Foci

[clarentine]

The expected early release on account of holiday weekend did not occur. Am stuck here for another hour. And so, to pass the time, I blog.

The OWW focus community has been batting around the idea of starting up another focus. Looks like we might end up discussing styles - what constitutes a style, and how to manipulate them.

Which put me in mind of a focus topic I forgot to suggest, but probably ought to: blurbs. We post and crit on OWW (that's the Online Writing Workshop, http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com) with the express purpose, for most of us, of improving our writing and snagging some publication credits. Blurbs fit into that purpose because they are, at their most simple, marketing tools.

A writer needs to know what to respond when someone asks what their book is about, especially if said someone is an agent or publishing type. We need to be practiced in that definition so that, even when frazzled by being face to face with literary luminaries, we can still stammer out the sentence or two that encompass the heart of our book(s).

Blurbs aren't as easy to put together as they sound, either. On one of my writing lists, the Jenny Crusie Cherries list, we did a round of blurbs last winter that was very instructive. I came away with a terrific blurb for Cavalier Attitude that I fully intend to use when I finally get this rewrite done and can begin marketing my work for real.

Now I just need to remember to mention it to Charlie, or one of the other OWW folks he has minding the focus list, so we can run one of those after the style focus is done.

Comments

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Style is a consistent means of expression, whether the topic is dancing classical ballet, writing comic SciFi, or the brushstrokes of Frans Hals versus George Seurat.

Style is also a result of the elements involved; so it's interesting for reviewers and readers to discuss, but often winds up as a discussion of taste.

I haven't been to the OWW since the site left Del Rey's umbrella.

And happy new year to you!

[clarentine]

I like that as a definition--"consistent means of expression." Less wordy than the one I came up with.

I don't know that I realized you'd been on OWW! I joined in, oh, 2001 or so? While still under Del Rey. I think I hang around now to keep up with friends, and for things like these focus groups. The plot one they did last winter was wonderful for a plot novice like me, and the synopses groups really helped.

And a Happy New Year to you, as well. Perhaps we will cross paths this year; I have a membership to 2006 World Fantasy Convention.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I like that as a definition--"consistent means of expression."

Grad school. I went to class and listened, yo.


I don't know that I realized you'd been on OWW!

I spent time there from 1999 'til the summer of 2001. I appreciated the links to information offsite, but mostly I found a lot of not-very-good writing, I critiqued as much as I could, receiving little feedback or responses, and the discussion lists were contentious. Cecilia Dart-Thornton was still posting work there when I arrived, for your time frame reference.

Perhaps we will cross paths this year; I have a membership to 2006 World Fantasy Convention.

It would be great to cross paths, but this is the year I realized no more con-going or workshops for me. It's like critique groups: I listen, I work to understand what everyone else presents, and I have completely different tastes. That time could be spent writing or reading.

Still, World Fantasy Con should be another find production by the people who do ArmadilloCon. Austin is fantastic for dining, live music, and book stores!

[clarentine]

I am assured that cons are not for the programming; cons are for the socializing, the making and cementing of contacts.

That said, I've been to one (Worldcon 2004, Boston), and I went to a fair number of lectures. Learned some things. Got overwhelmed. Wished I'd spent more time with my friends. I'm looking forward to seeing Austin, and my friends, but mostly to talk writing in person with people who don't look at me cross-eyed.

Cecelia was gone by the time I started. Elizabeth Bear came in about the same time I did, though of course she's got wheels and I'm limping along with holey shoes.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I am assured that cons are not for the programming; cons are for the socializing, the making and cementing of contacts.

That's not my experience at all, but for the past five years I've been attending cons on my own, specifically for programming. Mid-South Con, in particular, is focused on Skiffy lit. The F.A.C.T. producers of the 2006 World Fantasy Con will provide excellent programming, as ArmadilloCon itself is a literary con, with a writer's workshop that opens events; there are no pitch sessions or editor appointments.

[clarentine]

I don't know when it began to be like this, but I know that the OWW folks have begun hanging out together at the cons they go to in numbers - WorldCon, WFC, WisCon to name a few I've heard mentioned - and their numbers (and those numbers' successes, Bear and Celia and Karen Lowachee and Charlie Findlay among them) attract attention, and attention brings them editors and agents. I met one agent and one editor just hanging out with the OWW folks at Worldcon. (I learned about the lack of pitch sessions there, too; bummer.)

WisCon gets talked about in regard to its programming, and lots of OWWers attend, so I'm saddened that it's so expensive to get to (for me, stuck here in Richmond VA). I'd heard excellent things about ArmadilloCon, and had thought of attending there before, in part because Austin is affordable; likely Memphis/MidSouthCon would be, too, the more so after I and my family relocate in 2007 to land south and west of Nashville. Maybe, from Nashville, travel to Madison WI will be affordable.

I'll try to remember to send you a note as we get closer to next November (less than a year away, now!) to see if we can meet up, whether at WFC or in the vicinity - I have gardens to see, too, for my other avocation, landscape design. Maybe I can bribe Corrina to come with me.

Chris

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I'll try to remember to send you a note as we get closer to next November (less than a year away, now!) to see if we can meet up, whether at WFC or in the vicinity - I have gardens to see, too, for my other avocation, landscape design. Maybe I can bribe Corrina to come with me.

Austin is in the green part of Texas, with caves and lakes nearby, and probably some parks I've never discovered. There's a famous migration of bats that everyone goes out to see.

I'm leaving Texas this summer, to move to Portland, Oregon. Luckily, you'll be visiting Austin in November, when the humidity (usually) departs, or at least drops.