First Week of Classes/Writer's Update

Well, that picture over there was me at 7am on the last day of O-week. The mentor's in each house came around before 6am banging pots and pans and telling us all to wake up and get out. That's Vegemite on my face, by the way. As much as I love Vegemite, I prefer it on toast. Most of us were still in our PJs and we were all given a bin bag to wear... I managed not to get any flour, eggs or milk on me, but I didn't get out of the jog. Well, I guess that's initiation for you. :)

Anyway, I've just finished my first week of classes. My units this trimester are Writing Craft, Writing for Professional Practice, Contemporary Journalism A, and a Philosophy unit of Love, Sex and Death. I loved every moment of classes, my teachers are great and the fact that I've got a four day weekend is just awesome.

My first assignment is due on 25th of March, and I have to sketch a picture in 500 words. I made the first draft in just under an hour, and I'm 300 words over. That's okay. First draft. I'll get my editing on and cut it down and make it better.

In other writerly news, the Deakin Writer's Club had their first meetup yesterday afternoon. I've got to say, considering it was just a meet and greet outside the on-campus bar and no writing was actually done, it was awesome. It was really encouraging to meet other student writers who were eager to share their work and workshop with others. It was also another great opportunity for me to socialize. I love how easy it is to make friends simply by starting a conversation around here. There's no shortage of people with things in common and I can just tell that this is going to be one of the best years of my life.

Last of all, seeing as JeffO was the only participant in last week's little competition, he wins by default. Congrats to JeffO, as little piece was quite awesome!

He stared in the mirror, appraising. Made minute adjustments to the tilt of his collar, the knot of his tie. Practiced the smile: indifferent, maybe even arrogant, but with just enough lift at the corner of his mouth to bring out the dimple. Ran his fingertips along the smooth curve of his ear, tamed a stray hair. Perfect.

He reached into his breast pocket, fingered the cold vial tucked beneath his silk handkerchief. Insurance, in the unlikely event the clothes, the hair, the smile, the attitude weren't enough.

"The night," he said to his perfect self, "is for hunting."

JeffO, I'm pretty sure you already have my email, so let me know what you'd like as far as a reward goes :)

I need to get back into 'Katherine' this weekend and work out a study plan (not that I'm likely to stick to it). What's everyone else been writing and studying? 

- Bonnee.

O-Week on Residence/Writer's Update

So for those of you who didn't know, I moved in to my room on campus at my university on Sunday, and I am seriously thrilled to be a Deakin student right now. I'm sharing a house with nine other people from a range of different courses and origins, including a girl from Britain and an exchange student from Sweden. Majority of the people in my unit are girls and I have had people in my room till 11:30 for the past two nights, just socializing rather than hitting the clubs; as much as some of us like drinking, I'm not the only one who would rather do it in a relaxed environment at home. Fun fact about Australia: legal drinking age is eighteen.

As well as meeting a lot of new people, there are a few other ressies here who I already knew from high school. On top of that, I've met quite a few people who will be studying Professional and Creative Writing with me. I've also already taken the opportunity to join the Deakin Writer's club, who publish a small newspaper/newsletter containing member's written works on a ... I'm not sure if it's a weekly or monthly basis, but you get what I mean :)

In other news, I've done a huge redraft of the first five chapters of KATHERINE, which I'm really happy about. I feel like everything already sounds much better now that I'm not trying to avoid a maximum word-count of 20,000. In hindsight, the story was too complicated to be kept to the novella competitions required length. I've shot the word-count up to nearly 28,000 again (after re-adding the deleted scenes) and it's still rising. I feel much better about this project now.

Last of all, I randomly thought I'd write a piece of flash fiction. I had the line 'the night is for hunting' stuck in my head. This is the title of the 6th book in John Marsden's Tomorrow series (I'm only up to the 4th book, I think.) So I used the title as a prompt.

The night was for hunting. We wandered through the shadows, our eyes peeled. Mira had her crossbow loaded and at the ready, waiting for Arthur to point out a stray animal; an unfortunate creature that would live no more than a few seconds longer. I lingered at the back of the trio, ensuring that we would not become the hunted. The forests were alive with the howls of wolves whenever the moon was visible. We could kill them if we saw them in time. But if we couldn’t…

“There,” Arthur whispered. Mira aimed and fired. A creature met its end. 

Your turn! Write a piece of flash-fiction, no more than 150 words (mine was exactly 100) based on the prompt 'the night is for hunting'. You may use the prompt in the piece and change the tense to suit yourself. Leave your little creations in the comments below. I'll put them in the next blog post and everyone can vote for their favourite. You cannot vote for your own. The winner gets the choice of: a guest post on my blog; a guest post from me on their blog; an interview (interrogation) which can go on either or both blogs; or to send the first page of their WIP in for a critique on my blog.  So get writing!

How are you all?

- Bonnee.

The Text Prize Competition

Some of you might remember that I posted way back in November about the 2013 Text Prize.

This competition is open to residence of Australia and New Zealand of all ages, both published and unpublished. Submissions open as of the 4th of March (my first day at university!) and submissions close on 3rd April, 2013. Please follow the above link for more information on the competition, including the entry form.

Do you have a Children's or Young Adult manuscript of over 20,000 words that you'd like to enter for a chance to win a $10,000 contract with Text Publishing?

I will be submitting my manuscript for 'KATHERINE' after re-adding the scenes I took out for the Novella Writing Competition in December to get it back over that 20,000 word mark, and giving it another proof read.

Today, I printed off a copy of the first draft of 'KATHERINE' (with the deleted scenes included) to give to the woman who was my English teacher for most of high school. I have my fingers crossed that I will receive some helpful feedback from her at some point, and that putting the manuscript into the Text Prize competition with the deleted scenes re-added is a little more successful than last attempt. I firmly believe that the story is better with those extra scenes and events.

Thanks for stopping by, and what are you doing with your manuscripts and W.I.P.s right now? 

- Bonnee.

A Surreal Feeling: Finishing 'Katherine'

What did I just do? I just finished writing the first draft of Katherine. It doesn't feel real!

I started writing Katherine in June this year. Five months later and she is 25,707 words long. That's 5,707 words over the limit to put her into the Novella competition, but there is still time to edit. My goal over the next few days is to transform her into something a little more concise. I already have an idea which entire scenes I can backspace, although I'll be saving a copy of the first draft for the expected no-win of this competition, so that I can put her into the Text Prize competition next year and whatever else comes along.

The reality of finishing my second full manuscript hasn't quite hit me yet, but I assure you that I am brimming with excitement right now!

How is everybody else going with their writing or revision goals? NaNoWriMo? Do share! I'd love to have a discussion!

- Bonnee.

The Text Prize by Text Publishing (Aus, NZ)

Source: http://textpublishing.com.au/about-text/the-text-prize 

Calling all Australian and New Zealand writers!

Submission for the 2013 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing opens on 4th March 2013 and closes on 29th March, 2013. 

Do you have a novel you would like to receive a $10,000 contract with Text Publishing for? This competition is open to all Australian and New Zealand writers, both published and unpublished, of all ages. 

Click on the link above to go to the Text Publishing website, directly to the page containing information about The Text Prize. From there, you can also download the 2013 entry form and read more information about the competition. 

I hope to give this competition a crack myself. Best of luck to any other Australians and Kiwis who want to give it a shot! I'd love to hear from you if you decide to participate and I'd be happy to chat about it as you make progress. Start writing! 

(Thank you to Greg Gorton for sending me the link in the first place.) 

- Bonnee. 

Winner

Congratulations to running4him, who was the default winner of last Tuesday's competition: describe something beautiful in 100 words or less.

running4him shared an excerpt from their WiP which fit the criteria of the competition, and here it is:

"True, she was graceful and beautiful, yet what caught the eye was her overpowering majesty. At once Caleb realized this was the horse he had been waiting for... With movement akin to waves on some forgotten sea, and an auburn mane flowing down her neck softer than the snowflakes which settled around her slim legs, all other appaloosa in Smewasin Territory paled in comparison. Even her leopard coat was silkier than his own rabbit fur gloves. But what startled Caleb was her eyes; icy, piercing, ancient - as if when he gazed into them he saw..." -Mack Isbell

running4him now has bragging rights! Yay!

Thanks for your participation, and maybe I'll wait until I have a few more followers before I run another competition.  :)

- Bonnee.

Goodreads and Competition

A friend sent me a request to join Goodreads via Facebook, but I didn't want to do it via Facebook so I just joined up directly to the site. You can find me here. This link is also in the 'Find Me' tab. Feel free to shoot me a friend request!


My sincerest apologies to the people I follow via their blogs, as I have had very little time in the past week to read up on your latest posts. I promise to make an effort to catch up some time in the near future! It has been hectic here!


Competition! 
So just to stir up a bit of fun to make up for not being a very dedicated blogger in so long, in 100 words or less, describe something beautiful. This could be anything! A woman, a magnificent view of a beach, the sunset, the sky, an emotion, a dream, a place, a thing, anything that you think is beautiful!

Rules:
Competition closes in one week! (Tuesday, June 5th, 2012, at 5:00pm, Australian Eastern Standard Time)


One entry per person. No anonymous entries. Entrants must have an account that can be linked to via blogger when submitting a comment: e.g. the name you comment with can be clicked on a take me directly to your own online profile. Including a link in an anonymous post does not count.

I will post all of this competition's entries in the first blog-post after the closing date (by entering the competition, you agree to this automatically) and ask readers to vote for one entry. Voters may not vote for their own entry, and to help avoid cheating, no anonymous votes will be accepted.

No prizes sorry, just bragging rights and the enjoyment of writing.

Tell your friends. Have fun. Ready, set, GO!

- Bonnee.