NaNoWriMo Comics

Quite a few of you have asked me if I was going to post daily NaNoWriMo comics this month. Sorry, but I've just got way too much going on right now to manage this BUT my friend Errol and I are contributing three comics a week (they didn't want more than that) to the NaNoWriMo blog! They should start appearing soon, I think; I'll post here when I notice any are up, though the NaNoWriMo site seems to still be in the birthing throes.

I'll also be posting some NaNo comics from last year, in case any of you missed them. :-)

PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) starts today!

Picture books writers (aspiring and experienced): Picture Book Idea Month starts today! Check out Tara Lazar's blog for more info.

Comic: Witch Writer

NaNoDrawMo, NaNoWriMo, PiBoIdMo and PAD

Call me crazy, but I've always loved creative challenges. During the month of November, I'm going to be participating in:

NaNoWriMo: I've been doing background and outlining of my cartoon-illustrated middle grade novel, Vampire Zombie Squirrels From Outer Space, and it's finally time to start writing it. I may not reach 50,000 words, but that's okay. I figure it'll be fun to try, and if I finish the first draft before hitting 50,000 words, that's also okay. Call me a NaNoRebel, but quality is more important to me than quantity in this case.

NaNoDrawMo: Just found out about this drawing challenge from Jeff. The goal: 50 sketches/drawings in a month. I figure I need more sketching practice, so this is a good excuse.

PiBoIdMo: Picture Book Idea Month. The goal: to come up with 30 picture book ideas in 30 days. I'm counting on at least ONE of these ideas being good enough to turn into a picture book mss that I can submit to publishers, along with storyboard sketches.

November PAD: Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge. The goal: 30 poems in 30 days, with a daily topic prompt from Robert Lee Brewer. I'm a closet aspiring poet and have even sold a few poems in the past. The whole insta-poem aspect of PAD is creatively liberating, I find.

What about the rest of you? Anyone doing one of the challenges above?

Morning writing session in Second Life

I haven't written about Second Life in a while, but wanted to post this screenshot of the writing session I participated in this morning. Don't know about the rest of you, but I always find it motivating to write while others are working hard around me...one reason I've always loved working in university/college libraries.

My avatar, hard at work

Lacking the time to regularly visit a university library, however, I use Second Life instead. Popped in for an hour this morning for a "Writers' Dash" in the Milk Wood Writers' Colony (hosted by Virtual Writers) where we write for 15 minutes on a word that is announced at the beginning of the dash (prose or poetry) then exchange what we wrote with others.

It's fun, writing in RL while your avatar writes in SL in a gypsy camp with other writers, the sounds of typing all around (manual typewriters as well as laptops and writing by hand) as well as birds singing in the trees. Some of us are also prepping for NaNoWriMo next month, and have our virtual books hanging up the trees, already displaying wordcounts (all read zero words at this point, of course :-)).

I'm "Inkygirl Omizu" on Second Life. Hope to meet some of you there!

If you're a writer wanting to learn more about Second Life, do visit Writers In The (Virtual) Sky. To find out more about Milk Wood and Virtual Writers, see Virtual Writers.

A new NaNoWriMo music video from my friend Errol!

Title: "I Am The Very Model Of A Wrimo Individual," from Errol Elumir. Keep an eye on the NaNoWriMo blog during November from a comic collaboration from Errol and me. :-)

Lack of updates

Sorry for the recent lack of posts, all. I've had a nasty cold for the past week. :-(

Hope everyone's writing is going well!

New comic up on Writer Unboxed!

For those who don't know, I post a comic for writers over on Writer Unboxed on the first and third Saturday of every month.

I just posted a new one this morning. :-)

Looking for a reliable writer, editor or reader?

My MiG critique partner, Carmella VanVleet, is looking for work. I've known Carmella for a couple of years now, and we've also hung out in person.

Carmella has had many books and short pieces for young people published, and I've always found her critique comments extremely useful. She's responsible, accurate and fun.

I strongly recommend her services.

You can find out more about Carmella at:

http://www.carmellavanvleet.com/Resume.html

Elizabeth C. Bunce on world-building and novel prep

I've always been interested in reading about other writers' work habits, so I was delighted to see that Cheryl Klein had posted a review with Elizabeth C. Bunce, the author of CURSE AS DARK AS GOLD (which I loved) and STARCROSSED (ooo, must get this).

Elizabeth says that CURSE took three years of "painstaking craft and research" and then six months of revision after the sale. For another book, LIAR's MOON, she did a ton of plotting, outlining and prep before she wrote a single word...and then wrote a solid first draft in just over three months.

Here's Cheryl Klein's full interview with Elizabeth Bunce.

NaNoWriMo Song from Errol Elumir

A brilliant NaNoWriMo song by my friend Errol. From Errol:

I like to do an intro video for Nanowrimo. For 2010, I did a parody of the song Good Ol' A Capella because I was too lazy to write my own song.

You can learn more about Errol and his creative projects at:

http://www.elumir.com/

Blog Highlight: Beyond The Margins

Beyond The Margins is a group blog for a group of writers who met, taught, and workshopped through Grub Street, a nonprofit creative writing center in Boston. "We have published novels, short fiction, poetry, newspaper and magazine articles, and our backgrounds and careers run the gamut from social work and medicine to journalism, law, graphic design, and metalwork."

Check out BTM for some great writing tips as well as insider publishing info.

We debunk the myths of freelance writing, deliver book reviews and interviews with authors and editors and agents, and take humorous looks at the craft, the industry and ourselves.

Today's post: To Blog Or Not To Blog: Authors Online (hey, and I'm mentioned in it! :-))

URL: http://beyondthemargins.com

Finding More Time To Write, Quickie Tip: Learn How To Say NO

Though I've gotten better over the years, I still struggle with this one word. Seems (at first, at least) much easier to say yes. I'm talking about the small favors that people ask you to do, the ones that you're sure will only take a few minutes of your time. The most insidious: the favors that you know would be fun to do, or the ones that are almost work-related.

Be wary of saying yes to too many of these. Inevitably, they'll add up until WHOA, suddenly you find yourself spending more time on these quickie favors for other people than you are on your own work.

Stay focused on your goals. Prioritize.

Learn how to say no politely but firmly without feeling guilty.

To clarify (because I'm already anticipating at least one person piping up and righteously saying that she's GLAD to want to say yes to those asking for help): I'm not saying you should ALWAYS say no...just be selective and be realistic. And be able to say no when you need to.

Business Insider profiled me in an article!

Hey, check out this Business Insider article: "10 Ways People Are Using The iPad To Create Content, Not Just Consume It." Heh.

Banned Book Week, Cheryl Rainfield's challenge, & #SpeakLoudly

It's Banned Book Week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. 

Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Cheryl Rainfield (author of SCARS) made a great post recently about Banned Book Week and issued a challenge:

It's Banned Book Week: Speak Up and Pick Up A Good Book!

I hope you’ll consider buying (or borrowing) and reading some of these banned books–and sharing them with others. I hope, too, that you’ll speak out about book banning–write a post about it, share your thoughts on FaceBook or Twitter.

As Cheryl pointed out recently on her blog, you might be surprised at some of the books on the ALA's list of Top 100 Banned Books list (past decade): Harry Potter, for instance. But it's true.

I'm going to go through this list and make a point of reading as many of these banned books as I can.

I feel very lucky to have grown up in an area where books were never banned, but some children aren't as lucky. I'm also naive enough to still be shocked by the depth of ignorance shown by adults in modern-day society, like when an associate professor condemns books like Laurie Halse Anderson's brilliant SPEAK as "soft core pornography."

You can follow the #SpeakLoudly discussion on Twitter.

Find out more about Cheryl Rainfield and her book SCARS at http://www.cherylrainfield.com/.

Happy Punctuation Day!



My post about time management, creative productivity, managing multiple projects

For those interested, I have a new post up on the MiG Writers site:

Time Management, Creative Productivity and Multitasking

Posting morning digital publishing, iPad & ebook news

Thanks for all the crossed fingers about my book projects, all! Much appreciated. :-)

I know I've raved about the SCBWI writers' conference before, but I must rave again. Since the conference, I've been at least twice as productive as usual. Not just because of what happened with the Illustrator Portfolio Showcase, but because of the workshops and talks I heard as well as the people I met.

I still haven't posted some of the takeaways and mentorship session details, but I still plan to. SO much to write and draw, and not enough time! Holy cow. Anyway, thanks for your patience.

Rubin Pfeffer's keynote about digital publishing and the children's book publishing industry really boosted my interest in digital technology and its impact on book publishing. Since Inkygirl (and @inkyelbows on Twitter) has a focus on the craft of writing, I've decided to save most of my digital publishing and e-book posts for my iPadGirl blog (and @ipadgirl on Twitter).

For those who don't have time to browse my iPadGirl tweets, feel free to read my occasional daily round-ups of news about digital publishing, e-books and iPads on iPadGirl instead.

Excited! And here's why...

A children's book publisher I admire a great deal recently invited me to send them a picture book story. Well, I did...and THEY LIKE IT! They've asked for a few sketches, so that's what I'm working on right now. So if I'm a bit scarce in Inkygirl for a little bit, that's why.

Meanwhile, I've just sent a proposal for a nonfiction book to my agent for her comments, and will be sending that off soon.

Sooooooooooo excited! Please keep your fingers crossed for me, thanks. :-)

Coffee with Claudia Osmond and Andrew Tolson

One of the many reasons I'm glad I joined Twitter is because I got to meet the Toronto Middle Grade and YA Author Group. The group was founded by Claudia Osmond (above left), and even though we get together once a month, some of us also meet in smaller gatherings as well.

Fun to hang out with Andrew Tolson (above right) and Claudia this afternoon, talking about kidlit publishing and catching up on each other's writing projects. The photos above & below were taken on my iPhone, and then I tweaked them using the TiltShiftGen app on my iPad. Andrew took the photo below. Andrew's a professional photographer, by the way; his recent photo of Bill Gates is the COVER photo of the current Maclean's magazine!