ROW80 Update - and the Clarion Write-a-Thon

Warming up to a much better writing pace, but still slower than I want.  Heat always gets to me.  And light.  But still, things seem to be working out and I may ramp this up further at the end of June (see the Clarion Write-a-thon news below the update.)

A Round of Words in 80 Days update:


Wednesday Day 52 - 1446 words.  I had a lot of writing come to me from The Man Who Stepped Up again.  If I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, I'd be doing a whole lot more.  And, of course, I did work on getting Episode 6 of The Misplaced Hero up -- though I wasn't happy with the banner art.

Thursday Day 53 -15 words.  It was a day job work day, and I spent MUCH too much time chatting on The Passive Voice, and I'm tired and decided to get sleep instead.  I did piece together the snippets that make up most of the next couple of episodes. Also did some extensive notes on The Man Who Stepped Up.  That story is definitely moving, but it also is still in the exploratory stages.

Friday Day 54 -1315 words.  The Man Who Stepped Up (MW2, for short) is going like gang busters.  A whole lot of things are breaking loose on it, too.  The crime back story is finally beginning to fill out.  I have finally come up with a Christie-esque motive.  (Actually, I had the motive, but it didn't get Christie-esque until I realized who it applied to.)

I think I did other writing, but for the life of me, I don't remember what.  (Tracking is always a problem when things are going well.)

Saturday Day 55 - 662 words.  More MW2, then I mostly worked on art. I have some spiffy stuff for the Episode 7 Banner. (Although I might switch to a square dingbat, rather than a banner, we'll see.)  The little figures on the previous episode didn't come out how I wanted.  The first sketch looked right, but I hurried too much on it.  What I'd like to go for, when I use figures on this, is that cartoon style used in art deco era cartoons and also on some propaganda posters.  I think I'm getting there.

I also realized that the rest of the weekend will be blazingly hot.  And I don't take well to heat.  And we wanted my special Hot Wings, which require a long baking time.  So I made them today.  And that is where the time for the other 800 words went. 

Clarion Write-A-Thon Coming Up!

The Clarion Workshop is an intensive "writers' bootcamp" for Science Fiction and Fantasy writers.  It changed my life back in 1982. Twenty or so (usually less) apprentice writers all locked in a dorm for six weeks, along with six pros, where they write and critique and tear their hair out and hear war stories and learn learn learn.

The workshop is competitive to get into.  An because it requires six weeks of your life, it is a major thing to arrange.  And it's expensive.  Personally, I think those people who manage to do the writing work to qualify, AND get their life changed around to attend, deserve to go, even if they can't afford it.  Luckily the Clarion Foundation provides financial assistance.  (They also provide funds to the workshop itself, which helps to keep the fees down.)

One way they raise funds is via their yearly Write-a-thon.  It runs for the same six weeks as the workshop: June 24, to August 4.  They are looking for more writers to sign up.  And of course, more donors to pledge!

I will be signing up again this year.  It will be rough: This ROW80 round ends just before the Clarion dare begins, so the days off between rounds will be almost a week less than usual.  As a result, I will probably slack off at the end of this round during the last week. (Or more likely the last segment, and just cut a few days off.)

I hope to ramp up my production for that part of the dare.  It will last 42 days -- 35 of those in overlap with ROW80, Round 3.  I'm hoping to use that time as a major sprint.

And all of my goals will be raw verbiage.  Rack up those rough drafts.  When the Write-a-thon ends, I think I'll probably have rewriting goals for the remainder of ROW80.

But there are a lot of ways you can use overlapping challenges, and I encourage others to join me in support of the Clarion Write-a-Thon.

See you in the funny papers