NaNoWriMo:

1. Both in 2007 and 2008, I submitted my final wordcount on the 25th, the date when you can start collecting the winner badges. This turns out to be a good idea since you may not be able to access the site at all on the 30th, as clueless_psycho told me. Long story short: it's always better to finish early, even if you don't want the badge.

2. Via cristin_terrill: An offer from Scrivener for NaNo - Participants can receive a 20% discount and winners will have a 50% discount on December 2.

Via jolantru: Tu Publishing, a multicultural SFF press for children and YA.

Also from cristin_terrill: What Patrick Ness said about YA.

He said he was writing for his teenager self, trying to create what he would have wanted to read. He feels a lot of YA falls short because it tries to write for a theoretical teenager instead of a real one. It aims for the 'normal' teenager when there's no such thing; every single teenager in the world feels atypical, so writing for the popular kids is doomed to failure. He, astutely I think, theorizes that this played into the success of Harry Potter.

Writer: "Yeah, you're different. But you're a wizard."

Reader: "I KNEW IT!"

9 Ways to Strengthen Your Beginning. In medias res ftw, says I.

Karen S. Wiesner's Novel Blueprint, or what she calls a Story Plan Checklist. nano_writers has tailored the list in preparation for November. While it looks very handy, I think I'd still be worrying more about plot than anything else.

Book #17 of imaginarybeasts is out, theme: Monsters. Sign-up for Book #18 is open, theme: Winter.

The workshop posts in spnroundtable are interesting reading for fanfic writers in general. The most eye-catching post for me is Finishing Work in Progress. :)

fictictactoe, to quote: "Instead of an empty grid, there is a prompt-table and instead of using X's and O's to mark a space, a player must write a fic. The two authors take turns writing, and the first one to get three prompts in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row wins the game."

Beta resources, compiled by michelel72.

Holly Lisle: "Give the best lines in the book to your protagonist." First, I'd have to think up witty lines.

Invent a persona for your journal -- a character who is employed as a journal writer for you, whose job it is to make entries on a schedule you propose, someone whose creativity in dreaming up new ways to approach the genre will be rewarded. Write the job description in your journal. Write the interview with the job applicant. Assign this persona a wardrobe, a history, a reason why he or she wants this job. Write your new employee's entries. Let him or her react to the world and the people around him or her.

novel_in_90

Plugging ephemery's castellar, a community for writers from all genres and styles, where members can discuss writing.

Writing progress:
August 3 1,500 words. Because I'm doing a round on novel_in_90, I'm already content when I've already done 750 words in one day. I must get past this mental barrier.
August 4 900 words. I'm not doing the watch-old-series-while-writing method for the nonce / Family bickering is fun to write.

Sign-ups for the TeniPuri Big Bang is open. Participants will work in teams, so if you're a writer, you might not have to tackle all those 20k words alone.

Via readerofasaph: Scheherezade Fantasy, an anthology of original fantasy "in which the protagonist or other major characters are disguised or transformed, or otherwise challenge traditional gender roles".

July 15 1,000 words.
July 16 400 words, all of it original fic for 31_days.
July 17 1,100 words.
July 18 900 words. New characters, old characters - bring it on.
July 19 400 words. Wallowing in 80's wuxia series is not an excuse.
July 20 900 words.
July 21 1,100 words. The story has gone past the 100k-words mark, and the ending is still not in sight.

Notes:

+ An important thing which slipped my mind: In wuxia, members of a sect address each other according to seniority, not by name. So it's First Brother, Second Sister-In-Law, and so on. Must fix this at first editing.

+ Handling a great number of characters means I must never forget what traits belong to whom. This exercise might become more interesting when a lot of these characters interact with each other at the same time.

The Polyamorous Big Bang Challenge (on LJ and on DW): write 10,000 words of fic focusing on polyamorous relationships, for which you will be rewarded with accompanying fanmixes and fanart. Me, I'm bad at writing relationships involving more than two people, and even a dreaded Third Wheel usually stays in the background.

Writing progress

June 25 500 words. I am appalled at my tendency to write couples under 25 years of age as cute.
June 26 1,000 words. 81k words in total so far, and the end is still not in sight. Damn this genre.

Opinions on the phase system. My conclusion is that the method still allows for quite a lot of room for changes, depending on when and how inspiration arrives and how well we can adapt the story to the changes.

whumpers_guide, a community in the line little_details, but specifically for when your characters get hurt.

1. The Phase System, using phase outlines which Lazette Gifford says helped her to "write a 101,000 word book in ten days". I think I've read this before, probably in the book she wrote for NaNo. The method does seem useful for writing events like that one, or if you're on a tight deadline. The downside is the writing might become less of an adventure and somewhat more like an assignment. Conclusion: you can't have everything (but don't ever give up trying to).

2. Last seen in shadowsinfire: Feel good exercise: Poke through your old fics and find bits and pieces you like and that still satisfy you now.
( Old means mostly pre-LJ/Not all of these are in English )


Writing progress
June 7 300 words. I had no excuse.
June 8 1,300 words, mostly thanks to latte and donuts.

Book 15 of imaginarybeasts is out, theme: Cities. The theme for Book 16 is Rogues and Scoundrels.

The White List, "a listing of writers, editors, and other publishing professionals that have LiveJournals or LJ RSS feeds", has been updated.

Writing notes
Added 1,000 more words to the wuxia novel yesterday. I discover I enjoy writing emotionally intense scenes better than expository ones, especially when the parties involved are strong characters who are more than able to hold their own.

I've also discovered that posting your writing progress in public seems to be effective in getting you to actually write because, although not everyone reads it, you would want that, when they do read it, there's something to read, preferably something positive. I'm thinking of doing this regularly, maybe on its own separate posts.

gen_ficathon

THE ANONYMOUS WRITING FEEDBACK MEME

toonowrimo, a community for word wars.

Ganked from lindensphinx: original character questionnaire. I'm doing the main character from the NaNo 2008 novel.

( Do you think all this LJ-hopping will land me in trouble someday? )

Off-topic: Yesterday I won a copy of the latest edition of the official Bahasa Indonesia dictionary. After the euphoria has passed, it occurred to me that this might be a sign for me to start working on the NaNo 2008 novel again.

1. Seen via natalief: The Dreaded Daily Word Count.

"We all really love writing. It's not the act itself, it's the fear that everything we produce will stink and everyone will find out."
*coughs*

"Here's another tip--Stop trying to impress the people in your head. Whoever they are. Who cares what they think? This is about discovering what interesting things you have to say, what visions are in your mind's eye. Maybe they don't come out as polished as you'd like, but they are still important."
First and foremost, it's me I'm trying to impress. (Do I count as a person in my own head?) And I'm not that easily impressed.

And using wordcount as an excuse to write does work during NaNo, though it may not work during the other months. Will chew on that.

2. In case you haven't seen it: Crossed Genres, an SF/F paying publication, now receives novel-length submissions. Details here.