What? It’s Write-a-thon time again already?
Sunday, June 21, begins the six week Write-a-Thon.
What is the Write-a-thon?
A fundraiser for the Clarion West writing workshop, which I attended in 2006.
Why do they need funds, anyway?
Clarion West is a nonprofit literary organization. Fundraisers such as the Write-a-thon help keep student costs down, and support the Clarion West mission to promote speculative fiction.
So what are you doing again?
The Write-a-thon is like a walk-a-thon or a dance-a-thon.
This year, my goals are to:
1. Write every day.
This is a discipline that I’ve managed during Write-a-thons and NaNoWriMos in the past, and I’ve always found it super-helpful. Basically, even if all I do is stare blankly at the screen for half an hour, it’s still poking the part of my brain that writes, and that helps me get more done overall.
2. Revise some short works and submit them.
I’ve been working on the Rougarou books and really neglecting my short fiction — even stuff that is finished and probably submittable is just sitting there on my computer, doing nothing. So I need to fix that. (For purposes of Write-a-thon goal #1, revising is the same as writing.)
3. Stop obsessively reading the comments on the File770 Hugo-related posts.
Seriously.
Additionally, I want to do some more blog posts about the Write-a-thon experience, since I really liked last year’s “What did I learn at Clarion West?” series:
Everybody gathers in the kitchen for a nice cup of tea
When in doubt, give everyone superpowers
The difference between plot and story
What did I learn at Clarion West?
What’s my part in all this?
Pledge money to Clarion West. I recommend donations in extremely lucky multiples of $13.
What do I get?
The knowledge that you are helping to bring more and better speculative fiction to the masses? The satisfaction of helping needy writers learn to write more entertaining stuff for you to enjoy?
Oh, and, Clarion West is a 501©(3) nonprofit, so that’s cool.
Bonus Prizes!
This year, your bonus prize is going to be an e-book of 2-3 illustrated stories, called Stories I Can’t Sell. I haven’t picked out which stories yet — that’s going to be part of goal #2. Basically, stuff that I think is worth reading, but that I don’t want to try to publish for whatever reason. You can also get Beach Reading or The Armageddon Triptych from previous years.
2 Comments
You must log in to post a comment.