There comes a time, for every storyteller, where the need and urgency to write far outweighs your motivation. When that happens, we all have to come up with our individual ways to combat our lethargy, and get the words down on the page.
Now, I have a new, and very powerful, motivator: The risk of Rank Humiliation.
I have engaged in a word count battle with a dear friend, kc dyer (www.kcdyer.com), who is a brilliant writer of young adult fiction/fantasy, director for the Surrey International Writers Conference, and much, much smarter than I am.
She also looks better in tights.
Though I love her dearly, like family I got to choose, she is going down! Battle is joined, and it will be a bloody conflagration of characters, ideas, poorly edited scenes and dangling participles.
The rules of our Word Count Death Match? She has laid them out Here in her blog, but simply put: Total word count for the month of July, completed on original works of fiction (novels, short stories). No blogs, reports, emails, grocery lists or notes to my wife will count.
The stakes? The loser will craft an orginal poem celebrating the sheer awesomeness of the winner. That poem will then be read, in a public venue, at this years SiWC, while wearing something ridiculous, of the victor’s choosing.
I have been told there is a pink tutu with my name on it. I am currently shopping for floppy shoes and a clown suit in her size.
In order to sweeten this deal a little, we have opened up the competition to include anyone who is inclined to try and beat us. Any person who can beat the total wordcount of the victor will have their name entered into a draw to win copies of my recently published novel, “The Watch”, and kc’s newest novel “Facing Fire”.
Registration for said contest will take place on kc’s blog, linked above.
Updates will be on twitter at @TynerGillies and @kcdyer, with the tags #SSS2012 and #thisdaywewrite.
So, right now, fear is my most powerful motivator, and it has got my fingers moving.
Join us and see what we can accomplish. Good luck.
