Wednesday, December 27, 2006

WODE Writing challenge

Write Off the Deep End is having a writing challenge in the month of January. While inspired by NaNoWriMo, it's different in several ways. We set our own individual goals; daily, weekly, and/or for the month. It can be a new project, an existing project, research, setting up a writing space, or organizing the rest of our lives so that writing is a priority. Like NaNo, we have a yahoogroup to help support each other, and keep a database charting our individual progress. Most of the participants are from my local writer's group but I have extended the invitation to other writers I've met in the Quest for more knowledge, support and insight into this creative process. The more people involved, the greater chance for success. So many of us are competitive creatures. Simply knowing other people are reaching their goals can spur us on to complete our own.

If I come on here over the next month, babbling about how my characters are refusing to co-operate or that the weather is interfering with their action in the forest or asking what kind of insect eats its young or any other odd comment or question, you'll know that I'm in the midst of a writing challenge. I will also be in the midst of house renovations and in dire need of a vacation midway through the month but that's the kind of chaos that gets my creativity hopping.

If you know what kind of disease chestnuts can rebound from, please save me the research time and let me know. I'm going to send a horde of insects into the grove to finish them off while they're in their weakened condition so I suppose knowing the appropriate insects would help too. Hey, I don't have time to research, I'm plotting my goals, plot and arcs so I at least have some clue which direction I'm headed in January. Want to join me?

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:48 AM

    Oh Oh Oh I know!

    http://www.forestpathology.org/dis_chestnut.html

    http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1221302.ece

    http://www.caes.state.ct.us/FactSheetFiles/PlantPathology/fspp008f.htm

    http://www.ricecrc.org/reader/2990#Pests

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameraria_ohridella


    well you asked....

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  2. From Wiki ...
    The chestnut blight is a fungal disease caused by the sac fungus (Ascomycota), Cryphonectria parasitica (formerly Endothia parasitica), which has virtually eliminated the once-widespread American chestnut tree.

    The chestnut blight was accidentally introduced to North America around 1900-1908, either in imported chestnut lumber or in imported chestnut trees, and by 1940, mature American chestnut trees had been made virtually extinct by the disease.

    The blight appears to have been introduced from either China or Japan. Japanese and some Chinese chestnut trees are resistant to the fungus: they may be infected, but the blight does not usually kill them.

    Despite the devastation the blight caused to the American Chestnut tree, the root collar and root system of the tree are fairly resistant to the blight, so a large number of small American Chestnut trees still exist as shoots from existing root bases. However, the shoots are seldom able to grow enough to reproduce before the blight attacks them.


    Cankers caused by the fungal infection cause the tree trunk to split.The fungus is spread by an unknown agent, but it is local in range, so many American Chestnuts survive where there is no other tree within 10 km. Also, there are at least two pathogens which weaken the fungus (hypovirulence) and many trees survive that way.

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  3. CBs are the best! Thank you both. I lay in bed half the night thinking of scenes after writing that blog but didn't write a single word down. How could I possibly forget any of it when I had mapped them out so thoroughly? Jolted from sleep by world devestating nightmares, that's how. I know better.

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  4. (I hope this doesn't show up twice... had a little fluke on the entry, the first time. I'm so glad I ctrl-c'd before I tried to send it. LOL)

    Sheryl,

    Obviously going to be off topic here, but it occurred to me last night as I was "going to sleep" that you might miss my reply on the comment thread at my blog.

    So I thought I'd echo myself here, just in case you get busy with the WODE thing. Yeah, it's a little OCD of me, what can I say? Poor me.

    Anyway. Yes, I'd love to talk via private mail, but I don't know how to get e-mail addresses off of comment threads. I'm not very tech-savvy I'm afraid.

    So maybe you could e-mail me at:

    life101student (at symbol) yahoo.com

    (No spaces or special characters in that, other than the "at symbol")

    Thanks!

    Talk to you soon.. and good luck with the WODE. What do writers say that's the equivalent of "break a leg" anyway? LOL

    Cathy :-)

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  5. I always say "crack a spine" LOL Why do artists make good luck so painful?

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