Demon Hunting and Tenth Dimensional Physics: May 2012

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

World Takeover

By 2028, I think the Office of Letters and Light (the people that bring us NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy) will be able to stake a claim on every month of the year. look at it now--we're one third of the way there with NaNoWriMo/Young Writers' Program, Script Frenzy, and two session of Camp NaNoWriMo.

Not that I'm complaining. I love NaNo. Hence the reason my bags are packed to go to camp next month. I can already hear the cicadas humming and smell the bonfire. Plus, I hear they've upgraded the inner editor stables after last year's mishap--higher voltage, more guards, and a shark-filled moat.

There is one thing I miss about the real deal, November event--the worldwide hum is gone. Or it hasn't arrived. I'm not sure which. Last year, around October, I posted about the hum. When all the people in the world start getting ready to write novels and novellas and what have you, all that unified thought creates an energy that hums and resonates with everyone else about to jump into that bushel of crazy.

But then again, maybe it's not gone. Maybe those cicadas are the hum. Maybe it's been set free from its normal bonds, left to roam through the summer like we all are during camp. maybe it really just wants to run naked through the hills and take us along for the ride (I promise, I'm not stoned). I'd like to think that's what it really is--just something different. But, if you focus on it, you can find it, even in Camp NaNoWriMo season. By May 31st, we'll all be singing about deer and antelope typing away at their manuscripts, I think...and then the world will be silent but for the rat-a-tat-tat of thousands of typing fingers.

Sorry. NaNo makes me emotional.

I'll be off, then...but listen for the hum...it should be coming to a neighborhood near you soon enough.

Off to rewrite 'Home on the Range,'
Voss

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Wrap-Up

Okay, I had one-more A to Z-ish post left in me.

I gave a lot of rules this last month, and I'm now going to share the most important rule of all. But first, let's talk photography. In photography, they give you a whole slew of rules: the rule of thirds, the rule of negative space, and the whole stack of rules about eyes. But after that, they always tell you one thing, no matter what: now that you know the rules, you can break them.

So that's the really important rule for writing, above all the other 'normal' rules I told you before. This is the secret one you get to learn when you slog through the swamp: once you earn the rules of writing, you're more than welcome to break them all. On purpose.

That's all,
Voss