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The 52 Project

For people who haven’t seen this before, a word of explanation. As a personal challenge to myself, back in April of 09, I undertook to write a short story every week for a year. I nearly did it, too, up until the last couple of weeks, in which life kept kneeing me in the groin until I let the brass ring slip out of my hands.

I’m giving it another go this year. Now don’t be expecting literary gold here, I work full time and have a boatload of other projects, so that week I have to write each story usually ends up being 5 hours or so. They aren’t edited. Sometimes I have time to run them through a spell check.

They just have to be stories, the rules don’t say they have to be good ones and frankly a lot of them suck. This is embarrassing, which is part of the point. I don’t like to expose my creative process, or show half-done work, so in theory I will be highly motivated to make the time to write good stuff, make time to edit it, and to learn from every mistake so that no one ever actually sees the crap that is a first draft. (Theory still has some things to answer for at this point.)

Oh, by the way, you know what else really motivates me to keep writing and improving? Feedback. Oh, and cash.

These stories are posted under a Creative Commons license that allows you to download, re-use, modify or make derivative works out of them, provided you don’t do it for profit and you credit me. If you are a graphic artist of some stripe and feel inspired to illustrate one of these stories, please do let me know.

Posted Announcement § 52 § 52II ‡ Comments (1)

Total Social (network) Domination

On Monday the 6th of September, I begin a second attempt at the 52 project. Updates will be posted to my FaceBook, Twitter, LiveJournal, Tumblr, MySpace  and any other social network that seems like a good idea at the time. Not just for the sheer narcissism of it, but to spread the word and encourage others to join in the project.

If anyone else is interested, I have been working on a website specifically for 52*, which will hold users to their chosen deadline, keep track of their word count, and connect their stories to their own social network. If that sounds like fun, do let me know.

* Or 12, or 365, or 8760….

Posted 31 August 2010 § 52 § 52II ‡ Comments (1)

52 II

Well, I admit it, I fell down on the first 52 project. It was going so well, but a mere 4 stories short of the end, I let life get the better of me.

Having broken my rules for the project, I cannot claim to have succeeded, nor in good conscience continue on with 12, my next writing project. I’ll have to start all over from the beginning, I’m afraid. One story a week, every week, for a year.

52 Mark I was not a complete loss, though. I have learned a lot, and armed with hindsight, I will begin Mark II with an adjusted set of rules that should make the output a bit higher quality and guard against the vagaries of life. So then, the rules:

1. Every week, before Monday Midnight (12:00am PST) I will post a complete original story.

2. Each story, with three exceptions, must have been entirely written in the week since the previous posting.

3. Three times during the year I may use a story that was not written within that week – but it must be an original, never before posted story.

4. In observance of my avowed goal to revise, edit and re-post last year’s stories, every week I will post an edited version of the story from the corresponding week of last year’s series. These must be posted by Thursday midnight, which was the deadline for stories in the last series.

Wish me luck.

Posted 24 August 2010 § 52 § 52II § On Writing ‡ Comments (0)

what’s with the numbered stories?

Read about the 52 project.

(Hint, it’s cool.)

Posted 22 June 2009 § 52 § On Writing ‡ Comments (1)

Hello strange people

Well, here I am, finally, on LiveJournal. Sort of. Actually, my journal is at Hypothetical.net, but that synchronizes up with LiveJournal, so you can all see me here, even though I am not. Not here. Well, Here, where I am, but not There, on LiveJournal, where you may be reading this, and thinking of it as Here. No, I am somewhere else, and if you want to comment on my entries, or read all my pre-LiveJournal journal posts, you’ll have to come Here. Or There, if you are there, but consider where you are Here.

Where is Here? It’s over there, at http://www.hypothetical.net/kennric/blog

Of course some of you are already Here, reading this, and you may be confused about all this LiveJournal stuff, since you aren’t reading it There. Well, its like this: everyone seems to use LiveJournal, which I have never cared much for, preferring my own journal system Here. But no one can find me Here, because they are all There, and because they are all There they can be linked up in huge webs of friend connections. After a while, they forget that there is anyone who isn’t There, (Here to them), and those of use who go our own way simply don’t show up on their radar. Or friends list. Whatever.
Thus, LiveJournal synchronization. So everyone over There and everyone Here can see what I am writing Here. Hopefully, those over There will come over Here and see all the nifty little extra things I have Here but not There, like picture galleries, and various non-journal writings. Maybe someday friends will come visit me at home, even if it is a bit off the beaten path…

Posted 30 January 2006 § ‡ Comments (1)

testing, testing, 1… 2… 3…

If this works, it will appear on both my LiveJournal page and my blog at Hypothetical. If not, then you will never see it to begin with….

Posted 30 January 2006 § ‡ Comments (0)