Magnificent Seven Writing Festival

Hola.

31 days from NanoWriMo. 

Anyone interested in a writing fest?  A Bigbang?

Or - an early plan for a gift exchange that we could run through November and December (for those of us who are taking longer to get gift writing done?)

Thoughts?

Anyone?

.......

.......

Anyone?

And? I have been hit and miss this week - lots of work stuff.  I did manage to write everyday, though yesterday was very slight. 

BUT I am making some headway.  Some.

How's everyone else? Are we gonna see some fun stories for the holidays??

(And Jojo - instead of writing last night, I started watching season 4 of H-50 - so that I can start conceiving that universe . . . )

Here is the US, this is a big holiday week - but I am contemplating some writing sprints, to try to keep my words moving despite gluttony, family distractions, and stress.  Anyone interested, and if so - what would be good times for you ?

 A collection of thoughts: 

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”
― Graham Greene, Ways Of Escape

 

“In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to, and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself. More powerfully and persuasively than from the "shalt nots" of the Ten Commandments, I learned the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. A Wrinkle in Time described that evil, that wrong, existing in a different dimension from our own. But I felt that I, too, existed much of the time in a different dimension from everyone else I knew. There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were books, a kind of parallel universe in which anything might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but was never really a stranger. My real, true world. My perfect island.”
― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life

 

“To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world. This is the consoling function of narrative — the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time.”
― Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods

 

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Books and You

 

“Books don't offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

 

If we ever needed a reason to write - we have it now.  I am throwing myself into my stories today. Right after I read Deannie's new story - because reading and writing go hand in hand.

How's everyone doing? 

Howdy!  I know I have failed at keeping us all up on the year-long writing every day challenge.  I have managed to write almost every day late, though it's often no more than a sentence here and there. Deannie's challenge has really done us well, I think!

On another note, most of us have probably seen this, but I thought I'd also post it here for reference: "Data Mining Reveals the Six Basic Emotional Arcs of Storytelling".  I find it interesting that the 'down' arc - which tends to make me think of sad endings - are the more popular (but I could be interpreting that incorrectly.) 

Of course, I'm also not sure how much I trust data mining . . .

How are the rest of you doing??? 

YEA for writing!  Randi, Deannie, Todeskun - some really really good stuff coming out these past few weeks! 

How's everyone doing?  I am still hard at work on my two pieces, one of which has stopped growing, thank goodness, and might actually come to an end soon.

You guys? Spring being inspiring??

So trying to get back on the ten day mark - and it is time for Spring!  So - how are we doing?

I have made some headway on a few things; I posted a piece set in Deannie's wonderful OW (Old West! How fantastic!) superhero universe which was a lot of fun to write, and I have ideas ON PAPER (well, computer) for more.  I am still working away, a few words at a time on what has turned into a novella, more or less.  Jojo was more than kind enough to let me bounce ideas off of her this week so that I now have a rough outline of the climax and ending. Perhaps I can get it posted by the summer.

I am still looking for a short piece to knock out - well, more than one.  We do have that 3000 challenge!

How's everyone else doing?

Hi all -

I have not managed, I regret, to write every day, but I did finish a story and get it posted, so I count that as a win.  I think my average on my days that I write is keeping me at the 100 words a day, as I tend to knock out about a page when I have the time.

I have managed to keep up with the writing on another story that I hope to finish pretty soon (maybe?). 

But I'm really trying to come up with some SHORT pieces.  Any suggestions?

How are y'all doing??  Any thing inspirational going on?

So I've been listening to podcasts when I walk and drive, to help me think about writing, and yesterday, I was listening to an Odyssey podcast from Jack Ketchum, a spec fic writer, about "writing from the wound" - or from that emotional place we all have that lets us connect with the characters regardless of how well we know them. It's a great podcast for two reasons:

one, as he's a spec fic writer, he discussed the challenge of asking ourselves hard questions such as 'what are you most afraid of' and 'what is the worst thing you've ever thought of doing', and 'what have you done that you are most ashamed of' - and others like that that require being really honest with yourself, which will help get you to the same honesty with your characters (and some really good plot ideas!)

two, he discussed the pain we all have in some situations - break up or loss in a close relationship, fear of losing something important and not being able to do anything about it, death of someone close - those acute emotions that we need to sometimes reconnect with in order to write those feelings and situations for our characters.

It made me think, again, about what brought me into the fandom: my connection with Chris. The writers make each of the boys vulnerable at one level or another, giving all of us something to connect with for each of them.  With Chris, it's loss of very close family, with many of the others, it's loss of a parent, with Ezra, it's the vulnerability of embarrassment or failure - some really good 'wounds' here to connect to us with.  I think that's a big part of what keeps me writing in this fandom, the wealth of emotions to work with. 

How's everyone doing?