The Ultra, the Fabulous, the only, Miss P! is hosting another round of Dazzle me:
Write a short story, post it to your blog, and link back here by close of play on 30 June 2009 to stand the chance to be crowned a Dazzle Me winner. [Close of play = midnight, SA time]. Your story needs to be between 500 and 5000 words long, and must talk to this picture…
More details here: Dazzle Me … round 7 « The Ultra, the Fabulous, the only, Miss P!
Looking forward to seeing the entries in this round :)
A new challenge has been presented by Parenthesis to get the creative juices going and possibly snagging a nice prize in the process.
This post outlines the challenge and the rules as well as how to participate. So, what are you waiting for? Go, read, write and may the best story win :)
The new story has been swirling around in my head all day. I think my brain needs a break from The Novel, and this is a welcome diversion.
I deleted about half of what I wrote yesterday, and then wrote a whole bunch more. I am not sure if it makes any sense to anyone but me at this point in time, but I have brought the word count up to just over 1100. Why, oh why, are short stories so damn stubborn. I used to write them all the time, but never had to take note of the word count. Just looking at some old stories I have written, none of them fall in the accepted word count range, it would seem – either I write too much (like the one story is just over 10,000 words) or way too little (under 1000).
It is a strange concept this, writing towards a word count. I guess it helps to place the story from a publisher’s perspective, but I wonder if it also doesn’t force people to sometimes add into the story stuff that just shouldn’t be there, or remove things that should.
But yes, the short story is neatly formed and almost fleshed out. I am sure that, by tomorrow, it will have morphed again, but, for now, I am fairly happy with the track it is on.
I decided that I will not work on The Novel this entire week *gasp* and give it some time to breathe, and then focus on it again from this coming week-end. And then, for days on end, all I will do is eat, breathe and sleep the Novel, until I convince myself it is ready for agent submissions.
I did do a quick browse through Agent Query today, and have started making a list of the agents I would like to query, again. The mere thought of it makes me cringe, but I realise that this is a very important part of the entire process, so I will battle through it :)
The funny part of this is that I made a list a couple of months ago of those dream agents to query, and many of them are still on my list. I did discover a couple of new ones (with blogs to boot), so now I need to do some more research. I am just glad that the agents do have blogs, because it makes it so much easier to query someone you have some kind of a relationship with – even if it is mostly one-sided (because I am simply too shy to comment on the blog entries most of the time, or, by the time I read it, I will be comment number 364 in the list, which seems kinda like a ‘me too’ comment)
And this reminds me. I see I have 31 subscribers via Feedburner (today, at least), so there is at least one other person reading this blog. So, this is for you, my reader *grin*, tell me, why do you write? Do you write for the fame and fortune, or for a different reason?
Expensive Mistakes and Cheap Thrills has marked me for life, and I have no choice but obey.
The instructions are as follows:
The five things I simply cannot leave home without when I attend this super cool event would be:
Honestly, I cannot think of a single local blogger who has not been tagged, so if you haven’t been tagged, consider yourself tagged now.
Is it just me, or can you also not help but think De Melker when you hear Daisy?
Quote of the day:
One of the most obvious facts about grownups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child. - Randall Jarrell
About two weeks ago, I entered a competition on a local blogging site. The winners were announced today, and this story by yours truly took first place in fiction. Yay.
This is me doing the happy dance.
It came at a time where I was doubting the words again. I am still staring blindly at the exam I am writing later this week, and thus struggling to produce any new words on The Novel™. I am sure after the exam, the wordage will pick up again.
I wrote two flash stories this morning for a competition on another blogging site. They were both just over 250 words each.
I also managed to write just over 600 words yesterday, after meeting the target I set for the week-end.
This means the words are back again.
Now playing: Ghulam Ali (Pakistan) - Hangama Hai Kyon Barpa
I have been thinking about writing a South African story since I found the details for NOVA yesterday.
The thing is, right, to write something localised, one cannot simply use the names of locations. It has to feel authentic. So, what makes South Africa unique from the rest of the world? Because, ultimately, it would be these unique features that would make the story authentic.
And it cannot simply be landscape. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am bored to death of Table Mountain. Don't get me wrong, it is gorgeous, and uniquely South African and all that stuff, but it would almost seem as if the only way to clearly define something as South African is by making sure Table Mountain is somewhere in the mix. Oh, and the big five. So, for me, that is completely off the list.
So, what makes South Africa unique? Or, rather, what elements can be brought into a story that would make it South African?
OK, so, Aliens planted the human seed at the Cradle, and left with them the manual for making beer and some jean pant. On a later visit, the aliens visited again, and introduced biltong as a means of can like to be keeping meat fresh. This was, of course, just before Xenu exploded the volcanoes. Yep, all of that happened here, folks.
No, seriously. I think Adam will work, considering the setting has been South African all along. I may, however, decide to move the story from Cape Town to Johannesburg instead, and introduce some of the more uniquely South African themes. Biltong can be a vampire snack, right?
I guess I better start writing the story, rather than writing about it.
Science Fiction South Africa is, once again, running its annual short story writing competition.
The Nova Short Story Competition is our annual competition for budding writers of science fiction and fantasy short stories. Usually contested in two categories, General and South African, the competition is open for entry from April until 30 September annually. Winning entries and finalists are published in Probe.
The prize money is not much, but I would think it is a great place for an unpublished writer to start. I am considering entering, and I think maybe I can work Adam down to a short story for now that would be eligible.
