Last Day of Nano

Today is the last day of November, and therefore the last day of Nanowrimo.  For those of you who have easily sailed past the 50k word count, Hearty Congratulations.  For those of you still scribbling frantically to reach the finish line before midnight, Keep Going, You Can Do It!  And for those of you who, for whatever reason, didn't make it and gave up along the way, Don't Feel Like A Failure.  I mean it.  Nano is not about winning or losing, passing or failing.  It's about empowerment.  And the fact that you tried at all makes you a winner.  Whatever word count you achieved is so many more words better than none.


Of course Nano isn't the B-all and End-all.  Even if you make the word count you still have all the revision ahead of you, and I suspect that's what has put a lot of people off doing it.  A crappy first draft isn't much help to you if your normal style of writing is measured and deliberate.  


If you can easily achieve high word counts I would suggest Nano is probably not for you.  Speaking for myself, Nano was a useful stepping stone in my writer's development, helping me to overcome the initial anxiety of writing something longer than a short story.  I had been dreaming stories for a long time, to the point where my focus was lost.  I needed something to make me sit down and do it.  My stumbling block was fear - fear of writing crap.  What I needed to learn was first drafts are generally crap anyway and that's OK.  


But I confess Nano doesn't have the same appeal to me any more.  Once you get a bit of confidence in your ability you probably don't need all that cheerleading and camaraderie.  In fact, it can become yet another distraction.

Nano, Nanot

I've enjoyed this week.  Pottering about relaxing me writing muscle has helped me de-stress.  It's a funny thing how you don't notice you're stressed until the pressure is off.  There's a certain joy in doing nothing, thinking random thoughts and mucking about with things you don't usually have time for.  Even the dusting has been more fun than usual.


I had thought this week might give me a chance to come up with a brilliant idea for a new project, but it hasn't.  And to be honest the thought of churning out a frenetic load of new material so soon after finishing the last one doesn't fill me with unbridled enthusiasm.  So sadly I'm stepping down from this year's Nanowrimo.  


But those of you who are giving it a go, especially the Nano virgins trying it for the first time, I will be cheering you on and may drop into the website from time to time to see how you're doing.  Feel free to buddy me as flyingtart.  And remember the most important thing is taking part - everything else is a bonus.   

Yay...?

I should be celebrating.  Yesterday I finally stamped 'finished' on draft 3 of WIP and just to prove the point printed the whole thing off.  (At this stage I'm done with major plot tweaks so I reckon it's worth having a hard copy for future read throughs).  Yes, I know, I should be jumping up and down, kissing the cat (if I had one) and lining the living room with bunting.  But I'm not.


Maybe it's just me, but when I limp across the finish line I'm so sick of the thing it's more of a relief than a joyful starburst.  Now I just feel flat and at a bit of a loss.


With nine days till the start of Nanowrimo I am still dithering about whether to start something new.  But I'm torn.  I really feel exhausted and the thought of having to churn out 1700 words every day for a month doesn't fill me with unbridled enthusiasm.  But who knows, this time next week my juices might be flowing again.  You never know.

Nano, Anyone?

Nights are fair drawing in, eh?  October already.  How did that happen?  And now autumn is definitely with us the prospect of Nanowrimo looms on the horizon.  Are you taking the plunge this year?


Last year I finished the second draft of WIP during Nano, so it was useful for me although I seem to remember being beset by illness and snowstorms. I'm currently nearing (hopefully) the end of third redraft of same.  If I manage to get it done and have time to outline something new I may give Nano a go.  But part of me feels the need for a break so I may just stand on the sidelines and cheer everyone else on instead.  We'll see.


How about you?  Will this year's Nano give birth to your breakthrough novel?

It has begun...

You remember all that fuss about Nanowrimo last November? (Gosh, was that really two months ago???) Well at the end of it you'll recall I had a "finished" first draft of my mystery thriller Redemption. I put finished in inverted commas because I have started my much-put-off revision this week and to call it anything resembling finished is an insult to Finnish people. Never mind the odd snip here and there, this is going to be root and branch hacking, folks.

So my eyes are not so much watering as bleeding. You may well hear some gnashing of teeth and sobbing from this blog in the next few weeks for which I sincerely apologise, but please bear with me. It's at times like this I wish I'd taken up embroidery instead...

What now?

This is my first non-Nanoing day (funny how Nano has spawned a whole new vocabulary) this month. After three weeks of constant pressure and feeling I should be sitting writing all the time I now feel very weird to have a few minutes of idleness. It's a bit like the day after the Big Exam you've been worrying about for months. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.

I have one or two ideas I've toyed with lately so I might try and outline a new project out of one of them. I'm dying to have a go at a Romcom, and it would certainly make for some light relief after the heavy subject of my Nano book. And I really should revisit my historical play before long. Hmm...decisions, decisions...

Finished!!

Just made it across the finishing line. The last few thousand were the hardest, I must say. Some kind of fear of finishing seems to kick in, manifesting in the desire to clear out all the cupboards and wash the roof. But I managed to resist the urge and get my bum to stay in the seat to put those last few pages down.

Must say I thought I'd feel a lot happier but I'm truly just exhausted. It'll sink in eventually I suppose.

Meantime here's a Happy Dance to celebrate:

Half Way

Phew - just dropped in here to say I've crashed through the 25k mark today and so that's me half way there.

It's not been a bowl of cherries this week. Quite apart from the Second Week doldrums of scenes not panning out and characters getting difficult I've been fighting the flu. Not only that I had a hot water bottle spring a leak on me a couple of days ago so I was sitting in a puddle - but still writing! So I'm either incredibly stupid or indefatigably driven to get this bloody book finished. I'll leave it to you to decide which.

One thing I've noticed is more than normal obsession with word counts this year. Don't know whether this is down to the new Novel Stats page on the Nano website which gives you a complete breakdown of where you are and what you need to do. True, it can be useful to see it all worked out for you, but the downside is it can make anyone falling behind feel a bit dejected. Nobody should ever feel like that - it's all about taking part and the word count is just a goal. Keep reminding yourself of what you've achieved and give yourself little treats as rewards. And remember to enjoy the journey!

Why would anyone hate Nano?

Haven't got long - I shouldn't really be here at all but wanted to share this preposterous article I saw posted on a forum.

What a load of crap. Of all the evils in the world, why would anyone choose to find fault with something as harmless and pleasure-giving as Nano? No one puts a gun to your head if you don't fancy it, so why the griping?

She says of herself

As someone who doesn't write novels

and therein lies the answer. The world, in my experience, is divided into two types of people: those who do stuff, take risks, go out on a limb; and those who stand around watching them, too afraid to try in case they fail and resenting anyone who goes for it. We nano fans fall into the former category. It takes a lot of guts, hard work and sheer determination to push yourself to meet that word count. It ain't easy but we do it. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. But that isn't the point. Life isn't about playing it safe, or it shouldn't be. And if no one ever wrote a first draft which sucked huge water melons there would be NO books in the world AT ALL.

Of course it's easy to stand on the sidelines and criticise. Maybe she should try Nano before she pours her supercilious, mean-spirited scorn on the rest of us.

(Ooh, and by the way - I've done over 11k so far!)

The Countdown begins...

Sssh...can you hear it? That eerie silence is really the revving of millions of word processors, the sharpening of millions of pencils, the whispering rustle of paper. In a few short hours, Nanowrimo will begin...

When tomorrow dawns I'll be more than a little preoccupied getting my novel finished, which means you might not see much of me on here for the next few weeks and if you do my posts might leave a bit to be desired. Apologies in advance, but a writer's gotta do what a writer's gotta do. I'll try and keep you posted about progress but I've installed a handy little widget at the side>>>>>>> which will tell you my word count so far in case you're wondering. If it suddenly stops rising without explanation it means I've probably expired due to caffeine poisoning.

Wish me luck, dear followers, and I'll see you on the Other Side....

Some pep talks

Gearing up for the marathon of writing ahead, I took a look at what Youtube had to offer in the way of inspirational pep talks.

Here's a couple to help fire you up:

Nanowrimo veteran blythe025 shares tips and tricks to help you keep going. By the way, I'm going to start a list of plot bunny ninjas so if you have any ideas please post them below.

Best wear a crash helmet for this one.

Oops

Feeling a bit sheepish today because I've gone and done a foolishly reckless thing and signed up for this year's National Novel Writing Month. It's a few years since I last gave it a go so I'm filled with a curious mixture of eager anticipation and dread at the prospect of trying to write 50k words in 30 days. You're supposed to start a new book from scratch but since I'm already in full swing with the WIP I'm going to attempt to get the first draft finished which should be possible within the 50k. I did consider doing something new but it's too short notice to get an outline done and besides I really want to finish this bloody book before it drives me mad.

If you haven't seen NaNoWriMo it's worth a go. Exciting, terrifying, thrilling, frustrating...a real roller coaster ride of thrills and spills, and you never know what's going to come out on the page however much you've planned it. Go on, give it a whirl.

Write It Now

As this is Nano month, the title of this post seems particularly appropriate. I'm not doing it this year, but on all my writers' haunts I can see the symptoms of Nano fever:
1 Panicked questions about plot problems.
2 Panicked anxiety about word count.
3 Panicked anxiety about family/work commitments being neglected.
4 Desperate cries for encouragement.

Well, I'm happy to oblige folks. Been there, done that more than once and I can relate totally to what you're going through. After the event it pales to a rosy memory, rather like a horrendous twenty-four hour labour is quickly forgotten once the healthy baby is delivered. But at the time it's terrifying, thrilling, heart-stopping, even agonising as you struggle to push this screaming infant out into the world. Let me say what many a midwife has whispered in the ear of her charge at these difficult times: It's All Worth It. No pain, no gain. Keep going. Neglect those children, ignore your boss, just keep writing whatever happens. Soon it will be over and you'll have a wonderful story to tell well-wishers at your book signing.

But I digress. The title of this item relates to another piece of software I've purchased. One thing the last six months of rewrites has made me appreciate is the need for razor sharp organisation, so to that end I have invested in Write It Now a novel writing programme. I've been using it this week to revamp my latest WIP (the one I got about half way through before events overtook me in the Spring). So far, so good. It's fairly simple to navigate and lets me flit around which is good at this early stage when ideas keep popping into my head and demand to be written down at once. I'll keep you posted about my progress.

Are you an intrepid explorer?

Lately I've been thinking about first drafts. First drafts of the whole novel, that is. When I started looking into this novel writing lark every authority I consulted said it was best to get the whole book written, warts and all, before going back to revise and edit. And that's more of less what I've done. It's one of the reasons I'm a big fan of NaNoWriMo as I've mentioned in an earlier post.

But I know opinions vary on this. Some writers I've encountered hone and edit each chapter before proceeding to the next. I think that's fine as long as you know what your story is and can stick to it. Some people seem to be able to keep their story in their head, or in outline form, and if it works for them then great.

Personally I can't work that way. Writing a novel is too big a project to keep in my head and outlines have to be sketchy because when I sit down to write the characters take me in all sorts of directions I never expected. And if I kept going back to rewrite I know I'd never get to the end.

Take my current WIP. I know who it's about and have a list of characters. I've worked out their bios, even given them a face thanks to Liquid Story Binder. I know how it starts, have a rough idea what the main plot points are and how it ends. But until I reach the end I can't know for sure how all the threads will work out. So writing the first draft I allow myself to write badly and just keep going until it's finished. I know a lot of it will be changed when I revise so I try not to get hung up on any particular scene. If I can't think how to end a chapter I just abandon it and move on to the next one.

I know from past experience that after it's finished and I've had a little break from it I'll go back to it with Editor's eyes and see the things that need to be fixed. But this part is relatively easy because now I know the story I'm trying to tell. I can write new scenes, discard the rubbish, even introduce or discard characters.

It is fun writing the first draft, but it's also a little scary - like exploring in the jungle; you don't know what you'll find but it's an exciting journey.

Anyway, here's a very interesting article on this from another great website I discovered.

Nanomania

I've signed up for NaNoWriMo this month. I've done it twice before, but never at the appointed time. By that I mean I've done it alone in another month, set myself a target of at least 1665 words per day and kept a running total to keep on track. It was back in the days before I discovered the joyous distraction of internet forums. I must say, I got a lot more written back then.

But this Nano excursion isn't the real MacCoy. Instead of churning out a new first draft I'm trying to rewrite an old Nano project, a kids romp involving armed robbers, cross dressers and grotesque teachers. So I'm not aiming for 50k (which I have already - I just want a new first person POV and a lot less back story) I want to get it finished and around 35k by the end of November. I'm hoping the Nano buzz will help keep me on track.

Some people get very uppity about Nano, but not me. Of course a lot of what's written is drivel, but then isn't every first draft? And there's no better way to stay focussed on your story than to get it down so fast, in an obsessional frenzy. When you're not writing you're thinking about it. Forget the fine tuning, you can do that later. It's a helter skelter of excitement and discovery and I love it!

For anyone who hasn't tried it yet, I recommend you have a look at the website (below) but I'd leave it until November is over. It's a bit busy just now.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/