Word Wars

So, Andrea and I both follow alot of the same authors on Twitter. And every Wednesday a few of them would talk to each other about word wars, and since I figured it was an inside joke of their's or something, I didn't pay much attention. But Andrea was paying attention and was invited by one of them to join in on the fun a couple weeks ago. So when she invited me to play, this was my reaction:

"What's a word war?"

This is what she told me: these authors (that are friends and critique partners) have a standing plan for a word war every Wednesday at 1pm. They invite anyone who wants to do so to join in with them and for a solid hour you type as much as you can for whatever story it is that you're working on. At the end of the hour, everyone compares word counts, declares a winner, and shares a favorite line that they wrote during that hour - all via Twitter. It's like a fun (yet productive) game!

Andrea and I did one on Sunday after the President's big announcement (kinda nice since it let things sink in while I lost myself in my story) and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Then today, because Diva went down for an early nap I was able to participate in their war this afternoon. Once again, it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I even won the word war and Brodi Ashton told me the line I shared was really good and intrguing! (She's a soon-to-be published author!) Needless to say I had warm fuzzies from her compliment because she obviously knows what she's talking about. Very, very cool.

But the really great thing about these word wars is that I'm able to pick one of the scenes that's been rolling around in my head and just get it down without having to worry (right now anyway) about how it's going to fit in with everything else. Since I'm rewriting quite a bit, it's nice being able to jump around during the word wars so I can leave the chapter by chapter revisions for another time. It's quite freeing and I'm finding the creative juices flowing during these little one hour sessions. It's fantastic.

In other news, I'm going to try to make it my goal to finish my WIP over the summer. It will take a lot of hard work, but I think with some creative multi-tasking, I'll be able to get it done. And I've finally accepted that it won't be perfect to start with. The revisions I'm already doing have helped that sink in, and I'm able to move on and just keep writing a little easier than before. I'm hoping I'm not setting myself up for failure by setting this goal, but I think if I sit down for an hour or so every day and hammer some of it out, then little by little I could get it done by the time Dude goes back to school. Wish me luck!

Well, that's it for me right now. Until next time, happy writing! And maybe we'll have a word war together in the future!