Although I have heard of some publication success from members of this Guild, I have received no printable descriptions. Please send any notifications to ray.zimmerman@chattanoogawritersguild.org.
Meanwhile, here are some resources for writers. I hope you find them helpful.
I have been reading the book Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose. In this New York Times best-seller, Prose takes her readers through the labyrinth of sentence structure, paragraph structure, and narration. The text is filled with examples from well-written fiction. That’s the first half. I may comment on the second half after I finish the book.
If you want a shorter version, here is an online article by Linda Busby Parker on the Writers’ Digest website. https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/read-like-a-writer.
Mark Beaver gives a slightly different perspective in 6 Tips for Reading Like a Writer, also from Writers’ Digest https://www.writersdigest.com/publishing-insights/6-tips-reading-like-writer.
Check The Writer magazines website for other articles on this topic. https://www.writermag.com/.
Story Structure
There are some great YouTube videos on Freytag’s Pyramid, The Hero’s Journey, Save the Cat, and other structures for novels. Reedsy videos are particularly good. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. gives an irreverent view of story structure in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ&t=6s.
That is all great for fiction writers, but what if you need to structure a nonfiction book?
You should probably look at Draft no. 4 by John McPhee https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18194765-draft-no-4.
Tell it Slant is an excellent source of information on structure in memoirs.
So, what about form in poetry? Even free verse has form. Mark Strand and Eavan Boland created the book The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203838.The_Making_of_a_Poem.
Prompts and Contests
The Writer Magazine has a contest page. If you want to try entering contests, this is a good resource.
November 15 is the deadline for the Writers Digest Short Story Competition.
You can access 100 writing prompts from the Jericho Writers Group.
This is the place to access writing prompts from the Poets and Writers organization.