Friday, June 18, 2010

Your Tuckerization HERE For Only Ten Bucks

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Clarion West is having a fund-raising Write-a-Thon.  Which raises money by . . . well, to be perfectly honest, I have no idea how they get money out of it.  If I were the sort of person who understood that sort of thing, I'd probably be far too rich to give them a helping hand.  Writers write and somebody pledges -- maybe the writers themselves, maybe other people.  The details are here.

Anyway, it's traditional that I support the cause with some stunt or other.  Last year I crashed and burned rather spectacularly because I was writing a novel and had no time for and therefore no business in getting involved in the 'Thon at all.  So this year I decided to make up for my self-created fiasco.  Because I have plans that require a great number of podcast scripts and stockpiled flash fiction, I've committed myself to writing a short-short or script for every day Clarion West is in session.  That's six weeks, for a total of 42 stories-or-scripts.

To make things interesting, I'll commit to writing one item per day Monday through Friday.  To keep my weekends free, I reserve the right to create those stories/scripts ahead of time should I so choose.

And just to make sure that at least some money goes to CW as a direct result of my efforts, I'll be selling Tuckerizations for ten bucks a pop.  If you give Clarion West ten dollars, your name, and a few random facts about yourself, I'll write a short-short for you and post it online.

I'll share the details of the mechanics of this just as soon as I learn 'em.  The workshop -- and the challenge -- begins Monday.

Above:  I was at the Pook & Pook auction house yesterday and took a snap of an antique rocking horse's head.  Isn't that a sweet expression?  It looks a lot like the horse in Gahan Wilson's ". . . and then we'll get him!" cartoon.

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4 comments:

Shawn said...

How about every author that is involved in the CW program writes a short story for the sole purpose of selling/raffling off to the highest bidder? Something sorta like your Bottled Story kinda thinger... the author retains the rights and all that but the story would be a one of a kind, and pending on the author, well I think they could get a fair chunk of change for a one and only short story from ___________! Just an idea.

Michael Swanwick said...

It's a good idea, but . . .

The problem is that writing is not a single skill but a wide range of skills that result in a superficially similar product. Some writers can churn out a story on demand, while for others merely trying to do so will freeze their creative juices solid, rendering them incapable of ever writing a word again.

The mechanisms of writing are subtle and mysterious. Best not to mess with 'em.

Michael Swanwick said...

It's a good idea, but . . .

The problem is that writing is not a single skill but a wide range of skills that result in a superficially similar product. Some writers can churn out a story on demand, while for others merely trying to do so will freeze their creative juices solid, rendering them incapable of ever writing a word again.

The mechanisms of writing are subtle and mysterious. Best not to mess with 'em.

Matthew Brandi said...

"I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold ..."

Besides, $10, and some guy tells me I can have my arse in space for free.