A little game.

Hello everyone!

I'd like to play a little game. A writing game, for fun and greater expertise. One that we can all enjoy and have some fun with. One that will hopefully teach us all something good about making engaging plots and working with other characters and settings that we normally might not touch.

Here's the setup:

In the comments, you will sign up by saying you're signing up in whatever way seems appropriate. "Hell yeah! I'm in! Go fuck yourself!" All of these are good. You will then provide three things:

1. A Character: This can be vague like, "A fireman" or specific "Lucy Jones, a weary stock trader just a few weeks from retirement.
2. A Setting: Time and/or place, an alien planet, an asteroid, 18th century Paris, a paleolithic cave in north Africa, 40 Million AD, etc.
3. An Object: Could be an apple, could be a priceless vase, could be a starship. Whatever you desire, and the author chooses its importance to the story.

After I've collected a few of these (hopefully there's more than one of you!) I will randomize them, juggle my digital sack, and redistribute the characters and settings and objects back to you. We will then write stories! All genres accepted, whatever you want. I suggest something inbetween 1-5k, depending on how crazy people get. We'll take two weeks (starting this Sunday) to write our stories, no real worries about the editing, and then come back on Feb 15th to share and go crazy-go-nuts! :D

I hope you guys are excited about this, because I think it will be a fun, fun time. To start things off, here are my 3:

1. A janitor who used to be something else.
2. The bottom of the ocean. (ours or some other)
3. Three golden bananas.

Lets play! 

#PitchParty WINNEERRRRRSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

#Nanopals, it's time. Time for the decision of the century. I'm sure you've all been holding your breath and are now dead because it's been like a week, people, come on. Don't be silly. I was unable to get my judges to respond in time, so in the end it has come down to the IMPERIAL STICK. There also seems to be some technical issues, because I cannot find the #PitchParty tweets from Jan. 4th on any timeline. They're gone! So I'm randomly picking one of the tweeters for victory.

The entries were all excellent, and made me look like a burrito full of horseshit. I'm so thrilled that everyone came in and commented -- did you know there were 52 fricken comments on this? That's a lot of feedback! This was once again an awesome exercise and I wish all of you people were near me physically. Second life is too creepy to hang out in, so that's off the table.

I had my personal favourites but consensus is consensus, and brief polls and the comments will confirm that @tiakall is the assured victor of the 100-word pitch contest. Her pitch, here again:

Reina, a girl searching for her missing parents, starts in a place most wouldn't expect: a magical realm. Transported by accident, she stumbles up against a vicious demon of destruction who may have the clue she needs. Reina teams up with a flamboyant fairy and embarks on a journey to find out if, in order to save her family, she must destroy the demon... or save him.

This is some dense writing. You know a lot about why, where, and how shit's gonna go down, without actually knowing any details. Plus, who doesn't like fairies? And saving demons? Who's heard of such a thing?? Seriously though, I'm a huge sucker for evil creatures being made semi-good. There's a quest to save her family, a loveable sidekick, magical crazy-times, and all in a hundred words. Congrats Tia!

And I have rolled a die to decide the winner of the tweet contest, as any good D&Der does. That winner is... @blacklily_f! Congrats Melanie!

For your prizes, tell me what song you like and I'll sing it in Gollum's voice, or whatever character voice you and I can agree on. Feel free to email nanopals@gmail.com or just comment down here. Twitter works too, who cares!

Congrats to our winners and I'm only now left wondering who is going to pick up the torch for the next round... You've gotta be quick!

Why Beta-Read?

Hello everyone! I'm here with a note about why you should be a beta reader. If you've already read the blog, you probably already are, but if you aren't, here's a few great reasons why reading someone else's unpolished manuscript is an awesome opportunity.

1) Free book! You're reading all the time, and you have to pay for the things, which is great for the author but if you make as little money as I do and read as fast as I do, it starts cutting into the things I need like food and heat. These books may not be as polished and have fancy covers like the money variety, but you can't beat the price, and 

2) You get to discover something new! In the course of beta-reading I've touched on novels I probably would have passed when it came to money. I've read a Sex-in-the-City with gorgons and greek gods, a new england family drama centered around an ancient curse, and the tale of an elven priestess who discovers she actually cares about love and kingdom after all. Discovering new things opens your mind and helps

3) Improve your writing! See other people's styles in their raw form, encounter new literary tactics, clever twists and tricks and everything else under the sun! You can see what didn't work for the author, what didn't work you, and offer them tips to improve. Teaching is the best way to learn, they say, and you get both when you beta-read. While being much more entertained than in a classroom (at least for me).

4) Help someone else. By Beta-reading, you greatly improve the chances that your MS will be beta-read, and the more beta-readers you have, the better your book will be (there's probably an upper limit but let's ignore that) Reaching out to strangers and helping them realize the same dream you have, of getting published and making a bestselling novel, improves everyone's lives, especially yours.

So get out there and read, why don't you! Stop by the beta-buddy page and become one today :D Reach out on Twitter, I'm always happy to give a shoutout. http://nanopals.blogspot.com/p/beta-buddies.html

#PitchParty

Yo yo yo it's still six a.m. here but a post must needs be born! Actually not sure if I'm using that construction properly, I've never quite understood it except as a regional creation.

But you didn't come here for that. You came for the party and the pitches. Well, since I'm rewriting this at work, you don't get mine till later this afternoon. But post your one hundred word pitch here in the comments in the comments and prepare for judgement to be rendered!

The winner will be chosen by myself with input from two of my close friends, and receive a video of me singing their favorite song in a silly voice of their choice from my repertoire (ps pick Dudley Do-Right)

I look forward to reading all your pitches, and if you didn't catch them yesterday, check out the tweet length pitches on Twitter with the #PitchParty hashtag.

Pitch Party 2014 updtate: MO' PRIZE

UPDATE TIME!

Guys, it's time for a prize reveal. If you weren't aware, we're planning the dual events of PitchParty2014 for Jan 4th and 5th. On the 4th, we reveal our tweet-length pitches for the work we're looking to sell. On the 5th, a 100 word pitch (pasted and/or linked on here). After each, we talk and judge and people vote and ultimately I and my secretive panel of judges (yes they aren't all stuffed animals) and on the 6th, I will announce a winner!

Now, for a prize. There will be postcards sent out to all the runner-ups (or everyone, depending on how many of us there are) but the winner will get a special prize made all the more valuable by the fact that I will be embarrassing myself for your pleasure.

If you are crowned the ultimate PitchParty Winner, you will get to choose two things that will become one thing. First, you will choose any song (the more crazy singing, the worse this will be) and then you will choose one of these voices:

• Smeagle/Gollum
• Zap Brannigan
• Meatwad
• Darth Vader
• Some sort of horrid monster
• Dr. Zoidberg
• Sean Connery
• Krusty the Klown
• A variety of accents -- pretty much just choose.
• Or just make up/tell me to make one up. If I can't do it we'll work it out. :D

Then, as you may have been able to guess, I will sing your song in that voice. In video format, so you'll get a little extra absurdity in your package. There's a few more voices that I couldn't remember what characters they're from that I do but just ask, given enough practise, I can get almost anyone. 

You still have two weeks to get those pitches together! How can you describe your novel in 140 characters? 100 words? You'll be surprised which one is harder :D Feel free to send your early versions to me for tips and early reads! See you soon!

Pitch Party 2014!

It's that time of the year again! Pitches upon pitches! #Nanowrimo is over, and many of us have manuscripts worthy of attention. But we don't always know how best to sell those stories. I don't mean in the store, I mean to an agent, an editor, someone on the street. I'm not talking 1920's newpaper hawker, but there is something to shouting out your own work. And as with anything, practise is useful and important. Nobody does everything right the first time, unless the thing they're trying to do is nothing. We can all do that pretty well. 

Pitching takes practise, and why not pratise in an atmosphere of even criticism and support? The first #PitchParty (found here) was a blast, and we had a ton of fun. The winner got a postcard, a tirdition that I will be continuing since artists are all broke. There will be two rounds to the #PitchParty -- a Tweet round and a longer, 100 word blog pitch. Both of those things will be posted on this blog, and a totally impartial team of judges (hey psst I need two judges, email me evrardau @ gmail dot com!). These should be manuscripts you have either finished or have in editing, or at least real close to finished! :D

The Twitter #PitchParty will take place Saturday, Jan 4th, at a time to be determined soon, probably something like 8PM EST. During that hour, everyone who wants to will pitch one tweet-length pitch for their novel, including the hashtag. We'll discuss and laugh and have a good time and the next day (Jan 5th) everyone will post their 100 word pitch in the comments on the #nanopals blog. 

I WILL NOT BE DENIED THIS!

Er, hem. You will not be denied this! This is a great opportunity to have some fun and get some solid feedback on your pitch before you go ahead and make a hundred Gs selling it super well. BECAUSE YOU CAME TO THE PITCH PARTY. 

So, brief recap -- You've got a MONTH to prepare a tweet-length pitch AND a 100 word pitch. Tweets on Jan 4th, 100 word on Jan 5th, right here. We'll do a few prep sessions and spread the word beforehand, so use that #PitchParty hashtag! One real entry in each per person -- but feel free to send me your extras just to see if they're cool too :)

I'll see you soon!

@nanopals

Procrastipost!

Yeah hey look I'm not supposed to be here, okay. My MS is right there on the other side of the screen, and she's lookin' at me right ugly. The editing, the editing! The words control my life. But you know, sometimes you gotta be free, you gotta find a little YOU time. Which I'm going to spend on you. With a handy-dandy list of the editing I should be doing right now!

What am I doing right now? AHM EXORCISING MAH DEMONZ.
No, I'm not getting my vodka blessed then playing quarters with my old college roommate (a monster), nor am I going on a spirit journey. That's later. Instead, I am engaging in the incredible act of hunting down the demons in my MS, the dark spirits that cloud my text and obscure the beauty and power of the prose beneath! What the hell am I talking about?

THESE WORDS:

• SAW
• FELT
• HEARD
• KNEW
• AND
• SEEM/SEEMED
• THAT

I see you, spawn of Ghidora! Begone from my texts, begone from this earthly realm and never return! Well, not all of you. Sometimes I need you. But like, only on holidays. If we could just have a few little demon meetups once or twice a novel, that would be swell. 

In not-crazy person words: This selection of lexical items is a good tracker for words that can and should be ridden from your novel! All of these add clunk to sentences and break up pace. Stop seeing things! Stop hearing things, stop feeling things, just, you know, things. Imagine you are watching a movie and instead of the camera you had the cameraman, and you were just looking at his viewfinder the whole time, shaking and wobbling as he tries to keep up with the action until you realize you're on a goddamn set and Tom Cruise is just on a friggen treadmill. You've got some guy who is seeing everything for you. He maybe sends a telegram and lets you know what's going on in the action scene every few weeks -- who cares, you've stopped reading them.

Okay, so the crazy came back. All this has been said before by smarter people (read: here) but I'm giving you what I'm personally looking for right now. Ctrl-F->DELETE. Every sentence looks better, my Godzilla. Even if you don't have too many of these instances, and you already know this stuff, go through, because they are sneaky little buggers, and they get in all over the place.

Okay, I'm running back to my MS to murder these beasts. Too many run-on sentences given life by the necromantic powers of AND! Go back to your prison, you moster!