Celebrate a new season

Summer is on its way in the southern hemisphere. Temperatures are soaring and all the layers of winter are flying --away. What a relief! Writing season is open too it seems, with NaNoWriMo on its way and www.fanstory.com also jumping onto that bandwagon.
I have already registered for NaNoWriMo, my first, and I am looking forward to it with some trepidation and a whole lot of excitement. I will be starting my seventh story during November and hopefully will be able to make the word count required. Fanstory, however, is not gong to be so lenient on the word count. Ten thousand more words than NaNo and of course, it has to follow the rules of good plotting, no jumping in just to generate the required 50,000. No, there will be a vote and reviews, and a prize on the line for the best submission.
Two competions with one effort? Sounds good, but that extra 10,000 words may seem insignificant, I mean it is only 20% more, right? That translates to an additional 333 words per day -- that is on top of the NaNo target of 1667 words per day.
Hard it will be, harder if you do Fanstory too. Well, my friend, we will fight the fight, and write the write, one word at a time.

Creative Writing Competition: August

This month there is an opening line to start your short story: The lights went off.
Start your short story with this opening line exactly as is. There is no limit on the subject matter, as long as this opening line is used.
Closing date for this month's competition is 15 November 2011. If you are planning on taking part in NaNoWriMo this year, I suggest that you submit your story before end of October.
And lastly -- we will need a judge for the August competition.
Happy writing, Linzé

The photograph of the Harvard is courtesy of Francois Venter.

This old veteran of the war still has some serious mojo as it dances through the skies above the city. While it is true that its fighting days are over, just seeing it fly and hearing the drone of the engines, makes for some wonderful inspiration. If freedom had a sound, it would sound like that of an aircraft engine. Freedom from the gravitational pull that keeps us anchored to the earth we inhabit; freedom from our daily struggle that presses us even closer to the ground.

To fly -- the temporary release from the ties of our existence -- freedom.

Beauty of Yesteryear

Harvard Aircraft Propeller and Engine

Teamwork

As writers we have a fairly 'alone' kind of occupation, unless you collaborate with someone on a book. Not the realm of the still-waiting-to-be-published author. That being said, in my normal day job teamwork forms the essence of what I do as a project manager. It usually takes a crisis or a problem for that teamwork to be visible in its essential human context. I saw this today when a colleague received some really distressing news and how everyone just jumped in ... to get him out the door.
Not because we were nasty, quite the opposite. We understood his need to be with his sick parent, so we quickly sorted out the urgent things that needed to be done, while he could go and be where he should -- at the bedside of the patient.
That is the essence of people pulling together, putting differences and difficulties aside, to do what must be done -- getting the job out the door.

Writer's Competition August

July has come and gone, and the August competition is coming up in two weeks time.  It will be an opening line competition -- and I have already got the line that your piece has to start with. Nope, not going to give it away -- not yet. It will be made public on 15 August. So watch this space, or sign up to remind yourself to come and have a look on the 15th.

For those who decided to take part in the July competition, you still have until 15 October to submit your short story.

Happy writing!

July Competition: Subject

The subject for the writing competition is FRECKLES. Be creative! You may use the word at least once, but not more than three times in the story.

Competition closes on 15 October 2011. Please forward your entries to me, in time, so that you won't miss the deadline.

Happy writing!