Sunday Links: November 6, 2011 Edition

NaNoWriMo is underway! As of Midnight this morning (the 6th), the month was 1/6th over, which makes 8,334 words the "pace" for getting to 50,000 words by the end of 11/30. And that's exactly where I found myself when I hit the scene break where I planned to stop. Quite a fun coincidence! I'm looking forward to doing my writing today as I stopped right before one of the most pivotal scenes.

Earlier this week I was informed that I finished in (a familiar) 8th place in the third Platform-Building Writers' Campaign challenge. I was quite pleased to have placed in two of the three rounds! Thanks to Trisha from Word + Stuff for donating the prize which I won and to Rachael Harrie and all the others who volunteered to coordinate the challenge.  (Oh, and Trisha? I'm officially jealous of your NaNo word count. 23,482 already? Wow!)

Now to the links!

"Erin Morgenstern's Pep Talk" (From the nanowrimo.org web site) - I loved this post for several reasons. One, it was fun. Two, I felt like there was some great advice in there. Three, it showed that the NaNoWriMo effort can lead to successful writing. There are a lot of naysayers around NaNoWriMo, which I think is a real shame. Undoubtedly the vast percentage of what's written as part of NaNoWriMo will never be read by anyone except the author's friends and family. And with much of it, well, that's probably not a bad thing. But is it ever a bad thing for someone to delve into a large project that lets them express their creativity and forces them to stick to a plan? Call me crazy, but I think we should celebrate tens of thousands of people participating in literary endeavors.


"An Open Letter to Klout" (Liz at A Belle, a Bean, and a Chicago Dog) - I don't have any real dog in the Klout "hunt" but I found this a very interesting post, particularly the bottom which provides a very strong reason to be skeptical of Klout scores even with the revised algorithm. People who are heavily engaged in social media probably should be at least peripherally aware of Klout, but it sure looks like they've managed to "Netflix" themselves with this latest change.

"How to Feel Miserable as a Writer" (James Scott Bell at Kill Zone) - I liked this list of things that it's important to not do (or, at least, not always do). I know I do some of these from time to time and he's right -- they do make you feel miserable.

"Writing a Series: 7 Continuation Issues to Avoid" (Joanna at The Creative Penn) - A nicely-detailed list of things to think about when working on a series. This could apply both to novels or short stories where you wanted to re-use a character from story to story.

Additionally, here's a recap of the posts from this week on my blog:

"Words and Music (or, Countdown to NaNoWriMo)" - In the waning hours before the start of NaNoWriMo I posted a list of 10 albums I like listening to while writing with links to their Spotify entries so people who use Spotify can listen to them as well.

"State Secrets is Live on Kazka Press Site" - Tuesday I announced that my flash fiction "State Secrets" (one of the winners of Kazka Press's October Flash Fiction contest) was up for viewing online. The publishers are looking for votes on the stories (via the blue stars below the text of the story) as part of their criteria for which stories will be published in their quarterly eBook anthology. If you like my story, please take a moment to vote for it. It's greatly appreciated!

"Five Tips for Writing Flash Fiction" - Wednesday, I posted a set of tips for people interested in writing flash fiction. The format imposes some challenges on writers (as, ultimately, all formats do) and I talked about how I approach those challenges.

"The Morandini Genie - Call and Response Flash Fiction #1" - Friday, as the end of the first Iteration of my "Call & Response" Flash Fiction series, I published "The Morandini Genie" based on David Powers King's winning prompt.

"Call and Response Flash Fiction Iteration 2" - Finally, Saturday I issued the new call for prompts in the Call & Response series. Remember, the winning prompt gets a $5 Amazon gift card, so get your entries in before Noon (Eastern Time) on Thursday!

Five blog posts and progress on NaNoWriMo. I certainly can't complain about that week. I hope that things are going well for all of my writerly friends.

Have a great week everyone!