Hiya, writers & frenz!
â good to see you back for more Thursday writing practice. If youâre doing NaNoWriMo, or running alongside, and youâd like encouragement from readers here, please comment a <small>BLOCKQUOTE</small> as clear and brief a mention as possible of your goal and progress, so I can copy from there into our chart without making mistakes. I usually check back through Sunday in case late comments have added more goals/progresses.
<big>National Novel Writing Month Goals and Cumulative Progresses!â</big>
Aashirs nani -- get this novel together. 9 Nov: Finished ending of 3rd part, begun 4th (last) part, on track to have basic story in place start-to-finish by end of November.
bonetti -- 50,000 words, hopefully completing a story and associated world-building 13 Nov: 66,666. words. ;D
dconrad -- 50,000 words, & work on some trunk novels. 9 Nov: 21,330 words.
elenacarlena -- write every day.
Evail -- write two books 2 Nov: 10k words.
mettle fatigue -- just write some stuff fiction. 9 Nov: not yet⊠:(
mockingbird1971 -- finish what I've started.
NoBlinkers -- hit daily par, finish romantasy, get farther on epic fantasy. 9 Nov: 17k 9/9 par.
Reppa -- 10-15,000 words, plus spending some extra time planning/prepping for January 2 Nov: 2k words.
sagesource- 9 Nov: insert & proofread classical Chinese original text for translating the Daodejing (aka Tao-te ching) ... Iâve been picking away at that book for thirty years.
Sonnet- making a major subplot from one novel into another all on its own. Nov 9: writing every other day.
strawbale - 250 words a day, no matter how good or bad. Nov 9: 9 for 9 goal met or exceeded.
ThurzdaysChild - Goal: 5 writing self-appointments during November, one to 4 hours each; continue editing/revising the current WIP ('memoir'). Nov 9: 5 hours.
Onward to todayâs relaxing, non-taxing topic â miscellany!
Skip over any that donât interest you â the relaxing, non-taxing challenge of the evening awaits! :)
First up, hereâs an illo of the Bechdel/Bechdel-Wallace test for written and filmed fiction...
⊠because I recently finished a fun fantasy, Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree, Cryptid Press 2022, that passes the test happily! It originated as a NaNoWriMo project!
Cleverly, humorously turning several conventions of the genre inside out, itâs still got the tough spots that make a plot worth following â fully legit tough spots, not contrived or forced in.
Granted, though, itâs probably not a typical NNWM success story. Baldree comes from âdecades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy and Fateâ, and narrating âhundreds of audiobook storiesâ, the author of many of them his editor for this novel. And he acknowledged a hefty list of beta readers, advisors, and commenters, most of all âAven Shore-Kind, my NaNoWriMo â21 buddy ... for convincing me to do this and for writing alongside me every step of the way. We both finished our NaNoâs and it would be entirely accurate to say that this book wouldnât exist without her help, enthusiasm and encouragement âŠâ
Thatâs a batch of advantages doubtless helping turn a NaNo ms into a paperback, eBook, and audiobook in one year. Still, every added good book coming out of nnwo means there might be a fair shot at the brass ring for any writer extensively practiced and well readd (if without getting paid for voicing or making the material) and whoâve paid a few decades of attention to how plots and characters and prose work. I like to think so, anyway. :)
Meanwhile, itâs a relaxing read ya finish feeling good about, a welcome respite in these often dark and strange days. Iâm looking forward to Baldreeâs next one, just delivered yesterday! A prequel called Bookshops & Bonedust, Yay! :) For more about L&L, DrLori posted on it 18 months ago; no real spoilers there, I thought, so enjoy!
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TheConversation has an article about a fiction and poetry course partnered with a climate science biology course to give students a combined arts&sciences handle on the environmental crisis.
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otherfutures.nl/uploads/documents/....pdf Le Guinâs carrier bag theory of fiction.
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dailykos from 2021: Romance-novelists-are-advocating-for-social-change-inside-and-outside-the-genre
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Blue Collar Babes is
a charity anthology [Format: Kindle Edition due out Oct 1, 2023] featuring ⊠stories from some of your favorite romance authors! We are so excited to be raising money for <big>Jobs with Justice</big>.., a labor rights organization in the United States, focused on the vision that all workers should be able to collectively bargain. 100% of the royalties from the sale of Blue Collar Babes will be donated to Jobs with Justice.
Aauugh, I dunt haz Kindle!! Must hope for a paperback edition later.
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Another mission/cause anthology: Stories of Survival: A Charity Anthology by Australian Speculative Fiction, Aug 2021, Deadset Press. Iâve read this one and recommend it: verrry interesting in several ways.
One is that the authorial outlook in each story is fascinatingly different from what Iâm used to with American work.
Iâve noticed this before in sf/f translated from several other languages, and in Canadian works, too. itâs like a window opening up in an entire wall that was invisible until right that moment!
Another element new to me: each authorâs bio paragraph acknowledges the indigenous culture on whose ancestral land the authorâs city or town of residence is located â a gesture of national acknowledgement and reconciliation I havenât seen anywhere else so far. Have you?
Iirc, I reached this book in following up on bonettiâs excellent action WriteOns try at this tag) that cited the 2019 Fight Like a Girl: Writing Fight Scenes for Female Characters by Aiki Flinthart. The proceeds of Stories of Survival go to the Melanoma Institute of Australia, to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of Aiki Flinthart, taken by cancer in early 2021. Clearly, her spirit carries on in the memory and wonderful work of all whom she taught, mentored, and loved. (https://www.aikiflinthart.com/)
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medscape asks How does Jack Reacher heal so fast? (no paywall but you may have to register, thatâs free too.)
Hollywood has a long history of its leading men and women being punched, kicked, stabbed, and shot without any of it slowing them down (here we must pay particular tribute to the courageous Black Knight of Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Jack Reacher is no different.
We thought it would be interesting to ask some emergency department physicians to compare "Reacher time" to real-life time for treatment and healing of Reacher's most notable injuries. The answers kick some butt of their own...
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âIâve only managed time to watch the first few minutes of this â it looks promising.
â
<big><big>CHALLENGE</big></big>:
Keep in mind that DK is a public space, so you may want to protect copyright of your intellectual property â and itâs commercial sale-ability â by using Characters, Sets & Props in the Quest for the Sacred Lost Jewel of Togwogmagog, and our other standard practice genres, rather than risk your own creations. Many of us have developed our own practice-sets of characters etc as another way to avoid exposure. Entirely up to every individual, of course.
Callow Youth and Stout Companion (or other protag team; you may need dialogue for this) come upon a jumbled cache of miscellany hidden long ago by a key character ⊠CY and SC are surprised by what they find.
Whatâd they find & why surprised? (How, where & when optional). Ready? Go!
Write On! will be a regular Thursday night diary (5pm leftkost, 8 pm Eastern) until it isnât.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors (&/or critters.org/c/pubtips.ht), Absolute Write, and/or Writer Beware.