Writers:

Illness seems to be swirling all around us. My neighbor lost his battle yesterday and is off to a less painful place (at least in my mind). My entire household has battled with colds and flus and infections. Which made me begin to think about how a writer describes illness. How can we make it seem real for our readers and dig deep? I’ve been doing lots and lots of revising lately. Revising is about going deeper. But, shouldn’t we also look at going deeper in our first draft — especially when it’s a subject that’s painful — like illness? Yes we should! So that’s what this week’s prompt is about.

I want you to either pick up a project that talks about illness, or write a new scene that describes it. Pull from everything you know about being sick, make it raw, make it real. It may be hard for some of us to do this scene, but you may find some healing on the other end of it.

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Here is a chance for another conference. Check it out. Several of our folks have gone to this in the past and really got a lot out of it. It’s a shorter time commitment than the PNWA conference and more affordable. So think about it. Although, if an agent is what you’re looking for, the PNWA conference has lots of opportunities.

Also, Jan. 31 is the deadline for the Glimmer Train proposal. Feb. 18 is when the PNWA conference writing contest stuff is due. So get your stuff out there!

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If anyone on this list outside of the board members and those already expressing interest were planning on attending tonight’s board meeting, please Email me. There’s some caveat’s to the meeting tonight, so want you to be aware. Nothing technology can’t fix (yay for living in 2011!).

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And now for your moment of Writing Zen:

Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you – as if you haven’t been told a million times already – that writing is harder.  Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.
~Harlan Ellison

Greetings SnoValley Writes! Writers!
 
I know many of you are swamped in National Novel Writing Month. I have descended into the second week sucking chest wound of word count deficeit. However, I’ll be working hard tomorrow to catch up. I get to live tomorrow — our national holiday of Veteran’s Day — as I wish, as a full-time writer. Seeings as I’m a veteran, I feel it’s only right I get to spend one day a year doing as I wish. I’ll take my combat ears, messed up neck, back, pelivs and cow knees for a walk with my new puppy and get the delta brain waves of creativity engaged first thing in the morning and then meet all those who care to at Isadora’s for a double-your-word-count day beginning at 9:30 a.m.  Won’t you join me?
 
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Invention.
 
Said to be the mother of necessity.
 
Therefore today’s prompt is about invention. Write about it. Create your own. Show how an invention either negatively or positively impacted your main character. Need some inspiration — watch a little TED tv on YouTube. Go back in history. Write about man discovering fire or the wheel or gunpowder. Get at least one scene out. If you have the luxury to not stop until you reach “the end,” do so.
 
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Writer’s Digest’s Short Story competition deadline is Dec. 1.  Here’s the details. Would love for you all to enter and ….make great things happen for your writing.
 
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And now your moment of Writing Zen:
 
“Young Castle called me “Scoop.” “Good Morning, Scoop. What’s new in the word game?”

I might ask the same of you,” I replied.

I’m thinking of calling a general strike of all writers until mankind finally comes to its senses. Would you support it?”

Do writers have a right to strike? That would be like the police or the firemen walking out.”

Or the college professors.”

Or the college professors,” I agreed. I shook my head. “No, I don’t think my conscience would let me support a strike like that. When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.”

I just can’t help thinking what a real shake up it would give people if, all of a sudden, there were no new books, new plays, new histories, new poems…”

And how proud would you be when people started dying like flies?” I demanded.

They’d die more like mad dogs, I think–snarling & snapping at each other & biting their own tails.”

I turned to Castle the elder. “Sir, how does a man die when he’s deprived of the consolation of literature?”

In one of two ways,” he said, “petrescence of the heart or atrophy of the nervous system.”

Neither one very pleasant, I expect,” I suggested.

No,” said Castle the elder. “For the love of God, both of you, please keep writing!”
— Kurt Vonnegut (Cat’s Cradle)

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Casondra Brewster
Writer/Editor/Literary Mentor
 
http://www.casondrabrewster.com
http://www.martiuscatalyst.com
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
 
“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.”
Anais Nin

Sorry this is late, but it was a late night last night! What a successful Word Jazz:  Fall Into Story! Event. (okay, I’ve reached my quota of exclamation marks today). Check out the SnoValley Writes! Web site to see how to order our second volume of Views, Voices and Verses:  Fall Into Story! It’s absolutely gorgeous and looks so amazing.
 
First off I would like to have RSVP from those who are attending our NaNo-Ween party with an updated list on who is bringing what (tables, chairs, etc.) If you somehow missed that memo, and are interested in contributing, please let me know. The party — the official NaNoWriMo Kick Off for our region (Snoqualmie Valley) — is at 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at The LaLande-Dunn-Steele Building (aka the Old DOL building) @ 1535 Bendigo Boulevard North (202) (it’s just east of the North Bend Animal Clinic.) Everyone is encouraged to dress up as their favorite dead author. Prize for best costume. There will be special guests and lots of goodies to start you off right on your noveling adventure. Not only that, it’s a great opportunity to network with other writers. You are not alone! We’ll all help each other get to 50k words in 30 days!
 
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Here’s a little NaNo character development to help you get inside (you choose which) protagonist’s or antagonist’s mind….
 
S/he is broken down on a deserted road (a flat tire, an overheated radiator, you choose)…what do they do? do they panic? do they sit and wait? what? And what happens when their plans just don’t necessarily go as planned?
 
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And now your moment of Writing Zen:
 
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
~Willaim Butler Yeats
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What did you Write today?
~Casz
Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites
“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron