A message from Elmey regarding the 50th Anniversary

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Writer and Artist sign-ups for the MFU50 Mini Bang remain open at mfu50bang until June 6th. Dig around in those old Wips, wake up the snoozing plot bunnies, set up your easel and put your name on the list :)

Faq and sign up sheets here.

Everyone is welcome, come join the fun!

Comments

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm the opposite! I'm one of those writers who needs lots of drafts. And I like working with a beta--I don't always do it since I so often finish just at the deadline and so on, but for longer stories it's made a big difference for me, and not just because she fixes what she tactfully calls my "idiosyncratic" punctuation and tenses that turn into temporal anomalies :D I like having someone to bounce ideas off of when a scene isn't working, or motivations aren't coming clear, or I'm wondering if something I'm experimenting with is working or not. I whine a lot when i write ;)

Did you see the anonymous beta review we're doing at mfuwss in June? I don't know if it would interest you, but we're hoping to give people a good sense of what the process is like.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I have used a beta now and then and suppose I should more often as I have some issues that I still don't seem to be able to correct. Though it's not through lack of trying. My writing style is very blunt I think and sometimes I wonder about it being good enough.

When I write, it's non-stop for the most part and is just a flow of consciousness. It's rare that I have to go back and rewrite anything...sometimes that scares me. Other than Blood Moon, I haven't written anything that's very long as I've gotten tied up in the short writing challenges on Section VII...which can be a sort of a trap. I've been itching to get into a nice long fic and I think the Mini Bang is just the ticket. Still I feel like I'm a little rusty and have to resolve some plot issues and twists. I have a lot of those intersecting thoughout the story...

I saw the announcement fot the beta review. Is that going to be a permanent feature? I love the idea!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

If there's enough interest, we're going to try to do it every two months. Total anonymity is the lowest stress way we could think of to have people try out the process.

I really think of writing as a craft. You learn by sitting down and doing it! But like any craft, there are fine points and it helps to have a little guidance instead of trying to do everything by trial and error. And let's face it, all of us have our own strengths and weaknesses in our writing. I don't know if you saw Lee the T's comment in that thread but she's right, everyone makes mistakes and it's OK. The thing is learning how to fix them. And that's where a good editor helps.

It's not that easy to find a good beta and then to do it well is time consuming, so we figured we'd try out crowd sourcing and spread the work around a bit ;) Obviously not every comment is going to be pertinent, but we hope each writer will get something that clicks for them and helps them improve their story.

It'll run the whole month, there's plenty of time to see how it goes and then decide if it's worth your while. I can see that you enjoy writing--and believe me I understand the frustration when things don't work exactly the way you want them to!!

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I beta now and then and definitely know it's not easy and finding the right beta for me has been hard. Definitely interesting in some help with a story I've been working on and have hit a brick wall with it so will give the beta a go. Thanks!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

My work here is done :D

But seriously, we're thinking of it as a workshop where we can all help each other.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

It's a great idea!