I Am That Crazy…
I am going to do it again. I am offering to be a first reader for some of you.
I am basically done with all the reading from the summer challenges I did. Those challenges were simple and turned out to be fun for me. And the writers who participated said it challenged them to get writing done they might not have gotten done. And they all got the workshops.
That was the idea. Push the writing and get me reading your work and also get workshops out of it.
So I looked at my schedule for the next year and realized the only chance I had to do it again was here in the fall. And many people had said they would have loved to take the challenge, but couldn’t because of the summer.
There were two challenges. A short story challenge and a novel challenge. The writers wrote 30 stories in 60 days, turned them in to me. I was their first reader. Or they wrote three novels in three months and turned them in to me. Again I was their first reader. One person did both challenges.
Those who got the challenges done, basically everyone in one form or another, got their choice of two online workshops to take when they wanted.
As a first reader, I commented as a reader and as an editor some. I said what I liked, what didn’t work for me, and general stuff like that. I DID NOT COPYEDIT or REWRITE your story or help plot a story. However, I did tell the short story people if a short story would work as a novel. (grin)
And more importantly, if I thought a story worked, I said so. Simply and clearly.
So I am going to do this again if anyone is interested to write in the fall and have me be your first reader. Both short story and novel challenges.
Short story challenge will start on October 1st and go through the last day of November. Thirty stories.
The novel challenge will start October 1st and go through January 15th (so holidays are free to spend with your family). Three novels.
So here are the rules of the challenges and the details and costs.
I will only take five for each challenge.
SHORT STORY Challenge:
— Write thirty short stories in 60 days. You can take the full time or you can write them in a month. Up to you.
— I will charge $600 to be your first reader. If you finish 30 stories in 60 days, you get two online workshops of your choice, a $600 value. (In essence, I will read for free if you do the challenge.)
— If you feel the challenge is not working for you, on the 15th of October I offer you an off ramp and you can take it and get the two online workshops. So you can try this risk free.
NOVEL Challenge:
— Write three novels between October 1st and January 15th. You can take the full time or you can write them quicker. Up to you.
— I will charge $600 to be your first reader. If you finish the three novels in the time, you get two online workshops of your choice, a $600 value. (In essence, I will read for free if you do the challenge.)
— Novels can be any length over 30,000 words and at least half of the first one must be written during the time of the challenge.
— If you feel the challenge is not working for you, on the 15th of October I offer you an off ramp and you can take it and get the two online workshops. I also will give you two online workshops if a life event comes up and you can’t finish.
My duties as first reader will be this:
I will read your story or novel as a reader, comment as a reader and as an editor some. I will tell you what I liked, what didn’t work for me, and general stuff like that. I WILL NOT COPYEDIT or REWRITE your story or help you plot your story. However, I will tell you if it would work as a novel. (grin)
— A warning… I have a thick skin and Kris can say if she liked a story or not or if it worked or not and I just shrug and write the next story. To finish a challenge like this, you would need to keep my comments out of your head. I might even suggest you don’t look at my comments until the challenge is over. During the summer challenge I didn’t even give feedback on the last two novels until the challenge was over. I might or might not do that this time.
— Time limited. I only have these months this fall to do this. So don’t expect this again next year. After January I have far too much other reading to do next year.
— Cost is $600. No restrictions. First five signed up for each challenge are in.
So in summary, pay $600 to get me as a first reader for thirty stories or three novels. Start on October 1st. Short story challenge goes until the end of November, the novel challenge until January 15th. If you get them done, you get two $300 online workshops and my reading for free.
This was great fun for me this summer.
So looking forward to being a first reader for some of your work.
Of course, you could always just do it on your own and play along, test to see if you can do it without me reading your stories.
Any questions, feel free to write me or ask in the comments section.
Yes, I am this crazy to do this a second time. But you all knew that.
Holy crap. This . . . might be possible for me.
People who did the novel challenge: What was it like? How did you do it? How many hours a week did you need to put in? (How) do you feel like it helped you to do this?
I did the novel challenge this summer and had a blast with it but I’d already planned on doing three novels over the summer. I did find that it encouraged me to get to the computer more consistently and that I wrote more master. The novels I wrote were between 40K and 60K and took, give or take between 16 and 22 hours to write each. I’m a very fast writer, though, so adjust that for your writing speed.
Honestly, I’m pondering doing it again, this time with the short story challenge just because it was so much fun.
Good luck–It’s a really good win-win. You either get three novels or two classes so it’s hard to fail here. And even if you don’t get three full novels you’ll still have more than when you started.
Do it, John! DO IT!!!
For my part, on the short story version, I was doing about 4 hours / day, 7 days per week. If I were to take on the novel challenge, I’d budget 2 or 2.5 hours per day (it’s really all about your finished word pace).
Oh man. I just saved up enough to take some classes, and have been trying to decide between the the strengths workshops and the regular ones.
But now, this is massively tempting.
Would I be able to apply the two workshops to the strengths ones?
And can I handle 3 consecutive nanos? I tend to end up sulking by day 20 of nanowrimo, but that’s mostly because I’m chasing a word count, not a finished story. (I get really frustrated by the conflict of needing to cut stuff and need for word count)
I’ve never put money on the table before though. Spending money on a thing is a massive incentive.
Gotta go chew on this!
I’m going to take your short story challenge from the side lines. If I had the money I would do it to get those workshops but I can’t right now so instead I will set my own challenge of writing a short story every day for the entire month of Oct. and Nov. See if I can do it. I will publish them that day or send them out when they are done. On top of this challenge I will also try to get edits done on work that is already written done by the end of Nov. See what happens.
Dean, you are crazy. That is a TON of work for you. Wow. And if people meet the challenge, you are doing all this for free just to help them.
For people considering the challenge — I’d say go for it! I was one of the summer participants. It was extremely difficult. It was also really, really fun. You will learn a lot about yourself as a writer and where you are in terms of skill and commitment. And, when you are finished, you will end up with an inventory of work which you can put out into the world and sell.
I’m going to follow along on the novel challenge. Trying to decide if I should turn some of my short stories into smallish novels or work on my BIG novel.
Ohh boy. And Hmm. Three novels that have to be over 30,000 words. I will be doing, one at least 50,000, in Nov anyway. I have ideas I want to do so that is no problem. 30 stories in 60 days? One every two days. I probably have missed something you said already but the short stories would be 1,000 words to 7,500 ? I have been doing a passel of stories on the shorter end of that lately anyway. Not quite that many but still quite a few.
No way I could afford doing both though.
No short or long limit on the short stories. In the summer challenge I had some people do some 700 word stories and some 10,000 word stories. So no limitations on the short story side of things.
Oh okay. I was debating this today. I would love to have you be first reader for some of my stories at the same time I feel like I have a better chance of getting the novels done. This changes things. As I said I am already doing some stories each week anyway based on a series of pictures. Many are below a 1,000 words which I now know are okay for this.