Watch a novel being written -- only hours left

This comes from Bill Thorness, an editing instructor in the program. This is a project in fiction-writing, but it's worth a look for those of us in non-fiction as well. I highly recommend it to your attention:


Have you ever wanted to get inside an author’s head – while they’re writing? You can do it this week with The Novel – Live! It’s a crazy, first-of-its-kind experiment and fundraising project put on by some author friends here in Seattle, and I’ve been helping out a bit.

It’s great fun to sit in the bistro at Hugo House, our literary gathering place, and see the novelist on stage for two hours, madly typing amid the din of people eating, drinking, and bidding on auction items. His or her words are projected live on screen as they’re typed, and they’re also streaming on a website. The site also has a webcam of the author and a chat room (yesterday during our auction a woman from New Jersey bought the “naming rights” to a character for a $420 donation!).

Last night Garth Stein wrote 4200 words in two hours as he built the story to its climax. The novel is now up to about 60,000 words, and by Saturday night when the 36th author types her last word, it’ll be over 70,000. The novel will be published in print and as an e-book, after it’s been edited, so you can see it now in its raw stage, then see how it’s been changed for publication.

But it’s not just authors writing a novel live, in person and on the web. School classes are following it and doing writing workshops based on a lesson plan provided on the site. Classes are visiting Hugo House on field trips. The authors are getting to know each other, and having a friendly competition. Editors and publisher reps are stopping by the House to check it out and meet people. And it’s raising money for two great youth literacy organizations: 826 Seattle and Writers in the Schools.

You have today to check it out. Click on the link now… they’re writing.

Bill