Friday, January 6, 2012

Hearing Myself Talk About Writing

A new year! And a treat for you! Or possibly a punishment. Either/or. You'll have to tell me. Give me a second here for a little backgrounding.

See... I don't talk about my day job much here, but for those who don't know I'm the Senior Editor (well, one of two) at a large editorial company. The job is part editing (of pretty much anything and everything) and part management. It's a great place, full of great people (the awesomeness of our editors is mighty). We are also a sponsor of Nanowrimo, and this year, as part of our participation in the Nanowrimocrazymo, I conducted a live online webinar on writing a novel. And we recorded it! For the devious machinations of our marketing department. Or to embarass me. Probably the latter.

Anyway, my present (or punishment) for you is a link to me blathering about novel writing for a long time. Possibly this is like being hit up with coal by Santa. But here it is anyway:

How to Write a Novel

Admittedly, I've only heard a bit of it, as my son just turned it on out of curiosity (and didn't seem to want to believe it was me - though whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know). NO GUARANTEES. But that makes life interesting.

And I'm looking forward to this year. Hopefully there will be some new novel writing in it. What about you? What's the forecast for 2012?

24 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Now we'll all know what you sound like! I didn't participate last year, but I did write my second book during NaNo 2010.

Bryan Russell said...

I've never actuall;y done Nanowrimo myself, but the webinar is on the writing aspect and not the Nano (speed! speed! speed!) aspect.

And I probably sound dorky. Which is why I haven't listened to it. :)

S.A. Larsenッ said...

Thank you so much for sharing this. Will watch it soon! Recently, I've been asked to speak about writing at a few schools. Now, let's see if I can get some pointers from you....

Happy weekend!

Matthew MacNish said...

It's very strange to think that as long as I've known you (nearly two years now), and as close a friend as I consider you, I've never heard your voice.

I don't have time to listen to this whole 40 minutes right now, but I did listen to the first few, and you don't sound dorky at all! The audio is a little scratchy, probably due to mic quality or placement, but you actually sound like a really nice guy, as expected.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

My forecast for 2012 is sunny with sudden showers of ebook sales (which should not be mistaken for the impending apocalypse, but which might save a few trees).

Bryan Russell said...

@ Matt

Yeah, we were using a really old mic set-up (we have a good one now).

Plus we didn't know what the hell we were doing. :)

Bryan Russell said...

@ salarsen

Thanks! It was pretty fun, actually, but I've never really spoken radio style, without being able to see an audience. Live, you know when to add in the stupid jokes. :)

Tell me how it goes!

Bryan Russell said...

@ Susasn

As long as the falling ebooks have my name on them, I am perfectly fine with this prediction.

Adele said...

You don't sound dorky at all, I'm enjoying it, thank you. I lived in Toronto for 4 years and I am revelling in your accent!

M.A. Leslie said...

2012 is going to be a great year!!! I am sick of having bad ones so in life, in health, and in writing - we are going to have our best year to date.

(They say that thinking positive leads to positive results)

So get ready for a sequel to Tristen and to Liberty (Self Published) as we continue to pursue traditional representation.

Rick Daley said...

Getting coal from Santa is secondary to what you do with it ;-)

Your speaking voice is clear, although there's a little hiss to the audio, but that seems to be more of an engineering issue than how you actually sound. We all think our voices sound dorky when we hear them recorded and played back!

My goal for 2012 is to indie-publish two kids' books...one spring release, the other (a sequel) in the fall. I have an adult novel that I'm 26,000 words into, and hope to have ready to query by the fall.

Lydia Kang said...

Argh, my laptop won't let me watch it for some reason. Damn spinning wheel on the screen...

I didn't know you worked for an editorial company. Cool. So you get to talk about writing all the time, huh? Cool beans.

Steve MC said...

Whoa. I saw the link first, and thought you were posting a link to someone else's site, but holy Canadian camole - this is you.

It's scratchy, yeah, like a steampunk recording, but it's cool. You sound both smart and sincere.

It's going on my iPod for the next long ride.

dolorah said...

Hmm, I clicked on the link but did find the actual webinar thingy.

I must be doing something wrong. I'll try again.

......dhole

Marsha Sigman said...

You didn't say 'aye' not once and you don't sound like the Canadian they had on Family Guy at all.

I'm confused but plan on listening to more later.

As for 2012, this is my year!! If I say it enough times it will come true.

Matthew MacNish said...

I'm going to email you.

Matthew MacNish said...

Don't know why I thought it was only 40 mins, orig, because it's clearly more, but I've listened to the first 30 or so, and Bryan ... there are a few awkward pauses, and some scratchy audio, but the bottom line is that this shit is brilliant. You're giving this away for free? You ought to be a professor, man.

Bryan Russell said...

@ Matt

The talk part is like 40 minutes, and then there is a question and answer period. I think the whole thing is like two hours. My throat almost gave up the ghost that day.

And I did get paid, since I was doing it for my day job. :)

Bryan Russell said...

And thanks, everyone.

We also did a (much shorter) sequel, on revising a novel, so maybe we'll get that up one of these days.

Steampunk writing lessons! Of course, we have a better audsio system now, so maybe it will be like cyberpunk.

D.G. Hudson said...

Coming late to the party, Bryan, but I agree with Matt's evaluation. You sound fine to me. (Like Rick said, none of us like hearing our own recorded voices)

Can we have visuals next time too?

Misha Gerrick said...

I think that I've got a good year coming for 2012.

I'm planning to finally finish my beast of an epic by June. Then I'm supposed to work on two other stories, but I keep getting this sneaking suspicion that I'm going to jump into the sequel.

:-)

Bryan Russell said...

@ Misha

Sequelitis - always dangerous. The only cure is coffee and a marathon of old 80s movies so bad that no sequels were ever made.

Elizabeth said...

NEW FOLLOWER...love the coliseum background.

If you need another book, try my giveaway. :)

Book Giveaway on my blog….THE WICKED WIVES.

Stop by and complete the entry form if you like.

http://silversolara.blogspot.com/2012/01/give-away-of-wicked-wives.html

Jeff Beesler said...

My 2012 goal is to get three novel-length manuscripts submitted. Will it happen? Time will tell. I'm almost close to submitting the first one, though!