All stories come from memories, do they not?
A memory of a story you read 5 years ago, paired with a memory of a conversation you had with a friend late at night, paired with a memory of a song you listened to three days ago, paired with the memory of your favorite character from your favorite TV show, paired with the day you felt utterly alone, paired with a million of other memories in your subconscious, and of course your imagination.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Kingdom Pen is opening up a brand new article contest!
The fight of dragons was only the beginning and we are now entering a new stage, The Library of Lost Memories.
A library that contains memories of old, new, and of your very own life.
The contest is going to be split into three topics across three months:
April: Memories of Old
May: Memories of Today
June: Memories of Life
Each of these are the theme of each of the months of the article contest.
They will be the focus of the article topics we are going to be writing during those months.
So first I'll go through what each of the different themes of the months means in the context of the contest, then I'll go through the rules of the contest, the prizes, and how the winners are chosen.
Let's go!
April
Memories of Old
In the first month, we will be exploring the books of Old.
These books include but are not limited to: Romeo and Juliet, The Tale of Two Cities, The Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes… basically any old book that you can think of.
In this month, you get to take an old classic book you love, (or hate, it doesn't matter) and write an article about it.
Not a book review per se, but more of an analysis of a certain aspect of that book.
Like, How Romeo and Juliet Became Such a Long-Standing Classic and how it shaped fiction, or an article on Mark Twain's writing style, or how 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is the greatest book of all time.
So yeah, grab a book over a hundred years old that you find interesting and do a deep dive into a certain aspect of the book through an article!
May
Memories of Today
In the second month, as you probably guessed, we are covering recent literature.
Basically any story written in the last 100 years. Like, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451 … you know, any book of recent times.
Like in the previous month, all you have to do is pick a recent book, a certain aspect of that book you are interested in, and center your article on that!
Like an article on, The World-building of Aragon Vs. The Lord of the Rings, Or how Lemony Snicket creates memorable characters, or the writing style of Brandon Sanderson.
June
Memories of Life
And finally, in the third and final month, we get to uncover the books filled with the memories of our very own lives!
This month is the most different of all the months, because the books on that floor are all filled with your life experiences.
Arguably the stories that affect your writing the most.
In this month we are going to be learning how to take advantage of our own life experiences to enhance our writing by learning from great authors who did it before us.
Like how Rick Riordan took great inspiration from teaching Greek Mythology for middle-grade students and based many of the characters from Percy Jackson from his students and son.
Or how J.R.R Tolkien's experience in World War II shaped the way he wrote The Lord of The Rings.
Or how Louisa May took inspiration from her childhood and three sisters to write Little Woman.
So take a book, it doesn't matter when it was written, and find the inspiration behind it. Then write an article on it, and include what practical lessons writers can take from this author as an example.
Can I submit other articles?
Yes! You can submit other articles unrelated to the topic of the month.
All articles submitted and published during these three months will go towards the contest, regardless if it is related to the theme of the contest or month.
The theme of the month is simply here to give inspiration and a general mood to the month. Feel free to submit any writing-related article you’d like!
There will also be an article prompt sheets that you can sign up for like in the Dragon Slayer article contest.
These article prompts are related to the theme of the month but are not a study of a certain aspect of a particular book like how the main prompt I just discussed was.
So if you still want to write an article related to the theme of the month, but not write an article on a particular book, we got you!
Just CLICK HERE to sign up, and a theme-related article prompt sheet will be sent to you at the beginning of each of the months of the contest.
The article prompt sheet also includes a mini-article writing guide and the KP submission guidelines to help you along your article writing journey!
Contest Rules
How to participate - Prizes - And how the winners are chosen
Similar to The Dragon Slayer Contest we did a few months back, there are going to be three winners.
The first-place winner will go to the person who has published the most articles in these three months and the second and third-place winners will be randomly chosen from the pool of entry points.
The more entry points you have, the more likely you will win.
How to Get Entry Points:
For the next three months, every article you submit that follows the KP Guidelines gets one entry point and every article you publish on KP gets 10 entry points.
These entry points will be kept track on a regularly updated leaderboard.
Again, your article can be related to the theme of the month or not, it doesn’t affect the contest. Just as long as your articles are related to creative writing!
Prompts
Just like The Dragon Slayer Contest, there will be monthly prompts provided!
Article prompts are basically just article titles related to the theme of the month that you can take inspiration from and write articles about.
All you have to do is click this link, plug in your email, and you will receive article prompts related to the theme of the month, a mini-article writing guide, and submission guidelines.
However, the article prompts will be a lesser focus for this contest, as the main articles we are going to be writing are going to be studies of your favorite books and authors as mentioned above.
But if that's not your jam, but you still want article prompts related to the theme of the month to help guide you, those will still be provided!
Again, if you want the article prompt sheet that also includes a mini-article writing guide and submission guidelines, just CLICK HERE.
That document is like the mentor character for your article writing quest. So I definitely recommend checking it out.
Step-by-Step Directions
Here's all the steps you need to take to participate in the contest and get a chance of getting published and winning a prize!
1. Click HERE to sign up to receive upcoming theme of the month article prompts
2. Open the email from KP with Google doc Link
3. Click the link and choose an article from the list you'd like to write
4. Research and write your article following the KP Guidelines
7. Send your article to Kingdompensubmission@gmail.com along with your bio, and an optional profile picture
8. If your article is accepted, apply Google Doc edits within a week after edits are suggested
9. Celebrate and look forward to the day your article will be published!
FAQ
Here's a little FAQ for any questions you might have!
When does the contest start?
Tomorrow! On Friday, April 4th, there will be a post announcing April's theme of the month and the google doc with related article prompts will be available.
If you want to write an article in April for May publication and want the list of article prompts, Click HERE!
When does the contest close?
July 1st, 2022! So you have April, May, and June to write and get accepted for publishing.
Does the theme of the month mean the month the articles are written, or the month the article are published?
The month the articles are written!
So right now it's April and the theme of the month is Memories of Old. This means you write your articles related to the topic of Memories of Old in the month of April.
And if the article you wrote gets accepted, it will be published the following month.
Do I have to write an article based on the article prompts provided?
Not at all! They are just there to help you out a bit if you are unsure what to write about.
If you have any article ideas you want to write about that aren't on the article prompt sheet or related to the theme of the month, go ahead and write and submit them! Just be sure to follow the KP article guidelines on the submissions page.
How do I know if my article will be published?
Within 48 hours, you will receive an email saying that we got your article and it's under review.
And within a week, you will get another email saying whether or not your article is approved for edits and publishing.
If you are accepted, there will be suggestions and comments on your google doc page with edits that need to be applied.
Once you apply the edits, you will get one last email saying the date your article will be published!
Wait, how exactly do I earn entry points?
With each article, you submit following the KP Guidelines you get one entry point.
With every article you get approved for publishing, you get ten entry points.
What will the Publishing Schedule be like?
The publishing schedule may be a bit less frequent and random depending on how many articles submissions there will be.
We will publish as much as we can, and the more you submit the more we'll publish!
There is so much room for creativity in The Library of Lost Memories so feel free to have fun!
And again, if you need more guidance on article writing and submission guidelines, click this link to get that document. It has everything you need.
And if it doesn’t, then just comment with your questions or concerns down below, or email me at KingdomPensubmission@gmail.com
What are you most excited about for the contest?
If you were to write an article for the contest which book would it be on?
Become an Unstoppable Writer!
GASP OK CAN SOMEONE PUH-LEAZE WRITE ABOUT LEMONY SNICKET IN MAY??? Bruh that would be soooo cool. His writing is just like….so interesting and funny but mysterious and idk if I could do it justice so someone needs to do this lol
That would be great, right? It’s a tragedy how there are so few articles on Snicket’s writing.
Hey, quick question. How many articles can you submit? And do you need to submit articles for each month, or can you submit articles for just May and June or April and May or April and June – or just one month? Thanks!
You can submit as much or as little as you want! And no, if you submit for one month, you don’t have to submit for another. You can submit one article across the entire contest or 10 articles in a single month. It doesn’t matter. As long as you submit your article(s) in the time frame of the contest, your good.
Awesome, thank you so much!
Ahhhh, so excited! I wasn’t able to participate in the last contest, but I might just HAVE to make time for this one. I mean, write about my favorite books??? Even the old ones??? *runs to open a Google Doc*
Articles about favorite stories > articles about anything else