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Post by James on Jun 12, 2012 4:29:04 GMT -5
With the colossal amount of obituaries and tributes to Ray Bradbury from other writers, besides the awesomeness of him as a person, there's one thing I noticed as a near constant presence. His advice that if you want to write then you have to write. Every day. Even if you don't want to. That you should try and write a story a week if you can.
And I was wondering whether that could be possible to turn the spirit of that bit of advice into some practical for the forum. Basically everyone who wanted to participate in the Project would pledge to write say 250 words a day. Not a lot. It means you can squeeze it in ten minutes if you're really busy. But enough that you're still actually sitting down to write every single day.
Then I thought if we could take it further. If everyone is writing a lot, we'll eventually have to face up to the age old review question. What about if the Project has one 'Spotlight' piece. And then everyone queue their pieces up behind it. But a piece only stops being a Spotlight if it gets three reviews. A bit like the Weekly Review we use to do, except with only one spot and therefore a bigger incentive to keep a steady pace going through the list.
But what if you don't have a story you're currently writing? So I thought what if we had an idea bin. Where you could just throw down an idea, something crazy but fun, and someone else has to try and run with it. And then I thought, that's still going to involve a fair bit of effort unless you're going to do a bunch of flash fiction. It will take at least a week probably to finish the story. If you're busy you might lose interest. So what if we take Zovo's idea of an AWR story where each person writes a post, but each post is only exactly 250 words. Therefore if you have no muse to write your own story for a day, you just jump in and meet your target by writing in the AWR joint story.
And then, AND THEN, I pondered what if we bring back the AWR Roundtable for this as well. So each week (because each day would probably be too short) we have a new topic about writing. Someone can propose a question or topic and then we put it forward to the roundtable. Sometimes it may be something to do with writing technique. Sometimes it might be something really comedic (write a post on the literary merits of the Twilight series).
So to sum up (and I'm aware this is probably very rambling), the Project would be:- Pledge to write 250 words a day. Every day. Even if you don't want to. Even if you're busy. Try and find ten minutes and write.
- Set up an AWR Co-Op Story. Each post may only consist of exactly 250 words. This can be used by people if they're stuck for what to write 250 words on for a day.
- Set up a Challenge Bin. Post insane ideas. Post humourous challenges for people to complete. This can be used by people if they're stuck for what to write 250 words on for a day.
- The Spotlight Review. One story is made the Spotlight. Everyone else queues up to be the next Spotlight. A story only stops being a Spotlight when it has three reviews.
- Return of the AWR Roundtable. Weekly discussions on writing and literature. Sometimes serious. Sometimes humourous.
... which, you might all know, since I've wrote all this in the Writing Discussion Thread. The plan is now to start this project on the 18th, therefore starting this on a new week. Before we start there's a couple of things we can discuss and decide on.
A: The name for this project. I'm almost tempted to call it The Bradbury Project for being the inspiring factor behind it. But it also sounds kind of tacky and self-important. Any ideas?
B: Any other things that should be considered being added into the Project? Do you have any ideas? Should we make it into a mini competition who can write the most words each week?
C: Organising the beginning. Sign-up to the project. Discuss some crazy ideas to donate to the Challenge Bin when it's created. And someone need to step up and write the first 250 words for the Co-Op story.
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Post by Injin on Jun 12, 2012 10:49:11 GMT -5
Hell, why not. Sign me up.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2012 15:00:12 GMT -5
Standing by.
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on Jun 12, 2012 15:18:11 GMT -5
Isn't this basically the same as Ref's "Daily Devotion," just a higher word count in trade for having no set topic every day?
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Post by James on Jun 12, 2012 15:31:03 GMT -5
Isn't this basically the same as Ref's "Daily Devotion," just a higher word count in trade for having no set topic every day? I don't really think so. Ref's was a Daily Flash Story that you could hop in and out on depending on the topic. This is more a resolution to write 250 words a day, at least, probably on short stories that people are already working on.
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on Jun 12, 2012 15:56:46 GMT -5
Isn't this basically the same as Ref's "Daily Devotion," just a higher word count in trade for having no set topic every day? I don't really think so. Ref's was a Daily Flash Story that you could hop in and out on depending on the topic. This is more a resolution to write 250 words a day, at least, probably on short stories that people are already working on. Well, I did my 250 for last night.
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Orombur
Senior Scribe
Especially Mushu.
Posts: 2,417
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Post by Orombur on Jun 13, 2012 0:58:26 GMT -5
I'll give it my best.
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on Jun 13, 2012 1:14:21 GMT -5
So, I'm not really clear... where are we posting these things? -Are- we posting these things? What about the Spotlight or the Challenge bin? Have we started this? Is this enouh questions? Can I come up with more? Am I trying very hard?
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Post by James on Jun 13, 2012 6:38:16 GMT -5
So, I'm not really clear... where are we posting these things? -Are- we posting these things? What about the Spotlight or the Challenge bin? Have we started this? Is this enouh questions? Can I come up with more? Am I trying very hard? Where? We can use this thread as a general discussion thread. Maybe post bits of writing. I'll set up separate threads for the Spotlight, the Challenge Bin, the Co-Op Story and the Roundtable. Are we posting? Posting what? Your writing? If you want to. I'm going to use my pledge to write 250 words a day to make sure I continue to work on short stories so I won't be posting something at the end of each day except maybe a 'completed'. Since there's no competition element to it (at the moment), the cliched 'you're only cheating yourself if you're lying' is 100% true so I don't think we're going to need any proof. Anyway, the honour system has done us well in the past. What about the Spotlight and Challenge Bin? They will go up next Monday. Just so everything starts at the same time (the Roundtable being a weekly thing). Have we started? No. See above. I thought Monday would be a good start. Give a chance for people to prepare (if they really want to). And it means everything can start at the same time. Did you have enough questions? I believe you did but I'm willing to form a committee to decide on whether you did or did not provide enough questions. Can you come up with more? I fear we're moving into the realms of silliness now. Are you tryi-
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Post by Jenny (Reffy) on Jun 13, 2012 13:02:48 GMT -5
Isn't this basically the same as Ref's "Daily Devotion," just a higher word count in trade for having no set topic every day? <3 Also, there is no physical possible way I could even write 100 words a day any more I barely get a lunch break most days and then it's to an RPG night or D3 or Armadillidium (got some new subs). Edit: Curiously, and after posting this, that I kinda realised that I hope one of you can persuade me to be able to find the time or that would help me organise my life more ... Interesting.
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Post by J.O.N ((Dragonwing)) on Jun 16, 2012 9:51:11 GMT -5
I guess I'll sign up, hell, I have an idea in my head.
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Post by James on Jun 17, 2012 21:15:52 GMT -5
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