Sunday, July 25th 2010, Extreme Writing Now went live with the inaugural episode of the Extreme Writing Now Network radio show on Blog Talk Radio. The show opened up a weekly broadcast that can be heard every Sunday at 6:30 EST (-5 GMT) at Extreme Writing Now Network.

The weekly thirty minute show is manned by Bev Owens and myself and will be a relaxed call in affair generally covering topics relevant to the EWN social network. Each week we hope to have readings from individual members of EWN, as well as a guest.

The first episode was themed memoirs and titled Writing Your Butt Off With Memoirs. Kim Ort was our guest as we talked about her vividly active group at EWN, Memoirs Writing, a group motivated by Natalie Goldberg’s book  Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. We also featured a memoir reading by EWN member Karen W.

Kim’s group has had some pleasantly surprising impacts on the site, not the least being the opening up of the writers here. As we mentioned on the show, there seems to be an air of freedom in the writing. Almost as if the memoir prompts have given the writers permission to pour it all out.

Kim quoted Petunia with what is most likely the most on target assessment of what an impact that the memoir prompts have had on the participants:

So much more than just an exercise Kim. They started out like a lovely walk down memory lane, evoking some wonderful, touching memories from so many of the wonderful writers here.

But once you dust off those cobwebs, there’s more that surfaces. With memoirs like Bev’s and Alex’s you can feel those darker memories awakening.

With “sound” I had drafted a blithe tale of the sounds of the city, laid over sarcasm. But searching through those sounds brought up a deep buried memory that overshadowed my draft and compelled me to write about it.

Yes, so much more than an exercise indeed.

Bev recapped the last four weeks at EWN, the time span the doors have been open to the public, by listing the four contests we have held and the winners of those contests. In the past four weeks, members have won four books and the fun ain’t over yet.

There will be a week long contest this week. Keep your eyes peeled for details to be released later on today.

There was also talk about the show’s Producer, Correen, as she created a spectacular  Zazzle store for the network.

Co-producer, Kim Horton, was among the attendees of the show and her efforts at the site did not go unmentioned as we talked about her thrilling 55 word fiction series, The Long Road Home.

The chat room was visited by the likes of Mimi,  Squidrich, the ever gracious Carrie, and others.

Join us this coming week, and every week as we wind down the day in a relaxing fashion. If you miss an episode, you can catch the recorded version at EWNN, or look for a player in the side bars here at Extreme Writing Now.

Enjoy!

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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• The Micro-Fiction Cornerstone (2)
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• From 55 Words To 110, Our Fiction Sees Growth (3)
• Building a Short Story ~ The Series Continues (3)

Last Week at Extreme Writing Now:

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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• A Lesson in Semantics (8)

This Past Week at Extreme Writing Now

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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This past week at EWN:

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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Eight weeks ago tomorrow, we started the series Building A Short Story. The series is an exercise in creating greater works of fiction from smaller, micro-fiction. In our case, we started with a 55 word fiction piece called The Heart of the Hound.

For those who are just jumping in: we have been rewriting the story each week by doubling the word count and our goal was to reach the widely accepted word count for short stories. That count is between 1001 and 7500 words.

We reached the short story land two weeks ago at the count of 1760.

Stop in tomorrow and read the story, comment, and drop off links to your efforts if you have been playing along at home.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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The Week in Review at Extreme Writing Now:

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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Tomorrow will bring our 6th installment in our series, Building A Short Story, and we are swimming in the depths of the short story pool.

For those of you who haven’t been following along, we started out 6 weeks ago splashing around with a 55 word fiction piece as the cornerstone on which we are building a short story. Each week we have rewritten the story by doubling the word count and last week we dove headfirst into the requirements for a short story, with 1760 words.

There have been some  really cool aspects about this project that Carrie and I have taken on; not the least being that we seem to have almost mastered a unified voice. Another great part of this whole exercise has been the fact that we haven’t re-written so much as we have built around the previous week’s entry.

Anyway, join us tomorrow for what are to be some big surprises, and if you have been working this exercise with us, drop us a link and we will be sure to include you in the posts.

Until tomorrow!

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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We held the grand re-opening of Extreme Writing Now yesterday, June 28, 2010, and although the site is still somewhat under construction, everyone had a blast.

I thank each and every member. Without you guys, there would be only the empty and lonely halls of EWN. Halls that I really couldn’t fill.

EWN is my favorite blog, always has been, because I feel at home in her arms. But she was screaming for more. She wanted to share, so I opened her up, and she is very happy.

And I know you folks will care for her as much as I do.

Part of yesterday’s gala was a 55 word fiction contest in which the winner received a copy of what looks like a brilliant book, William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies, a biography penned by John Carey.

The winning entry was submitted by Petunia and is titled A Lesson in Semantics. This stellar little piece displays Petunia’s fascinating voice, as Carrie so aptly put it.

I have to say that she pulled off a stunning victory when you consider the high quality of all the entries. Stunning indeed.

The best thing to come of the contest had to be that most participants had never attempted a 55 worder before, but I think they were all surprised at how well they liked the format. And they seemed to have a ball writing and reading them.

Look for more great stuff to come out of EWN in the future, not the least being the spectacular pennings from the community of writers.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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A look at last week at Extreme Writing Now:

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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Seriously, do you really believe you are not a writer? Come on, you know you have the will  to write, and most likely have enough life experiences to write something tearful or funny.

Some of have even thought it would be cool to sit around in our jammies all day and write for a living, only to talk ourselves out of taking that big step because we don’t believe we really can write.

Maybe if you got a chance to read what some folks are getting paid good money for, the next time you begin to dash your dreams of being an author you will have second, third, and maybe fourth thoughts about it.

Take the accounting of the Gulf clean-up efforts that was penned by a BP hired gun for PR purposes, for instance. As reported by Cliff Kuang at Fast Times, that pro turned out a laughable, at best, turd.

Kuang gives us a peek of that horrendous paid effort via snippets in his article, Can You Beat BP’s Ridiculous “Reports from the Gulf”?

Go over to that article, print it out, and tack it above your monitor as a reminder that, yes, you too can write, and even get paid for it.

That sound you hear, the deafening crescendo of clickity clacks, is the sound of millions of newly discovered writers.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

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