Clarion Write-A-Thon: It Begins

One novella. 20,000 words. 42 days. All I have to do is write 500 words a day.


Anyone can do 500 words a day, right? Even ignoring the fact that in that same time period I have:

a book to start writing (due January)
oh look, ANOTHER book to start writing (due February)
2 proposals to polish & submit
page proofs to look over
a copyedit to deal with
ongoing freelance jobs
job-related travel
family & friend obligations

in other words, a full time job and a Life.


500 words a day, in addition to all that. Piece of cake? Not.


But I'm not doing this for me. I'm not even doing this for my readers (although when I'm done you'll have more to read). I'm doing it for the other writers, the ones who don't know that YES they can do this. The ones who think they're not ready, or they aren't sure they can dig down deep enough and work through the hurt. For the students at Clarion this month, and the ones who will attend it - and other workshops - in the future, going through bootcamp hell to find that YES inside them.

Clarion isn't the only intensive workshop (there's Odyssey, and Viable Paradise, among others) but it is the oldest. And in these days of budget cuts and grant reductions, it needs our support to make sure it's there for future writers. I'll try to be entertaining and useful in this endeavor....can you kick in $5 or $10 to sponsor my madness, for a good cause?



My Page for Donations

Clarion Update, Day 1

Title: "Strong Earth"
Starting point: 1,100 words of outline
Goal: 20,000 words of story
Today: 677
Total words: 677
Research: getting my timeline untangled.


Excerpt:

the very first lines:

Elizabeth sat very still and sipped her tea. It was cold, and bitter, but she dared not pour more, for fear that her mother would notice that she was still in the parlor, and send her away.




Dead Bodies: none.
Insults: two.
Things magical: none.
Tea consumed: one cup.