October = Super Writing Month?

As predicted, my vacation got in the way of me actually doing any sort of writing. That’s not to say that October is going to be a slow writing month. Au contraire, I think I’m going to be awfully busy writing this month!

Let’s start off with some super awesome excellent news. Ali Luke is going to be dropping the “un” from her title of “unofficial mentor”! Well, so to speak. A little over a week ago I received the Aliventures newsletter. She announced a new e-book she wrote – I instantly downloaded it since it’s free to newsletter subscribers – as well as the re-opening of her online writing workshop Writer’s Huddle. As much as I would like to participate in this – and thought about joining since I discovered Ali earlier this year – I still couldn’t afford the $20 a month to join. Literally as I was calculating how I could save to participate the NEXT time Ali opened up Writer’s Huddle I get an email from her. She offered me a free membership to Writer’s Huddle!!!! I guess it was an unintentional anniversary gift since the site re-opened the day after my wedding anniversary!

Now, I don’t particularly like to advertise to the world that I keep getting this free stuff from Ali –her novel and now a slot at Writer’s Huddle – because I don’t want my readers to harass her in to giving them freebies as well, or otherwise assume she’d give them out. The girl does need to make money, so these freebies are just AMAZING to get as gifts! Therefore, the only reason I AM talking about these gifts from Ali is because I am incredibly thankful and I want to make sure she knows. Plus, they are kind of big deals with regards to my own writing, so I consider them relevant.

So, to again show my thanks to Ali and to really try to help her out for her generosity, please, if you have any interest and the spare cash, sign up for Writer’s Huddle! I’m LycoRogue over there too. I haven’t really had time yet to really sink my teeth in to everything available, but if Ali’s involved I’m sure it’s worth it!

Personally, I’m using her advice/tutorials as well as the forum to accomplish two things.

1. I’m trying to revive the writing motivation and discipline I had with Script Frenzy. Granted, I didn’t really get far in the actual SCRIPT, but having the forum and other people to work with made a world of difference my first year at Script Frenzy. And this year the writing discipline took shape as me writing a chapter for my story. If all goes according to plan, the info and forums will both help me work on my current Hey Arnold story, as well as maybe help with my original story about Amara.
• Apparently Writer’s Huddle really helps out people wanting to participate in NaNoWriMo, so let’s see how that works out. I just might participate this year…
2. I’m hoping to find out information not solely on how to write, but how to make profit off of it. Perhaps on the forums I’ll make the professional connections I need to one day go from amateur writer to professional author.

So here’s hoping everything works out according to plan.

Big news number two is that I’m finally done with Amara’s backstory. At least, I’m done writing it so far. I need Hubby to look it over and see what he thinks about everything. I put a LOT of detail in to her sixteenth year – the year with the big life event I just thought of a few months ago. The rest of her life has maybe a paragraph per five years. I might add more detail to the other years, or I might take out some detail with regards to the “new” life event. Not sure yet. Again, we’ll see what Hubby says. So Super Writing Month might FINALLY have Amara’s backstory posted! Whoot!

Big news number three is that – depending on how this month goes and what happens with Writer’s Huddle – I just might join NaNoWriMo for the first time this year. If I do then this will be the first year I do both Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo. I doubt I’ll achieve the novel writing goal – since it’s been two-plus years and I still haven’t even hit the half-way point in What Is Truly Meant To Be – but it will be fun to try! So I’ll be spending the next month brainstorming on what to write next month. Any suggestions? Original story? Fanfiction? A story about Amara? Work on that massive hybrid crossover fanfiction story? Stick with Hey Arnold? Let me know your thoughts either in the comments below or on my facebook page!

Big news number four is that there is a Halloween-themed contest over on DeviantArt for the Hey Arnold fandom. There will be two winners, one fanartist and one fanfiction author. You can do pretty much whatever you want as long as it’s Hey Arnold related and somehow relates to the Halloween theme: it takes place on Halloween/they’re dressed up, it’s a ghost story, it’s an urban legend, it’s a generic scary story that can somehow relate to Halloween, etc. I’m still doing some “research” to figure out what I want to write, but I think I’m going somewhere down the middle between Urban Legend and Scary Story. Hubby suggested staying “true to show”, aka – keep them 9 and have it be “scary” but also humorous so it isn’t too suspenseful. Not sure if I’m going that way or if I want to try to make a legit scary story… guess we’ll see. Either way, the prize for each of the winners is a Hey Arnold book autographed by the show’s creator Craig Bartlett. I think it could be a really cool added bonus if Craig himself chose the winners!

I mean, I won the one Valentine’s day contest and received Premium Membership on DeviantArt, but I also think I may have been the only writing entry…. Soooooo….

There you have it. A whole bunch of inspiration, motivation, and discipline awaits me this month. Although this past week didn't see too much writing advancement, perhaps I'll have something to finally show you guys next week!