Tradition

A tradition is an ongoing custom, belief or opinion, often passed on for generations. 

Atristic and literary principles and methods which are based on experience and common practice are also considered traditions. It's traditional for romances to have happy endings.

A traditionalist is someone who has respect for traditions, perhaps to an excessive extent.

Which traditions do you follow and enjoy? A lot of my favourites involve food – I like to pour brandy on the Christmas pudding and set fire to it and try the traditional foods in places I visit, such as Welsh cakes, Cornish pasties and Scottish shortbread.

The first Wednesday of the month is traditionally Insecure Writer's Support Group day and March is no exception. As well as the monthly blog posts, the IWSG offers free support to insecure writers in lots of ways. If you think you might benefit, click on the link to take a look.

This month's optional question is –

Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

I don't think I ever have, although it's possible I've done so not realising a custom isn't as universal as I'd supposed. How about you? 

As I do it in almost every post, and I've been blogging for years, does it count as tradition for me to mention free to enter writing competitions? 

The University of Southampton are offering a range of free competitions with good prizes. They all have a 'green' theme.

This one is for sci-fi, fantasy or horror. Top prize is $1,000.

Here's a free poetry competition.

Scene and IWSG

A scene is a place where events (real or fictional) take place. It can also be a description of an event, or a continuous portion of a play, film or book  – those are usually what we mean be a scene in writing.

If you display strong emotions in public then you could be accused of making a scene. The view or landscape can also be considered a scene. Is the photo a tranquil woodland scene, or about to become the scene of the crime?

A scene can also be a way of life, subculture or interest.

Today, I'm one of the Insecure Writer's Support Group co-hosts along with J.H. Moncrieff , Natalie Aguirre and Chemist Ken who're all supporting our Ninja Captain Alex.

This month's optional question is –  If you could use a wish to help you write just ONE scene/chapter of your book, which one would it be? (examples: fight scene / first kiss scene / death scene / chase scene / first chapter / middle chapter / end chapter, etc.)

I have several free to enter writing competitions for you today. Whether you enter this sci-fi/horror short story competition, these stage and radio play competitions, this one for prose up to 17,000 words or even the monologue competition, you'll probably need scenes in your work.

Is entering writing competitions your scene? (If it is, keep coming back – I add more free entry ones most weeks.)

Gusto

Gusto means enjoyment or vigour in doing something. For example, the wildflowers in Patsy's mini meadow seem to grow with gusto.

When gusto is followed by for it means relish or liking. Patsy has gusto for cake. It is also an old term for a form of artistic execution.













If you write sci-fi, horror or fantasy stories with gusto, you may be interested in this short story competition – you have up to 17,000 words to play with.  As usual for those I feature on this blog, it's free to enter and there's a prize. In this case $1,000 for first place (then $750 and $500).