December 2011
18 posts
1 tag
Our December Nap
Well, Wrimos, the time has come for all of us OLL critters to hunker down in our caves and nests for the traditional holiday nap.
The office will reopen on Tuesday, January 3. Until then, have an excellent end-of-2011 and a happy new year!
Best wishes,
Lindsey, Chris A., Sarah, Tim, Chris B., Dan, and Jez
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This Is Why I Teach
Elementary teacher Nancye Blair sent along this video and blog post. We love hearing about how the Young Writers Program inspires students and educators—as Nancye discusses how her kids spurred on her own word count. Find out why all of Nancye’s students can say, “I am an author.”
Last month, I took on a challenge that I did not believe that I could accomplish and that...
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A Book-Loggy Year
Back in January, I wrote about my New Year’s Resolutions here on the blog. Public accountability, after all, is a great motivator, and I was hoping that by declaring my intentions to all of you, I’d be a little more likely to stick to the resolutions.
My big resolution was to keep track of all the books I read in 2011, and thanks to the suggestions in the comments, I ended up with a...
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Things You May Not Know About OLL
I’m bad with goodbyes. I mean, absolutely awful. It’s all never-ending tears and my blotchy red face. Far from attractive. The truth of the matter is, I’m a big ol’ softie at heart, and an incorrigible romantic to boot. And I have fallen so desperately in love with this office. This also means I’ll probably have to rewrite this post four times before it gets down to a palatable level of...
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A Creative Path for 2012
Lately, I’ve been lurking in the Big, Fun, Scary Things forum. I like it there. So many of you are so positive, and have such exciting goals for the new year. As I read these lists, something else impresses me: they’re so definitive.
Definitiveness, or the lack thereof, has been my creative bête noir for the better part of 2011. I have a drive to make stuff, but so much of the time, I’m not...
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A Nod to the Nog
The office is especially full of winter cheer today. We’re counting down the hours to our annual staff holiday party, where we’ll don our coziest sweaters and our finest nog-drinking mittens. Oh, and this year, we’ll also be playing bocce.
The high point of the night is always the white elephant gift exchange. Man, it gets intense. Last year, the in-demand items included a Star Wars USB drive,...
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30 Covers, 30 Days 2011: Curtain Call and Thank...
The office is only just starting to come down off the high that was NaNoWriMo. Every November, we’re lucky enough to experience creativity that’s tidal-wave in force, writing alongside hundreds of thousands of writers like you all around the world. That creative energy has some amazing effects, including the inspiration of our designers for the 30 Covers, 30 Days project, led by John...
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Happily Holidayed
I love the winter holidays. In spite of the persistent (and often very bad) music, the frenzied crowds, and the abundance of naughty foods that make me a little cuddlier by January 1, I still give the Thanksgiving-to-New Years stretch of serial holiday-time a thumbs up.
For me, it comes down to tradition, many of which have little to do with the actual holiday we’re celebrating and more to do...
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Writing is Hard!
When it comes to writing, memoir has always been my greatest challenge. I don’t know how to write it. I’m always torn between trying to report accurately and trying to convey such accuracy into something cathartic and meaningful. Flannery O’Connor once said that anyone who survived their childhood had enough fodder for good memoir, but I always look back on my own...
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I wrote a novel. Now what?
My friends, I have got a wicked case of the Decembers.
It happens every year. NaNoWriMo ends, and once the TGIs are all O, I’m left trying to remember how I filled my time when I wasn’t writing a novel. (Or, let’s be realistic, updating my word count on the site, tweeting about my novel, talking to other people about writing a novel, and doing very important things in order to avoid...
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NaNoWriMo: A Writer's Vacation from Nonfiction
Eleven months out of the year, I write nonfiction. I tend to write shorter-form essays that don’t necessarily have a ton of dialogue or require the carefully crafted plot arc that a traditional novel requires.
So November presents itself as a delightful opportunity to take a break from my usual writing projects and subject matter, and exercise other writing muscles: dialogue, character...
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The Magic Assignment
The Young Writers Program exploded with activity this past November, with the highest win rate for participants in the history of our program. The success of YWP has everything to do with your participation and donations, and with the fantastic educators we get to work with. Laura Bradley, a middle school teacher in Petaluma, CA, graciously shared her experience with us.
The bell rings, my...
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NaNoWriMo's Gasp-Inducing 2011 Stats!
The end-of-event stats blog post has become one of my favorite NaNoWriMo traditions (and I derive great pleasure from looking at these stats posts from years past, too…). I hope you enjoy devouring this year’s numbers as much as I enjoyed compiling them!
General Stats Round Up!
For NaNoWriMo main:
256,618 participants, up roughly 28% from 2010’s total of 200,530 writers.
We wrote a...
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Short Story, Long Story
Every November, our incredible MLs from all around the world, in addition to their own novels, sit down and compose some incredible pep talks for the Wrimos in their regions. One of our favorite things to do is to read these works of creative inspiration. Emily Bristow made sure we all read this one from our ML in Southern Mexico, Andrés Cruz y Corro, and we wanted to share it with you as we...
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Of Alcatraz and Theft
I fulfilled a longtime (and touristy) dream of mine last weekend: I went to Alcatraz. The prison, which housed such notable criminals as Al Capone and Robert Stroud “the Birdman,” is a formidable structure, standing alone in the wind on its rocky little island in the San Francisco Bay. The trip was informative and interesting, but my personal fascination goes beyond its historical significance,...
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"I'm Making My Script Frenzy Script!" A Q&A with...
As Script Frenzy grows, more and more established filmmakers are getting in on the fun. Writer/director Stephen Norrington, best known for directing Blade and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, began shooting his Script Frenzy screenplay in Los Angeles this year. We checked in with Stephen via the interwebs to see how the project was going.
Your current film project has its origins in...
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Six Crucial Questions for Keith Blount of...
Each year, we interrogate one or two NaNoWriMo corporate sponsors on the OLL blog. It’s our way of saying thanks for the vital funding that our sponsors contribute to NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program. Today, I asked the generous, mysterious Keith Blount of Scrivener some hard-hitting questions about halogen light bulbs, children as coders, and the pernicious rumor that his software...
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I didn't win. And I'm okay with that.
So this year, I clearly didn’t win NaNoWriMo. It’s the first time since 2006 that I haven’t won, and it’s my first year not winning as a staff member.
This just wasn’t the year for me. I couldn’t get into my story idea (in spite of the incredible ideas offered to me by the NaNoWriMo community in response to my staff video). I didn’t have a lot of free...
