Hello, writers. Hm, so this is the new dKos?
It doesn’t seem very… orange.
In fact, it’s hardly orange at all.
Like, dude, where’s my orange?
Ah well. Here’s an updated list (in alphabetical order) of those who are doing NaNoWriMo. These are the people trying for 50k words in November. Included are their wordcounts from last Thursday, though I’ll update if they’ll be so good as to give me fresh figures.
akadjian
Cassandra Waites ~6000 words
Idaho07 13,604 words
jabney
mettle fatigue 16,000 words
Midwest Cohouser
moneysmith 9000+ words
Orinoco
shaso 46,929… have I got that right?!
Sonnet
terrypinder 18,386 words
Remember, those are last week’s figures, when 8335 words meant you were on track to finish by November 30th. If you’re at or over 20,004 words by midnight tonight, you’re still on track.
By the way, I think this is more people than we’ve ever had attempt the grand 50k before.
Imagine an orange scroll here, please.
Transition!
So. Recently I had a new and rather enlightening experience. I got to sit on the other side of the transom for a bit, and watch the alligators and manuscripts come tumbling in. I was asked to be a first-round judge in a writing contest (picking the finalists, not the winners). I’m going to be deliberately vague about the details, but I do want to share some of what I used to think, and now know isn’t true.
I used to think that 99% of submitted manuscripts were riddled with spelling, grammar and formatting errors.
Now I know that almost none are. In fact, based on this experience, I would have to say that the great majority of people who think they can write are absolutely correct.
So, the takeaway from this: If you’re trying to get published, assume that the competition are good writers submitting cleanly formatted, carefully proofread manuscripts.
I used to think that over half of submitted manuscripts were sent to the wrong venue, eg a short story called “What Happens In Vegas” sent to My Weekly Reader.
I was wrong. Probably fewer than 10% of the manuscripts I saw didn’t really belong in the contest, and it was a matter of near misses rather than huge misses. (An example of a near miss would be submitting a story for 12-year-olds to My Weekly Reader.)
The takeaway from this: Be absolutely sure that you know what it is you’ve written. If you’re not sure, join a writer’s group and ask them.
I used to think a story would sell if it was well-written and showed a likeable character who must overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve a desirable outcome.
A lot of the manuscripts showed that. A great many. There were a lot of apparently well-constructed stories. But there was only one made me laugh out loud, made me turn the pages eagerly, made me want to read the whole thing as soon as possible. That was really eye-opening for me.
Had I been an agent or an editor, that’s the only manuscript that would have had me reaching for the phone. Even though many of the others were perfectly fine.
I also realize that other readers might not have reacted that way to that one story.
The takeaway from this: Most writers trying to get published have better writing skills than storytelling skills. The story must do more than just satisfy the requirements of “a story”. It has to dance and sing to stand out from the crowd. And in a sense, that means the writing has to disappear, to be subsumed in the story, to the point that the reader forgets s/he’s reading a story.
It’s also important to realize that even if a story does all that, it’s not going to do it for everyone. It’s all very subjective.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, for what they’re worth.
Tonight’s challenge:
In honor of the new dKos format, write a scenelet of 100 words. It can be about anything but it must contain the line
Dude, where’s my orange?
The Write On! timeslot has returned to Thursdays at 8 pm ET (5 pm Pacific).
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.