The Super Secret Project – Revealed!!!

Drumroll. Trumpets. All other kinds of musical fanfare! I’m finally ready to announce…the Super Secret Project!

What the heck is Voice Week? I’m so glad you asked!

Voice Week (September 26 – 30) is a writing challenge designed to stretch our skills in voice. We’ve got to dig deep into our multiple personalities. Harness the power of this community to do some hard-core experimentation. A sort of Writing Boot Camp, where we’ll draw inspiration and support from each other to master the skills of voice, which we can then use to make every future writing project unique and powerful.

It’ll work like this:

1. Pick one thing to write about. You can pick a prompt from the Voice Week site, or make up your own. Pick something simple like a person or a place, and describe it.
2. Write five separate pieces from that same prompt. The facts of each piece should be the same, but the person writing it—their accent, colloquialisms, and point of view—should be different each time. Maybe the child describing the forest thinks it’s a fairy land, while the murderer just thinks it’s a good place to bury bodies, and the alien has never seen trees before. Whatever you want. Whomever you want.
3. Cut each piece down to about 100 words. You won’t get disqualified or anything if it runs to 142 words, but remember that with five pieces from each of us, there’s going to be a lot of reading! Plus, your work will be more streamlined if you trim it down.
4. Post one piece each day the week of September 26 through 30 – the first piece on Monday, the second on Tuesday, etc. – and link back to the Voice Week site. I’ll reblog your pieces so they’ll all show up in one place.
5. Read, learn, comment! Visit the Voice Week site Tuesday (9-27) through Saturday (10-1) to check out other’s entries from the day before. Tell them what you loved about it, lend a little constructive criticism, and make yourself a better writer in the process.

Prizes!?!?!

Two randomly-chosen participants will get prizes!

Prize #1 is a hardcover copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide, by Douglas Adams—which includes the entire five-book trilogy beginning with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It is a used copy, so the gold-tipped edges are a little worn, but it is otherwise in good condition, nicer than my personal copy, actually.

Prize #2 is a soft-cover copy of Podkayne of Mars, by Robert A. Heinlein, another favorite of mine.

If you remember, I quoted both these books in last week’s 5 fantastic examples of voice. To win, submit five pieces, during Voice Week, according to the rules. Entry is based on participation only and winners are chosen randomly, not judged. I’ll announce the first winner the Monday after Voice Week.

Get all the details right here.

Sign up in the comments!

I announced a full month early so we all have plenty of time to write our experiments. Tell me you’re joining Voice Week in the comments so I can add you to the blogroll right now!