Kenaz Fiction

Day 9 - in your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

I'm going to keep it to writing goals. I have some work and riding-related goals as well, but I don't really feel like thinking about them at the moment. :(

- Finish my re-write of Ionnath-Estel! For the love of god, I'm going to wrap that sonofabitch up if it KILLS me!

- Write every day. Even if it's just a sentence. See Day 6 challenge.

- Make progress on my non-fandom writing: the Southern Gothic piece, the Elvish/Fae fantasy piece, or the historical fiction I've been threatening people with for nearly a decade. Maybe I'll start posting the fragments I have for both of them and, as keiliss suggested, maybe that will spur some discussion that will help them take shape. I don't think either of them will be ready for a true workshop environment in a year, but if I can at least keep chipping away at it, maybe their real forms will begin to reveal themselves to me. (This will be under a strict filter! I will solicit potentially interested readers soon...)

Day 6

In your own space, create your own challenge. What’s something you want to see more people doing in fandom? Is there something you’ve tried that you think other people would enjoy if they gave it a go? Dare your friends to try it out, and have fun with it.


I'm going to steal (and minimize) a chapter from the getyourwordsout community and put forth this challenge: Get Your [something] Out!

Every day, I challenge you to write something. Anything. No word count goal, no big ambitions, anything will so: A single sentence. A fragment of dialog. A list of characters you would like to write about. A vague idea for a story. A line that you think would make a great title for something. A bunch of unrelated words that you think are beautiful or powerful or evocative that you would like to incorporate into something else someday. It needn't have anything to do with anything you are working on-- just find some words and get them out.

If you are an artist, pick your medium and do something with it: sketch the most inchoate thumbnail. Slap some paint on a paper in a pallette of colors that appeals to you. Find a study photograph that inspires you. Take the smallest of steps toward creating something larger.

If you are a reviewer, think of a story you been meaning to review and just jot down some adjectives that the story brought to mind. You can formulate a thorough review later-- for now, just think of the story and what it brought to mind.

If you are a vidder, list a couple of songs that inspire you, or make a list of movies/episodes/characters that you'd like to incorporate. If you're really inspired, list some specific scenes you'd like to use in your next work.

Whatever your creative medium, take a baby step EVERY DAY. Some days, you may be prepared to take giant leaps, to write your entire NaNo story in an hour. Some days, you may just need to make a single line on the paper. It's a start. It's enough.

Here's mine from yesterday, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything:

The night they burned the fields, the sun melted low across the edge of the earth like it might have set the fire itself, outraged at the coming of night. Families gathered on their porches to watch the billowing black smoke. The children ran like feral dogs, whooping and hollering, excited at being allowed to stay up past their bedtimes, taking advantage of their parents' distraction. Some of the women cried, but did so softly, damping their tears in their aprons and not making a sound. The men, some of them, clustered around their last bottles of spirits to drown their sorrows. Others stood alone, bitter-lipped and rock-jawed, and watched their crops devoured by the flames.

I have already fallen behind! The return to work has me all wrapped up... this will have to serve as a placeholder until later on!