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Sunday, May 5, 2013

NEXT WEEK: be brave!

Next week -- starting May 12th -- is my turn at the helm of Unicorn Bell, so you already know this much about next week: it'll be scene-level crits, up to 1500 words.

Crits of what? Well, recently (last night) I wrote a scene that included something I had never tried before. Despite that I've been writing since high school (a long time ago) I had somehow never tried to write a scene that included... gay sex. (why? I don't know... I never wrote fanfic?)

I believe in pushing your own envelope, as a writer. I believe in tackling "taboo" subjects and finding the common humanity in the characters who engage in such things. Getting critiques about explicit, sensitive material can be difficult.

So send me your most uncomfortable, envelope-pushing scene that you'd like to get a crit on. Maybe it's sexual. Maybe it's violent. Maybe it's a subject that squicks you out for reasons you can't explain. (I'm squicky about eyeballs. Flying guts, brains, etc., okay. Just stay away from the eyeballs.)

If you haven't seen my crits here before, I tend to focus on character motivations, voice, logical flow, world-building... I will try not to be too caustic. I never post writers' names with my crits. I'll post "Viewer Discretion Advised" reminders.

Send scenes of up to 1500 words (with some forgiveness to finish the scene, if it's more like 1600) with the subject line BEING BRAVE to unicornbellsubmissions at gmail dot com before Friday, May 10th.

P.S. I will be brave, too, and post the aforementioned gay sex scene for you all to crit. It's explicit, and hopefully steamy, but the actual action is only a couple hundred words out of 1300.

2 comments:

Aldrea Alien said...

Should be interesting to see what comes up.

Liza said...

I look forward to this. Now I'm thinking...have I stretched myself enough as a writer?