The first ever Writing Show writing weekend

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » March 10th, 2006, 4:54 pm

I just wanted to remind everyone that it's just about here--the first official Writing Show writing weekend, March 11th and 12th, 2006.

Inspired by the success of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), we thought it would be a great idea to designate some non-November time to ?just doing it.? But unlike NaNoWriMo, the event isn't limited to fiction writers. Everyone can participate.

You only have to spend three hours over the two days. And you don?t have to actually write. You can spend the entire time planning and brainstorming if you want.

For inspiration, we've come up with some suggested writing exercises here.

You don?t have to show your work to anyone. You don?t even have to sign up. Just get in the spirit and know that there will be lots of others doing the same.

I'm planning to work on my 24-like thriller. Well, I say it's like 24, but I'm not sure I can pull it off. I think it will be more fun than working on the article I'm writing on misinformation in media, though.

Paula

kayray · Post by **kayray** » March 10th, 2006, 5:34 pm

Paula, I'm bookmarking your wonderful writing exercises in my "educational" folder and will share them with my homeschool group!

My ten-year-old has an aptitude for writing, I think, and those exercises should come in handy for us.

Happy writing :)

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » March 10th, 2006, 5:37 pm

kayray wrote:Paula, I'm bookmarking your wonderful writing exercises in my "educational" folder and will share them with my homeschool group!

My ten-year-old has an aptitude for writing, I think, and those exercises should come in handy for us.

Happy writing

Wow--thanks, Kara!

If you have more ideas, please comment on the blog or let me know. We can always use more.

Paula

heatherausten · Post by **heatherausten** » March 10th, 2006, 11:59 pm

Not sure if I'll get in exactly 3 hours, but I'll be working on my novel this weekend. Hopefully I'll get in some good revision of what I've done so far.

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » March 11th, 2006, 8:35 am

I'm not sure if I'll make the three hours either, Heather, but anything will be better than nothing.

Good luck!

Paula

Post by **hugh** » March 11th, 2006, 1:06 pm

paula - I have some non-fic stuff to work on; it's a week past deadline already! just heading this minute to my "office," the cafe bar around the corner. and I plan, tomorrow, to restart my (new) novel efforts which have been on hold for a while, tomorrow. thanks for the kick in the pants.

oh & I wrote a long weblog post today (mentioning librivox), but I ususally don't count blogging quite. maybe I should.

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » March 11th, 2006, 1:09 pm

I would never kick you in the pants or anywhere else, Hugh, but I'm glad the event is inspiring you.

I have been having a fascinating experience with this myself. I went back to some notes I made a year or two ago and have discovered that I had some really good ideas. I'm just amazed at how good they are and am getting very excited about this. Either that or the large coffee I'm still drinking is revving me up. At any rate, I'm really in the swing and have completed my first two hours already.

Whoopee!!

heatherausten · Post by **heatherausten** » March 11th, 2006, 9:02 pm

Well, I didn't time myself, but I guess I got in about an hour and a half and re-wrote the section of my book I've been struggling with. I think I'm finally satisfied with the result. Hooray!

Kristen · Post by **Kristen** » March 12th, 2006, 2:35 am

I spent some time this weekend writing 40 word snippets for my 40x365 project that begins April 1st.

Check out the original 40x365 - http://www.logolalia.com/40x365/ - a project to write a number of words equal your age about a 365 people you know - one person a day every day for a year. Just listing the 365 names is an eye-opening project.

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » March 12th, 2006, 8:15 am

heatherausten wrote:Well, I didn't time myself, but I guess I got in about an hour and a half and re-wrote the section of my book I've been struggling with. I think I'm finally satisfied with the result. Hooray!

That's great, Heather! Now you can go out and run. 8)

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » March 12th, 2006, 8:17 am

Kristen wrote:I spent some time this weekend writing 40 word snippets for my 40x365 project that begins April 1st.

Check out the original 40x365 - http://www.logolalia.com/40x365/ - a project to write a number of words equal your age about a 365 people you know - one person a day every day for a year. Just listing the 365 names is an eye-opening project.

What a cool idea! 365 people we know, eh? I'm not sure I even know that many people. And if I do, I'm not sure I know enough about them other than to say something like, "I once met a person named so-and-so, but I don't remember anything about them."

kri · Post by **kri** » March 12th, 2006, 1:22 pm

pberinstein wrote:
Kristen wrote:I spent some time this weekend writing 40 word snippets for my 40x365 project that begins April 1st.

Check out the original 40x365 - http://www.logolalia.com/40x365/ - a project to write a number of words equal your age about a 365 people you know - one person a day every day for a year. Just listing the 365 names is an eye-opening project.
What a cool idea! 365 people we know, eh? I'm not sure I even know that many people. And if I do, I'm not sure I know enough about them other than to say something like, "I once met a person named so-and-so, but I don't remember anything about them."

Do fellow Librivox volunteers work? You could just PM 365 people and ask their first names. There you have it!!

You know I could probably picture in my mind 365 people I've known, but I wouldn't remember all their names. That's a bad flaw to have, because I'm going to be teaching soon. Gonna need to practice!

Paula, I tried to get my off-and-on writer boyfriend to bite on the writing show weekend, but he works a lot. He was quite interested in your podcast though

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » March 12th, 2006, 3:11 pm

Aren't you supposed to be able to write something about them, Kri?

There will be more writing weekends. I'm thinking about the end of June for the next one. That should be far enough past graduation, Father's Day, and all the other June stuff, I think.

Always love to welcome new listeners, and I particularly want to know what kinds of shows people want. Of course, some of the ideas are a little hard to do. For example, someone suggested a serial "How Not to Be an Independent Publisher." (I'm running my own disaster story as a series now, "How Not to Run an Online Bookstore.") Well, it's kind of hard to find people who are willing to admit defeat in public and then tell the world the gory details. So I'm not sure if that one will ever happen.

heatherausten · Post by **heatherausten** » March 13th, 2006, 4:57 pm

pberinstein wrote:That's great, Heather! Now you can go out and run. 8)

Hee, hee, thanks.