Post by Siana Blackwood on May 1, 2015 5:35:35 GMT
Welcome to Fix It Up Mix It Up May! This month we have a selection of different challenges - reading, writing and... more writing. Does two kinds of challenges actually count as a selection?
Anyway, challenges. We have them. Sign-up sheets and further details will appear over the next few days, but for now check out these brief descriptions:
1. MayNoFiMo - Finish a Novel (or whatever) in May!
In part, this is an event for those who started a novel for Camp NaNo in April but didn't finish it. It's also for anyone who's struggling to finish things. In May, commit to getting to the end of an unfinished draft. It could be anything from a short story to a novel - the aim of the game is simply to get to the last page.
The rules for participating in this challenge are simple: you need an unfinished draft of something and you need to try to finish it by May 31st. Unlike the official NaNoFiMo in December, this event has no word goal. You can win MayNoFiMo even if you have two more paragraphs to go.
2. SSSS II: The Return
That's right, we're rebooting the phenomenally successful Silly Stevian Story Share!
This is going to be a three-month challenge again, running either May/June/July or May/June/August for anyone who wants to take a month off for Camp NaNo in July. The exact deadline is basically nonexistent - whatever works with individual schedules and work rates is fine.
You can check out the original SSSS stories here: the SSSS sub-board. SK's 'Dead Souls Build Coffins for the Living' is complete (and awesome!), for those looking for something to read.
For the reboot, you can follow the 'switch worlds every episode' format as described in the original challenge, choose another prompt/challenge from elsewhere on the web or follow your own path. You also have the following options:
* Continue where you left off with your existing SSSS story.
* Restart/rewrite your existing SSSS story, making whatever changes you deem necessary to turn it into something you want to write. This may involve editing or reposting existing material.
* Start a whole new story, whether you have an existing one or not.
3. Stevian Short Story Share (aka National Short Story Writing Month)
The other SSSS: 4 weeks, 4 short stories! Well, sort of. We're actually planning four separate week-long challenges. Jump in whenever you like - do all four, only do some or even just stretch a single short story out for the whole four weeks.
In week 4, short story writers are encouraged to post at least one complete story for your fellow Stevians to read. Comments/critique welcome.
4. Reading Challenge
This is going to be a two-month challenge (May/June). Participants choose a number of pages to read during the challenge. We used to do this by number of books, but it felt weird having books of widely different lengths have the same value. So, page count.
We'll have a general discussion thread for this challenge - links to free reads, reviews of things you've read, requests for recommendations and anything else related to the reading challenge. As a bonus to tie in with our 'write short stories' challenge, we're also encouraging participants to read short stories online, then share a link and discuss the story.
Things that count towards your page total:
* Books
* Short stories
* Articles and blog posts
* Anything else that's substantially text
In all cases, both paper and electronic formats count. Where your reading material has a published page count, the number of pages in the work counts regardless of page size i.e. one magazine page = 1 novel page = 1 newspaper page. Where there's no page count (i.e. you're reading from a web page) you can get an approximate page count by copying the text into a word-counter, then dividing the total by 250 to get the page count in Standard Manuscript Format. Of course, if you're only going to read online short stories, articles and blog posts, you might want to skip a step and sign up with a number of words to read.
Other things probably coming up this month or in the next few months
* Our very first 'virtual write-in'
* An editing/revision challenge
* Preparation for the second Camp NaNo session in July
* Randomly posted 'wridays' and similar challenges
As always, if you have any suggestions for new challenges, think we need to change something or have some other suggestion, don't hold back. Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Anyway, challenges. We have them. Sign-up sheets and further details will appear over the next few days, but for now check out these brief descriptions:
1. MayNoFiMo - Finish a Novel (or whatever) in May!
In part, this is an event for those who started a novel for Camp NaNo in April but didn't finish it. It's also for anyone who's struggling to finish things. In May, commit to getting to the end of an unfinished draft. It could be anything from a short story to a novel - the aim of the game is simply to get to the last page.
The rules for participating in this challenge are simple: you need an unfinished draft of something and you need to try to finish it by May 31st. Unlike the official NaNoFiMo in December, this event has no word goal. You can win MayNoFiMo even if you have two more paragraphs to go.
2. SSSS II: The Return
That's right, we're rebooting the phenomenally successful Silly Stevian Story Share!
This is going to be a three-month challenge again, running either May/June/July or May/June/August for anyone who wants to take a month off for Camp NaNo in July. The exact deadline is basically nonexistent - whatever works with individual schedules and work rates is fine.
You can check out the original SSSS stories here: the SSSS sub-board. SK's 'Dead Souls Build Coffins for the Living' is complete (and awesome!), for those looking for something to read.
For the reboot, you can follow the 'switch worlds every episode' format as described in the original challenge, choose another prompt/challenge from elsewhere on the web or follow your own path. You also have the following options:
* Continue where you left off with your existing SSSS story.
* Restart/rewrite your existing SSSS story, making whatever changes you deem necessary to turn it into something you want to write. This may involve editing or reposting existing material.
* Start a whole new story, whether you have an existing one or not.
3. Stevian Short Story Share (aka National Short Story Writing Month)
The other SSSS: 4 weeks, 4 short stories! Well, sort of. We're actually planning four separate week-long challenges. Jump in whenever you like - do all four, only do some or even just stretch a single short story out for the whole four weeks.
In week 4, short story writers are encouraged to post at least one complete story for your fellow Stevians to read. Comments/critique welcome.
4. Reading Challenge
This is going to be a two-month challenge (May/June). Participants choose a number of pages to read during the challenge. We used to do this by number of books, but it felt weird having books of widely different lengths have the same value. So, page count.
We'll have a general discussion thread for this challenge - links to free reads, reviews of things you've read, requests for recommendations and anything else related to the reading challenge. As a bonus to tie in with our 'write short stories' challenge, we're also encouraging participants to read short stories online, then share a link and discuss the story.
Things that count towards your page total:
* Books
* Short stories
* Articles and blog posts
* Anything else that's substantially text
In all cases, both paper and electronic formats count. Where your reading material has a published page count, the number of pages in the work counts regardless of page size i.e. one magazine page = 1 novel page = 1 newspaper page. Where there's no page count (i.e. you're reading from a web page) you can get an approximate page count by copying the text into a word-counter, then dividing the total by 250 to get the page count in Standard Manuscript Format. Of course, if you're only going to read online short stories, articles and blog posts, you might want to skip a step and sign up with a number of words to read.
Other things probably coming up this month or in the next few months
* Our very first 'virtual write-in'
* An editing/revision challenge
* Preparation for the second Camp NaNo session in July
* Randomly posted 'wridays' and similar challenges
As always, if you have any suggestions for new challenges, think we need to change something or have some other suggestion, don't hold back. Any and all suggestions are welcome.