NaNo Class in Salem Monthly

Therese O'Neil wrote a great article about my NaNo class in the Salem Monthly.

Please tell your friends about the class. At the moment, the cost is probably going to be under $100 for the seven-week class.

m

Past-present film link

http://blip.tv/file/2548146

Hey everyone!

This is the link to the film I "wrote" for the 48-hour film project. The verb there is in quotes because 90% of the dialogue is improvised.

I think it's great. I wasn't able to be involved in any of the shooting or editing, so I saw it for the first time today. I really think our little group of filmmakers are really blossoming.

m

NaNoWriMo Class a Go!

I don't have all the details, but the NaNoWriMo class is a go! Once a week for seven weeks, I'll meet with students who want to write 50K words in 30 days for NaNo.

• The first two weeks are going to be focused on getting ready for NaNo: finding a story, getting into the writing habit, making sure the friends and family know what people are up to so they aren't offended when they are put off by the writers.
• The month of November will be devoted to writing in class and supporting each other including helping people write themselves out of tight spots, etc.
• The last night will be a post-mortem of NaNo and Scott Carter is going to give a talk on what to do once you've written a book.

This class is NOT going to be a traditional writing workshop where we critique each other's work. The idea is to get a first draft of a book out there. And it's allowed to SUCK. In fact, if it doesn't suck, you probably weren't doing NaNo right.

The whole idea is to use the impetus to get a first draft out because you can't have a second draft if you don't have a first draft. To that end, writers are not allowed to go back and revise anything. If it sucks, you'll go fix it later. It's all about moving forward until you get to the end of the book.

So, once I get specific information, I'll post it here and broadcast it to the world. It ought to be a wild ride.

Oh, yeah. We decided the class is going to be called "Write Your First Novel in Thirty Days." Catchy, huh?

m

Surprisingly productive

I have nearly revised the whole of Liz Stratton Closes the Store! I'm amazed that I am working on the last chapter now.

Of course, this final chapter needs some serious work because the parts of it were written months apart. Now I'm trying to stitch together the parts into some kind of cohesive whole. Plus, I have a Hollywood ending, which fits, but...it is a little cute-sy. So, I'm conflicted by the last pages. I have some holes to fill in, too.

However, the upshot is that I am making serious progress on the text, and it looks like I will finish this revision well before my self-imposed September 12 deadline.

I'm stunned.

I even have up to chapter 13 to my first readers, who ROCK. They have given me such insightful and helpful comments.

So, this frees up time between now and school starting for the Kris and Dean show and other projects, notably the "Library Quest" web movies I hope to film with a friend during Fall Quarter.

I did write a "script" for the 48 Hour Film Project this year, too. I'll post a link and write an entry about it once the film is online.

That's all for now. I wish it were summer all year so I could be this focused on writing all the time!

m

chapters 9 and 10 revised!

I want to thank the deities that control the number of hours my baby sleeps during her afternoon nap: the 3 1/2 and 4 hour naps are FANTASTIC for my writing productivity!

I'm up to 224 pages of the second draft. Awesome. Feeling smug. That's about the time Murphy steps in and messes up my best laid plans.

m

revision to chapter 8 done

Yay! I'm now 181 pages in to the second draft. I only have four or five weeks more to finish the project, but that light is definitely visible. 

I'm actually pretty deep into revision for chapter 9 today, too. I've found that if DD is entertained with crayons, I can sit next to her and do paper edits pretty effectively. 

I still like this book. That's a good sign, right? 

m 

Chapter 7 revised--Excerpt

Yay!

I now have 150 pages of Draft #2 done. In this chapter, Liz's friend Maureen helps repel a man sent to tempt her. Plus, I've included the lesbian sex scene I promised my husband.

Hey, gay women have sex, too, you know.

(I hate to think about the search-engine traffic I'm generating here.)

Interestingly, this is pretty much the only sex in the first half of the book. It is a book about a sex strike, so that shouldn't be too surprising. There is more sex later in the book, I promise.

What's that ? You say you want an except? Okay.

***

Liz peeked from behind the curtain. In front of her stood a crowd of thousands of horny women who had given up sex to show support for her effort to end the war. They expected her to say something that could keep them from going to bed with their husbands or lovers (or both) until the war was over. But Liz kept thinking about that...that...MAN who was currently in her room on the bus waiting for her, she supposed as she left him...naked and half-crazy with desire. Honestly, she didn’t know whether she was going back to him once she was done with the crowd. What could she say to those women to keep them on track if she wasn’t able to even contain herself?

She slumped on a folding chair and flipped through the note cards, not reading them. She was thinking of Dion’s floppy hair, his sexy sunglasses, his lopsided grin, what his c**k must look like. She sighed and swore.

***

Sorry for the **. I can spell things out in the book.

m