Short Story-A-Thon

The idea? Do all the hard work of creating a short story, including editing, and submitting it to Kindle. So we can try to make some money off of our great creativity!

Friday night 6PM – 9PM

6:00 PM to 7:00 PM

I’ll cover “How to Craft a Short Story”

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Idea creation. Don’t know what to write about? Want to come up with more ideas for your next story? We’ll meet at FatPipe ABQ and use downtown Albuquerque as our idea incubator. We’ll people watch, I’ll share stories, and we’ll explore.

Bring: walking shoes, notebook and pen

Homework before Saturday: Come up with the premise for your short story and create a general outline.

Saturday 8am – 9pm

Writing a good story takes a lot of work and no one is going to want to read something that is sloppy or poorly written. This is where it will all happen.

FYI: I suggest a minimum goal of 1,000 words or a maximum of 5,000 words but the final decision is up to you.

8:00 am

Start writing our short story. I’ll have some sprints to get us writing fast. (I’ll have coffee and snacks available for free all day)

9:00 am

We take a break because we need to think about book covers. I’ll talk about how to design your own book cover. Or, if you want to hire someone, I’ll share my list of graphic designers willing to design a cover within 24 hours. We’ll also talk about copyright.

10:00 am

Back to writing! During this time, as people finish their stories, we’ll start reviewing each other’s stories, giving feedback, then back to editing.

Noon – Lunch break. Lunch is on your own, but there are plenty of options. Bring your lunch (we have a refrigerator and microwave); or stop in one of several nearby restaurants for your break – Standard Diner, Holy Burger, Whole Hog, Tucanos, etc.)

2:00 pm

Think your short story is ready for the next step? Hand it over to one of the two editors I’ve hired for the day. They’ll scour your piece for grammar issues and fix those commas that are in the wrong place!

Our editors: Jim Wagner of Daddy Wags Editing (acknowledged in Anne Hillerman’s latest novel for his editing); and Grace Parazolli, owner of Wax Tablet Content and member WriterGals.

9:00 pm

It may not take all this time to finish, but we’ll have FatPipe ABQ until 9pm

Bring: Laptop and your idea notebook! Feel free to handwrite your story, but if you want to get it reviewed, edited by our editors, submitted to the Plot Duckies contest, and published to Amazon; you’ll need a laptop.

Homework: Follow up on your cover.

Sunday 1pm – 5pm

It’s time to publish!

First, sleep in a little. You’ve earned it!

1:00 PM

I’ll announce the top story winners who will get the Plot Duckies stamp of approval on their stories.

Then, we’ll follow along as I publish my short story – and everyone submits theirs as well. Those steps include putting copyright wording in your story, creating your Amazon author account, etc.

I’ll also share a list of contests to submit your story to.

Then, we’ll eat cake and everyone who publishes will get their own duckie!

Top stories will get a seal of approval “Approved by Plot Duckies”, and be included on our website.

More Happening!

If you bring a donation to this event on Friday night or Saturday morning for Albuquerque Reads, you’ll be entered to win a free cover design from Leslie Reilly! (Leslie designed the cover for my first novel – Toy of the gods)

The donation must be either funds ($5 or more per person) or new/gently used early elementary books!

The Facilitator:

Sonja Dewing is a published author and award-winning creative writer. She has an adventure novel, Toy of the Gods, published by Creativia (available on Amazon), and a self-published short story, Menagerie, on Amazon.

Ready? Get your tickets today.