Friday Rants and Raves - May 30

[sarillia]

Hello everyone! It's another Friday. How is the writing going? Anything to celebrate? Anything you need to vent about? Let's hear it!

This week's picture is by Zdzisław Beksiński. He is another favorite of mine and I definitely recommend looking into his work if you're like me and enjoy fantasy and surrealist art.

Comments

[ljwrites]

I've just submitted a short story to On the Premises. (Thanks to agilebrit for info on the contest.) I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted to write about, which is ironic given that the premise was difficult decisions. :) I rushed my entry too much to do the best job I could and submitted it literally at the last minute, but just completing the process gives me a huge sense of accomplishment--and trepidation.

It's scary because submitting original fiction is new ground for me; I have quite a bit of experience with writing fanfic and getting reviewed, but never showed original fiction to anyone beyond a few acquaintances. I had almost forgotten how much effort can go into creating original characters and building a world. It's sobering how much heavy lifting there is to do when I start from scratch. This is new ground for me, both scary and exhilarating.

Meanwhile, short story submissions also look like a good way to develop and maybe get the word out about my planned novel. As I get the research done and flesh out the characters and story, I plan to write shorter stories in the setting and try sending them out. I'm also considering doing NaNoWriMo in August or so to bang out the first draft of the novel. No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, recommended by sarillia, is doing a good job of selling the idea to me.

[sarillia]

Good luck! I hope you get a good response to your story. And congratulations on taking these new steps!

I will definitely be doing NaNo in August. After freezing up for the last several months, I'm finally getting back to just pouring the words out onto the page and fixing it up later. NaNo is just the thing to really get me back into that.

If you like No Plot? No Problem then you might also like Chuck Wendig's The Kick-Ass Writer. I just read it and I love it. I think a lot of the articles in it are on his blog for free if you want to check out what he has to say.

[inkdust]

Ooh I also recommend Chuck Wendig - haven't read his book but I've been on his site and his articles are both funny and helpful.

[ljwrites]

Thank you! Ooh, and another August NaNo-er! I thought the lovely summer weather was Kryptonite for writing endeavors or something, the rationale for moving the month from its original July to November. August works for me, though, because my vacation plans are in July and August is still before the start of the semester. Besides, where I live August is too hot and muggy for outdoors activities. Another possibility for me is February, but it's a short month and I don't want to wait that long.

I looked up Chuck Wendig's blog and found this article. Dude, I realized, this dude is a FEMINIST WRITER DUDE. One who despises MRAs. I don't care if his book is a stapled-together sheaf of blurry printouts of his blog, I will buy it so hard.

[caecilia]

I appreciate Wendig's tough approach to encouragement although he does get repetitive after a while (I guess everyone does). I should re-read the ebooks of his that I have.