Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Pontification for Hire (Okay, for free)

Is there anything you'd like to hear us babble on about? I can't guarantee we'll do it, or do it successfully, but here's an opportunity to ask those burning writing questions. If this goes well, we'll probably do it again.

11 comments:

Bill Henry said...

I just had an inspiration. (Jury's out on whether that's a good thing.) Holding forth about the craft is all well and good, and we should continue to do so at will, but how's about we entertain our blog's readers a little, too?

Here's my idea: What if we do an "exquisite corpse" style story -- a serial, in effect, with each installment written in succession by each of the Wrydsmiths.

And here's the clever part: To make it quick, light, fun, and above all challenging without taking up hours of our better-spent time (not to mention trying the patience of our loyal readers), each installment must be 55 words long -- exactly 55 words, no more, no less.

Fellow Wyrds, are you up for this?

Gentle readers, do you want to be entertained?

Personally, I think Tate should kick off the first installment.

: )

Anonymous said...

I up for it, though there's a part of me that reels at the idea of writing precisely any number of words. Still, I think it’s good practice for me to trim down--"fold sentences" as Kelly puts it--since I certainly shan't have any trouble getting to fifty-five.

Yeah, it’s fifty-five. Count ‘em.

Kelly McCullough said...

I'll try anything once, even haggis. Actually, that's been more than once. I keep trying to convince myself it's a good idea. Would we do it as a series of posts? Or would we start with a post and work in the comments section? How do we count contractions?

Fifty five. That's counting this bit.

Erik Buchanan said...

I like the idea and think you should go for it. It would be fun to see all of your writing styles together in one piece.

Also, if you have any tips on marketing your work on a small press budget, I'd be mighty happy.

And just for fun, this entry is also 55 words.

Kelly McCullough said...

Erik,

Perhaps Lyda and I can stop throwing rocks about whether author marketing works long enough that those who want to make suggestions about how you do it if you're committed to the idea won't get caught in the crossfire. She's very good, and I'm sure we all have things to say on the hows.

lydamorehouse said...

What no rock throwing? Where's the fun in that??

Absolutely, we can talk marketing. Though, to be fair, none of us really know how to market small press books (outside of our anthology).

And, yeah, I'm up for a group story. We should discuss it tonight, eh?

tate hallaway said...

Oh, and does this mean I get to write twice?

Bill Henry said...

Outstanding! We'll talk tonight. See you later . . .

Anonymous said...

Lyda and Tate, you can only write twice if you write in your respective styles and if you can keep from squabbling. Either that or it's no dinner for you. And no fish in these stories, either. If we want to read about fish, we'll go to Lyda's blog.

Kelly: Yes, I included this bit.

Kelly Swails said...

I love it! I can't wait to see what you guys do.

another idea could by a writing prompt of sorts. As in, one of you says "cats on drugs." And the rest gives a brief blurb about what you'd write a story about. For "Cats on drugs" my idea is the government has discovered that cats are bent on world domination and so they must either be euthanized or drugged. Yeah, it's silly, but that's sort of the point.

Kelly McCullough said...

Kelly Y,

That sounds like fun. I'll put it up early next week and see what happens.