Second Prize Essay

Visit Unoriginal Originality to see Jennoenell's second prize essay, Redemption.  You'll enjoy it. :-)

~Les Miserables Contest Winners~

Original artwork by Elizabeth from My Father's World

Thank you everyone who participated. I only picked the top seven essays for placement, but I appreciate all who took the time and entered.

I learned a lot from reading your essays, not only on Les Miserables as a story, musical, and movie but also on completely different views. I was surprised at some of the plot elements that came up differently depending on where the essay writer had first experienced the story (musical, book, movie versions).

The viewpoints were so wide and wonderful that I got a much bigger idea of how Les Miserables is seen by many people. I didn't agree with you all, but I found it all fascinating and educational. Thanks for your hard work!

We had four judges who worked hard to rate these essays on style, grammar, content, and interest. This was a blind contest. The judges did not know the essay authors.

If you are a winner you will receive an email with info on receiving your prize and remarks on your essay. Thanks for participating.

Now...to the placements. :-)

"24601: Chains will never bind me"

Ring by Foxwise

7th Place

Charity from Live in Living Color for her essay, Rescue and Redemption.

Original artwork by Elizabeth from My Father's World
6th Place

Anna for her essay Les Miserables, Popular from Day One!

Charm Necklace

by Rustic Charm

5th Place

Susannah from Life is too short not to wear Red Shoes for her essay, Eponine vs. Cosette, in the musical of Les Miserables.

"There is a flame that never dies."

Bracelet by Foxwise

4th Place

Emma Selmo Johnson for her essay, Les Miserables Essay on changes in the new American tour.

Say it Sweet
has a beautiful collection of Les Miserables themed posters full of awesome Victor Hugo quotes.

3rd Place

Katelyn for her essay, Mercy, Justice, and other Melodies in Les Miserables.

Amazing 20 page long book with graphics, quotes, and lyrics from Les Miserables designed and created especially fort his event by Picture Perfect.

2nd Place

Jennoelle from Unoriginal Originality for her essay, Redemption.

Les Miserables: The 25th Anniversary Concert

1st Place

Rosanne from Rosanne E. Lortz for her essay, The Root of the Matter: Victor Hugo's Les Miserables

Thank you all again.

A huge thank you to all the people who contributed greatly to the prizes--for your creativity and generosity.

Thank you to the judges and everyone who gave feedback.

Hopefully you'll be seeing some of these essays around soon. :-)

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

24 Hours for your Entries!

Welcome Les Miserables Week! Link up on the event page and let the miserableness begin!

For you who are still trying to send your Les Miz essays in you are now beginning the 24 hr grace period. By 4pm tomorrow all entries will be closed.

To add to your motivation (or anticipation if you are one who has already submitted their entry) look at these following amazing prizes. It has been a pleasure to work with different artists, etsy shops, and others who have helped donate or give input to this event.

First prize will be Les Miserables: The 25th Anniversary Concert DVD!

Runner up prizes will include Les Miz themed jewelry, artwork, books, and posters.

If we more than 100 essays are submitted a recording of Les Miz will go to the second prize winner.

Picture coming soon!

Book of Les Miz themed photo art along with phrases from the lyrics.

"There is a flame that never dies."

Bracelet by Foxwise

"24601: Chains will never bind me"

Ring by Foxwise

Say it Sweet
has a beautiful collection of Les Miserables themed posters full of awesome Victor Hugo quotes. The winner will be able to choose their favorite quote as well as background, colors, etc.

Coming Soon!
Original Les Miz artwork!

Charm Necklace

by Rustic Charm

Charms could be worn together or alone. I think Rustic Charm did an awesome job combining different themes and phrases from Les Miz.

Thanks for reading! I am excited about the upcoming week.

Miss Pickwickian

Les Miserables Event, Contest, and Giveaway

<a href="http://theerraticmuse.blogspot.com/p/les-miserables-event.html"><img src="http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd15/riversong14/lesMizLarge.jpg" /></a>
I am now officially ready to launch the Les Miserables project. :-)

I'm hoping this can be a fun event for us all. Please read more and link up if you're interested in participating by reading the event page.

The deadline for the essay contest is also the kickoff for Les Miserables week. Please submit your essays before May 23rd. There are going to be some truly amazing prizes (and they're not all girly, so guys, be motivated too).

I'll be hosting a Les Miserables giveaway to start the fun as soon as I get details figured out.

If you aren't familiar with Les Miz, you really should and it's not too late. Read this post for some ideas to get started.

Artwork for this amazing blog button was done by PolkaDot. Please appreciate her artistry by adorning your blog with it. :-)


<a href="http://theerraticmuse.blogspot.com/p/les-miserables-event.html"><img src="http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd15/riversong14/LezMizsmall.jpg" /></a>
Post your link on the event page!
Let me know if you have any questions. I'm very excited about this. :-)
Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Les Miserables Event May 23rd-30th

As you may have noticed, I have postponed Les Miserables Week until May 23rd.

I am just dealing with a few too many deadlines, sickness, and writing projects. Those of you who have already sent in your essay-- Thank you! You will receive a special bonus for being the first and sorry about the delay. Those of you who have not sent in your essay, you still have a month!

I'll be recreating a button at some point and would greatly appreciate it if you would put one on your blog to spread the word. Perhaps I'll do a giveaway for it...

I am looking forward to spending more time with Les Miz and seeing what the rest of you come up with. :-)

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Working with Shakespeare

Thanks to Esmeralda and Polka Dot, I am retelling Romeo and Juliet is my screenplay project this month. This is giving me some unique challenges.

As I've mentioned, before I am a huge Shakespeare fan. Romeo and Juliet, however, is not my favorite play and West Side Story's retelling may have scarred me forever. ;-)

I just don't know what Shakespeare was trying to say with this play.

Is Romeo and Juliet's romance serious, even from the beginning? It seems so over the top. And Romeo and Juliet are the victims of the play--they do not drive a lot of the events like majority of Shakespeare's tragedies.

I feel like Shakespeare play retellings should stick with the message he was trying to communicate...but when I'm not sure what that was, I'm lost.

So, how do I cope with this? Could I mix two Shakespeare plays to spice things up and create something more original?

There are several similarities and contrasts in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet that have always fascinated me. Could I combine these?
What if Romeo and Juliet were not the victims of the play, but truly drove some of the conflict?

I think my story is going to stray from many of the themes of Romeo and Juliet, but I hope I can still keep its essence. I also hope I can explore and borrow from Hamlet, which happens to be one of my favorite plays. ;-)

We'll see. I still have 9/10 to go in my script. I keep reminding myself this is an exercise and that it will not and would not be the next box office sellout. If I can keep my mood light while I am writing, the story will come much easier. And I can always edit, even major plot elements. Right?

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Becoming Familiar with Les Miserables

Les Miserables is for everyone. As far as musicals go, it is in a class of it's own. There is no way to explain it....except that Les Miz is a beautiful, beautiful story that includes sadness, but is ultimately a story about deep characters and good news.

"There is a flame that never dies."
Bracelet by Foxwise

One of the multiple prizes for the essay contest.

Les Miserables week is approaching and I hope some of you are working on your essays for the contest. :-)

If you aren't a Les Miz fan yet, you still have time. :-) Here are a few ways to learn about the story--

Victor Hugo's unabridged book is obviously the best way to go. :-) This is a serious time investment, but Hugo is an intriguing writer even when he's telling you about the history of the sewers of Paris for 40 pages.

If you start the book and find yourself getting lost...or if you're not ready for the time commitment...check out one of the below--

Focus on the Family has a very good dramatized audio adaption. It gives the wonderful overall flavor of the book and the central themes. It is washed over to be a little more family friendly...which does make it loose some of the actual power of the story for Fantine. Otherwise it is much truer to the book than movie versions. Brian Blessed does a wonderful job as Jean Valjean.

I think it's about $10. You can see it here on Amazon.

Liam Neeson and Geoffery Rush create interesting characters in the 1998 movie production, but, as far as I can see, the movie totally misses the central themes of the book. There are a few amazing moments, but they just don't follow-through. It's a good movie, but doesn't really give the truth about Victor Hugo's story.

I've seen older movie versions as well. Some followed the book a bit better, but for some reason Jean Valjean always has to hit Javert to get away which really bothers me.

The 10th Anniversary Dream Cast is my favorite musical recording and movie performance. However, it is abridged...so if your not familiar with the story you will have to fill in the gaps.

The 25th Anniversary Musical movie performance is probably the easiest to acquire. It's currently in most Redboxes and in Netflix. This is the unabridged musical and includes more acting than the 10th. It's very good, but at least Jean Valjean and Marius are far superior in the 10th Anniversary edition. (That may just be personal opinion...)

There are of course other very good musical recordings as well, but if you are unfamiliar with the story it's best to see who's singing to sort things out.

Wikipedia on the book here.

Wikipedia on the musical here.

Another avenue is to accost a Les Miz fan and asks them why it's so cool. Most of us are pretty eager to jump up and down and scream :-)

Let me know if you have other suggestions or questions.

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Writing your first Screenplay

Writing screenplays or anything else that falls into that general category is a very good exercise. It forces you to focus on small details and good dialogue.

Learning to format a screenplay is tricky. There are several good program options. See a list here. I picked the Celtx program because it was free, looked easy to learn, and didn't take much to download.

I enjoy finding screenplays online and reading them along with the film. This has been the single best learning experience. I also have a slew of books that seem helpful although I haven't got into them near as much as I'd like. I should work up some reviews soon.

There are several social sites for screenplay writers that look helpful. I don't have any suggestions because I haven't joined any. I don't want that sort of distraction when finding time to write is so precious, but I think these sites can be very helpful and encouraging.

If you are a screenplay beginner I would look into Script Frenzy to get a good start. :-)

Let me know if you have any advice or experience in this area.

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Script Frenzy

Anyone else participating in Script Frenzy? :-)

I haven't a clue what I'd like to do yet and I have some big non-fiction writing deadlines, but I want to try to participate. I've been trying to get more familiar with the whole screenplay writing thing anyways and this would be a lighthearted way to practice.

What shall I write about?

If your participating, what is script going to be about? If you think of it, friend me on their site!

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Les Miserables Event!

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Les Miserables Musical, I will be hosting a week long event April 13th-22nd.

Before the event begins, there is an open essay contest for all those interested.

First prize will be the 25th Anniversary DVD and runner ups will be include amazing Les Miz themed jewelry, journals, and posters.

The first person to submit their essay receives a reward. ;-)

Read the details for the contest.

<a href="http://theerraticmuse.blogspot.com/p/les-miserables-event.html"><img src="http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd15/riversong14/lesmiserablesbutton1.jpg" /></a>

Please help by spreading the word!

If you are not familiar with the musical, I strongly encourage you to do so. You do not have to be an expert to participate.

If you are completely lost in the story, watch one of the videos before you only listen to a recording.

And, of course, there are plenty of us eager to answer questions. ;-)

(Colm Wilkinson shows them how it's done.)

I look forward to doing this with all of you.

Thanks for reading,

Miss Pickwickian

The Word War has begun!

Start typing!

Don't worry about not being able to devote all the time to writing. I certainly won't. Just start writing! (Read more about the word war.)

When it hits 6pm post your finished word count. Hope it goes well. :-)

Thanks for participating,

Miss Pickwickian

(P.S. Like the pic? lol)

Word War - Nov 27th 1-6pm

I'm hosting a Word War tomorrow at 1-6pm (west coast time).

If you haven't participated in a word war, it works like this-

You write during the specified. When it's over you count up your words and post your word count. Whoever got the most (obviously) wins!

Please be honest. Only count the words written during 1-6.

(It's a long window so that those of us that have to be interrupted still have a chance. I don't expect you all to write nonstop...but if you do, you'll probably win! ;-)

Hopefully this will help out some of you struggling to make your NaNoWrMo goal!

The prize is-

1) You will get a lot of writing done. ;-)

2) We will respect your creativity and typing abilities.

3) I will send you Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

Get ready!

Feel free to chat on the comments page about what's going on and how you are doing.

I hope you can participate. Don't worry if you can't get a lot done-- join in anyways! Some of us are going to stay in the low hundreds, don't worry. You won't be alone. ;-)

Thanks so much!

Miss Pickwickian