Ready For The Write-A-Thon

On Sunday I begin the Clarion Write-A-Thon for 2012, which will continue until August 4. Six Weeks, Forty-two Days.

This is a fundraising effort -- trying to support the Clarion Foundation and help defray the cost of the six-week workshop for participants who have talent but can't afford it.

I hate flogging for money.  "Come read a post about how many words I wrote today, and btw, donate money for this boring privilege."

But you know what?  We always say that the best promotion for one book is another book. Well, let's see if that works for a charitable organization.

I'm doing a blog story -- a serial -- as an experiment this summer.  I've decided to dedicate that to the Clarion Write-a-Thon.  You get to see what I'm writing as I'm writing it. I will be removing the book promotion links from those posts, and replacing them with blurbs for the Clarion Foundation.


A quick summary for those who haven't been following the blog:

I'm doing this for fun, and to expand my writing skills.  This is about fast, quick, and short. (Aiming at 600-700 word episodes.)  It's basically blog-pulp -- getting a working episode up, on deadline, with illustration, twice-a-week, come hell or high water.

The story is called The Misplaced Hero, and the genre is what I call "Flicker-punk" -- set in an alternate world based on the kind of story you see in silent movie serials and adventure fiction of 1910-1927 or so. (Check out the intro to the series here.)

The episodes post Mondays and Thursdays at 8am EDT.

(Note: I also post progress updates on Sundays and Wednesdays, as a part of the regular "dare" progress of this blog.)

I've published 13 episodes so far, I expect there to be about 32-36 episodes, which means they'll run through the end of August, or the first week of September. However, I plan to finish writing it during the Write-a-Thon -- by August 4.

But wait! I plan on doing more than that!

I am going to expand it into a long novella or short novel for publication, but I don't see this as a rough draft, really.  It's deadline-driven pulp -- written to suit the medium, and as done as the format and time constraints allow.

However, it also makes a kind of "prose storyboard" for the expanded edition.  How expanded?  I don't know.  Probably longer by a third unless there are some subplots I want to explore.  I hope to have this done by August 4, even if the serial won't finish posting until the end of August.

I will make the beta (and later the final) ebook version available free to those who donate to the Write-a-Thon.

You can check out the Introduction, or jump to the First Episode. I also have summaries of "The story so far" for those who are impatient and don't really want to read (or who forget what happened and want a refresher).

As for me, I need to get back to tomorrow's episode, in which Captain Rozinshura meets with disappointment.

See you in the funny papers.