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Could you repeat the challenge again? I might break down and give it a try. Just for fun I guess.
Check out what he linked.
I think I might have to give this a go.
Could you repeat the challenge again? I might break down and give it a try. Just for fun I guess.
It's the twelfth of December now, so it's time for the Annual Christmas Challenge!
Twelve days to go 'til the 24th, and on the 24th ... a short story of at least 2,400 words.
Here are the constraints:
1) Must be in a genre that you usually don't write.
2) Must be based on a song which is never quoted, or mentioned, in the story.
3) Must break at least one of the rules found in the "74 Reasons Agents Won't Read Past the First Page" article, in its very first paragraph (choose one at random). You have to make it work.
4) Have fun doing it.
Okay, 200 words per day (that's less than a page), every day.
Let's do it!
Check out what he linked.
I think I might have to give this a go.
Uncle Jim, I'm currently up to 6 thousand words using your Secret Author Trick for outlining (and convincing a friend of mine to nag me about my word count every day). Can't say it's a great outline, but the method is currently working for me (I've used something very similar before when writing Hatchings). Two more days and the outline for the book is done and then the real work begins. I plan to raise my daily word count target at that time to at least double, maybe triple (I'll need triple to do 10 pages a day and the whole book in a month).
Thanks for the advice and the great "trick".
Unfortunately, it's starting to look like I won't finish this story in a single 80-90k work. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing and a lot can happen between the outline and the finished work so I'm not worrying about that aspect yet. Just get the thing written is my current goal and my only goal.
One question, for the "must be a genre that you don't typically write in rule", can it have influences from it maybe?
That's just an aiming point. (And I don't see how it wouldn't have influences.)
For that matter your finished story may turn out to be in one of your usual genres. As Stephen King once said when asked why he chose to write horror, "What makes you think I had a choice?"
I've been told by several writers that the best way to learn plot and structure is to write 100k words that you don't intend to let see the light of day. What do you think James?
I think this is a terrible idea.
Yes, you'll probably write 100K (or more -- you see a lot of references to your "million words") that will never see the light of day. But you should write them to the absolute best of your ability and with the full intention of marketing them. Then carry through on the intention.
It's okay to write crud is not the same as attempt to write crud.