Tag Archives: nano

Writer Life: Back To The Real World

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Of course, the ‘Real World’ and ‘Dystopian Fiction’ can be used somewhat interchangeably at the moment. I have spent much of the last three weeks offline and away from constant (social) media, but that didn’t stop several days of general anxiety taking over. It was impossible to escape the reality of the American presidential election, but having time away to focus on writing was a lovely coincidence of timing that turned out to be sorely needed.

It always helps when that writing retreat is based somewhere warm and sunny. I love Spanish food and the laid back lifestyle (although it saddens me to see that it’s become less so each year I travel there). I have enjoyed strong cups of coffee, looking out over the ocean and listening to the chatter of a language I only partially understand all around me. I loved having a notebook and a pen, rather than a screen. I have made some new characters and maybe even some new friends. It’s what living the life of a writer should be all about and I’m not ashamed to enjoy it when it happens.

So, back to the weekly recap…

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Creative – new ideas and first drafts

As you might expect from the above, lots of creative juices have been flowing since my last post. I have fully plotted out the next two lesbian romances I intend to write. One is a novella and one is a summer romance/beach read. Being me, even the summer romance will have some slightly darker undertones. I just can’t help myself.

I still haven’t quite completed NaNoWriMo, but the last few thousand words should happen this weekend. I have probably completed it already in terms of words written on other projects, but I’d rather do it properly and spend a few hours completing the it on the same novel on Sunday. Also, maths. I can’t be bothered pulling all those numbers in from various notebooks.

Editing – the slow, tortuous road to publication

Not much editing while I was away, which is good. I only take the iPad while travelling for less than a month, and doing edits on that device isn’t the easiest. So there were some minor tweaks I needed to make, but nothing too significant.

Publishing – and all the other bits that go on behind the scenes

I hoped to be able to publish a little Christmas something, more for fun than anything else. However, with the extended travel and stress of the past few weeks, I’ve decided not to. Whilst there are many disadvantages to being an Indie author, I see this as a positive thing. I took a look at what was completed and, regardless of whether or not it was meant to be lighthearted, made a call that I wasn’t happy enough with the quality. I’d rather can thousands of words, or put them on the back burner, than release something just not right.

However, The Crochet Killer and A Taste To Die For are going to be on offer for the next week as part of a Kindle deal, so if you don’t have them yet, then head on over and grab them while they’re over 50% off. Let’s face it, most people have been rushed off their feet with either family commitments or election misery, so I’m more than happy to give people an excuse to sneak away for some solitary reading time!

I did come back to a lovely review of Dirty Little War from Planet Nation which was a great reminder of why I do this before the post holiday blues had chance to appear. I’m so grateful when people not only enjoy my books, but do so enough to review. So thank you.

Planning and dreaming – what’s coming up next week

My alter ego has to do more traveling next week for some non-fiction projects. It’s getting to that time of year when I already begin planning for the next in detail. 2017 will be an interesting year as I begin to transition away from the traditionally well paying projects that I don’t enjoy and move towards the fun stuff.

Writing Best Bits

Honestly, the best bit about writing over the past three weeks is that it has been my excuse for everything. I have spent time in the sun, visited quaint cafes, eaten enough food to sink a small ship and had more alcohol experiments than any self-respecting woman in her thirties should. All in the name of research for my next novel.

Weekly success score: 10/10 – Tapas, Tales and Tequila. What more could you want?

Restless Wanderer

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It doesn’t matter how good life is, or what else is going on, there are still moments when I get a hankering to just hit the open road. I’ve decided that Instagram is a deadly force when it comes to generating these feelings. All those beautiful sunsets and places to see that I’ve yet to visit. I’m fairly well travelled, but there will always be a part of me that wants to see what the world has to offer.

To close out the year, I’m just going to have to settle for a little bit more Europe. Hardly a burden, I know, and a luxury that I am most definitely grateful for. With NaNoWrimo kicking off this weekend, I’m using it as a serious motivator to get a deadline met. A healthy dose of competition never hurt anyone. But as soon as it’s done, I’m packing a suitcase and going undercover for a couple of weeks. I’m going to escape the grey for the beach.

I need a mini writing sabbatical (given the last one was spent doing last minute editing that was requested and therefore not really what I wanted) to get my brain in gear. To also let it be completely out of gear so I can do some creative free-wheeling for a while.

But first, time to psych myself up for a little bit of crazy writing time. Coffee, chocolate and late nights, here we come!

NaNoWrimo – What to do next…?

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So, I completed NaNoWriMo (congratulations to everyone else who did too), which always gives me a nice sense of accomplishment to round off the year. I’m now faced with the dilemma of what to do next.

Much of the information (and there are many useful articles) about the next steps after hitting 50,000 words are aimed at people who have only written this much for the first time. It’s all about how to finish the novel you’ve started or how editing works. For me – and perhaps for you – the dilemma is slightly different.

You see, 50,000 words is not a complete novel. My story got a little bit beyond that as part of the writing for the month, but it is still not complete. However, I still have two books I should be editing instead, both of which should ideally go back to my proof readers before the madness of Christmas starts to descend. But editing is, in comparison, boring to writing new stuff. Shiny! Squirrel! Chase it! That is the mentality of my brain unfortunately, and something I really need to kick in the butt in 2015.

More importantly, there is a worry that if I lose momentum on the writing, then it will become harder to come back at some point, maybe a few months down the line, and just pick up again where I left off. I don’t want to have to battle with inertia in order to rediscover my characters and the tone for this particular book.

Normally, I might have a bit more time on my hands in order to accomplish both, but December is so far shaping up to be another travel-intensive month. I have spent more of the last 30 days in hotel rooms than I have my own bed. Which is fun, sometimes exciting, but it puts the kibosh on having some kind of routine and structure to just write. Sitting down with my bullet journal and looking at all the outstanding and new writing tasks I have listed there just made me realise what a juggling act this is all becoming. And I really don’t want to have to cancel Christmas…

So, do I do what I should do (edit) or what feels more natural to do (finish of the book)? Sadly, I suspect this is a dilemma for which there is no correct answer!

Apologies for the whining in this post. Here, have a complimentary hedgehog to make up for it:

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NanoWrimo – Is The End In Sight?

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One week left of November, which means a week left of NanoWrimo. Some people will be sitting back now, either finished or safe in the knowledge they’ll be able to make it. But what about those people who aren’t so sure?

If you’re reading this post I’m assuming you’re interested enough in NanoWrimo to still be doing it. If you decided early on that it wasn’t for you, then that’s fine too. It doesn’t mean you can’t write every day, just because you know you can’t hit 50k right now. See these next few days as practice and then think about signing up again next year. Write again anyway.

So, for those of you with bleeding fingers, new found coffee addictions and a fledgling daily writing habit, this is the hard part. If you are behind in your word count it can seem as though there is little point in going on. The moments of self-doubt are almost part of the writer’s code, so know that you are not alone. Now is the time to keep tapping away, not give up. Remember, NanoWrimo is as much about giving yourself permission to write every day as it is to hit the 50k bang on the stroke of midnight as we roll into December. It may not have started out that way, but I firmly believe it is now.

Of course, for a lot of people, 50k will be in sight but the words will start to dry up. This is more likely to happen if you were a free writer than a pre writer, but all is not lost. Look around you. Take an object, a scene, a phrase you overhear and give it to your character. Go with it. You might be surprised where it takes you….

Good luck everyone, keep going and remember – have fun!

NanoWrimo – How did your first few days go?

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It should be no surprise to anyone that a lot of writers will be blogging about NanoWrimo a lot at the moment. It’s pretty much the social highlight of the (aspiring) author calendar, at least for the first week in November. After that, things start to die down a little bit, as those who signed up because it sounded cool but had no real interest in putting in the hard yards to complete the challenge drift by the wayside.

For the rest of us though, we will plough on *determined face*. Remember, coffee is your friend.

November beginning on a Saturday this year has given a lot of people a special push to get going. Hopefully people were able to take advantage of some time off from their day jobs (apologies to those who have to work weekends too) to push out a few extra hundred (or maybe even thousand) words to get them going before the Monday morning blues kicked in. If so – bravo!

But what if you were one of those people who signed up and it didn’t quite go according to plan? Word count still at less than 500? Never fear, there is still time to catch up. That is the beauty of the challenge lasting for a whole month. There are good days and bad days, but in many ways how is that different to life in general? Any published author will tell you there are days when it feels like pulling teeth and they wonder how they got a book deal in the first place. The key: get up, dust yourself off and keep going. The good days will come.

So how did your first few days go?

NaNoWrimo Day 1

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What can I say? There has been pleasure. There has been pain. There still is a fair bit of pain actually, which doesn’t bode well for the rest November. My fingers have the hard look of stale sausages and my eyes have the wild look of the seriously over-caffeinated. As for my brain, it is still living in some epic fantasy land far, far away.

Success!

My alter ego has done pretty well today, so props to them. I’ve seen quite a lot of other people storming ahead too, so I guess that is the biggest advantage to November starting on Saturday. It certainly is the best way to get off to a good start for a lot of people. There is no guilt about the late night, and if you’re lucky you can clear your whole schedule for the day like I did.

Sadly, my Sunday is very much going to be a busy one, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to make anything close to the level of progress that I have done today. I’ll be happy to hit the average word count for the day. In reality, I know that I have several evening engagements this week, so I actually need to do way more than that. I’m determined to continue to enjoy it though. After all there is very little point in doing it if you don’t enjoy it, right?

Now if I could only include this in my word count. That would be another crucial 200 right there…

Why do NanoWrimo?

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So, this is the last weekend before NaNoWriMo begins. I will be signing up for it again this year (or rather, my alter ego will be, but when it comes to being the one getting words down onto the screen, that pretty much accounts for the same thing). November is, for me, my busiest month of the year, so why do I do it in the first place?

The challenge. This has to be the biggest driver for me. I love the competition, trying to get in as many words as possible. I try to keep up with the leaders of whatever regional lounge I’m in, which has varied over the years depending on where I’m living at the time. There is always a handful of power writers in each forum and I like to put myself right up there with them.

Despite the competition, there is also the camaraderie. Writing is a lonely sport – or can be if you let it – so November is that one time of year when it is easy to find a kindred spirit. Many of them in fact, all handily grouped in one place. As more and more people have signed up, often just to be part of it with no real intention of actually writing a damn word, this has been harder and harder to do, but it is still very much possible. Just be wary of the people talking on the forums too much if their word counts aren’t moving. NaNoWriMo can be a really useful tool for the beginning writer, but only if you get the words down.

Finally, it moves my next project along. In everything I write, there is a point between about 30,00 and 40,000 words where I get disheartened. That bit right there is where I tend to just think ‘this is all crap’ and want to consign it to the great trash bin in the sky. With Nano I don’t have time for such self indulgence. It doesn’t matter if I think it is crap or not, by that point I am close enough to 50,000 words to just keep ploughing on regardless. Just keep putting words down. In reality, when I go back over the finished piece, there will be no real difference in quality between what I wrote during and after. There may be more spelling mistakes – a natural consequence of me trying to move my fingers faster than the human body was designed to do – but that is hardly an issue in the world post-typewriter. An extra twenty minutes using spellcheck is nothing compared to the extra 20 hours of doing it more carefully.

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I use Scrivener as my main writing tool, because it allows me to do as much pre-writing as I need to make the whole process as speedy as possible. I think a lot of people run out of steam because they haven’t actually worked through their idea and done the groundwork prior to November 1st, so either write themselves into a corner or have no idea what happens next. That can be challenging and if you don’t have the mental tools to get out of it, you’ll grind to a halt. So that would be my final comment on why do it: if nothing else, it will force you to think like a writer as well.

So, if you’re a beginner or a newbie, I think NaNoWriMo is a fun but challenging way to kick start your writing. Don’t delay, sign up today!