Writing for The Next Eco-Warriors: Your Story!-- Page Updates for Feb. 2010--
Length: 5 pages (no longer) or 2,500 words max.
Send: E-mail is preferred, send your submission to NextEcoWarriors@Gmail.com with subject line: "Submission." Send in a Word document.
OR
Print & CD copy to:
Emily Hunter Productions
2060 Queen St. E.
PO Box 51541
Toronto, ON, M4E 1C0
CANADA
Include:
- Personal Details (at the top of the submission): full name, age, ethnicity, birthplace, current region of residence, and occupation
- Contact Info: (in an email or separate document attached) for internal uses only, such as for communicating in the editing process and sending a copy of the book. Please include your phone number, a mailing address & all emails addresses.
- Photos: attach a high resolution head shot of yourself, please include a selection if you can. Photos have to be given the rights to Emily Hunter Productions for use in media, the book and so on. If credit is needed, provide the name of the photographer. A monetary stipend is not possible at this time to acquire any photos.
Guidelines
Objective:
This is your story. Focus on a significant moment in your life as an eco-activist fighting for social/ environmental justice (such as in a specific event/ campaign/ project/ action). Write a detailed description of your experience: what you did, how it happened and how you felt. But this is NOT an auto-biography, a profile of your initiative or a preachy self help-guide to saving the earth. Instead, make it a meaningful personal narrative, a first hand account of being some type of eco-activist, showing a window into your world. Your audience will be generation X and Y (20’s-40’s). You want to connect with the readers, so you must include anecdotes, color details and scene setting.
Example Submissions:
- Example Chapter 1
- Example Chapter 2
Style:
This is to be a personal narrative that is descriptive and anecdotal. Try to imagine you are writing in a diary or telling a story to a friend. Most important, provide a pulse to your story and be the heart to it. While you may want to discuss your work in a team; we want to know what your experience was. This story is about you – so make it about you. Paint a story through your writing; it gives the reader a window into your world.
As well, I cannot stress enough: “show don’t tell" in your writing. Don’t tell people what happened, show them by describing moments and experiences of your own (anecdotes, colorful details and scene setting). Write simply and avoid long sentences and jargon-ridden paragraphs.
Be focused on one issue/ theme:
Tell a focused story. Talk about your fight on one particular environmental issue (or an issue that is both about social and environmental injustice like oil). You may be involved in multiple levels of activism, but please focus only on one. For example, an animal rights activist would describe their experience being arrested for an anti-seal hunt defensive on the ice floes, rather than describing all of the different way they work to save animals. Or an individual that uses art-activism with costumes to engage the public on issues they have become apathetic about, like the G20, instead of every different action they were involved in.
Please provide sufficient context and background about your campaign. As well, describe the issue you fight on with some definition, and inform the reader of facts and important historical information so the reader can learn as they read your story. But make sure to back up your claims and include a citation list if you use outside sources. This is the exception to the "show don't tell policy," but again don't be preachy with your viewpoint, just provide information.
Remember…
- Use your voice and write in the first person
- Include a brief paragraph about your background
- Don’t leave out the people who inspired you or were involved in the story your telling
- Every story needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, as well as conflict and resolution
- Don’t preach; let the reader make their own conclusions - "show don't tell"
- Make your type of activism known and be clear about why you think it is effective
- Don’t attack other approaches to activism, groups or issues who may or may not be fellow eco-warriors writing for this book
- Try not to isolate your audience by attacking certain parties and groups of people whether you believe them to be your enemy or not (i.e. Republicans)
