Third Annual Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival Opening Ceremonies
Posted by Elisa Beatty Jan 10 2013, 12:20 am in Winter Writing Festival
We now declare the Winter Writing Festival OPEN!
Let the Games begin!!
1) define how *you personally* will earn your Festival “points”
and
2) declare your commitment to earning 50 points by the end of February. (Further details on goal-setting follow below).
That’s all you really need to do–we’re a pretty casual bunch around here. (Leaving a comment today also puts you in the running for some cool prizes–the first of our fabled Festival Swag, which we give out every Thursday from now until the end of February!!)
But to get the most from the Winter Writing Festival, leave your comment on the regular Ruby site, then jump over to our special Festival site, rsswwf.com, and officially register. Click on the “Member” snowflake near the upper right of that page, then click on “Register for the site.” When you log back in throughout the Festival, you can add points to your progress bar and see how far you’ve come.
The very BEST thing about the rsswwf.com site, though, is the CHAT ROOM, which we use for writing sprints. Those of you who’ve participated in the Festival before can testify that writing sprints are pretty darned miraculous at helping writers be super-turbo-powered productive–even if your busy life normally makes it hard for you to get much written.
You just click on the Chat Room link in the box near the upper left of the rsswwf.com site (right under “Sprint Schedule), and you’ll jump to the chat. Give yourself a name, and you’ll find yourself in a virtual space with other writers also eager to get work done. A Sprint Hostess will be there to greet you and show you the ropes. Sprint Czaress Kim Law has some great instructions here.
Typically, we chat (via typing) for a few minutes between sprints, then write like crazy for 20 minutes, then come back and chat some more. Just knowing other people are writing while you are–and waiting to hear your new word count when you chat again–will keep you in your seat and cranking out those words. You can get inspiration, great advice, and (in half the chats I’ve been in) just laugh yourself silly. DON’T BE SHY!!!! It’s fun and easy…and practically magic!
To help keep you inspired between writing sprints, grab yourself a Participant badge (right-click on the one below and then click on “save image as”) to upload to your personal website. (You can also find the Participant badge in the About section of the Writing Festival site.)
You can also check in daily at the Brag Blog (scroll down towards the bottom of the rsswwf.com site), where you can report on how your writing day has gone, and celebrate whenever you earn a point! You’ll also find inspirational daily quotes and links to Ruby posts on craft to pull you through when you’re feeling a little stuck.
Also, check out the fantabulous Winter Writing Festival swag you have a chance to win if you meet your goals each week. (You can also purchase some cool Winter Writing Festival swag yourself–including coffee mugs, tees, sweats, and totes with the Festival logo–at our Cafe Press store.)
The Swag you can win today just for leaving a comment on the regular Ruby site includes:
- 25-page critique from Heather McCollum
- 25-page critique from Anne Marie Becker
- Set of first three books in the Death & Taxes series (print), by Diane Kelly: Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure, Death, Taxes, and a Skinny No-Whip Latte, and Death, Taxes, and Extra-Hold Hairspray
- Choice of one of Laurie Kellogg’s books (eBook or Print)
- $20 Amazon Card from Autumn Jordon
- $20 Amazon or B&N Card from Sara Ramsey
What’s not to love? (Our thanks to mega-talented Ruby Sister Liz Bemis of bemispromotions.com for designing both sites!!)
If for any reason you have technical problems registering today: don’t panic!! Just leave us a message here in the comment trail, and get started earning points for the Festival. We’ll make sure you get registered ASAP.
You don’t want to miss out on those sprints!!
A quick review of the goal-setting and point-scoring rules:
Everybody gets one BONUS point TODAY for coming to the Ruby blog and leaving a comment that makes a public declaration of your commitment to take part in the Festival and a public announcement of your goals. Then, for each of the 50 days of the Festival (including today), you work to earn an additional point—and you define what it takes to earn that point.
Here are some examples of the sorts of things you might define as worth one point (you fill in the variables with the amounts that work for you):
-writing X number of words or pages
-deep revising Y number of pages
-polishing Z number of pages
-freewriting / brainstorming for Q number of minutes/hours
-doing R number of 20-minute writing sprints
-keeping butt in chair and hands on keyboard for S number of minutes or hours
For instance, one person might commit to earning points according to the following terms:
-writing 500 words per day OR
-deep revising 10 pages per day OR
-doing a final polish on 25 pages per day
Any day that person meets ANY of those goals, she gets a point.
YOU set the goals that meet your personal writing style and writing needs. (For more advice on how to set up your goals, see here).
If you can’t meet your goal on any particular day, you can certainly double or triple or quadruple your goal on another day to catch up. And if you know ahead of time that you can never work on certain days (say, Saturdays) feel free to add something like “keep balance in my life by taking Saturday off” to your personal list of ‘ways to earn a point.’ Really. You can earn a point by taking a planned day off!! Don’t be shy.
Remember, we all have different life commitments and different approaches to our writing lives, so we all need to set our own goals. All goals are equally worthy. This isn’t a competition, it’s a supportive process for MOVING FORWARD WITH OUR WRITING.
We want the Festival to work for YOU!
Check in at the Ruby blog every Thursday during the Festival to report your progress (and be entered in random drawings for some of the Festival Swag).
If you reach the end of February with a nice round 50 points, YOU WIN!!
Good luck all, and GET WRITING!!
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I’m so excited to discover WWF! Thanks Diana Layne for posting about it on the WRP author loop.
Here is how I WILL get 50 pts by the end of Februrary:
submit the requested MS that’s been ready to go since the fall – 5 pts
write 1k/day – 1 pt
write every day (M-F) – 1 pt
revise 10 pages – 1 pt
do critique group work – 1 pt
attend 3 sprint sessions/week – 1 pt
take Saturday completely off from writing related activities – 1 pt
attend MERWA meeting – 1 pt
spend 1/2 hour on elliptical – 1 pt
Welcome, Grace! Great goals!
Welcome to everyone!!!
We had some servers problems last night and our sites were down for awhile, so I’m sorry I didn’t get in to greet all our commenters individually, but I’m thrilled you’re all here!!
I’ll be choosing the Swag winners tomorrow morning.
Also, rest assured if you’re arriving a bit late that you can STILL sign up for the Festival. Join anytime!
Now let’s get to work!!!!
Drat. I’m a day late. Not sure how that happened since this has been on my radar. *gr*
My writing goal is to write for two dedicated (i.e., browser off, tea in hand) hours every weekday sometime *before* 3 p.m. So…
1pt for putting my two hours in.
1 pt for spending thirty minutes plotting.
I don’t want my point system to be too complicated and unwieldy, so I’m sticking with those two. I don’t know if I can make 50 on that or not (please no mocking, I didn’t have enough sleep last night to attempt math), but for me that’s not really the point.
That sounds great, Anna!! So glad you made it!
Heck. I didn’t make check-in yesterday. Not the best start, but I’m here. Last year, I finished a book and proved a lot of things to myself. I LOVE this challenge. I didn’t sell my RSSWWF book, but I did sell the next one–one I wouldn’t have written if I hadn’t finished
And because of RSSWWF I knew I could make a tight deadline.
My points this year:
1) 1000 words OR
2) 1 hour editing or plotting w/ internet turned off OR
3) 500 words and 1/2 hour plotting, editing, or promo OR
4) participating in #1k1hr regardless of final word count OR
5) participating in Ruby sprint, regardless of final word count OR
6) 250 words and 1 hour promo OR Beta reading
7) 2 days “off” a week = 100 words or 15 minutes brainstorming/editing/drafting by hand.
I use timers in my browser and “stay focused”–an internet limiting thing kind of like freedom. I really recommend the timers if like me, you have to divide your productive time into little chunks. One change I’ve made from last year is to make myself do a tiny something on my “off” days. I took some actual days off during the holiday and I found that if I did *something* even just 50 words, the next day was easier. But two days of nothing? I still ended up with a 50-100 word day to try to coax the momentum back. So for me, everything stems from opening the document everyday. Even though my day job is looking busy this term, opening the document is my key.
Good luck!
Great to have you back, Annabeth!!!!
Annabeth, how do you use timers in your browser? I have a kitchen timer, but the sound is so jarring it stays in the mute and judging on the corner of my desk.
I use chrome and firefox. Within chrome, I use two widgets: task timer and stay focused. Stay focused limits my internet time. Task Timer lets me time different activities and is so easy to use. In chrome go to tools–> extensions and search for task timer. The “help” section can also help you. You can also get a similar app for your smart phone.
Thanks, Annabeth. I don’t use Chrome so much because of my bookmarks, but staying focused is a challenge. Not that I don’t have remarkable concentration, it’s just not always trained on what’s most productive. Since I tend to work in an atmosphere of complete silence, I lose track of time. And I never even thought about those clock features on my phone or tablet.
Thanks you! I found a timer and a Noteboard extension as well. Can’t wait.
Okay…I finally got a chance to pick the winners for our Opening Ceremonies swag!!!
In order of drawing (via random.org), they are: Hellion, Debbie, Cate Baylor, Judith Leger, Sarina Rhoads.
Congrats, winners! I’ll be in contact by email to let you know how to claim your prizes!
Whoops! Picked five, and there are six prizes. So Anita Hayes, you’re a winner, too!
I’ll say this again in case you’re just now finding the Festival:
Even if you weren’t here on January 10th, JUMP RIGHT IN!!! You can join the Festival anytime.
You’ll want to check out our special Festival site, rsswwf.com, where you can find the entry to the Chat Room where we hold those fabulous writing sprints!! The Sprint Schedule is in the box in the upper left corner, and that’s where you click the link for the Chat Room.
Hope to see you there!!!!!!
Coming in late to the game — but I’m hoping to catch up on points!!
My goals:
1) 500 words a day, or
2) 3 hours writing/editing butt in chair, internet off – regardless of pg count, or
3) participation in word sprint, regardless of pg count
4) One day off on the weekend.
5) 50 new words on the “other” day of the weekend.
[...] just signed up for the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood’s Winter Writing Festival. Basically, for 50 days you have to write enough to earn 50 points. Each person sets their goals [...]