The OberNoWriSu ObserverIssue 3Welcome to the third issue of the OberNoWriSu Observer! In this issue, we’re going to congratulate ourselves on amazing Summer of writing, hear about Marta/Dargaflea's editing techniques and learn a little more about our latest and greatest Writersmerge tradition: the write-in!
OberNoWriSu Round-UpHow does it feel, knowing we wrote a combined quarter of a million words during OberNoWriSu? Speaking for myself, I think it feels pretty amazing! We all did an amazing job of writing over this past Summer, whether we met our targets or not, so congratulations to all the OberNo writers on a job well done.
Speaking of people who met their targets, the following people deserve a riotous round of applause for their OberNoWriSu success:
Araleen reached her 10,000 word target with a day to go.
Arctic Firefox reached his 10,000 word target.
Arwen met her 10,000 word target and even went over it a little.
Deb reached her 10,000 word target, all of it hand-written!
Jossie made it to 77,000 words, exceeding her target by 2,000 words.
Katie met her increased 40,000 word target, including several videos for her YouTube channel.
Nef defeated her word strike for long enough to exceed her 30,000 word target.
Sionainn exceeded her target by writing an incredible 81,000 words.
Vestie made it to her 20,000 word target.
Congratulations must also go to
Ariadne,
Bam,
Daniel,
Darga and
Zara the Unicorn Rider, who were part of the whole OberNoWriSu adventure and made great progress on their writing throughout the three months.
It’s not over, though! The end of one season just means the start of another writing challenge, so make sure you head on over to the
OberNoWriAu thread and set yourself a new target for Autumn.
Member Profile: Marta/DargafleasNow that you've written something amazing, you might be wondering how to approach the inevitable process of editing. We thought the best person to ask for advice would be Marta (Dargafleas), who has several short story publications under her belt, not to mention a novel due to be published soon. Here's what she had to say.We've just spent the entire Summer working our fingers to the bone on our chosen stories. We love them and we hate them and we want to share them with the world, but is anyone dreaming that they will have their stories or novels published before the next OberNoWriSu rolls around? Or does that sound impossible? Believe it or not, that's exactly what happened to our very own Dargafleas (Marta).
Marta's contemporary fantasy novel,
Reticulum, is due to be published by the Zharmae Publishing Press... and it began life during her first ever OberNoWriSu adventure just two years ago. No-one is more surprised than Marta about this success. "I didn't really think anyone would ever pick this up," she says. "Your first book – that's supposed to be the one that only you will ever find interesting."
Marta credits Obernet with inspiring her to take up writing again. After discovering Writersmerge and reading everyone else's offerings, she decided to join in, little knowing this simple act would eventually lead her to publication. More importantly, Writersmerge provided Marta with the motivation to re-kindle a love of writing that had lain dormant since high school. "There are days when writing drives me up the wall," she says, "but there's a real pleasure in getting some of that weird stuff in my brain down on paper. Err, monitor."
However, there's more to having your story accepted for publication than just writing a novel and submitting it. First comes that step you either love or loathe: editing.
"I'm one of those people that do really detailed edits," Marta says. She approaches editing the same way as she writes – chronologically – and goes line by line, reading every word and sounding out paragraphs to make sure they flow properly. "For me the focus is on making sure I'm getting my characters' thoughts and emotions across well enough," Marta says. "I don't have a lot of plot in my stories."
This doesn't mean plot is ignored entirely, of course. Marta regularly makes notes of plot or world aspects that might need attention later in the book and makes notes later on in chapters that might be affected by these details. Very little of Marta's first draft is likely to be removed; instead, it might be altered or revised to be in keeping with her current style. "I usually scrap about ten percent or more," Marta says. "In general, if I add stuff, it's usually description; rarely plot."
While Marta may know the world of her novel inside out, she knows there's a limitation to this familiarity. "It's really easy to skim over typos and weird sentences – you're just used to them," she says. This is where beta readers become necessary. "I need someone who doesn't live inside my head to point out the excessive adjective use and the metaphors that fail me," Marta explains. She also credits her beta readers with helping her to develop the plot of her stories and to craft a story out of the collection of words she has put together. "You NEED beta-readers," she stresses.
Marta takes beta-reading one step further, crediting a lot of her writing inspiration to what she terms 'pre-beta readers' – the people who read her work as it's being written. "There's something really scary about sharing stuff that's fresh out of your head," Marta admits, "but it's also extremely motivating." She enjoys the ability to discuss and develop her story as it comes straight out of her imagination. "It's just fun to have people you trust egging you on and telling you what they like and don't as you go," she says. After all, you'll never get to the editing stage if you haven't been inspired to write a draft of your story in the first place!
Even though Marta has spent the last few months editing
Reticiulum, she still admits to being plagued by worries and fears whenever she begins the editing process. "Every time I start editing a new chapter or a new story, I skim what I've got and get butterflies in my stomach," she admits. She worries that she won't be able to get the story into shape, that it can't be fixed or that it all sounds terrible. "The worst thing about editing is the self-doubt," she says. Marta feels that the only way to defeat the fears and realise the potential of your draft is by suspending disbelief. "Just [focus] on the task at hand," Marta suggests.
On the other side of these fears and worries is a much more re-assuring word: potential. "Editing is a chance to make your waffle match that beautiful imagery you've got sitting in your head," Marta says. She believes that editing gives us all a chance to make our work perfect, or as close to it as we can manage.
Marta stresses that the most important thing about editing is to save it for the right time and not to edit while you're writing your first draft, no matter how horrible you might think it is at the time. Writing even when it feels as though every word you type is horrible takes practice. "It's also what lets people make full-time careers out of writing," Marta explains. You may feel as though you're only producing horrible work on your bad days, but Marta feels that you may be surprised when you look back on it later. "The work you produce [on those days] is of comparable quality to that which you churn out when your muse is having a party inside your head," she says, which is why Marta advises us to keep writing, no matter what. "Because some days will feel amazing!"
Marta's Top Editing Tips- Don't edit while you’re writing the draft. Save it for later.
- Be kind to yourself. Sometimes, it can take a few goes before you produce something you're happy with.
- It's never going to be perfect!
- If you find yourself removing stuff, then putting it back in, it could be a sign you're ready to send your story out into the world.
- Your readers are generally going to be a lot more forgiving of a few awkward sentences than you are!
The Write-In Successes Continue!Ober.net write-ins are going from strength to strength! The second write-in produced even more words than the first one, with the goodie bag continuing to provide inspiration to write as many words as possible. The goodie bag went to Jossie at the second write-in, but it was a very close call, with several writers coming close to her 3,300 word total. The third winner of the goodie bag was Deb, who stunned everyone by writing several thousand words by hand. (Deb later left the goodie bag on the train, where it was rescued by Leah/Zier.)
For our fourth write-in, we celebrated the end of the most successful OberNo ever. A slightly longer than normal writing session at the state library meant that many of us were able to write even more words. I managed to come up with 4,300 words and was lucky enough to receive the goodie bag for a second time. It will be back again in force for our next write-in, so please come and join us if you can!
It was fantastic to welcome even more writers to the last few write-ins. We have so many writers with us that we almost don’t fit around 'our' big table in the State Library Reading Room!
If you haven’t been able to attend a write-in yet, here’s a quick guide to how it all goes.
Step 1: Gather writers together.A group of writers armed with laptops, tablets and notebooks assembles under the tacky clock in Melbourne Central. Now that said tacky clock has been repaired, we are treated to hearing it go through its little song and dance if people haven't arrived on the dot of ten o' clock.
Step 2: Acquire coffee and optional cakes/breakfast/chocolate.This is a vital step! After re-arranging tables at the chocolate café, we spend some time caffeinating ourselves, filling ourselves with writing energy and catching up on the news.
Step 3: Head to the State Library Reading Room.A procession of writers wends its way through the State Library before selecting a stately table in the Reading Room. There may be some noise as laptops start up and chairs are sorted out.
Step 4: WRITE!Generally, we have a solid two hours for writing, surrounded by the stately elegance of the State Library and free of the distractions of chatting or internet. Unless, of course, you sucumb to the allure of the Library's free wifi.
Step 5: De-brief with coffee/hot chocolate/your beverage of choice.We gather around a table in another café to discuss how our writing went and, more importantly, to award the goodie bag to the writer with the most words.
The next write-in is being held on
Sunday the 6th of April in Melbourne. If you can’t make it to the Melbourne write-ins, then we have good news: we’re now running virtual write-ins! These are run via the OberNo facebook page, so check out the page
here (and let us know if you’re not a member yet so we can add you). The next virtual write-in will be held over the 22nd-23rd of March.
The Ultimate ListAre you stuck in your writing? Having trouble with dialogue? Need some help with your ever-growing cast of characters? Sounds like you need to head over to Sionainn’s
Ultimate List of Writing Resources. This amazing list contains links to websites that can help you with all of your writing woes, so bookmark it now and make sure to come back to it whenever you need a helping hand.
Some Final Words From IsobelleIn her
interview on the Booktopia Blog, Isobelle advises aspiring writers to write for themselves first and foremost. "How can you possibly affect or reach anyone else, if you are not affected?" she asks. Isobelle recommends writing purely because you have a passion for it, not to preach or to try to change the world. Her final words of advice are perhaps the most appropriate for OberNoWriSu writers right now: write all the time.
So now it’s over to you. Get back to that laptop, notebook, tablet or random scrap of paper and turn some words into a story!
You can be involved in the Observer, too. If you would like to write a short article, share some tips or contribute in some other way,
send me a PM and you can be part of the next issue.
