| Today is February 5, 2012 |
It’s time to get started on the silliness that is the annual Foolish Words collaborative writing project. Each year(I believe this is the eight year!) an assorted group of writers from in and around Bozeman contribute their own unique voices, outlandish twists and 200–400 words to an add-on story. Just like you may have done as a child, one person writes his or her part then we pass it along to the next person. The story usually gets more and more complicated and silly as we approach April Fool’s Day. On April first we gather together to read what we’ve wrought.
Please visit foolish.creativenudge.org to see last year’s effort.
Last year’s gathering was great fun–one writer even brought back-up singers–I hope you’ll join us this year!
If you’d like to participate please send me an e-mail at susan.andrus (at) gmail.com!
It’s the first day of 2011. Time to begin again. So, here I go…
I resolve to find my creative side.
Tonight’s the night!
At 6:30 p.m. the writers(well, many of them) will gather at the Leaf & Bean in downtown Bozeman to read their terrible, wonderful work!
Hope to see you there! 
If you act(and by act, I mean write) quickly your short, short story could be read aloud on National Public Radio. If nothing else it looks like a fun exercise to try. The deadline is February 28th and the details can be found HERE.
2009’s Chief Officer of Fools, Ray Sikorski, abandoned(yes, abandoned!!) Foolish Words for adventure in far away lands, so I’m heading up the silly marathon this year!
What is Foolish Words? Foolish Words is an add-on story created by writers in and around Bozeman each year. Each writer adds his or her 200–400 words to the story and when April Fool’s Day rolls around we all get together and read aloud our contributions to this unholy document of pure foolishness.
Quite a lot of fun, I must say!
If you’d like to check out what 2009’s fools produced, it’s all online at http://www.foolish.creativenudge.org/
Now, I’m running a bit late getting this started, so please let me know ASAP at susan@creativenudge.org if you’d like to be involved. Also let me know if there is a certain time over the next two months that would be either really bad or really great for you to write your piece.
Thanks! And away we go!!!
Susan Andrus
The Good Men Project is a multimedia work exploring what it means to be a “good man.” A book of essays on manhood and a dvd are set to be released this fall. But this isn’t just a book and it isn’t just a dvd–it is, and is striving to be, a discussion. Excerpts and a blog can be found on the website, which is part of what is described as “a comprehensive social media network.” Readers are encouraged to contribute their own two cents and one of the essayists was picked through a contest.
Unable to find a publisher The Good Man Project seems to have found a place anyway through the Internet and social networking. I came across it because of a critical tweet of an article written about the disinterest the publishing world showed the project. I was mildly interested and a quick click of a link brought me to the website. The Good Men Project makes it easy to find out more, interact and keep up-to-date, which may just be the recipe to success independent of a major publishing house.
Now, I’ve seen books with websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts before. They generally link to articles and reviews about the book and remind everyone where and when it will be for sale. The thing that seems to be different about this is the welcome and encouraged interaction.
Check it out for yourself at www.goodmenbook.org.
Is this the wave of the future for independent work? Are we going to see more and more of this not-just-a-book sort of thing? Can you point me to some similar projects? What do you think?
NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook had a fun show this week on memorizing poetry. You can listen to the podcast here or on iTunes. Check it out for some insightful thoughts on memorizing poetry!
Do you memorize poetry?
Everyone has their own creative process. You are well aware of the ways in which you “get it down on paper,” but how do other people do what they do?
Hit and Run Magazine has the photographic evidence of writers’ work, as it gets done and the evidence is fascinating. Notes scribbled in tiny handwriting on receipts, doodles and sketches in the margins of notebooks, a desk complete with a stiff drink and a pack of cigarettes–each photo a little window into the behind the scenes work that goes into being a writer of any kind.
I encourage everyone to share their own images of creativity-in-process here and, better yet, you can share images with Hit and Run:
It’s that time again. Time for you to submit. Dig in the closet. Look under the couch. Check the trash. Somewhere, you’ve got some notes for a poem, story, novel, or bank robbery scheme.
1) Type “Submission” in the subject line. 2) Insert a brief bio in the body of the message. 3) Attach a jpg or gif image of your submission. 4) Include a title for your piece. 5) Email to hitandrunmag@aol.com.
Five fingers: five steps.
There are approximately 650,000 publications to which you can send completed stories and poems.This is not one of them.
If camera/scanner challenged, some kid will do it for next to, but not, nothing.
“Those who do not do are condemned to repeat what they didn’t do.” ~ Anonymous
Paul A. Toth
Editor
They can be found at hitandrunmagazine.blogspot.com
and on Facebook.
Tonight the Leaf & Bean downtown saw a group of people like no other–writers! Foolish Words 2009 came to a delightful end with the famed reading-of-the-story. We hobnobbed, drank coffee, read and laughed and now we are at home basking in the afterglow of a good evening spent with great people.
But wait! It doesn’t have to end there. At precisely 1:01 a.m. each writer’s contribution will be published, one by one, at foolish.creativenudge.org.
Tell your friends! Threaten your relatives! Relive the foolishness yourself!
The annual add-on story written by Gallatin valley writers and brought to us by the legendary Ray Sikorski has been completed.
Foolish Words 2009 will reach it’s culmination with tonight’s gala event and reading of the story at the Leaf and Bean downtown.(Okay, maybe not “gala”, but most likely super-fun!) Many, many cooks have been in the kitchen over the past couple of months and their hands have deliciously muddled this story started by the illustrious word chef Ryan Cassavaugh way back in January.(I’m officially done with the food metaphor now… maybe I’m hungry…) Come on down to the Leaf and Bean at 6:30 p.m. and get your helping of foolishness.(Ooops, I guess I wasn’t quite done with the food metaphor.) I’ll be there to read my part, as will many other Nudgers. Hope to see you there!