In
the past few months I have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a
number of great writers, found excellent websites full of writing resources,
and been exposed to a whole new language in terms of literary lingo. I was
already familiar with words and terms like
fiction,
nonfiction,
literary
agents,
manuscripts,
submission guidelines,
synopsis
and
query letters. But now I have acquired a new vocabulary of terms I
had never heard of before. Here they are:
New Words/Terms
Blog Hop - I don't know who came up with this term but it's a good
one. The idea is to get new people to
visit your blog. It works like this: One
person puts an article on their blog answering questions about themselves. The
questions might be: Who is your favorite author? What do you write, fiction or
nonfiction? Have you even been published? At the end of their blog, they will
have a list of three names with links to those blogs. After you've read the
host's blog, you "hop" over to the first name on the list and read
their blog, then you "hop" on to the next name on the list, and again
onto the third one. Each one in turn will have three names at the end of their
blogs. Then, you can "hop" to those blogs, as well, as keep on going
as long as you like. It's a great way to learn about other people with the same
interests (in this case, I'm referring to writers sharing their blogs) as well
as a great way to get other people to visit your blog. I've participated in two
different types of blog hops (one of which was called a
follow fest, but
it's the same type of thing, and both were fun. Here are the links to my blogs:
Blog
Hop and
Follow Fest.
Pitchfest - In this context, a
pitch is a very short
description of a story you've written. A longer description of a story is
called a synopsis, but a very short one is a pitch. You write a short
description to
pitch your idea to an editor or an agent in an effort to
get them interested in reading more.
Pitches can very in length. Some
I've written were only as long as a
tweet (a term used with the program
called "Twitter"), which can't be more than 140 characters (including
spaces and the "hashtag"), making it very short indeed. Other
pitches
were up to 35 words, which still isn't very long. These pitches were sent via
email, rather than through Twitter. A
pitchfest then, is a time frame
set aside (a few hours or a day or two) when writes can pitch their ideas to
editors/agents in a festive atmosphere (sometimes prizes are given out to
participants), hence the term.
PitchMAS - PitchMAS is a type of
pitchfest that takes place in
both July and December. The first PitchMAS took place in December, the month of
Christ
mas, hence the term
PitchMAS. Now it is held in both
December and July. Here's a link where you can get more information about this
year's December event:
PitchMAS 2013.
New Acronyms
MoP stands for
Month of Poetry. According to the website, MoP is "a personal challenge to write one poem every day for the month of January." It's not a competition and there are no judges. You can write what you want. The idea is to inspire you to write poetry as well as to learn more about the art of writing poetry. If your interest lies in writing poetry, or if you'd just like to give it a try, you can get more information by clicking on the above link.
NaNoWriMo stands for
National Novel
Writing Month. According to the website, "
NaNoWriMo
is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional
and amateur writers from all over the world. During NaNoWriMo, you write 50,000
words in the 30 days of November. The challenge may be hard, but the logistics
are not! Here, let us guide you through ‘em." The event is FREE and you
can win prizes for participating (in addition to being motivated to write a
novel in 30 days! Find out more about it by clicking on the above link.
Paula Yoo hosts an event called
NaPiBoWriWee,
NationalPicture Book Writing Week. Participants are challenged to write a complete picture book draft each day of the week. Writers are encouraged to brainstorm
ideas, do research, take notes, and even outline the books ahead of time, but
the actual writing is to take place during the week. You can find out more
about this challenge by visiting her website.
PiBoIdMo stands for
Picture
Book Idea Month.
PiBoIdMo is similar to
NaNoWriMo.
Both take place in November, both offer prizes for participation, and both are
great motivators if you're a writer, but there are some differences between the
two. First, the event is for picture books, not for novels. Second, the idea is
to come up with 30 different ideas for picture books during the 30 days in
November. Also, you don't have to write a complete picture book, you just need
to come up with 30 different ideas for pictures books. These can be titles,
names of characters, simple plots, etc. Then, when the event is over, you will
have a list of 30 picture book ideas to work on. Again, click on the above link
to find out more about the event.
ReviMo stands for
Revise More. The main idea behind it is for writers to take a week of their time (January 12-18, 2014) and revise manuscripts that they have already written. You can read more about it by clicking on the above link.
her own words she explains her Mission Statement:
"My goal is to guide those aspiring to write rhyme and poetry through the
process of learning the craft and offering resources, short lessons, writing
prompts and the wisdom of experienced folks in the business to improve the
quality of rhyme and poetry for children. Participants will need to reference a
different rhyming picture book for each day of the month and make notes on them
throughout the month.
SkADaMo stands for
Sketch A Day Month. Like both
PiBoIdMo and
NaNoWriMo,
SkADaMo takes place during the
month of November. This event is for illustrators. Find out more about it by
clicking on the above link.
* As mentioned in a previous post from early in 2013, I was a member of Julie Hedlund's 12 x 12 group. I got a lot out of my membership and decided to sign up again for this year, 2014. As a member, I am entitled to submit stories to select group of agents during the year. I'm getting ready to make by February submission. 
as mentioned in a previous post from 2013, I participated in
Meg Miller's ReviMo, which stands for Revive Month. I worked on several manuscripts
during that time and I think I improved each one of them. The event was also
so popular, a shortened version, called Mini ReviMo, took place February 15-16, 2014. Again, I worked on some manuscripts that needed a bit of tweaking. 
