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Exercise #171: Craft
Posted 8/4/06
Today’s Craft exercise begins a five-month journey. We’re going to go from idea to submitting for publication with the same piece of work. Over these five months (Craft exercises are the first Friday), we will pick a target market, draft a story, revise our story, polish our story, and finally, send it off for possible publication. Feel free to participate in whichever of these (none, some, all) you want.
Guidelines for these Craft exercises:
* Use the same piece throughout. We will only be asking for a 500 word section when you post for critique, but your finished piece will not be limited to 500 words.
* Follow the instructions carefully. When we say “without proofreading” we mean it, and the word limit will vary.
* Expect to send your finished piece to your chosen market in December or January.
The map for our journey (the five Ps):
* August is Plotting (see below for details)
* September is Primary Draft
* October is Picky-Picky
* November is Polish (those of you expecting to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo may move this one and the next one into the following month)
* December is Publish (hopefully!)
Ready?
Plotting. What does that mean, exactly? The story’s plot is its reason for existence. It’s the main course that keeps your reader feasting. Some authors have a plot before they write, and some do it the other way around. Whichever is your way, for this Craft exercise, do the following in whatever order fits your style:
* Pick a target market (a few markets have been mentioned in MISC posts, or you can do a Web search)
* Review your market’s guidelines
* Determine the point or plot of your story
* Draft an outline or synopsis
Done?
In your SUB to the list, tell us what market you’re shooting for and give us a one- or two-sentence summation of your story. Do not post your story draft or your outline, if you’ve written them.
Word limit: 250
Please use the subject line
SUB: Exercise #171/yourname
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