There's a jumble of things I'll be talking about today:
- A review of Jeff Goins' booklet
- An update on my writing (News!)
- An update on what Write Wednesday of next week will be (!!)
First, an update on my writing -- Camp NaNo is complete and while I'm mulling over another novel project for November's NaNoWriMo, a short story idea that I've held onto for a while is resurfacing. I did some research yesterday (found some helpful stuff on plotting short stories here) and came up with five sci-fi/fantasy magazines that accept new work.
So, this month, my goal is to write a 5,000 word short story and next month I'll be revising it so that by the time November NaNo is over I can start sending the manuscript out. I'll keep you posted on how it does, and we will also be discussing parts of it (First Line Friday?) and I might even share some of the critiques I get, along with some more fun (FREE?) stuff. :D Stay tuned...
I'm also writing three movie reviews -- The Amazing Spiderman, The Dark Knight Rises and Marvel's The Avengers. I've seen them all twice and discussed them several times with friends. I love all three and am so happy we finally have high-quality philosophical/psychological/political superhero films that can be discussed like literary classics. (I will be posting links to these reviews once completed)
I'm still going to be working on a re-vamp of a classic story with my friend Stephanie and will be plotting my November NaNo novel early next month. Lots of writing to do! Quite exciting!
Second, my review of Jeff Goins' booklet, Every Writer Needs a Tribe: A Practice Guide to Finding (and Writing for) Your Audience (The Digital Writer):
Mr. Goins, once again, proves to be a kick in the pants to every author wannabe -- this time helping us discover how to build a platform (and which kind is best), draw an audience, and be a better writer. I love the tone of his books -- I've read two and they're always loaded with information but you don't come away with that heavy feeling of having consumed too much pizza (or too many hotdogs, as I did last night. Ugh.).
There's so much practical advice you could probably learn something new every time if you read Jeff's book each day for a week. Or maybe a month. Networking, building an audience, and creating a great little plot of space on the internet are all discussed in this book and even if you aren't a full time writer but want to be a better blogger, this book is worth a read (or two).
Some interesting things popped into my head whilst reading Jeff's book -- I'm blogging right now for a few people (including myself), in an attempt to reach ANYONE, but if I really want to get myself out there, I don't need to cater to EVERYONE. I need to find the people like me who share my interests -- YA Fiction (writing and reading). So, with that in mind, I'll be re-tooling my blog (still keeping Write Wednesdays and First Line Fridays -- but the reviews and focus of the blog will be pointed right at YA Fiction instead of bouncing all over the place), maybe even changing locations. We'll see. I'm trying to figure out all the little details at the moment.
Third and last, next week I'll be sharing an interview with a playwright friend of mine -- we'll discuss writing (she also writes stories in novel form) and a bunch of other cool reader/writer stuff. Look for it next Wednesday!
Keep reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment