United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Please Come See my New Site

adamtree — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:29:28 -0700

I have a new blog at Wordpress -- http://adamtree.wordpress.com/.
I hope everyone will come take a look. Be sure to comment if you visit.
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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

BFS Adventure Challenge

adamtree — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:59:35 -0800

It’s the beginning of a beautiful new year -- time to get into a beautiful new kind of trouble. I'm talking about the Office of Letters and Light's second annual Big, Fun, Scary Adventure Challenge.

The BFS (known at one time as TYWWBTBFSTT ) works like this: Participants come up with a list of things that they've long dreamed about doing, making, or being. Hard-nosed acts of practical skill-acquisition, such as becoming a ninja and learning to kill people with one's eyebrows. Or fantastical notions, such as going back to school and getting a degree in business administration.

Last year, some BFS participants used the challenge to complete a revision of their NaNoWriMo novels or write their first scripts through Script Frenzy. Many, however, ventured farther afield -- mastering foreign languages, taking classes in watercolor painting, starting blogs and learning to tango. They mended fences with estranged family members, explored the Amazon in dugout canoes, hiked the Great Wall of China, and made daunting leaps from soul-snuffing jobs to careers closer to their hearts.

To take part in this year’s challenge, you need to post at least one big, fun or scary goal for yourself in the BFS forum of the NaNoWriMo site. January is nearly half over already, so don't take long.

I’m still pondering what my goal should be. Should I read one hundred books? Go back to school? Become a CIA operative? Learn to swallow swords?

I look forward to hearing what everyone decides to take on. Whatever goals we choose, it's certain that 2008 will be a very interesting year.

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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

December is Decompression

adamtree — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:08:16 -0800

December is decompression. I’ve watched some movies, read a novel, spent time with family, shopped the seasonal sales, taken care of minor business related to West Texas Writers and FictionAddiction.NET and tried to recover from November’s adventure.

My family watched West Side Story. I don’t think that the children have ever seen a musical, and even though the Boy said the smootchy parts were boring they seemed to enjoy it.

I grew up listening to the Leonard Bernstein soundtrack on a record from my parents’ collection. I saw the movie once, but was too young to appreciate its social commentary and sarcasm.

A few months ago I purchased Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale through mail-order, but have only now made the time to read it. I expected contemporary, or perhaps literary, fiction; but was pleasantly surprised to find a Victorian-style tale of tragedy.

The book introduces us to a remarkably dysfunctional family, where each member is more tragic than the last. The narrative grips readers and pulls us toward an unavoidable and horrific ending. This one’s definitely a keeper.

I went to the department-store buy a new coat. I found a nice green one with a bit of fur trim around the hood – very warm. The store was packed with Holiday shoppers, and the lines at the registers were rather long. Standing in line I realized that I was repeatedly poking the purse of the woman in front of me with my coat’s hanger. Every time, she would grab her purse and adjust the shoulder strap. Eventually she moved to another line.

This put me behind another woman. After a couple of minutes, she jumped as if something had bitten her. My hanger was poking her in the rear.

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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

TGIO Event

adamtree — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:07:04 -0800

Our Thank God It’s Over Event will take place in conjunction with the December meeting of West Texas Writers. We will meet in Lynn Hall of the First Presbyterian Church in Midland, on the corner of Texas and A Streets, at 2pm on December 1. Fellow Wrimo Michelle Devon will be speaking.

After the meeting, we will retreat to Midland’s Barnes and Noble to enjoy coffee and excerpts of each other’s NaNovels. Bring a piece of your work to share.

Thank you so much for making this NaNoWriMo such a blessing. I look forward to seeing all of you at our TGIO Event.

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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Final Days

adamtree — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:11:11 -0800

Ah! the final heady days of November are upon us.

Congratulations to everyone who has participated this year. Even if you only wrote a few thousand words, that’s still a few thousand more than you would have. You accomplished something worthwhile.

You have been a part of something great - one of the world’s most enchanting art forms. Take a look at the collective word count on the front page of the site. You contributed. You helped make that number possible.

With the time that we have left, let’s make one final push. If you have 10,000 words, double it. If you have 20,000 words, attempt 30,000. If you have 30,000, you can make it to 40,000. And if you have 40,000, finish it.

But whatever you do, don’t give up! I know the after Thanksgiving temptation to throw your hands up and declare, “What’s the use in going on? I won’t make it to 50,000 anyway.” We can’t give in to that kind of thinking. We’ve made it this far. Now, we need to finish strong.

Allow me to share two of my favorite word count boosting tricks:

Introduce time travel into your NaNovel. Have a character or characters travel back in time to an earlier point in the story. You can retell what you’ve already written, adding the additional time-displaced characters to the narrative.

Retell one or more of your previous scenes from a different point of view. Do a scene again, but use the antogonist’s point of view rather than the protagonist’s. The action and dialogue stay pretty much the same. The point of view and internal dialogue change.

Both methods involve copying and pasting a large portion of text. Then make only the changes necessary. From my experience, you’ll need to rewrite about 40% of the material.

Your word count will thank you.

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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

November 17 Get Together?

adamtree — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:04:02 -0800

I'd love to get together with you guys on the evening of Saturday, November 17. I'm up for suggestions.
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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Midway Point

adamtree — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:23:01 -0800

Seven is the number of perfection, and this is my seventh year to participate in NaNoWriMo. This year was supposed to be perfect.

It got off to a rocky start when I didn't hear back from last year's local Wrimos after trying to contact them. I figured that it would be just me and Debbie this time. I didn't plan any get togehters for just the two of us. I didn't send Erin a headcount for NaNo goodies because I had no count to give. I set my sights on 50,000 words and began planning how to get there.

Then, chaos broke loose. My dad had an accident with his table saw, the NaNo site experienced multiple problems and people started signing up at the last minute. All of this was on top of the hectic schedule of my everyday routine.

I've learned many things from my involvement with NaNoWriMo. I should know by now that November never turns out quite how it seems at the first. Here I sit with more local participants than I know what to do with, a lagging word count and a whole slew of new challenges on the horizon.

It turns out that this NaNoWriMo is perfect after all. And it's precisely because of the chaos. This wild venture of writing 50,000 words in 30 days generates disaster. It's a natural by-product.

But it's that disaster that allows us to create so freely. Nothing here is exactly how we would like it to be – not the site, not the Mls, not the forums, not our stories, not our characters and certainly not our word counts. It shouldn't be. The novels we are creating are imperfect creatures, and they need their imperfect environment.

So what do we do with this perfect chaos? Write! Forget perfection. Forget criticism. Forget publishing. Forget the audience. Forget all of your standard assumptions about writing. That 50,000 word finish line is calling, and the only way to get there is to embrace the chaos, wholeheartedly throwing ourselves into something much bigger than any of us.

Write! One word after another. Write.
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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Thursday Quotes for Writers

Michelle_L_Devon — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:42:59 -0800

"The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write,write." ~Ernest Gaines~

"Writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth ..." ~Natalie Goldberg~

"What we call procrastination might well be incubation, and the importanceof prewriting--sorting things through, assimilating, making connections ..."~Henriette Anne Klauser~

Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing!

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Love and stuff,
Michy

United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Starting to get scared...

ryannims — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:28:14 -0800

So, when I started this year's story, I began writing by hand, and have various loose pieces of paper to be re-typed... Trouble is, I have not been able to find the motivation to re-type what I've already written... I've made progress (though haven't even typed to the 10,000 word mark) but I guess I just need to find the time and motivation to just type it all out (I'm guestimating that what I have hand-written would put me close to the 20K, 25K mark...)

Anyway, any thoughts on how to regain my excitement for this project?
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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Where's the West Texans?

Michelle_L_Devon — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 20:21:30 -0800

Hey, guys, my publisher is up in the Washington State area and their community forum is hopping. I come in here and nothing.

Where's our spirit here?

How many regional writers do we have?

Today is day 9 - I'm going to start posting pep posts and quotes every day... maybe someone will respond from our area?

Come on, writers!

We are known as redneck hicks down here in the desert of West Texas - let's get it together and show that there are some real creative and artistic types, real literature here!

Chat it up!

Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing!

Love and stuff,
Michy

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Love and stuff,
Michy

United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Week Two

adamtree — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:55:07 -0800

It's hard to believe that we are almost half-way through another NaNoWriMo. I've barely had time to catch my breath since the 1st. November has been a month of family emergencies, personal crisis, employment issues, computer problems and plumbing-related disasters.

If past experience is any guide, your month has been similar. But in spite of it all, we have written. We have created. We have spent long hours staring at monitor screens until our eyes hurt. Our fingers cramp, our family members worry about our sanity and our friends wonder if we haven't left the country.

Your word count should be approaching 25,000. If it's not, don't fret. There's still plenty of time to make it to the glorious and satisfying end of 50,000 beautiful words. Just keep going.

Week two is the most difficult time of NaNo. It's the long wasteland in which many NaNovelists fall away, loosing sight of the literary promised land of NaNo Winnership. Stories languish, plots reveal their flaws, characters fall flat and dialogue reads like a second-rate soap opera script.

But, I promise, if you'll just stick with it things will get better. Your characters will begin doing interesting things, a story will begin to take shape and that 50,000 word finish line will prove to be much closer than you think.

Here's to the Week Two Doldrums. May they push us on to greater heights than previously imagined!
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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Tuesday's Quote for Writers

Michelle_L_Devon — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:31:35 -0800

"A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author." ~G.K. Chesterton
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Love and stuff,
Michy

United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Monday's Inspiration Quotes for Writers

Michelle_L_Devon — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:32:17 -0800

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." -- E.L. Doctorow

"A writer's apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he's almost ready to begin." -- David Eddings

"Never save anything for your next book, because that possible creation may not be properly shaped to hold the thoughts you're working with today. In fiction especially, anything that could happen, should happen." -- Tam Mossman

"The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story—and then your story!" --Ford Madox Ford

"The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense." -- Tom Clancy
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Love and stuff,
Michy

United States :: Texas :: Odessa

NaNo Mail I sent to my buddies today...

Michelle_L_Devon — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:46:02 -0800

... I sent this to everyone on my buddy list today, but I thought I'd put it here, in case someone in my area wasn't on my buddy list for some reason.

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This is the week in which NaNoWriMo seems to lose the most writers in this month's challenge.

People get to this point and they see all the other word counts around them, and they see theirs may be a bit less than the others, or they are behind the average needed to finish, and they just give up.

Is this you?

If so, let me tell you something...

Let's say you don't hit 50k by the end of November....

So what?

If you only hit 10K, that's 10 thousand more words into a novel than you had before you started. That's quite an accomplishment, especially if you are a new writer.

Don't look at it as losing the challenge.

Look at it as attempting to create something great, and getting one step closer to the reality of finishing a book!

Plus, I've been known on a good day to write 10 thousand words in a novel when I hit the flow... in one day!

You may be lagging behind your goal, but you never know when the story, if you will just keep writing it, will just take off on its own, and you'll not only catch up, but surpass what you thought you could do!

My first NaNo challenge, I did not complete. I got to 30K and stopped. But about three months later, I picked that novel up and finished it. It's sitting on a publisher's desk right now, waiting to see if it will get a contract or not. We'll see - but if I'd just 'given up' because I didn't hit 50k in the challenge, it would be a dead manuscript now.

Please - whatever you do, on target or not, DON'T STOP WRITING!

This is a pivotal # week - you should be at or very close to 20 thousand words today. Many of you are already there - congratulations!

If anyone needs anything, holler at me!

Love and stuff,
Michy

Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing!

Never surrender!

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I'll be hitting 50k today!

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Love and stuff,
Michy

United States :: Texas :: Odessa

NaNo Fundraising

adamtree — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:45:33 -0800

I would like to encourage everyone to make a donation if you haven't already done so. Donations to the Ofiice of Letters and Light are what funds NaNo and the Young Writers Program. Every little bit helps, so don't worry about the size of your donation. Just give.

Also, please visit my funraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/jameswoods. I strongly encourage everyone to set up their own page. Click the link that says "I want a page like this." It's quick and easy.

When you create your page, join the Ink Well WriMos team. (It's the best name I could come up with on short notice.) By joining the team, we can see the combined results of our effort.

Thanks.
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United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Different Hats

Michelle_L_Devon — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:16:30 -0800

Okay, I've taught a few creative writing workshops in my time, and one of the things that I regularly tell my participants is that in order to write well and write fast, you have to learn not to self edit as you write.

You see, writing and editing are two different things - they each activate very different parts of the brain, and require a different subset of skills to perform each task.

Our brains are amazing things, but it's much like a computer needs to be defragged regularly so that it stays at optimal performance, our brains need to be defragged sometimes too.

So here's a little exercise I do with my participants.

Get yourself two different hats. Yes, hats you wear on your head, and put on your writer's hat when you sit down and write.

Every time you switch from writing to editing, take the writer's hat off and switch to the editors hat. When you start writing again, stop and switch hats again.

After a few times of doing this, you're going to physically see how very much time it takes from your writing to 'switch hats' in a literal sense. So.... don't you think that it's slowly you down in a figurative sense too?

instead - do this:

Put on your writer's hat and write!

When you're finished, take that hat off and put on your editor's hat and edit.

Don't switch back and forth between the two.

The best writing comes from when you are in the flow, when you are typing so fast but your fingers can barely keep up with the story that is bursting to get out of you.

Do you really think you're going to get into that flow if you're worried about "Did I spell that right? Did I end that sentence with a preposition?"

Yeah - I think not.

Write, write, write.

Stop.

Edit, edit, edit.

If you do this, you'll not only write better and faster, but you'll edit better and faster too - and the finished product is a better book!

Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing!

Love and stuff,
Michy

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Love and stuff,
Michy

United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Help! My Characters are Holding Me Hostage

Michelle_L_Devon — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 20:24:27 -0800

Please help me.

If anyone can read this message, I am being held hostage by two men named Brent and Bradey.

They refuse to let me go until they make me sit and listen to this story that has a working title of Twin Trinity - they won't let me sleep... they keep jabbering away in my ear, and at 3:00 last night, they threatened me that if I didn't start writing right away, terrible things were going to happen.

I have fallen in love with this book - and I have fallen in love with both the lead characters. When this one is put to bed, I'm going to mourn the loss of Bradey and Brent. In the meantime, it's a damned shame you can't make love to a book.

I mean, well, I guess you could, but the paper cuts would probably hurt a bit.

To be a good writer, I think you do have to feel your characters like this - THAT is what makes good writing, when the writer truly feels it, when the story grabs the writer and takes off on its own.

Perhaps that's why I could never writer horror.

I would literally scare myself to death.

I remember one night, I was writing in one of my manuscripts, a book with the working title The Missing File, and there was this stalking incident in the book, and the more I wrote, the more paranoid I became. I had to get up and check the front and back doors to make sure they were locked. Every sound made me jump, and I ended up with this weird, panicky feeling - sitting on the couch, rocking back and forth.

Of course, it didn't help any that about 10 minutes after I sat on the couch, the electricity went off in the house.

I flipped. I wouldn't even go outside to see if it was the breaker box, because, what if someone was out there and had flipped the breakers on purpose, just to get me to come outside alone?

I'm telling you - I was totally tripping that night.

Ended up being a neighborhood outtage - a big chunk of the city was without power that night, but I was still freaking out.

I love writing.

I love getting lost in the story, feeling the characters breathing down my neck, feeling their pain, writing it, creating it, and then making it all better. I love choosing who lives and who dies. I love deciding if someone is going to fall in love or if they are going to have their heart broken.

Not only that, but I decide what they wear, how they look, what they eat for breakfast, and I even can decide when they go to the bathroom.

Maybe it's a bit of a goddess complex I have, to literally, or maybe literarily, control an entire life - world - universe... and I CREATE FATE!

Perhaps it's because so much of my own life I have been out of control - things I couldn't change but wanted to, happy endings that eluded me, broken hearts that didn't heal, dreams unfulfilled.... and my writing, my writing let me change all that. I could, through my writing, right what was wrong, fix what was broken, and exact justice and sometimes even revenge on those who had misunderstood and abused me, used me, hurt me.

And now - living a dream, seeing dreams fulfilled, heart mended, happy, content, peaceful, and sharing all that with some amazing people in my life, I have come full circle - I have experienced to the fullest both ends of the spectrum, and not only am I better person for having experienced it all - I am a better writer.

42,000 words plus and counting.

Love and stuff,
Michy

Quotes for Writing - All My NaNo Adventure Friends Enjoy!

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." --Walter Wellesley Smith

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." --E.L. Doctorow

"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say." --Sharon O'Brien

"Easy reading is damn hard writing." --Nathaniel Hawthorne

"If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad." --Lord Byron
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Love and stuff,
Michy

United States :: Texas :: Odessa

Welcome to NaNoWriMo 2007!

adamtree — Thu, 4 Oct 2007 17:54:20 -0700

Greetin's, Fellow WriMos.

I'm so excited to be back for another year; I can hardly contain myself.

I will making a presentation on NaNoWriMo at the October 6 meeting of West Texas Writers (http://www.westtexaswriters.org/index.html). The meeting will be at 2:00 in Lynn Hall of First Presbyterian Church, 800 W. Texas in Midland (corner of Texas and A Streets). Everyone is invited. Please come fellowship and support NaNo.

-James Woods
ML, Midland/Odessa
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