Out of a Rut

So I've been working myself out of that little rut that I fell into this past week. Changed the background colour of my "paper" and started fresh with a character idea. Ended up spitting out about 1000 words of a new piece I'm tentatively calling "Blackfoot". Not sure as of yet whether that's going to be a short story or a novella, but I think it's going to fall into the dark fantasy category (or maybe just fantasy, we'll see).

Been starting to get the ball rolling on Script Frenzy 2010. I've thrown some posts up on the SF boards in my region, the Ontario region, and the Ottawa region. Basically I extended the new ML for Ottawa (when they get one) a helping hand, and let both Ontario and Ottawa know about SudSprinter. Currently neither region has an ML. Since it looks like I'll be going down to Ottawa in the fall to obtain my graduate certificate in Event Management, I'm hoping to join in, or take over as the SF Coordinator for that area next year.

I've also been posting in the ML forum. It's from the ML forum that I pull my next segment. The ML from Vegas mentioned having trouble getting people involved in the event. So I came up with a nice, long post about some of the things I've done, or plan to be doing this year. Here's my post:

There are a lot of things that can be done to garner attention and people in your project. Here are a few ideas I've had.

One thing I did this past year was attend a number of local events and conventions (not that we get many this far north), and handed out flyers to attendees (with permission from those in charge of course). There's still a bit left before the kick-off, so you may be able to give that a try.

Get an article in local arts flyers and newspapers. Just a short bit about what Script Frenzy is about, where to find more information, and your Script Frenzy contact information so interested people can get in contact with you. I've been fortunate up here to have some connections within the local arts community, so I can get in their newsletters.

The standard getting flyers up in businesses and on hydro poles is an option, but be careful and check local bylaws first. I got hammered last year with a cease and desist order for my hydro-pole usage because my area has some very strict guidelines about what exactly you can do in these regards.

Use social networking as a force for good. Facebook, twitter, myspace, and even the new Google Buzz are all good ways to get the word out for your event. If you're anything like me, you've got a lot of contacts on most. Paper your contacts once about the event, and add on a notice that they should pass it on to anyone they may feel wants to join in the madness. This can do wonders for expanding your base.

Advertise it as a way to meet local writers. That's a part of how I managed to get in contact with a lot of people this past NaNo. Sure, we're not novelling in Script Frenzy, but we are working on dialogue, which is an important part of any novel, and anyone writing a script, just might be one of those people that likes to write other things. Using it as a way to unite the writers in your area, so they can form their own, perpetual writing groups is a great way to go. Those writing groups will recruit on their own in time, and they'll drag their members back year after year (as I've now seen with the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, The Underground Writers, and the Monday Night Writing Pack, the status of the Late-Nighters remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful).

I'm sure that sounds like a lot of work, but trust me, they'll notice. I've received a great many pats on the back from my NaNo group this year, including those that participated last year, and the two that were around the year before. It's a beautiful thing seeing stuff come together like this, and when it happens, there's no thought of giving up nine days in.

Hope this helps!

If there were any doubt that Event Management was the right track for me to embark upon, I'm sure that single post, in combination with everything else that I've done for NaNo and Script Frenzy in the past two years, should dispel those doubts. The only problem remaining is the question of money. Not going to focus on that at the moment though, since I know that a good event coordinator can bring in a fair amount from contracts.

Anyhow, I've some outlining to do, and a couple more e-mails that I need to get sent out. Should be more info flowing here in the near future!

Hitting a Wall

So I'm stuck. Like most writers out there, eventually we do hit walls. There's all sorts of advice on how to blaze past it, and I've shoved my way through a great many of them in the past, but it's here none the less. I had been working hard to hammer out the first chapter of a YA novel. I struggled immensely, managed a little over 1000 words in about a month, and decided that it just wasn't going to work out. Or atleast, that idea wasn't going to work out.

I came home from the Monday Night Writer's Pack, and cranked out about 800 words of a different piece. Mostly random, no real plot or ideas, just playing around a bit. It sounded alright, and over the past week, I've more than doubled the number of words. Catch is, it was just a kind of exercise and I've no clue where I want to go with it, if anywhere. I may have the kernals of something, but they haven't popped yet.

To make matters worse, I had a deadline this past Thursday to submit a piece for critiquing with the Underground Writers, and there's one today with the Monday Night Writing Pack that I'm going to be missing. I'm going to have to send an apology in lieu of submission to both I'm afraid. The piece I sunk a month into isn't fit for human eyes, and the one I started last week, although better, isn't ready for critiquing by any soul.

The editing of Hedged In has come to a bit of a stand-still as of late. I have to get it all finished up and rewritten before the month is out, so I'm probably going to end up focusing on that. Maybe I'll submit the first 4k of that novella to the groups in March. I don't think it'll quite be publishable quality, but I'm going to get my free print copy to which I'm entitled. If the critiquing of the edited version goes well enough, and another rewrite puts out something I think is ok, I'll grab a couple of beta readers and e-publish it through Smashwords. If I get $20 out of it, I'll be happy enough.

Julia and I have begun work on Script Frenzy. We've got a basic timetable planned out, and a to-do list that we'll have to chew through. It looks like we'll be going all-out this year, with a tonne of events including another all-nighter. We've given each event its own name (more or less). Hopefully we'll get a good turnout and Script Frenzy can grow like NaNoWriMo did this past year. I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm going to be scripting this year, and I think it'll be a blast!

Anyhow, I'm going to try to break through my wall. Someone told me changing the colour of your "paper" works. We'll see how that goes.

Post Critique #3

So this past Thursday, my writing group, The Underground Writers, did our third big critique session. It was our first session with a new member (Julia Muldoon) in the group so we were all pretty eager to see how things would turn out, what kind of information would get exchanged, and what her piece would look like.

On the whole, things turned out really well. The pieces were generally newer (or older pieces that had been edited with some of the more recent advice from other pieces), so it was all around an easy critique. I had submitted my short story, Blood & Puppies, for critiquing this round. Generally the reviews were along the same line. Near the end I have a PoV shift that needs some work, there's a bit of blocking trouble for that last portion, and there's a small bit at the beginning that really doesn't make much sense. From what feedback I got, I have to quote Randy Lalonde on the all-around progress: "Your dialogue has also gotten stronger and has outgrown your descriptive prose." Not a bad bit of review, and it shows me exactly where I need to work with my next handful of pieces. Basically, keep tightening the dialogue, and work more on tightening the description.

I wasn't sure about the working title going in, and I'm still not sure about it coming out. The reviews on the title have been mixed. They're about half-and-half. Those that like the title, or even squirm at the title, claim that it's a very re-tweetable title, and that people may just stop and look at / buy the piece because of it. The others aren't overly fond of the title, because it doesn't work too closely with the actual story. I hope to come up with a better title, but if nothing pops up before I finish the rewrite, it'll probably stick.

On other writing news, editing on Hedged In has been progressing a little slower than I thought. I figure I should still have it done by my deadline, but whether I'll be as happy with it at that point as I want to be, that's another question. I may end up having to bow out of one of our monthly critiques just to get it to the point that I want it at. That would mean putting other projects on hold, and I'm not up for that right now.

I began a new project a couple of weeks ago and I'm almost through writing the first chapter of it. I had received word about a scholarship that teetered on writing a young adult novel. The cash involved is pretty nice for someone looking to get through another year of school. So I spent an evening reading over the back covers of dozens of books in the YA section of Chapters, and I even bought and read one (Graceling by Kristin Cashore). I spent another evening coming up with a few YA-style treatments, and then I began writing a first chapter of one of my ideas. I don't even have a working title for the piece yet, but when I do, I'm sure you'll all be able to read it here.

Anyhow, I have some more writing that I need to get done today. I promised myself a good two solid hours of writing, and I aim to do it.

2009 In Review

Here we are, only a day away from the end of the year. It's customary at this time to review everything that's happened over the course of the past 364 days. I was holding out for a little while longer in the hopes that something different might find its way into my inbox before the year was out. Naturally, nothing really arrived, so here we go.

In 2009 I stepped down from my position as manager of The Source so I could focus on my writing, failed to spur interest in Script Frenzy 2009, got engaged to my beautiful fiance Sabrina, successfully ran the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society booth at the Northern Lights Festival, watched the SHS rip itself asunder, felt the formation of the Underground Writers, completed drafts of numerous short stories, submitted work to publishers, received useful critiques on a number of short stories, received several rejection letters from publishers, successfully ran National Novel Writing Month 2009 in the Sudbury area (with more than 50% of those with a word count surpassing the 50k mark), restarted the Monday Night Writing Pack, completed the first draft of two novels, and made the decision that I need to return to college.

Hell of a year eh? So where does that put me at the moment? I've been editing the first draft of my NaNo novel. A good chunk of it has been cut, and I've about as many words of notes for corrections, additions, and changes as I do remaining in the original draft. I need to scramble to get something ready for the first Thursday of 2010 for sudmission to the Underground Writers for ciritiquing. I'm thinking the first 3-5k of my NaNo novel might not be a bad idea.

I'm also starting to work on the planning for Script Frenzy 2010. I don't want a big flop like 2009. I need another successfully planned and executed event prior to my return to college, and I'm hoping that SF'10 will do it. Much like NaNo, I'm thinking write-ins every Monday, rotating locations on alternating weekdays, and two all-day write-ins. I don't think I really want to do an overnighter in April. I'll need some more concrete ideas worked out before I bring it up with anyone, but I think we could have something useful pop out of it, and I know I could use the experience for my future career.

By now I'm sure you're all wondering what I'm talking about. Originally when I was thinking about returning to school, I was looking back at a field that I had given up on previously: computer programming. After having consulted with a fair number of people, all except one having got back to me, it doesn't look like that would be a healthy choice. Generally, the market's too full of programmers, there are thousand of qualified applicants for every posted position, and the jobs are unpredictable.

So I started hunting around for something else that I could possibly look into doing. And I dug, and dug, and dug... It was a painstaking process, and finally I was told that I had to look outside what had become my comfort zone. No sooner had been mentioned than something came to mind. Both last year and this year, when I organized NaNo in the Sudbury Area, plus when I had worked out some write-ins in North Bay a few years back, I absolutely loved it. It was stressful, it was a lot of work, but I loved doing it, and numerous times I wished that I could be paid to do stuff like that. Turns out, you can. A quick little 1-year graduate certificate from college in Event Management, and I could fill the role of Events Coordinator for just about anything (from organizing conventions and fairs, to business get-aways and other learning vacations). Cool huh? I think this is the route for me, and from those I've mentioned it to, they're in agreement (though they hate to see me leave Sudbury to do it).

So we're at the point in the 2009 wrap-up blog where we're supposed to post our resolutions or hopes for the New Year. Let's see.

1. I will finish rewriting and editing my NaNo 2009 novel before the end of March.
2. I will organize and run a successful Script Frenzy 2010.
3. I will apply for the Events Management program, OSAP, and numerous bursaries and scholarships.
4. I will cut up one more credit card.
5. I will get published.

Ok, so #5 is a repeat from last year. I'm going to try for it again. If I keep working at it, it'll eventually work. Wish me luck folks. Happy New Year.

NaNo Day 6

Welcome back everyone!

Today is Day 6 of National Novel Writing Month . As you all know by now, I'm Sudbury's Municipal Liaison, which means that I had to organize all sorts of stuff for the upcoming month. So far, they've been playing out really well. I've been super impressed with most of my writers this year, with 14 of them above goal so far, and another 13 with at least half of goal. I know a few of the writers under that are likely to shoot up over the course of this weekend, and I look forward to hearing about their successes.

We held our launch party early on October 23rd. It was attended by a nice handful of people, though not quite as many as I had hoped. Ken, Andy, Miriam, Steph, Julia, and Randy made it out to keep me company, as did a few non-writers. It was a good gathering, and most of us already knew each other from last year.

On Nov 1st, the Underground Writers held their own pot-luck kick-off at Sylvie's place. We got off to a good start, with great food and excellent motivation. In attendance were Sylvie, Steph, Randy, Andy and myself. Aura was on her way out, but unfortunately we were wrapping up by the time she was heading our way.

The first official write-in was on the evening of Nov 2nd at the New Sudbury Library. It was an absolutely awesome showing! Mike showed up and said hi, but the people that stuck around and wrote included Heidi, Andrew, Rebecca, Julia, Meghan, Angelique and myself. We pretty much took over a whole corner of the library.

An impromptu write-in occurred in the early morning on Tuesday at the Tim Hortons downtown. I know that Aura and Miriam were in attendance, but I'm not sure who the other person was. I wasn't there, being asleep and getting rested up for the next day's work.

Thursday night was the weekly Underground Writers meeting, and though it was sparsely attended by just Steph, Randy and myself, it was incrediably productive for all of us. Sure it started and ended with the usual chatter, but we all cranked out a fair number of words. Definitely awesome, and I love how the group is doing exactly what it was formed to complete.

For word wars, things have been going pretty well for Sudbury so far. We've pretty well clinched the war against NY Southern Tier, though they do have a chance at catching up. For overall total, I think we've got the win. But for words per person and top 10, they have a chance of turning the tide. It'd be hard and they'd really have to push themselves, but they can do it.

Our word war against North Bay is a little more uncertain. It's only taking the top 10 into account, and I've seen a few of their higher word counts. We've got a lot of work if we're going to pave our way past them and to non-singing safety. On the bright side, they seem to be roadblocking as their average word count has been stalling over the last few days. Their leads may be dipping a bit in enthusiasm.

Tomorrow marks our second official write-in, this time at William's Coffee Pub. From what I'm seeing so far, we have about 7 or 8 people that are likely to show up. Steph will unfortunately be out of town and watching the Senators beat another team in Ottawa, so she'll be missing another write-in. No word on the other members of the UW, but I'm pretty sure most will be able to make it out.

It's been a hell of a pace to keep up. To make things even more fantastic, I have been writing every day. I'm currently sitting at 15,741 words, and average 2,624 words a day. I seem to be getting that in about an hour's worth of writing. Saturday promises a lot more than an hour's worth of writing. I call that sweet. I also call a goal of 5k for tomorrow. I want to end the week at 20k or higher.

This works out pretty good since tomorrow is double your daily day. Tomorrow WriMos are supposed to write double their normal daily average. That means I should try to write 5,248 words tomorrow. Maybe I should stretch for 5,259 so I can end the day at 21k... Decisions, decisions.

Anyhow, I have to go write another ML e-mail. It's been a while and I don't want my flock to think I've abandoned them.

NaNo Preparation

Alright, so it's basically been a month since I posted anything here. My apologies. I'd say real life got in the way, but doesn't it always?

Actually, in this case I've been busy preparing for the big event of the year: National Novel Writing Month. For most participants, preparing for NaNoWriMo is a simple matter of coming up with an idea, maybe doing a couple of character sketches and some basic outlining. At the far end, some participants may plan out meals ahead of time, schedule themselves to attend a few events, and chit-chat with people on the forums in preparation for the event.

But me, I can't stop at just that. I'm the Municipal Liaison for the Sudbury region, which means that I'm the one that schedules and books locations for events. I try to organize launch parties, mid-month parties, and the TGIO party. I book write-ins, come up with interesting competitions, raise money for the Office of Letters and Light, and get whatever small prizes and discounts I can manage for my participants. I create booklets with schedules, maps, hints and tricks; I obtain stickers, goody bags, and more. I put up posters, contact newspapers, get on the phone to arts and writing groups, and otherwise drum up interest in the month-long event. So instead of running myself ragged in November writing a novel, I run myself ragged in October and November between planning the events and writing the novel.

This year I have a huge list of thanks to put out. A handful of last year's participants have been really helpful. Steph, Sylvie, and Andy: you three are awesome! Thanks for the help getting things postered and getting events scheduled and booked. I'd also like to send my thanks to a newbie: PiscesMuse, you've been a big help. I look forward to meeting you at the kick-off. From the response that I've seen so far, people have been noticing the posters, which is fantastic.

What we've got planned so far: Kick-off party (Oct 23, Doghouse), Sudbury Writers' Guild Speech (Oct 29, YMCA), New Sudbury Library Write-ins (2, 9, 16, 23, 30), William's Write-in (7), Chapters Write-in (10), Mid-Month Madness (13, Laughing Buddha), Fromagerie Write-in (18, 28), Laurentien University Write-In (21), TGIO (Dec 5, my place). The Underground Writers will also be doing weekly write-ins on Thursdays, and we'll have our own kick-off lunch on Nov 1st. So, if we include the UW stuff, we're looking at 4 parties, 1 speech, 14 write-ins. There are requests for yet more write-ins, but I think I'm going to have to cap it there...

So far, I've managed to finangle 10% discounts during the month of November off most things at The Source in the Southridge Mall for participants, nine 2-GB thumb drives, a $25 A&W gift card, and a signed copy of Spinward Fringe: Origins courtesy of the book's author, Randolph Lalonde. I've also a score of stickers, "hipster PDAs", name tags, and word count calendars. I'm hoping to snag a couple of $10 Tim Hortons gift cards between now and the TGIO party to add to the prize pile.

On top of all this, I've also managed to finish and edit (repeatedly) "Tactical Medics" which I sent out to the Underground Writers for critiquing. I've also pounded out another 1587 words for a short story I'm tentatively calling "Blood & Puppies" even though my fiance hates the title. I have a handful of poems completed and have received a second rejection letter for my pile. Still managing to squeeze everything in there between work, pumpkin carving, and paper mache skulls... But that's another story for another day. ;)

Helpful Critiques

The Underground Writers has had their first critiquing session. This was something that we all felt was missing from the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, so we made sure to put concrete deadlines for something to be submitted to the group for critiquing. I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had rushes to finish a draft of "Bloodspurt" for this particular session. Well, the word has come back from the group. They were entertained, always a good sign, but they could tell that it was definitely a rough draft. It was obvious where I started rushing to the ending, and numerous small comments came up about different parts and people's preferences.

Overall, I was pretty impressed actually. I knew there were a lot of problems with the piece, but I would have missed about half of what they mentioned. The pieces I critiqued were all pretty well polished in comparison with my draft, so I feel really bad about hogging so many useful comments. Everyone received their fair share though. A piece here, a transition there, some dialog, some character... There was a little for everyone to work on, and from what I'm hearing, most can hardly wait to do it again.

I almost have my piece ready for the next deadline. "Tactical Medics" took a slightly different route from the one I had originally anticipated, but I am very impressed with what I've managed to crank out this time. It feels a lot more polished, and pending a quick read-through by a regular reader, I'm pretty confident this piece will be a little better for the group to scrape through. I have the third draft sitting in front of me, and it's been chewed down to 4,027 words from 4,183. I had to add a couple of paragraphs to make the ending a little more foreshadowed, and to give the characters a little more character. I may need to look at their dialog a little more to differentiate between the two primary characters, but I'm not overly concerned. Gonna look at that when I move from third to fourth draft.

Rejections are In

So, the big news. Finally got a response out of Poetry Magazine. It was a nice little rejection letter. So there are now four poems that need to move out to the next possible location. Not quite sure where to send them next, but I think "Arrogance" would kinda work in Aasimov's Science Fiction, "Tinted Mirror" would work well in Necrology, and the other two, "Invisible Eris" and "Two Days", may not quite work anywhere.

Some may take rejection as defeat. I take it as a necessary evil. If things weren't rejected, we'd never be able to get non-serious writers to pursue something else. You gotta have a tough skin to write. That's not a secret. I know that I've had some poetry published in the past, and I know that it's been a while since I wrote poetry with much commitment. I expect to have a lot of places reject my work before anything is accepted. A few successes here and there couldn't hurt any though.

Since I was rejected, I've finished the first draft of a new short story, "Tactical Medics", and am about six drafts through a fresh poem, "Ignorance." The short story, is a bit of a fun slap in the face. I'm pretty excited about the first draft, but I won't be getting too far ahead of myself. I want to give it a couple good thick edits before turning it over to the Underground Writers on October 1st. That'll give me feedback for October 15th, and I can clean it up and maybe submit it somewhere (On Spec ?) for November 1st. I'm saving "Ignorance" for my next set of 4 poems to ship out to Poetry Magazine, which I also hope to be able to do on November 1st.

Speaking of work in progress. The Underground Writers currently has "Bloodspurt" in their hands, and I'm sure they'll be ripping it up good. I've already read through a few of the pieces that I need to have done for Thursday. One of them is absolutely fantastic, the others are pretty good starts of which I hope to read more. When I get "Bloodspurt" back, I'll know how much time I should really be editing that piece. I'm sure its a lot. With a bit of luck, I should be able to send it out for the beginning of October, but that may be optimistic given the piece itself.

Dug up a couple of fantasy pieces I started a couple years ago, and I think with some work, I can finish them and get them sent out somewhere. I'm betting on Tales of the Talisman for one of them, but figure it won't be going out until the new year. With National Novel Writing Month sitting on the horizon, I won't be putting words down on anything but Hedged in November. Still have some time this month I suppose.

Anyhow, enough writing in the form of procrastination. I need to turn my writing to one of my WIPs. Good luck everyone!

On Words and Working

Always busy with this business. I've done a lot in the past month since I last posted here. I haven't written nearly as much as I had hoped in the past while, but that's because I've been doing a lot of other work in other areas. Trying to get things running smoothly all around can take up a lot of time, but now that things seem to be hammered out, I think I'll be able to crank-up my word count, tune up the ticker, and get myself on the healthy track.

I managed to finish the first full draft of "Bloodspurt" (4189 words) on September 1st. I knew while writing it that it wasn't quite turning out the way that I wanted it to, but that may be mid-project dislike and boredom, the bane of writers across the world. It seems whenever you hit the mid-point of a project, other ideas start battering at you and you find it difficult to keep going, and then, you have to decide whether the ending you originally thought up will still work with the piece and things fall apart. I managed to hammer my way through it so that I could call the first, unedited draft finished. I had a very concrete deadline, and I'm glad that this was provided for me, though I'm sure about half my story is going to get itself ripped to shreds.

I have my writing group to thank for the concrete deadline. The Underground Writers decided about midway through August that we needed to have deadlines and that we needed to critique in order to help each other grow as writers. I know that I have a lot of room for growth, so I was very eager to get some stuff out. We have a 1st of the month deadline for pieces, which means that we essentially have to complete one piece, or at least 5k words every month. That may not seem like many words, but in some cases, that could be a huge difference, and even if the pieces being sent out never get seen beyond the group, it's still a good way for us to learn from each other.

Of course, "Bloodspurt" wasn't the only piece I worked on over the past month. I've also managed a number of writing exercises that I may be able to make use of in other pieces, a short science fiction song, and a handful of words for my novel, The Fall of Order. Not nearly as far along as I had hoped, but it's something. I need to get the first draft fully wrapped up by the end of October so I can step into NaNo 2009 fresh.

Still no word from Poetry Magazine about getting published. So I'll have to wait a bit longer on that front. I'm hoping to sit down sometime this labour day weekend and scribble out five or six decent poems to send them after the current batch is accepted/rejected. If rejected, I'll cycle the current batch to the next publisher on the list and work my way from there. I know two of the four can definitely be picked up, the other two probably can as well. I have high hopes.