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**Seraph** · 09-23-2019, 12:16 PM

So, in an effort to revive both my own writing and the pens as a group, I'm planning to tackle NaNoWriMo for only the third time. Anyone else game for a go?

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

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**Farengeto** · 09-23-2019, 06:50 PM

I'm definitely going to go for it. Still not sure what I'll do yet. Have like three different things on the list of NaNo candidates right now.

**Rebeltopia** · 09-24-2019, 08:12 AM

Im still working on my NaNo from 10 years ago... So, probably not Tounge

"...if you're normal, the crowd will accept you. But if you're deranged, the crowd will make you their leader." - Christopher Titus
Deranged in NS since 2011

One and ONLY minion of LadyRebels
The OUTRAGEOUS CRAZY other half of LadyElysium

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**Seraph** · 09-24-2019, 04:50 PM

(09-24-2019, 08:12 AM)Rebeltopia Wrote: Im still working on my NaNo from 10 years ago... So, probably not

Well, you could always make finishing that your NaNo goal this year?

Mine is continuing to work on my NaNo novel (lovely tautology) from two years ago, afterall.

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

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**Seraph** · 04-24-2020, 06:44 AM

I just got this awesome E-mail from 'The Writers HQ' (google it - I can't be bothered to do it for you) and thought I'd share it:

Sarah from the Writer's HQ Wrote:Listen up, writer-buddy. You’re doing a blinding job. Even if you don’t believe it, you are.

Even if you’re lying on the floor sobbing because <waves arms furiously> this is happening.

Even if on top of <waves arms furiously> this happening, a slug just laid loads of eggs in your wheelie bin and then a seagull shat on it.

Even if you’re currently living in a foggy existential panic because <waves arms furiously> this is happening

Even if <waves arms furiously> this is happening

Any of it. All of it. You’re still smashing this shit. And here’s why: art, motherfucker. You do art. Maybe not right this second, maybe not even in the last week or two, but you are a creator, you are a storyteller. You are working on it. You’ve got all those stories in your overcrowded cranial waiting room and you’re gradually making your way through the fog and the shit to Do Art.

Here’s a little story for you: one day a wolf eats a mouse. Inside the belly of the wolf, the despondent mouse meets a duck. The duck, it transpires, is living a happy and lavish life inside of the wolf. The duck tells the mouse: “when I was outside, I was afraid every day wolves would swallow me up. In here, that’s no worry. I may have been swallowed, but I have no intention of being eaten.”[1]

The world is, let’s just say, a little confusing right now. Is this real life? Or is this a dystopian freak show that just dropped on Netflix? Frankly, no one can tell. And once we’re done pumping our fists and yelling at the sky “it’s time to turn off the simulation now, we’re done! WE’RE DONE!” we all fall to the floor crying oh woe oh death what is to become of me?

Because the world in the early part of the 21st century is not the world we were expecting. In fact, it’s so far removed from the world we were expecting that it’s very hard not to feel like giving up. But the duck has shown us the trick. We might not be able to avoid being swallowed, but we can certainly resist being eaten.

You’ve probably realised this already but art is the beginning of love. Stories are the truest manifestation of love that us baggy human skin suits have yet to come up with.

It is the ultimate act of radical compassion, of doing everything in your power to deeply and broadly understand people who are not you, who might even be completely repellent to you. And every act of love and every act of radical compassion, no matter how small, no matter how seemingly unnoticed, gradually pieces together a better world.

The antidote to hopelessness, the way to avoid being eaten, is love. You need more love? Keep telling your stories. If you feel like you can’t keep writing, remember that telling your stories is an act of love in exactly the same way that sitting up all night with an ill child is an act of love.

At 4am you might not think you can cope with cleaning up another puke-covered set of bedsheets, but you find a way to do it and it turns out you have enough cuddles to see you through to sunrise, and in the morning everyone feels a little bit better.

We know there are always distractions and problems and Things to Solve and Things To Do and <waves arms furiously> this, but writing doesn’t have to mean sitting at a desk and slogging it out for hours at a time.

It can mean telling your story to yourself while you peel the spuds. It can mean imagining you’re being interviewed about your world-changing book on Woman’s Hour while you’re actually hanging the laundry. It can mean pretending you’re the protagonist in your short story while you’re actually sitting patiently next to your overstimulated toddler while he has a total meltdown about not being able to leave the house. Or it could be that you tell your family to stick their constant demands and My Little Pony songs for an hour and you do get your arse to the desk.

However you do it, keep on doing it. Write your stories, tell your stories. Wake up every morning and decide that today you’ll do it like the duck does.

We will not be eaten.

Quack.

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

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