Get your fingers flexing because the third annual SepSceneWriMo starts in just one month.
Who wants to burden themselves with trying to write a *novel* within thirty days? Do you even have the time? 1666 words a day? No way. And what kind of schlock would you end up with, anyway? Come on, NaNoWriMo is a bust.
September Scene Writing Month is a much easier, lazier, more manageable endeavor. In fact, this challenge is so NOT a challenge, that you can get started on it RIGHT NOW! Sure. Who the fuck’s gonna know? Even more poignant is: who the fuck’s gonna care?
So, get writing your scenes today. But hey, schedule their publish date for September because, why the hell would we have named it SepSceneWriMo if it didn’t happen in September?
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
“It sure ain’t October Octopus Observation Month” says who?!
I do look forward to reading your scenes.
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I don’t think word count is a good metric for aspiring authors. “Number of powerful scenes” is a better one. If you have 3 or 4 powerful scenes that’s not bad at all — 7 or 8 powerful scenes is outstanding. It’s a question of not butchering the language and getting to the heart of things.
— Catxman
http://www.catxman.wordpress.com
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If you’re writing to the market then you’ll most definitely have to target word count for the various genres.
But, if you’re writing for pleasure or personal fulfillment or don’t care about the market — then yeah, focus on delivering a powerful story, regardless of word or scene count.
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Wish I could join–do you have anything for October when I’m finally retired? Currently, I have the sequel to The Seventh Devil underway (it’s called The Devil You Know), so OctoChapMo might help me out!
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lol – this is a ‘thing’? I’ve done nano 3 times and it was a great experience but…never again. A scene might be fun though. 🙂
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It’s “our” thing. A few of us dreamed it up three years ago. It’s, as mentioned, less a challenge than a nose-thumb to NaNo.
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lmao – I see!
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I did Nanowrimo years ago. It was a stressful slog and the result will likely never see publication. But it was coherent enough that I did prove to myself I could write something novel length. (Although really, anyone who can blog coherently can do it, if they really set their mind to it.)
A scene a day sounds interesting. Anything that gets words on the page…
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That’s the spirit.
Scene writing is more fun anyway. No pattern, no form, anything goes. As long as you think it’s a scene from a story, then it qualifies.
Choosing individual POVs per scene, different tense, it’s all what makes it enjoyable.
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William Faulkner has a character say any idiot who can string words together in a reasonably coherent manner was a novelist.
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Truer words… Especially in today’s novel as coming of social notoriety badge.
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Anyone who can write and determined enough can author a novel. Of course, writing one others want to read is a bit more complicated.
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Writing one that can be foisted into the hands of an audience an even bigger challenge.
Good !(auto)= successful.
Successful !(auto)= good.
Don’t you hate it when quality & popularity do not coincide?
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“Don’t you hate it when quality & popularity do not coincide?”
I actually find it interesting. There are a lot of books sophisticated people thumb their noses at that are bestsellers. It just goes to show that most readers judge a book differently than most editors or writers.
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Unless you’re a celebutante, Rock Star, famous or infamous jock, murdere, politician or Hollywood hack then it can be complete sh*t and will sell.
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I don’t think I know how to write anymore. See? That sentence was proof. But the every couple of days thing would be good for me. Particularly now that I’m off the prompt and social media aspect of sophomoric writers marketing derivative sophomoric shit to one another. As with you, time is also not an empty my pockets and sit proposition. I’ve been caning the various WIPs, God some of them are awful, and Jac is back so there will be an uptick in the long forgotten Gothic Brit spies/100 year old conspiracy bit. I liked my characters for that. Plus, I need to winnow and finish the Great Kerrigan Bank Robbery for the hell of it. And both Bobby B books. One is in the can, needs some filler. Talk about assumptive jumps in timeline. So rock on. I’ll edit for August, write in September. Right now my skill level is the dude in this song – has it left me for a summer love? Don’t forget to write…
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In stereo no less!
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September, After the Boys of Summer Have Gone, is a good time to write, I’d think.
My groove slips on almost easily now, I keep it in a jar full of K-Y. The wife does not approve. Has she ever?
We’ll take what we can get. I could see a British fling for your Danger Barbie, as long as you throw in a ride on the Underground and a trek to a grimy pub.
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Is this a screen-writing thing? Good luck.
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Kind of. It’s an open, anyone can do it, write a scene a day for a month. More info can be found in past SepSceneWriMo posts. And when it starts a post describing the details will be made.
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Hi A. Mole,
Things like this, along with writing prompts, poem/short story contests, open calls for cuttings by agents/publishers, Word Press (or any other internet site) offering writing workshops, creative writing correspondence courses by somebody who “knows how to write”, etc. make me feel bad. I have no idea why. “Fanning” on free reading sites like Word Press or Wattpad, make me feel horrible. Again, I don’t know why. Perhaps as a doctor of psychiatry, you could explain it to me. In fact, writing for Word Press on THats blog, although I do a hell of a lot of it, is somehow unsatisfying, occasionally depressing. Why? Maybe it is because the internet has no helpful emotion, it is an artificial structure that carries images back and forth. Editors and publishers make judgements, base upon fair and unfair evaluations. Your writing is deemed to be either good or bad. That sort of feedback is isolated, restricted, floating in a small vessel that has been around for a long time. As an old school writer, it helps to be insane or a drunk evidently. In that sense, the internet dovetails, since it will communicate anything. Dangerous, unethical, shitty, bad, etc. It doesn’t matter. Under the guise of a free exchange of ideas, we justify so many very harmful things. Trolls are the monsters we all dread. They attack the most innocent people. They dirty the most beautiful words with sarcasm and bile. If the internet was a bar in Dallas, you can be sure a bunch of people would end up dead or in the hospital every night. Oh well, these are the ramblings of a man sitting in Mexico contemplating the end of life as we know it, only one step away from a variant that will kill us all. So thanks for reading. Ha. Duke PS, the California dream is over. Too bad.
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Ah, that was classic, Duke. And definitely “classic Duke”, too.
I can see how such contest’ish events, organized provocations inciting forced creativity feel like swamp slogging. Judging creative works, now that I think about it, feels outright wrong. How can anything from the heart be “evaluated”? Deemed greater than or lesser than anyone else’s effort?
I approach this particular challenge more as a milestone in my personal journey in learning to write well. As the years have gone by, I can actually picture my progress. And it’s no small thing. The progress might not be great, but the fact that I can actually see it, that’s remarkable to me.
“If the Internet was a bar in Dallas” — Oh, man. What an image. Even as the country has grown more divisive, our ability to ignore the vilest of trolls has only grown stronger. I think, in the past, we never knew the extent of people’s repulsive attitudes. When they were given a voice, it shocked us. Now? Now we just sweep them into the trash like the garbage they are.
Growing up in Virginia, dreaming of California really was a thing. These days, I dream of New Zealand.
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I was gonna ask you about this! Think you’re gonna make all thirty days again? 😈
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Hell yeah!
And you’re gonna give it a go, too.
Course, last year was easier — jobless, laid-up due to certain health considerations. But, shit, if I get started today, and get at least a few in the can… We’ll see.
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I’m gonna try. Prior planning makes all the difference.
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Edit above as necessary.
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Done.
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NaNoWriMo produces pure garbage. If I seriously thought I could write a novel in a month I’d hole up and wouldn’t leave my house. (Maybe I should do that anyway.) Looking forward to what you guys produce in SepSceneWriMo!
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Wait just one dawgawnminute there buddy. “You guys” – I think you mean “We guys” yeah?
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LOL! I specifically wrote “You Guys” as a not so subliminal hint…I’m having a slow enough time digesting all the great input that my mind has been opened to and getting on with my next segment…which…hold your breath…maybe next week…attempting to incorporate all I’m learning…italics when talking to myself…active verbs…present tense….limited to no adverbs…trying to take myself as seriously as “You guys” are…you two–and you know who I’m referring to–are my “gift” from the void….
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