Just to recap, the 2010 A Novel Summer Challenge is to finish your novel by Labor Day (although you can pick your own end date; most of us chose Labor Day, though. A finished novel, and the white heels go back into the closet).
I stole an idea from some other bloggers, although I haven't seen this done in the writers' community on blogger. If you look on the sidebar to the right, there's a BlogFrog community widget, the Not-My-Day-Job Writers' Cafe. I thought this would be a neat way for us to chat with each other about our progress. It's not just for the challenge - I wanted to give us a place to talk back and forth more than we do in comments. And not just about my own blog posts; please feel free to start a discussion about your own blog posts, about anything going on in your writing life (or your real life), or what you're reading. You'll have to make your own coffee at this cafe, but it's still a place for us to linger and chat!
But, if you don't have the chance to join the community, you're welcome to just comment as well! And if you're not participating, you can still support the bloggers who are frantically writing novels in the midst of the lovely summer sunshine--
So far I have:
Anne of Piedmont Writer
Summer of ...and this time, concentrate!
Shelley, of Stories in the Ordinary
and myself, of course.
I know quite a few people were on the fence about taking on this only mildly crazy endeavour. Who wants to join us? Leave a comment, and pass the lemonade and No. 2 pencils!
18 comments:
Oh, I would, but I've got like 20K left...so that's not really fair. I will finish in just a few weeks! Maybe I should start something new?
Oh...instant headache with that thought.
~JD
Good luck with this endeavour!! It's very tempting - I'm sitting on the fence at the moment - I'm waiting for my official feedback from my tutor and will take it from there! But if it arrives too late - then GOOD LUCK to you all!!!!!
It's very very exciting - there will be all these completed novels by labor day (no idea when that is - but I shall google it! LOL!) :-)
take care
x
What a great idea! I signed up on the frog. Maybe we should set a time or something to have discussions. I don't know what time restrictions every one has but it might be fun -- say like on a Wednesday night around 8 pm. or Something like that.
I'll give it a whirl. I wanted to try NaNo WriMo this year so this will be a great warm up (no pun intended).
Oh, I'm definitely up for this. I just started a fresh WIP and a Labor day deadline sounds like a good goal to attempt.
Well, I don't think I can finish my novel before Labor Day, but I'll keep working. I hit 40K yesterday!
Best of luck to all of you!
<>< Katie
Since I'm almost finish my one wip, and will be querying soon, I'll should be able to meet that goal. However, if you're talking about writing a first draft, then that won't happen. But I hope to have all the preplanning finished by labor day. :D
Great idea! I better, uh, nervously join in! You'll have to see what I have for next HOT THursday LOL.
YOu should also check out Writer's Digest website. I found a bunch of great articles there too : )
JD, understandable on the instant headache! I like to take a break between such big writing projects, and try to remember how to write a short story or a poem or non-fic, and give myself a chance to take a break from the intensity of novel-writing.
Old Kitty, I hope you take the plunge with us! Choccie muffins all around. :) Labor Day is September 6th. I figure I'll take the rest of September and October off from novel-writing to work on other projects and revisions, and then try to do NaNoWriMo in November. You should do NaNo! It's a lot of fun, if even crazier than this summer thing. lol.
Anne, I love the idea of meeting up in the forums once a week! Thanks for signing up for BlogFrog... I was worried I'd be the only one who thought it was a neat idea. You've made my day!
JP, awesome! I'm excited you're joining us. I'll add you to the list in the post. :)
Jaydee, perfect! What's your new WIP about? I'll add you to the list!
You both might to join us on BlogFrog so we can talk about our novels and check in with each other on progress a bit easier. :)
Katie, you can always set a different goal from Labor Day if you'd still like to join us. We're not such big sticklers. For instance, the technical end of summer is September 22nd, and Indian Summer is usually some time in October... there's some creative math available here. ;) No pressure, though... I'd love to hear about your WIP as you go anyway.
Stina, I'll be pre-planning a novel for this fall too... I want to outline my NaNoWriMo novel instead of just trying to make something up for November on October 31st (not that I've ever done that or anything...).
Bekah, glad to have you joining in! I think this challenge is going to be a lot of fun.
It's funny you mentioned Writer's Digest, because I just started poking around there last night! My grandmother used to subscribe and I was thinking of subscribing myself... but I definitely need to spend more time with their web content regardless. :)
Hey Guinevere, thanks for your comment letting me know about this post.
Okay, so, shhh... I'm not really here... as in, I'm not officially back in the blog world (too much craziness with moving right now) but in the middle of that craziness...
I finished my novel yesterday!
I have no idea how I did it so soon, I just sat and typed. It's going to need revisions, that's for sure. And frankly, even though this is the 3rd book I've finished, I'm all antsy and can't figure out what to do right now.
I hope your writing is going well! I probably won't be back in the blogging world for at least a week, but I'll stop by again soon. :)
Shelley, that's great! Congratulations!
And we'll miss you in the blogging world for the next week or so, but thanks for stopping by and best of luck with the move! I am very impressed you managed to write during a move; those are always so painful for me, I spend evenings after packing/unpacking laying on a box feeling sorry for myself and watching TV. lol.
Hi Guinevere -- just wanted to let you know you were one of the winners of a copy of "A Bad Day for Pretty" at The Blood-Red Pencil. The announcement is in the comments. All you need to do is send me your mailing address: patriciastoltey(at) yahoo.com
That is awesome, Patricia! Thank you! emailing right now. :)
What a great idea. This is how I got my draft last summer. I hope to be finished with a round of revisions this summer.
I'll cheer you writers on. Write, writers, write!
P.S. I love the title of your blog.
Best of luck to all of you!
Banner Advertising Network India
Post a Comment