! Great idea.

Susan Fields said...

Fun blogfest - thanks for hosting!

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to reading all the great Tension Makers! :) This was fun!

Grace

Summer Ross said...

Mine will be up on the 26th- this Thursday I have it preset to post at 6am so I will add my link as soon as I am awake.

Trisha said...

Mine's up now :)

Su said...

Thinking, thinking...

Stephanie said...

I'm going for it :) How do I download the badge?

Roland D. Yeomans said...

How could I resist. Here's my link to my entry :

http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2011/05/rachels-and-callys-power-of-tension.html

Hope all of you enjoy my entry, Roland

Anonymous said...

Fab blogfest. :O)

Kittie Howard said...

This sorely tempts me, Rachel. Will, first, let the brain wander into the tension zone to see if anything pops up.

When I first drove into Cape Town, I was so blown away by the beauty, cars were honking at me to go faster, LOL! Didn't, tho - couldn't pass that beauty, pun intended!

Michael Di Gesu said...

Hi, Rachel,

A tiny bit late to the party, but I just entered. What fun!

Ellie Garratt said...

Thank you for reminding me. I'll be posting my entry and visiting all the others on Friday!

Donea Lee said...

Tension really is absolutely essential in a great story! Let me see what I can come up with and I'll be back ~ :)

Unknown said...

And we are off and running, What fun! Can't wait to read all the entrys

Unknown said...

Added mine. thanks for hosting this awesome blogfest!

D. U. Okonkwo said...

Cool - what a great idea!

Botanist said...

I love this! I'm a bit of a latecomer, but entry posted and linked.

Tara Tyler said...

my sweet friend, ellie, posted hers today. but it looks like i'm too late. just for fun, here's mine. thanks for the idea!

http://taratylertalks.blogspot.com/2011/05/tension-give-me-more.html