Let’s be real for a moment. I’m getting kind of bored of coming up with themes every month. It’s not that I’ve run out of ideas; it’s really that I feel like my voice is drowning out any external potential for creativity. Continue reading “March’s Theme – and call for ideas!”
Tag: creativity
Rock Song – Vino y Sangre – Marcy Erb
The Family Dinner Party
Where the man
at the top of the stairs,
the butcher of our tiny land
came from, nobody will say.
Every family has one.
We gather together,
blood running down
the wooden steps
Villanelle – December Theme – Marcy Erb
Mud and Gold
Mud in California is a brindled and feral beast
No mythical runny bog, but a good thick paste
Sticky thick with gold, yes, sir! They say easy street
Short Story Challenge – “First Day of Work” – Marcy Erb
I meant to post this about a week ago, since NaNoWriMo is already 8 days expired. But the results for my personal version of it with short stories – NaShoStoWriMo – were good: I wound up writing 15 short stories and over 22,000 words. My goal had been 20 stories, so I fell short of that, but considering I started the month with a whooping zero short stories ever written, I’m very pleased with the challenge. It accomplished its goal, which was to inspire me to write short stories.
Holiday travel for Thanksgiving really put a monkey wrench into my writing schedule and I marveled at folks in the U.S. doing NaNoWriMo who were able to power through that crazy last week of November when so many of us are traveling or shopping or prepping or hosting or cooking.
Continue reading “Short Story Challenge – “First Day of Work” – Marcy Erb”
Shit, is November Nearly Over Already?
Welp, November ends on Sunday, as does NaNoWriMo 2014. I have 26,636 words written, and I know I will not be reaching 50,000 by the end of the month. Remember when I said I wanted to hit 35k last week? Same. Such is life. Continue reading “Shit, is November Nearly Over Already?”
NaShoStoWriMo Story – and Galumphing submission – The Soldiers’ Return
I promised to post one of the stories from my NaShoStoWriMo challenge and I’m only a few days late doing that…this one was inspired by our Galumphing poetry challenge for November. The words were: glass, lake, soldier. This one came in at 713 words – so only a few minutes of your time. Comments and suggestions welcome – I thank everyone for their encouragement regarding my personal short story challenge.
The Soldiers’ Return
By Marcy Erb
When Carl saw the soldiers coming across the pasture in formation, he wasn’t that surprised. He’d seen this before as a child in Germany and so he knew he needed to remain calm. That way, if he was called upon to take any action or speak to the soldiers, he would be able to do so in a dignified manner. Plus, he remembered; nobody else in his family spoke German.
Continue reading “NaShoStoWriMo Story – and Galumphing submission – The Soldiers’ Return”
NaShoStoWriMo Week 2 Complete – with unexpected word count!
Well, week two of NaShoStoWriMo (my version of NaNoWriMo, but with short stories) is complete and I met my goal. I have 10 short stories written so far. Because a lot of NaNoWriMo revolves around word count, I felt compelled to tally up my word count so far for the 10 stories and…wait for it…16,438 words! Holy Toledo! I really didn’t expect it to be that high already. Some of my stories are under 1000 words, but most are in the 1000 – 2500 word range. One behemoth is 3200 words.
Continue reading “NaShoStoWriMo Week 2 Complete – with unexpected word count!”
Smooth Like Butter… and just as Thick
Week two of NaNoWriMo is in the books, and I made decent progress. 17,477 words as of yesterday. So yes, I did slow down considerably from the roaring first week numbers I put up. If you were in a fantasy league for writers, the talking heads would tell you to be cautious about my lack of performance in Week 2. You would have been crazy to think that he could sustain the type of production we saw in his first game week in and week out. The 10,000 words I churned out in week one solidified into butter, and the progress has obviously been slower.
The Slow-Burn Exposition
It turns out the detailed character building I touched on last week can slow down the progress of the overall story arc. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. I’ve found the slower pace of detailing various characters a great avenue for further exposition, especially for the first couple of chapters of my story. I think the trick is to know when to add a kick to your step to move the story forward. I’m still trying to figure that out, but at least I know that I should speed up the pace soon. Here’s hoping my protagonists get their feet moving soon.
According to NaNo’s daily word count tracker, I am behind the curve, something that NaNo veterans vehemently encourage against in the forums. However, I will rededicate my time to writing this week. New goal for week three: 38,000 words. Cheers.
Steve D
NaShoStoWriMo! My Version of NaNoWriMo
It’s been inspirational to see so many people participating in NaNoWriMo – and I was thrilled to see our own RSPC founder Steven D’Adamo roaring through it with over 10,000 words written so far. Go Steven!
I decided to challenge myself to a version of NaNoWriMo – with short stories. It’s NaShoStoWriMo (because one good abbreviation deserves another) and anyone is welcome to join me. I have challenged myself to write 5 short stories a week for November. That will be 20 stories by the end of the month. I have not set a particular word count for the stories, allowing it to range from 500 – 3000 per story. I have also not placed any restrictions on topic or style. I have hit my mark for the first week and am only a little behind for week two. We will see where this goes – but I am definitely not expecting 20 O. Henry masterpieces! Maybe one or two gems will result, maybe not.
Creativity Sessions: The Little People Matter, Too
We are one week into NaNoWriMo. As of this moment I have written 10,616 words of my story, which exceeds my initial expectations for this week. When I first signed up for the novel writing contest way back in September, I told myself that achieving 50,000 words in one month was not important; as long as I wrote a substantial amount of my story, I should be satisfied. Even 25,000 words of this story seemed like a fair goal, considering it sat in development limbo for four years prior to November. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: The Little People Matter, Too”
Evening Satellite Publishing 