Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Calling All Writers

Thought for the day:  Often we can achieve an even better result when we stumble yet are willing to start over, when we don't give up after a mistake, when something doesn't come easily but we throw ourselves into trying, when we're not afraid to appear less than perfectly polished. [Sharon Salzberg]

On your mark, get set ... oh, crap!
How about that? Usually, I have a hard enough time coming up with a single post for any given day, but today, you get TWO. A bonus post.

That's because the loverly Suze of Subliminal Coffee is instigating an unusual challenge, and I wanted to give all you writers out there a heads up. Beginning this week, she's initiating something called False Start Fridays. Each week this month, you're invited to trot out a snippet from one of your old, and maybe less than perfectly polished pieces of writing, and share it with the rest of us. That's right; we've all made our share of false starts. You know, that stuff we thought was gonna be great. Until it fizzled. Ideas that shriveled on the vine and went nowhere. Or maybe it's an essay or short story you wrote just for the fun of it. Maybe it isn't fit for publishing, but wouldn't it be kinda fun to pull some of those poor little orphans out of hiding and let them see the light of day again?

Here's your chance.

You can participate any or all Fridays this month. No pressure. Just have fun with it. It'd be nice if you popped over to Suze's blog to let her know you're gonna play. That way, she'll be sure to check out your resurrected orphan, and she can list your website on her blog so others can come visit your masterpiece, too. It'd also be nice if you mentioned the challenge on your blog. After all, the more participants, the merrier.

I'm gonna play this Friday. Who knows? Maybe every Friday. But since I realize not all of my followers are writers or give a good diddle about reading my old drivel, I'll be posting a regular post on Fridays, in addition to the bonus one for the False Start.

                                                Sound good? Well, are you in????

                                     Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
I know there's an old manuscript in here somewhere... ZZZ

22 comments:

  1. ...trot out a snippet from one of your old, and maybe less than perfectly polished pieces of writing, and share it with the rest of us.

    That pretty much covers every post on my blog. In fact I will occasional read an old post that I believe I had long since fixed and find typos and other mistakes. It's a serious bummer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I'll bet you have a bunch of good stuff squirreled away that you gave up on for one reason or another. As for the typos and mistakes you find on your posts, they're easy enough to repair. (Thank goodness!)

      Delete
  2. Sounds very interesting indeed I may have to check it out. Thank you. B

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's a very unique idea, but a very unique idea that I'd probably shy away from. My very worse literary efforts are usually thrown away or heavily edited. I'd be hesitant to unleash any seriously flawed writing on an unsuspecting public.
    I'm also plagued by a profoundly negative attitude about myself. Even when I used to be fairly widely published as a freelance writer, I hated see my writing in print. Every byline seemed like a scarlet letter.

    Perhaps I could use something from my blog - - which contains an enormous amount of less than perfectly polished snippets.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, it doesn't have to be a Godawful effort. (Although I'm quite sure you never made any of THOSE.) Just something you started and never finished, or something you grew tired of, of abandoned for whatever reason. I'll bet you have lots of stuff like that. As for that profoundly negative attitude, time to kick it to the curb, dude! Try looking at yourself through the eyes of your blog followers. You are AOK in our eyes.

      Delete
  4. Ha! Oddly enough, my "drawer novel" is called Catspaw, and one of the characters is a striped cat, so that pic is perfect for me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll be looking forward to your snippets. I wish I had a cat sleeping in one of my drawers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One cat is sleeping on my lap, and the other's on my printer. If I left a dresser drawer open, no doubt, they'd be in there shedding hair all over my clean clothes. But I think I'll leave those drawers shut; I like to wear car hair-free clothes for a couple minutes, anyway.

      Delete
  6. Too bad. I'll bet you have some great stuff laying around.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can't wait to see what you're going to post!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've written plenty of rejected crap. Oh, boy! Goodie for me.

    Love,
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well Well, I just may have to look back and see what I have :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Susan,

    Oh my, your thoughtful posting couldn't have been timed better. Stumble and willing to start over...Well, I know a few potholes aren't going to stop me. And that false start concept seems like a very inspiring idea which could lead to a lot of fun. Being completely out of kilter right now, I'm not sure what snippets I could possibly use. However, will check out your snippets. Hmmm...that sounded a bit rude :) And, cause I'm such a nice guy, he states convincingly, I will go have a look at your friend's site. At gone four in the morning, I'm outta' here...

    Gary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HA! I hope you manage to dig up a few snippets of your own, too. Take care, dude.

      Delete
  11. Count me out! My rejects are so bad, even the cat wouldn't sleep on them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I'll bet some of my old writing is worse than your old writing...

      Delete