TCWT October 2012 Blog Chain

Aaaand another blog chain has ended. I’ll get to this month’s prompt in a second, but I have a few blog-wide announcements to speed through first (if you’ll bear with me):

*Our very first blog chain took place in October, so this is going to be the one-year blog chain anniversary! Woohoo!

*If you want to send in teen writer blurbs/reflections (details are here) for our first birthday celebration, have them in by Thursday (9/20).

*The details of the teen writer/blogger chatzy chat will go up later this week. Anyone (who is 13-20) can do this, and it should be a ton of fun. It will take place sometime on Friday night, but I’ll make sure it’s at a time when people in the UK can come, too.

*For those of you with completed MSs, be sure to check out our agent pitch contest if you haven’t already. It’s a really great opportunity to get your work in front of agents, and it just opened last night! We might also have an editor lurking.

*Finally, the live Twitter Q&A with agent Pam van Hylckama takes place on Tuesday (9/18) at 8 PM EST. Follow @TeenWritersChat for details. If you have a question you’d like asked in the Q&A but can’t be there, let me know in the comments. I’ll ask it for you and include it in the transcript I post on Wednesday.

All that aside, now for the prompt:

Choosing this was really difficult, mostly because I waited until the very last minute for it. As I said before, I like to call it “skillful procrastination” rather than “laziness.” So I got to thinking about how the short story prompt was so popular last time. and since we just did an “about writing” type prompt, I decided to try something creative writing related again. So, because NaNoWriMo is coming up, I thought this could be fun:

“What are you writing for NaNoWriMo? Briefly explain how this book idea come about. Then write a mock first page for the novel.”

If you’re not doing NaNoWriMo, then you’re still welcome to participate; just apply the prompt to a potential new book idea instead of a NaNo novel. But if you are doing NaNo, maybe link us to your profile (if you have one) in the post so we can all connect with each other.

Also, you can scrap the first page right after this chain if you like, but starting the book randomly and then putting it away until you actually write it helps. Plus, it’s cool to see what everyone will be writing, and it’s always fun to start a new project. Think of it more as a ”writing exercise” than a ”finished piece.”

If you might change your book idea later on or have two that you’re deciding between or don’t know yet (you can honestly make up a book idea), then that’s fine. This is just a fun exercise; it’s okay if the book changes later on.

When I say “first page,” I mean a 1.5-spaced MS Word page. You can go a little over (or under) if you like; it’s not that important. Be sure to keep the generic “what are you writing?” and “how did it come about?” answers relatively brief as well. And like before, critiques on the first pages are welcome but please keep them friendly.

IMPORTANT note: I won’t be sending a group email with the schedule anymore because they’re a lot of work to put together and not really worth it in the end. I will, however, put the completed schedule up on our “Blog Chain” page on the 3rd of each month, so be sure to check back there for the schedule. I repeat: You will not receive an email with the schedule.

Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions, since I’m not sure if the prompt makes sense to anyone who isn’t me.

About these ads