Such fabulous success stories coming out of RWAus 2011 "50K in 30 Days" 

during June (winter in the southern hemisphere).

We'll be back again in 2012.

Maybe you'll be here with us?

Hope so.

Day 29 - Almost over now

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm. - Victor Hugo

We're almost finished, and I couldn't have wished for a month filled with more enthusiasm from all you wonderful writers who have participated. Tomorrow I will start updating your word counters on this blog for the last time this challenge, and hopefully we can all have a couple of days off before we need to get into the editing sprints that are already on everybody's minds.

A few people have said they would like to continue the sprints on some sort of regular basis. If you'd be keen to be in on that action, leave a message below and we'll see what can be set up!

Meet up again in November, anyone? ^_^

Day 28 - Why are we doing this again?

No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.        - Max Beerbohm

There are only a couple of nights left to go, and you might be saying to yourself something like the following: "I'm finished my goal! That's June done!" or "I'm never going to make it. I'll just stop here and call it over." or "Wimbeldon!! Wimbeldonnnnn!!!"

That last one might be just me.

I'd like to encourage you to just put in a little bit more. If you want to and if you can - you know yourself best. But if you can, write something. Even if you scale down to 100 words a night for the last three nights. Even if you just bash out a couple of risque limericks and add them to your word count. Even if you write a short story about your characters 10 years after the end of your novel.

Because the more you do now, the less you have to do later. Your 30 days isn't quite up yet. (Which is probably a relief to those of you like me who were counting on a sprint on the final day to boost your word count ^_^) Make every second of this month count.

And if you do write a limerick, please feel free to post it in the comments below.

Day 26 - LAST Sunday Check-In!

Oh wow, this month has just flown by! Some of us have already blown our goals out of the water. Others of us, myself included, realised a while back we weren't going to reach our goals and have lowered our sights.

No matter which boat you're in, don't stop yet! You still have a few more days before the challenge ends, and the more you do this month, the less you have to do next month. The more words you write in this challenge, the more you know about your capabilities and your limits. If anything, work as hard as you can for the last few days. After all, you can see the end from here. The time is coming when you can lie back, relax and watch all the TV shows you missed over June.

But that time is not yet. Make every single day count. Go write!

Day 24 - A really long quote

"If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world." - Ray Bradbury 

Day 23 - Doing Something New

You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.- Christopher Columbus

Your challenge for tonight is do something you know you're not good at. If you avoid dialogue because it always comes out stilted, tonight your characters are going to have a long conversation. If you have problems with action, someone's just thrown a fight. Personally, I suck at description. So there's a grand panorama out there just waiting for me to tell people what it looks like.

Let's go get away from the shore.

Day 22 - If music be the food of love...

When I'm really inspiration-light, there are a couple of songs I know I can always listen to and they are going to push me on to be better, to do more with my time and my life. The Climb by Miley Cyrus is one of them, and I don't care how uncool that makes me ^_^

When I'm feeling really, truly sorry for myself, and that writing is too hard and I should just put if off until I have time (when my son's grown up, left home, we've paid off the house, I've retired) I know it's starting to get serious and I pull out the big guns - rap and hip hop.
(I'm going to put links to the songs below, but I feel I should note that while none of the quotes below contain swear words, I can't say the same for the rest of the tracks) 

This isn't an attack or a lack of compassion
But you gotta get yourself back in the action
Tap into your passion and follow it up
Either that or let the madness swallow you up
How full is your cup, half-full or half-empty
You're the envy of plenty, tread gently
Apathy is deadly and if you've got seeds of doubt
With means to sprout, you need to weed them out

(Butterfingers - Get Up Outta The Dirt)

I don't normally like the genre, but they get where I'm coming from. They talk about how hard it is to break in to an industry, how difficult it can be to push yourself to be all you can be - even when you've already got the bling and the fans.  It's inspiring to hear of these men who have been dealt a really raw hand by life who manage to succeed through sheer hard work, skill and determination.

The moment you own it you better never let it go, oh
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
'cos this opportunity comes once in a lifetime 

I was playin' in the beginnin', the mood all changed
I've been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage
But I kept rhymin' and stepped writin' the next cipher
Best believe somebody's payin' the pied piper

(Eminem - Lose Yourself)

And moving away from rap, one of my favourite songs to belt out in the car -

What about you? What song do you play to keep you moving when you're starting to feel a little hopeless?