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Les Writing blog, with tips, advice, and my own writing... And Nanowrimo obsession.

Fundraisers For Nano

October 25th 2008 17:25
Anyone who's been a long-term reader of this blog is already well aware of my goal for this November, but I'm going to go over that along with a few ways to raise money (without spending any) for Nano.

My thing: This year I'm planning on writing 250, 000 words during the month of November. I will blog at least twice a week, even if only with progress updates. If I achieve this goal, I want a few people to donate to Nanowrimo in my name, because I can't-similar to sponsorship. My goal is to raise at least $25.00, one dollar for every ten thousand words.

Also, if people buy my poetry book which can be found at Really Long Link in both print and ebook format, half of the money I get during the month of November will go towards Nanowrimo. (Poetry and donation to a good cause; nothing wrong with that.)


Other ways to raise money:

Really Long Link is a LiveJournal community which has agreed to donate $1.00 for every member who writes 50K during the month. This is a wonderful, wonderful thing for all LJ users, and I hope that we can make a big impact on funding through this.

Really Long Link is a search engine which, for every search, donates a penny to your chosen charity/school/whatever. If you put in 'The Office Of Letters and Light' it will donate to Nanowrimo. Individually, it doesn't make a difference; but if people search using this engine on a large scale and regular basis, it will make a difference.

Those are some ways to fundraise for Nanowrimo. Let's keep this alive! The servers cost a lot of money, and so do many of the wonderful things that Nano does. Let's all do our part to keep this wonderful community and event going.
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Only Writers Can Understand Writers...

October 25th 2008 16:57
I have many, many different circles in which I travel. About seven different groups in which I hang out on a regular basis, and even more who I talk to online. And I have to say, my favourites are my writer friends.

Why? Because if I tell them I can't make it to something because I'm too busy writing, they understand. When I talk about my binder full of notes on different stories and worlds, they understand. When I talk about my love for words, they get it.

That's something I don't have in any of my other groups (although there is some crossover). My friends from school don't understand why I'd rather spend a weekend writing than spend it partying. My Pagan friends don't understand why I'd rather write than go to rite.


But you know what? I love writing. I love my writing friends, because they understand in a way that nobody else can. They understand my devotion to the art of words, they understand my craziness when it comes to Nanowrimo. And that's what I love about them: that sense of understanding. I feel I can be completely honest and open with them.

It's just that simple-writers understand each other, and they're the only ones that can; because writing is a way of life. Writing is a passion, and one not easily understood by outsiders.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that writers should be united. We should be friends with other writers, because quite simply, they can understand us better than anyone else-no matter what part of the world they come from, words can be the one thing you can understand, the one thing you can share. The one common interest.

So write on, and make friends with other writers-because they're some of the best friends you can ever have.
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Pre-Nano Work: Outline

October 15th 2008 02:04
I haven't actually gotten this far because I'm way behind. (That said, I have pages upon pages of world notes and I have most of my character sheets done.)

But here is an outlining exercise...

Take a piece of blank paper and draw a square near the edge of the paper; this is your border. Write at the top 'Outline' and the title of your story/novel.

Now put all the major events as dot-jot notes basically, giving brief ideas of everything that absolutely must happen.

Make a separate list of things you think would be cool, but which aren't necessary.

Based off of your events that you need and the ones you want, figure out how you're going to have to pace it in storytime in order to get as much as possible in the novel.

You can go further with this, but personally I prefer very basic outlines. As long as I know what order the events need to go in I'm fine. It makes it more fun to write, discovering things as I go.
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When Everything Is Just Too Much

October 4th 2008 23:28
So let me tell you something. School is stressing me out; I'm trying to force myself to go but it isn't working very well. Things at home aren't pleasant either. I'm stressed; so stressed that I've been sick on and off for two weeks now. Nanowrimo is on the horizon.

It's times like these when anybody-writer or otherwise-starts to wonder about all their obligations and if they're worth it. It's times like these when normally I would abandon the blog for weeks at a time; I'm trying not to. It's sort of working. It's times like these when we just want to throw in the towel


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Prompt: Suicide

October 4th 2008 03:09
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Website Review: Holly Lisle

September 15th 2008 00:48
I'm sick, my internet access is severely restrained because I stayed out REALLY late watching the Batman movie (which I loved), and I'm just feeling generically exhausted from school and life at the moment.

However, I am posting something. I just got the last lesson in Holly Lisle's newsletter course on creating your own royalties. Although it isn't for me at quite this point, I believe that someday I will be prepared to take better advantage of the course, which is saved in my Gmail. (I'm just going to say this: I love Gmail, there is so much space, you can keep most of your emails. I have dozens that are kept because there is just that much space


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The Magical Moments

September 10th 2008 08:46
Why do we live life?

For those moments of magic, those moments of beauty and joy and love.
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Living, Breathing Stories

September 1st 2008 09:39
I am what I call an 'organic writer'. I can't remember where I first heard the term, although perhaps Stephen King can be blamed (don't ask why his name popped into my head.) I will usually give myself an idea where the story is headed and some idea of the characters, but I let the story grow and change.

I've been working on Jihad for four years now, for example. It's one of my most treasured stories and I know its biggest plot points like the back of my hand. I know the motivations of every God on both sides. I have a firm idea of Kaitlyn's internal function-she adapts to physical change more easily than mental and cultural change. I know Keith pretty well, too


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Why Do I Write?

September 1st 2008 05:57
I've written about this topic before. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately, so I decided to talk about why I write-not only this blog, but everything else that I write.

I write because without writing, I would be locked away with no outlet to express myself


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Gratuitous Sex/Violence Rant

August 31st 2008 07:59
I did say I'd get into this one eventually. And we all know how much I love gratuitous sex and violence... in fanfiction. This is purely personal opinion, as are all of my upcoming rants. Take my advice with a grain of salt. I'm not the best writer out there, I'm not a genius, I'm not very accomplished in the writing world as of yet. But here goes nothing...

What Qualifies As Gratuitous? If you're writing it because you want to, not because it advances the plot, it's gratuitous. It does not need to be in the story (and sometimes whole stories can be written without sex and without violence-or with minimal violence) it is just there because you wanted to write it, not because it adds anything. Some people would argue that everything a person writes is because they want to write


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Working

August 21st 2008 23:12
I've been working a lot lately and working very actively on my writing, specifically on the book Jihad (in the previous post). It's coming along nicely and it flows, but at times it's a bit slow. I've spent about 20-30 hours this week working on it, and why? Because I love my work and I have a deadline.

I get a newsletter from the writer Holly Lisle. She has some opinions on writing, planning, and editing that I do not share. (Her mind organizes writing into scenes. I can't do that.) She also is a bit of a workaholic, but I understand where she's coming from. Although her organization and her style of work is generally not mine, she does have some good ideas and is clearly devoted to her work


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A Year Old

August 11th 2008 10:39
Well the blog is now officially just over a year old. So, I'm going to link to some of the best posts (although some of them are up on the spotlight thing) and I'm going to do the gushy thank yous, especially for the people I forgot.

Because, you know, I'm like that. Besides. A year. I'm almost fifteen. I'm repeating grade nine. It's funny because I really don't feel like I've gotten very far outside of my writing. But this is a writing blog, and that is the point


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A small press recently came to my attention. One of my writer friends works for it, and they
gave me a link to it during a conversation. I joined the site and have taken a look around, read the Terms-which is, essentially, a contract-and the about and asked all sorts of questions. That
is, by far, the most convenient part of having a friend that works there


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Introducing: My Fantasy Rants

August 11th 2008 02:34
This is my own set of rants about fantasy, covering cliches and things that are overdone in fantasy. How to do things well and how they have been done badly.

For those of you that haven't read Limyaael's rants, they're all very good and there's a link in a recent post. I don't have it written down off the computer so I can't put it here, as I'm not looking at it at the moment


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