June 2012
22 posts
3 tags
The OLL-iverse: Starlog 4
Hello, everyone! Do you know what time it is? Correct, it is weekly recap o’clock! My favorite time of day. My favorite time of week, really. That’s right, out of the whole week, this is my favorite time. I get to look back and remember everything that happened! How great is that? So great. Seriously. It’s even better than rest o’clock (though relax-thirty is a close...
2 tags
Lessons From the LARP Side, Part 1: Gamewriting
Yes, it is true. I am that dorkiest of dorks. I am a LARPer, and I am proud. More over, I am a LARP-writer. I’ve dedicated more time to writing LARPs than any other form of fiction (even novels), and you know what? I’ve learned an awful lot from the process. Over a few posts, I’d like to take you inside the weird and wacky world of LARPing and share some of the lessons...
3 tags
The Joy of Validation
For my major in college, I ended up spending a lot of time in writing workshops. These classes, their professors, and the students involved all tended to be…provocative. There was the professor who shared a name with a 90’s hip hop duo, and went on at length about majesty of falcons. There was the workshop where we were asked to stand up, one by one, and offer up our most penetrating...
3 tags
The OLL-iverse: Starlog 3
And we are back with another inspiring edition of your catch-all review of all the wild and exciting things that happened around the world of Letters and Light this week!
Today’s post is brought to you by Ben, who is not actually in the office today. He is off paddling his car into the sunset.
[[MORE]]Camp NaNo:
Sarah sent you a Week Three pep talk, reminding you to focus on the...
3 tags
Of Books, Planes, and Halibut
I am doing a lot of traveling this summer. Between now and August, I will find myself in Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Vermont, and Alaska. (I’m serious about the “finding myself” part; a man comes to a lot of realizations while fishing for Alaskan halibut, or so I understand.)
I’m currently packing for the longest stretch (three weeks!), and in addition to finding that I don’t...
2 tags
Sometimes You Need to Paddle a Car
Yes, that is a picture of me paddling my car into the ocean, or at least trying to. Where did I get the paddle? Oh, I keep it in my car. See, it’s one of my Adventure Totems.
Now what the devil is an Adventure Totem!? Well, some of you may have encountered Writing Totems before; you know, a magic little trinket you put on that inspires you to write, that you build up a good writing...
2 tags
When is a Writer a Writer?
I’m a new runner. I’ve only been at it for a few months, after walking my very first 5K last year. I’m still overweight, so I’m far from fast, and I’m such a rank newbie that I often ask myself whether or not I can actually call myself a runner. I mean, don’t you have to run a marathon to count? Or run five days a week for a certain number of miles?
I have a...
3 tags
A Wrimo's Guide to Noveling Pitfalls and How to...
Linda Ge is a Northern Californian high school student by day and a writer by night. A longtime NaNoWriMo participant, she is the co-proprietor of Teens Writing for Teens. She wishes the Wall Street Journal had a horoscope section and would love it if you left a comment or a hundred on the TWFT blog. We were lucky enough to have her spin some wisdom for us on our blog:
At the age of 17, I...
2 tags
Back In the Saddle...
Last week I shared with you my shame and dismay at the uncharacteristic reading drought I was suffering through. By airing my problem publicly, I was motivated to work harder on the fix (a good example of why we encourage our writers to publicize their goals as motivation to win!). And, my friends, it appears that I am back in the saddle again.
I hit that often-critical 88-page mark, and the...
3 tags
The OLL-iverse: Starlog 2
Good morning, sports fans, and welcome back to your favorite feature: the weekly recap! Plenty of excitement went down in NaNoland this week, and we’re here to make sure you don’t miss a bit of it. Want to be sure you’re up to date on your swamp things and alligator attacks and priest-strangling noodles? Then this is the post for you!
Today’s list brought to you by Ben,...
3 tags
A NaNo Novel About NaNoWriMo: A Q&A With Kim Votry
Kim Votry is a YWP educator, a homeschooling mom, and a writer. On top of all that, she’s a writer who writes about NaNoWriMo! Her upcoming novel, My Own Magic, tells the story of a writing teacher so strange she clearly must be a witch, and the trials and triumphs of her class of twelve-year-old would-be WriMos.
Kim is deep in the thick of a publishing adventure (which you can keep track...
2 tags
Strangle the Priest! (And Other Strange Food...
Yesterday morning, I brought some pastries into the office, a hybrid of brownies and muffins. Unsure of what to call them, we turned to Twitter, and you guys gave us some great—and some not so great—suggestions (Mownies? Brupcakes? I personally liked Amazingness from a Higher Power, because it implies I’m some sort of deity).
Strozzapreti is one of my favorite types of pasta, and has been...
3 tags
Writer's Block
You know that feeling you get when you are staring at a blank page that you know is supposed to be filling up with beautiful language, only to find that nothing is happening? Of course you do, you’re Wrimos. Writer’s block can come with making writing a part of your daily reality for an entire month, whether in November, or June or August, for those campers among you.
A...
2 tags
Miss Mia and the Amazing Gobstopper
Meet Mia, the Pomeranian that I live with. Officially, she belongs to my roommate. However, I have the unmatched privilege of walking her a few times every week.
Mia is a fairly simple diva: she likes to be told how beautiful she is, she likes chewing on the expensive bones I bring home from my restaurant job once a week, she likes her fancy toys (that green ball you see cost about five...
2 tags
Thirty Pounds of Chocolate in a Pillowcase (and...
When I was thirteen, I confronted that ancient and all-American coming-of-age ritual: my Bar Mitzvah.
For the most part, my Bar Mitzvah was a fun and relatively painless experience. I didn’t belong to a temple, so my family got together with five others to find a private Hebrew tutor/rabbi. Tsipi taught the six of us everything we needed to know, and for two years we were a little family of...
3 tags
The OLL-iverse: Starlog 1
Hello, OLL fans, and welcome to a new blog feature! On Fridays, we are going to recap all the goings-on in the world of Letters and Light.
There’s a lot happening every week, whether it be existential crises brought on by too much Twitter whimsy or the latest Yeti sighting in the virtual forest at Camp NaNo’s edge, and it can be hard to keep track of. If you want to make sure you...
3 tags
A Battlestar of Thrones
I like to consider myself a pretty diverse reader, but there’s always been one big exception to that rule. I have never been a fan of the epic fantasy series that span tens-of-thousands of pages, and often come with many years of anxiety-inducing publication delays. (I spent many years worrying that J.K. Rowling was going to be assassinated before finishing Harry Potter. I don’t need...
2 tags
To Read or Not to Read... Is That Even a...
At the risk of overburdening the blog with posts about how and what we are reading, I feel compelled to share with you my latest thoughts on this subject. Well, sort of. My post is actually about what I haven’t been reading, and why.
I haven’t read a book in about two months. For me, this is catastrophic. Reading is my number one most very favorite thing to do in the whole world...
2 tags
Page to Screen and Back Again: The Adaptation...
Looking at the major movies and properties of the last decade or so, you can see what makes it big: adaptations. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, The Avengers, Game of Thrones… All of them started off as books or comics first. These days, everyone seems to be adapting something into something else. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that! Sometimes a good idea...
2 tags
An Ode to the Artichoke.
A couple of years ago, I had the lovely opportunity to attend the Artichoke Festival in Castroville, California (it’s a quaint farm town a short drive south of Santa Cruz). At that point, I had never really eaten a full artichoke, but I’d always had a deep and abiding love for artichoke hearts and dips.
At the festival, that all changed. I tried artichoke in its many forms...
2 tags
Join the Summer Reading Conversation!
When you are hunting for summer reading, it seems like everyone has an opinion or suggestion. Newspapers, magazines, and blogs publish list after list as the sun shines warmer.
But now it’s our turn. After all, who knows books better than us Wrimos who collectively write thousands of them every year?
On Thursday, June 7, we’ll be taking part in a jumbo-sized beach ball of a conversation about...
3 tags
Break out your tents... we're going Camping!
Are you looking for a new way to experience NaNoWriMo? Well, then, it is a good thing Camp NaNoWriMo season is upon us! Our virtual tent in the cloud is full of writers who are tackling the challenge to write 50K during June or August, and our first session is already upon us!
In the spirit of the season, some of our virtual Campers are dragging their laptops and notebooks out of their offices,...
