Feature & sWord Fight Schedule

Writing Knights wants YOU on stage at an upcoming 2nd Friday show!

We are looking for features and sWord Fighters.

Features:
 -- Performance: 20-25 minutes;
 -- Compensation: $20 + negotiable travel (this will increase as we get more attention and more paying attendees);
 -- Typically featuring once every 6 months;
 -- Opportunities for special event features, basically the more support you show, the more opportunities which will arise.

sWord Fight:
 -- Performance: Between 3 and 5 rounds (What is a sWord Fight?);
 -- Compensation: Between $10 and $20 + negotiable travel (this will increase as we get more attention and more paying attendees);
 -- Persistent storyline: we will find a sWord Fight for you as often as you want them (monthly);
 -- Opportunities for special event sWord Fights, basically the more support you show, the more opportunities which will arise.

Schedule of Upcoming Events:

September 14:
sWord Fight: Kristin Werstler vs Franchessca Fallucco;
sWord Fight: Seeking another two Fighters. 

October 12:
sWord Fight: Marissa Hyde vs (seeking an opponent)
sWord Fight: Seeking two Fighters
and/or
Feature: Seeking one or two featured performers.

November 9: Hungry 4 Food - Food Drive
sWord Fight: Gabriel Ricard vs (seeking an opponent)
Feature: Gabriel Ricard

sWord Fight: Seeking two Fighters
and/or
Feature: Seeking one featured performer.

 December 14: 

sWord Fight: seeking 2 or 4 Fighters
Feature: Seeking one or two featured performers.

January 11:
sWord Fight: seeking two or four Fighters
Feature: seeking one or two featured performers.

January 19:
Aztilude: sWord Fight Tournament
***Please note, only top four competitors will receive prize money. Entrants will not receive compensation, but will be considered for sWord Fights and features for later dates.***

Writing Knights is Seeking Reviews

Image from: https://hobbylark.com/

Writing Knights is looking to get our books reviewed. ALL of our books, including books long ago published and forgotten to most.

Below are the guidelines we are trying to follow, yes they seem stringent, but this is an experiment to see what this format can do for our sales. 

Compensation: $10/review ($2/review of FourPlays) AND 20% on net sales after the review is posted. Plus you get to read free poetry/fiction books. 

Written: About 500 Words (about 100 words for Fourplays)
Video: about 5 minutes (about 1 minute for Fourplays)

These video reviews are meant to make people want to purchase the books so they will need to be positive. If you do not feel positive about the book read, pass on it. No harm done.
  
Reviews should be about 80% content driven and 20% sales driven.  The following will help you parse out how to put the video together.

Build rapport
- Compliment the audience or tell a joke or relatable anecdote.

After building rapport, you can now give recommendations
- Talk about the result of the product (how the book will make the audience feel).

Demonstrate the result and the product
- Read/recite an excerpt which exemplifies the feeling

You're really selling yourself and the product is just a part of it
- Convey the emotional state the book puts you into, assert certainty. No uncertain language.

Be congruent with what you're saying
- Be genuine in that certainty. Enthusiasm even in somber emotions. If you feel the product is amazing let that feeling come through.

Interested reviewers email: writingknightspress@gmail.com Subject Line: "Writing Knights Book Review"

If you want to review our books, but do not want to follow the format below, you can contact us here: writingknightspress@gmail.com subject line: "Independent Book Review" and review them how you want. 

Send us a list of up to 5 books from the list and we will send a PDF of the book(s) you want to review.
click Read More to see our list of books for which we need reviews. 

What is a sWord Fight? (Redux)

Theydies and Gentlethems, People and Persons, Beings of All Ages!

What is a sWord Fight? You ask...

Picture a Poetry Slam 

mixed with a Rap Battle

mixed with a comedy/storytelling session

mixed with a UFC fight 

mixed with a WWE show

and you'll get the idea.

Call it... Ultimate Writing or Mixed Literary Arts.

We're taking two competitors, putting them up against one another in a three round battle of wits and words with flavor and a little bit of trash talk scattered around them.

Each competitor portrays a character that is whatever they want to be. Competitors can wear masks or costumes, they can turn their personalities up to 11 and blow the audience away with theatrics. Or they can portray high and mighty arrogance looking down upon their opponents. Fighters can have entrance music or elaborate video accompaniment to the stage.  They can have managers or valets.  Competitors can be hero, villain, anti-hero, wild card or brave.  Whatever they want to bring the stage is up to them.

Here's the run down of the basics.

Regular Matches

3 Rounds of Performance

2 minute round

3 minute round

4 minute round

Championship Matches

5 Rounds of Performance

1 minute round
2 minute round

3 minute round

4 minute round
5 minute round

 
Fighters can stick to the theme of the event or not.
Fighters can present as many pieces as they wish during their round. Example: if you can squeeze 80 haiku in 2 minutes, go for it.
Fighters can bring any style of words they want into the fight. They can bring poetry, rap, comedy, storytelling or a mix of any of these and beyond.
No memorization required.
No improvisation required (ie fighters can, and probably will, bring in prewritten work).
No musical accompaniment.

Competitors do not have to use their full time, but fighters that do not stop by the end of the round will be disqualified. 
THERE IS NO GRACE PERIOD.

Rounds will be scored by on a 10 point must system.
The winner of a round is given 10 points, the loser is given 9 points or less.
If a judge cannot decide between the two they may award both fighters 10, but this should be rare.
Despite the use of characters and personas, all scores given are LEGITIMATE and will determine future storylines.

Speaking of Characters, Personas and Storylines. Fighters are encouraged to trash talk their opponents or anyone in the confines of the sWord Fight. This is less "you suck" and more "I'm better than you" we aren't trying to get too personal. Fighters will be asked to "cut promos" occasionally which involve them talking to their opponent or laying an open call to anyone who might want to challenge them.  Sometimes this might happen at a Writing Knights show, sometimes they might be asked to record a promo video and send it to us for posting and including in compilation videos.  Storylines follow the progression of each character as they compete and cut promos on one another (examples posted throughout this entry).

So those are the basics. We are on the look out for Fighters and Judges or both, if a Fighter wants to also volunteer to judge, that can definitely work.

If you want to participate, email writingknights@live.com Subject line: "sWord Fight."

We are currently based in Canton, OH, but once we generate interest, we'll definitely take the show on the road. Our first potential travel plans are looking at Akron, Cleveland and Columbus.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Haiku Submission Call

Cover of the original, from Wikipedia

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Joseph Campbell's summary of the monomyth.

A haiku may not seem like a hero's journey, three lines or less, 17 syllables or less (or more) there are so many variations, some even include other forms similar like senryu.

But anyone who has written a truly remarkable haiku knows the struggle over syllabic count or the new English translation of what the Japanese called 'on' or 'morae' or even content that is relevant to a potential audience.

Submissions Accepted: 
          August 1, 2018-October 31, 2018

Writing Knights wants to feature YOU!

Writing Knights is diving into a new era for our Take the Knight Off - Inspiration Showcase.  We are embracing the idea of themes and will eventually be looking for additional places to hold open mics and features throughout the Stark County/North East Ohio area.

Some of our upcoming themes include:
September - Falling into Autumn 
October: Spooky Verses 
November: Hunger 
December: Will It Snow? 

For our July show in addition to our first ever sWord Fight, we also have two amazing features: John Burroughs and Paul Mangus.

But after that we don't have anyone scheduled. Part of that is a lot of our creative energy is booking for the Grand Showcase, but a bigger part is, we want people to come to us to be featured. If people come to us, then we will know they want to feature and promote themselves.

Consider this an open invitation.  If you want to feature for Writing Knights at a 2nd Friday show, email us at writingknights@live.com Subject line: "Featuring for Writing Knights." Typical features are paid $20 for 20 minutes plus negotiable travel.

A couple notes:
We typically will not feature someone for pay more than once every 6 months (this does not include sWord Fights. We are super open about those, if you want to do one a month, we'll make it work).
Features do not necessarily follow the theme, but it's a good idea to have a few pieces in conjunction.
Asking to feature sooner than later is preferred, we will only book 3 features at most.
More will be added as situations arise.

Let's get you on stage!