Pages For Small Wages
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Showing posts tagged writing
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The Wandering Scribe
It’s amazing the things scribes find when they go walk-about.
Welcomes to the Pages for Small Wages tumblr site.
Pardon the confusion while we figure out where to put the manuscript desks and the printing press.
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What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
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So many Acronyms and Trade Terms, so little time.
Yes, words and their meanings are important. I bring this up because I’ve heard and read writers tossing about the phrase “Indie” lately, as in “I’m an Indie writer.”
I’m Sorry? Say What?
To me, “Indie” means an “independently owned and operated brick & mortar” business. It can be any size business and their product can be anything; books, clothier, deli, restaurant, mechanic, hardware, etc…
It doesn’t mean that the bookstore prints all the books it sells or that the clothier makes all their own cloth.
In regard to our chosen “craft” -
An “Indie” publisher doesn’t have to be a large press, but it does need to have the same capabilities and offer the same services they do… even if it is scaled down. I won’t join the debate over large/small press issues here and now.
As to authors, we’re all Independent. We write; whether it is the only thing we do depends upon how successful (or rich) we are. We may or may not have or use an agent or be solely published by one “house.”
But unless we’re supported by a staff of under-writers and researchers and editors, we are independent… not Indie.
Besides, I fail to see how a writer can be an ‘independently owned and operated brick & mortar business’… which is, after all, the accepted definition in our industry of the term “Indie.”
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Banned Books Week 2010 is the twenty-ninth annual celebration of the freedom to read. This freedom, not only to choose what we read, but also to select from a full array of possibilities… be it books, magazines, newspapers, films, broadcasts, plays, performances, electronic publications, or exhibits, is firmly rooted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Although we enjoy an increasing quantity and availability of information and reading material, we must remain vigilant to ensure that access to this material is preserved; would-be censors who continue to threaten the freedom to read come from all quarters and all political persuasions.
Even if well intentioned, censors try to limit the freedom of others to choose what they read, see, or hear.
“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, in Texas v. Johnson
Likes
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The significance of plot without conflict
In the West, plot is commonly thought to revolve around conflict
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PFFFFFFFT.
I THOUGHT THE GIANT BIFOCALS PHASE WAS BAD.
YOU...
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If you're a feminist who understands the (apparently not) radical concept that women can have...
