It's Time for Camp!

And, by camp, I mean Camp NaNoWriMo.

Most of us know about NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. In the month of November, writers sign up to take on the challenge of writing fifty-thousand words in thirty days. Fewer folks, however, know about Camp NaNoWriMo. Basically, same rules, different months.  This year, Camp will take place during June and August. So, if you've always put off NaNoWriMo because November is too chaotic, consider that excuse a toasted marshmallow.

Now, you're probably wondering why you should participate. I mean, you can write 50k any month of the year, right? Very true. Most serious writers do crank out a heavy word count without any NaNoWriMo badges as a reward. However, if you're like me, a deadline always helps to control the inner procrastinator. I'm the type of person who winces when I get an extension, because I know that my inner procrastinator has just been given permission to take a play-break.

So, the pressure of having thousands of other writers working their fingers to the bones during the same month? That stirs up my competitive side and makes me want to finish a project.

If you're like me, and you sometimes need the peer-pressure push, then visit campnanowrimo.org and sign up for one or both of the Summer challenges. (Also, as a side note, the forums at nanowrimo.org, the mother ship, as it were, are fun places for writers of all ages, in all stages of their careers. Check them out.)

-Ariyana
(busyprocrastinator.blogspot.com)

P.S. You can find me at either site under my author name, ADSpencer, if you want a friend or cabin buddy.

Writing Buddies

I have a writing buddy. I do. Technically, I have two, but there's one I turn to more often than not. AD Spencer(everyone wave hi!). I think I go through every step of every story I ever write with her, and I do this on a daily basis. I mean, from little flashers (stories under 1000 words) to novel plans. She knows everything. And likewise, she does the same with me.

And that got me thinking... not everyone has a writing buddy. I find that kind of tragic. I mean, sure there are some cons to it (ones that rarely bother me, if at all), but the pros far outweigh it if you have a proper buddy. And I'm a glass half full kind of person, so I'll start with the pros.

Pro #1: If you've established a tell all honesty policy, they can often stop you in your tracks before you write yourself into stupidity. We've all had ideas we've questioned somewhere along our prose. Having a buddy that's well versed in your style is so incredibly useful when it comes to getting the answer to the ever-important question: "Does this sound dumb to you?" Or it's popular variation: "Does this make any sense at all?" Now, AD and I are best friends as well as writing buddies so we know we're not out to hurt each other. But sometimes, we fudge the truth. Not a lot. Just enough so that the other can tell what we really mean. (She can pop in here and tell me if I'm wrong about the fudging). I'll discuss that more under my cons.

Pro #2: Editing. We've all had to do it, and we all hate it. Or, at least, we hate it when it comes to our own stuff. (I actually don't mind editing other people's works). And sometimes editing our own stuff makes us miss mistakes because our eyes are tricky devils who like to see things the way we want them to, instead of the way they are. This is where having a writing buddy is especially helpful. They don't know how you meant to write it; they only see the typos you've loaded it down with. And that's great because then they can tell you where they are and suggest another round of edits altogether. This also works in the case of continuity errors (which can occur even in short stories, believe me).

Pro #3: Having a writing buddy--especially one with as much on his/her plate as you--can be a stress reducer. It's great to exchange rants on how scenes aren't working, characters aren't fleshing out, or on the things that are keeping you away from the story when all you want to do is write (this may only apply to those who aren't hermits w/ wifi and if you are a hermit with wifi you are truly blessed). After having a long rant with AD either via phone or chat, I often feel pumped and ready to write where before I might have felt like crawling back into bed. And on that subject...

Pro #4: Cheerleader. This one basically speaks for itself, but to clarify just a bit... it helps a whole friggin' lot when you've got someone constantly telling you "you can do it."

Pro#5: Memories. Okay, hear me out on this one. I'm a girl who likes to laugh. In fact, I love to laugh. I would go so far as to list laughing as one of my hobbies. I find irony hilarious, love stand-up comedians, and I love to be nostalgic and look back on past instances where I've nearly busted a gut. But, in writing, the stuff that cracks you up not everybody gets. For example, you find a typo in a line of dialogue that accidently has your oh-so-innocent character shouting a swearword. That's funny to you, but try to share that with a loved one that isn't a writer or isn't up to speed with your writing. You have to explain why it's funny before you even get to the funny part. And to quote a favorite fictional character, the Joker, "If you have to explain the joke, then there is no joke!" But with an up-to-date writing buddy, all you have to do is quote the typo, and they laugh right along with you. Good times. (PS, as if you couldn't guess, totally don't own the Joker, just quoting).

Pro#6: Competitor. Now, this one can double as a con depending on how vicious you are. I mean this in a fun light-hearted sense. AD and I like to call it "throwing down the gauntlet." And we set punishments if certain things are met. For example, she too is a fanfiction writer--for leisure and fun like myself. And we both decided to do fanfiction NaNoWriMo 2010. So we set a challenge. We had to finish, or for every section of 5k-10k we didn't finish, we had a punishment. For us, it was writing fanfictions about things we hated. We had a different one for each 5k up until 50k--where your reward was finishing NaNoWriMo. I'll tell you, that's probably the reason I finished last year. I knew she would hold me to the challenge--as I would to her. AD once told me that she got the idea from reading about another set of writing friends who set the goals of submitting so much a week to publishers. By the end of the week, whoever lost had to buy the round of drinks when they went out. The fanfiction punishment was our poor-man's answer. But you know what? It did its job. Talk about motivating.

Now that I'm done with the pros, let's do cons, shall we?

Con #1: Fudging the truth. This one can be a huge obstacle. Now, because of how well AD and I know one another, we can tell when we're being nicer than what we really mean. For example, I'm also a fanfiction writer--for leisure and practice, as stated above. And I was discussing an idea for an upcoming scene in one said fanfiction. When I had finished and asked what she thought, she replied with a tight, "Yeah... good. But you need to play it just right." I heard the tones underlying it. And when I was of a saner mind, I re-examined the scene. Yeah, I chucked it. This is a good thing when it comes to me and AD. However, if you don't have this relationship with your writing buddy (or group, I suppose these could apply to as well) then this is a major con. Honesty is a must. And if not honesty, then a good feeling for subtext. This also couples with the idea of letting your buddy know that you can be told that something was bad or needed to be changed without running to a corner, sobbing hysterically.

Con #2: Time. It takes time to read stuff. That's just a fact. And it takes time to edit. And if your buddy is as crunched for time as you are, that proposes a problem. Remember that the world doesn't revolve around you and your epic story so you won't pester your buddy to death about reading something by a certain time. Now, requesting that they have it done within a certain span is all right so long as you can understand--likewise--that that may not be possible. Speaking of not revolving around you...

Con #3: Listening. Now, I don't mean having to listen to your buddy is an over-all con. I enjoy listening and working out ideas on works not my own. I enjoy being supportive and encouraging. And that's my point. If you don't enjoy these things, then you're probably best left alone. Having a writing buddy means being one, and if you don't want to be one then it's simply not fair.

Con#4: Competition. See above for the positive side to this. The negative competition comes in the form of both you and your buddy writing and submitting at the same time. Sometimes it's hard to be truly happy for a buddy when they got the spot in the anthology and you didn't. But if you can truly be happy for them, then good for you! (I'll add that it helps if the buddy has been a longtime personal friend as well). Also, if you have any sort of insecurities, that comes into play here. You might feel overshadowed or that they're just better at getting the work done than you. These are things that you need to discuss in earnest with yourself. Odds are though, your buddy feels the same way about you. But if you can't work past this, then, again, it's probably best to go it alone.


And that's it. I can't think of any more cons. But, looking back over this list, I still feel that--for me at least--the pros outweigh them. If anyone has more pros, or cons, feel free to comment and let me know! Hope this little insight into writing buddies helped. Until next time!


--Originally posted on my writing blog on my site here.

Characters: What's in a Name?

Have you ever been writing along, really into your story, and then, all of a sudden, you stop. Bewildered, you start scrolling back up your document, desperately checking. Then you realize: the name you were going to use for the character you just created you've already given to some throw-a-way background character.

Yeah, it happens. And one thing is for sure: DO NOT under ANY circumstances give your MC (main character) the same, or a similiar, name to someone else in the story, throwaway character or not. It's some advice I came across one day--and I would link you to the article, but I honestly can't remember where it was--and it makes complete and utter sense to me. After all, do you want to confuse your readers, on which the balance of success and failure hangs on just as equally--if not more--than you? Heck no.

However, I'm sure that many of you have come across the tiny problem this little rule creates. There are probably an infinite number of names in the world. And if it's not infinite, it's pretty damn close. But we aren't omniscient. We, as perfectly fallible creatures, run out of names! I've done it, my best friend has done it, and I'm pretty sure you have too. So what to do? Do you stretch your horizons and maybe give your MC--or any character--a name that may not match their ethinicity, country of origin, etc.? Well, sure, you can do that. There's nothing stopping you. Except that, unless you just leave it like that God-awful giant elephant in the corner of your living room, you have to give a good reason for your character to have that name.

"Hi, my name is Fatima. I was born and raised to Irish Immigrants in the United States."


See what I mean? Now, Fatima is a perfectly good name. In fact, I've always liked the way it sounded--don't ask, I don't have a good answer to that. But I think it's safe to assume that your adverage joe would think, "Huh? Wonder why?" And they might get a little peeved if no answer is provided. It doesn't have to be an elaborate one, if you go this route of naming, but it has to be believable.

So maybe you decide that you've thought up enough for your character's world, and you just want a name that you like the sound of, has no real special meaning to the plot at hand, and that you haven't used a million times before (I'm guilty of all three of these, by the way). What do you do?

I hit the naming problem early into my writing adventures--which began in the 8th and has since improved greatly, I think. I came up with a solution that might be obvious to some, not so much to others, and got me a lot of really weird looks from my teachers. I bought a baby name book. A whole book of names, meanings, origins, and if you really shell out the bucks, the year they first came into usage. I was in the ninth grade by the time I had my first baby name book... can you guess how often I had to answer with, "No, I'm not pregnant."

And if you don't want to put out the money, there's always the internet. Anymore, this is the medium I use to find names. I'm usually typing out my stories, so it's already right there at my fingertips. I offer only one bit of advice for this otherwise great way to find names: do some double checking. If you find a name you like on one sight, try to find it on a few others if you want to use it for a specific time period or meaning. If you're just using it because you like the way it sounds, then by all means, just stop when you find it.

Other than that, I have only one other suggestion for finding names to use: mix and match the names of people you know or have known in your lifetime. My best friend started me on this. We both generally try not to use exact names of people we know--just in case they don't like their character or the fact that you didn't ask for their name--but we do take two people we've known and used the first name of one, and the surname of the other. Old classmates, co-workers, distant relatives, or even names you catch on a cemetery's tombstone (yes, done this too) can work.

And now that I've shared all my methods on getting new names, I wish to ask: what are some of yours? Got any new tips for me? Feel free to comment and let me know!

I'm off to go tackle this problem at this very moment. But, as a parting gift, here's the link to a website I use quite often for names: www.behindthename.com


Until next time! This is Patricia from the Guild! Viva la quill!


--originally posted on my personal writing blog on my site here.

Yet Again...

We're busy, busy, guys, so we have to apologize for not being here, issuing challenges and whatnot. I actually did a post about character names on my website here, but I might copy/paste it as a post here, as it is helpful advice--I think.

Meanwhile, Ariyana has turned her blog into her writing site here. And the both of us have been redesigning our blogs including my personal one here and my craft one here. Please, take the time to drop in and check those out.

I'll also hope that you've noticed the slide at the upper, lefthand corner of the blog. Those prettyful covers? Yeah,either Ariyana, myself, or both have been published in those books! If you have any book covers that are that of anthologies you've been published in--or novels, novellas, etc. that you've had published--let me know and I'll add you to the GFQ slide!

Also, I know we were promising vlogs, but things have kind of been topsy-turvy in all the Guildmistress's lives, so maybe we'll get some out in the near future. But, if you have a writing related vid you'd like to see up, let me know and we'll get that worked out to be put up on our youtube channel.

Now, going back to the redesigned blogs. It's been so long here, so how about some change? I open the floor. Got any suggestions?

With that, I'm signing off.

And, as always, viva la quill!

First Video Up!

It's only a little intro, but our first video is up over at our youtube channel! Please subscribe and comment!

View it here!

Challenge Twenty-Six : Horror Flash Fiction

See full details here!

But here's the skinny:

In 500 words or less, write a horror flash fiction--which, by definition, is a whole story in only 500 words!

Is is difficult? Is it challenging? You betcha. But is it crazy fun?

Hell yeah.

So, this, as you can see from the link above, is inspired by a contest that is open to all authors--published or not--and there are even cash prizes. For the sake of the Guild, you don't have to submit, but if you get one done, why not? If you need any help on what to do should you want to, feel free to contact either myself or Slinky, who have both done this process for a little while now.

Deadline: The link says July, but for this challenge, how about the end of Feb? After all, the earlier you get it in, the better.

Happy writing and viva la quill!

Winter News: Upcoming Vlog, Challenges, and More

I hope each and every one of you enjoyed your holiday, followers of the Quill. In order to revive our precious Guild, your friendly Guildmasters have planned out a jam-packed Winter.

Guildmaster, Kimmi Gray, has talked Patricia and me into a Youtube vlog--can you believe it? In the vlog we shall be recognized by our nicknames Blitz (Kimmi), Squeak (Patricia), and Slinky (Ariyana--that's me). The first video will be a quick intro, but from there we'll be updating with helpful hints for fellow writers, challenges, and useless off-subject nonsense. Videos will be posted on a Guild channel, then, likely, uploaded onto the blog. Hope you all enjoy.

Upcoming challenges will be issued soon enough. For the original fiction and poetry challenges, we'll be listing publishers as well who might be interested in your content.

What's the "More"? Well, how would you feel about updates on our publishing successes and failures? We're also planning to provide you with info on some of our favorite Indie presses and useful websites.

Until next time,
Viva la Quill,

Ariyana

Apologies from the Guildmasters...

We're all still active here, whether we're posting or not. But Ariyana and I do have to apologize for the lack in updates. We're both busy trying to get our writing careers off the ground, find day jobs, and I'm personally planning a wedding.

The good news is this: both Ariyana and I have stuff published out in the world now, and I'd like to say that ALL of the challenges are still open, with the exception of the "submit something to a publisher this month" challenge in June. But, if you have started to work on your own writing careers, drop by and give us a shout!

Fanfiction, original fiction, and poetry shall always be constantly being produced. August is a little busy for the two Guildmasters here, but we'll try our best to get out--and actually do--a challenge for September. Until then, make sure your inkwells are full, and your quills as sharp as your wit!


Patricia
Department of Backstory





Viva la Quill

Challenge Twenty-Five: June's Challenge

Okay, so I know that nobody's been real active on this site recently. Which, believe me, I get. I mean, I haven't been here in a while either. The challenges have gone nearly neglected with several birthday challenges left to be done. But I have fallen off the challenge wagon myself.

So, here's what I'm going to do. First, I'm going to issue a new challenges (details to follow in a moment) and secondly, I'm reopening all old challenges. That's right! Even the ones that were met! So folks, look back through our archives and pick a challenge. When finished, post here to tell is what challenge you did and if you posted it somewhere, leave us a link.

Now, as for June's challenge... this one is a whopper, in its own way. Now is a time for action. If you recall in a previous post, I mentioned duotrope.com and its deadline calendar. Here's the challenge: pick a deadline, write a story to meet it, and submit. That's it! Now, Ariyana and I have both already submitted stuff this month. So, and I'm sure she won't mind since we both have several deadlines we'll be meeting this month, we won't considered this challenged finished on our parts until we submit another.

The deadline? The 30th of this month. Once you've submitted, comment here and tell us all about your experience!

Good luck, everyone!


Patricia
Department of Backstory



Viva la Quill

Ariyana's Birthday Challenge

What? Two Guild updates in one day? Indeed, my friends. Indeed.

My 23rd birthday is April 3rd, this upcoming Saturday, so I guess it's about time for me to set my own birthday challenge. I'm going to give you guys a few different things to choose from, so free free to take whatever plot bunny you like and run wild with it.

In the category of Fanfiction:

• Winchesters in Castlevania/Dracula's castle.
  

Ok, so if you don't know what Castlevania is, than you could just set this in Dracula's castle and work with your own monsters. But you really have to know Supernatural for this one. I want the Winchester boys to find themselves in the bowels of Castlevania. There's plenty of material in the show for you to use to explain why/how they got there. I want to see my giant, shotgun toting cuties kicking butt and taking species name. Does Dracula have an evil plan for Sam? Is Dean having to fight his way through to get to his brother? Or vice versa? Is John there? Is there a kinky succubus scene? It's all up to you. . .

• Hermione and the Movement for Wraith Rights

Harry Potter/ Stargate: Atlantis crossover. I have a hard time finding fun SGA/HP xovers to read, so I'd love to see one written by one of you guys. My bunny for this one is that Hermione somehow finds out about the wraith and tries to find a way to help fight them without eliminating them. My only requirement would be for Todd the Wraith to appear, either as a special guest star or the main wraith character. Any pairings or subplots you want here. It could be a chapter story or a little "first encounter" drabble.

In the category of Original Fiction:

• Mythology
  

Pick any mythology that you like (Greek, Sumerian, Egyptian, Native American) and write a story where one of the myths is mirrored in a modern day world. Perhaps someone realizes the connection and the story goes supernatural, or maybe the story itself is made up original characters who are playing out the ancient stories of Athena and Poseidon or Seth and Osiris. If you don't want to write a story, you could write a poem comparing events in a life to events in a myth. Have fun--the sky's the limit.

In the category of Art Manipulations:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets the Universal Monsters.
  

Basicially what it sounds like, draw or manipulate pictures/comics/movie stills of Buffy or her crew meeting a Universal monster. If you're manipulating, they should probably be in black and white or in a tonal color, depending on the movie you're using. I think it would be great to work on a series of these manipulations/renderings for all the monsters :D


Ok, so that's your mission, if you choose to accept one. Enjoy! Can't wait to see what you turn out. Make sure you link the story/art/poem in the comments (however, if you don't want to post your original story online for publishing reasons, just email me a copy so that I can read and enjoy). Have fun!

Script Frenzy Begins Tomorrow!

For those of you adore the wacky insanity that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), you might enjoy their sister event SCRIPT FRENZY! And, boy, is 'frenzy' and appropriate word choice for this event. Here's the basic run-down as copy and pasted from their site, scriptfrenzy.org:

The Challenge	Write 100 pages of original scripted material in the 30 days of April. (Screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, and graphic novels are all welcome.)
When	April 1-30
Cost	Free. We run on donations.
Who	Everyone (worldwide) is welcome. No experience required.
Prizes	Happiness. Creative juices. Pride. Laughter. Bragging rights. A brand-new script.
How	Sign up! Prepare with our Writer's Resources. Get ready to start writing on April 1.

Now, even if you're not going to be a part of the event itself, it might be valuable for you future script writers to check out the site because there are great resources to be found, especially in the forum. I'm signed up, but due to the number of Spring deadlines I need to work on (and my lack of scripting knowledge), I'm not sure if I'll be able to fully participate. However, I do plan on starting a graphic novel script in April for the event (because I've been wanting to try my hand at it for a long time now). Wish me luck--better yet, join me!

http://scriptfrenzy.org/

The Wonders of Duotrope

Just thought I'd share this little bit of joy with you fellow wannabe published writers out there. I came across a wonderful place one day while I was researching trying to get short stories published. Though an associated content article, I found duotrope.com... which, get this, lists a whole frickin' bunch of publishers out there for poetry, flash fiction, short storys, and upwards... and how or whether they pay.

And what's even better? Slinky discovered an awesome feature to the site that is at its top called "Deadline Calender" that lists all sorts of deadlines for submissions and whether what the publisher is looking for is themed or not.

Folks, this makes submitting a little bit easier. In fact, Slinky and I have both submitted stories already. It doesn't make publishing any easier, but at least you don't have to worry over what market to send your Sci-fi story to... it's easily found. And writing to try and meet deadlines is a great way to up your production, and maybe your pocket.

Challenge Twenty-Four

Okay, folks! A new challenge for you to work on. Just a reminder, we also have both birthday challenges still open, plus our Women's History challenge. Now, this challenge is called the "What if" challenge. The rules are like this:

• Pick one of the following "what if" scenarios and write a one-shot (or chapter length, if inspiration should strike you) that plays out the scene.
• The scenarios are as follows:

From Harry Potter: What if Lupin had apologized to Snape (for all the bullying) the night before Snape killed Dumbledore?

From Supernatural: What if the Impala had an all 4 tire blowout in the middle of nowhere?

From Vampire Hunter D: What if D got to speak with his mother again?

From Batman (either Nolanverse or The Animated Series): What if the Joker saved Batman?

From Darkwing Duck: What if the villains made Morgana's wedding guest list?

• The due date for this challenge is April 10, 2010

Have fun!

Patricia's Birthday Challenge

Okay, I am so behind on Kimmi's challenge. Good thing she didn't give us a deadline. Good news, though... I've at least gotten it started! A whole paragraph + 2 lines of dialogue! But it's coming. That being said... let's add another challenge to the mix. Mine. :)

Here's what I've cooked for all you:

1. I've had the Joker on my mind recently. No, he's not always there... but he's moved there recently. So, one of your choices is this: I would like a Joker fic where he finally gets a win on Batman. Now, he doesn't have to kill him. But he can. It can be comedy, or it can be angst/drama... or whatever. I don't want slash. Just, surprise me. The Joker version I have in mind is that of the 1992's Animated Series. However, I'll accept Nolanverse Dark Knight Joker as well, for I love them both. None of this "The Batman" or Brave and the Bold crap.
2. I LOVE crossovers! So, here's the deal. I'm gonna list here a few of my fave male characters from different fandoms and a few fave female characters from different fandoms. You choose the pairing, but the two must not be from the same 'verse. And the pairing doesn't have to be romantic, or even friendship. It could just be random meeting. And the newer the crossover to me, the better :). ('Verses in paraenthesis) Here's a few males: Snape (HP), Andrew (Buffy/Angel), Darth Vader, Alucard (Castlevania), Joker ('cause, why not?), House (House, MD... duh, right?). Here's a few females (verse repeats due to lack of females in some: Dawn (Buffy), Tonks (HP), Harley Quinn, Leia (Star Wars), Poison Ivy, Hermione.
3. And lastly, for those of you are graphically inclined, I would like a rendering of either Jade Snape from the RPG World's Clash or Mia from Girls' Night Out.

So, hope that wasn't too much for anybody. And if anyone chooses to draw the picture(s), I'd be more than happy to help with any description problems that may occur. Like Kimmi's, I'm giving no deadline... well, maybe have it done before my next B-day, huh? LOL

A Question for Guild Members...

Hi, Quillers! This is just a quick little post to ask all of you a question. I know that we are a writing group, but I was wondering...

Many of our members also do art. Some draw, some do photo manipulations, some do crafts, some do all of the above and/or more. So, I thought that I could start one of those new-fangled group thingies (ie, groups, LOL) at deviantart for any GFQ related art. And I know the day is coming where that will exist. Soon... mwahahahahaha...

So, post a comment because I'd love to know!

PatriciaLouise

Viva la Quill