The Geek Within Me

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which challenges authors to write 50,000 words in the month of November.

During November many people use the online forum and local events where people congregate to write in sprints to spur them on. 

 

When I first took the challenge having a full time job and young children, I didn’t really have the time to indulge in the social aspect of the challenge though, I just concentrated on the word count.

 

In order to achieve the 50,000 words at the end of the month you have to achieve a daily word count of around 1,700 words. It was this target that I worked towards, knowing that if I did the words every day I would be assured of reaching the end target. If I got behind I would then be playing catch-up so it made me write, consistently.

 

What I loved most of all was uploading the word count on the progress chart. Seeing my achievement in graphic form was incredibly encouraging especially if I had over achieved the daily amount.

 

I haven’t done NaNoWriMo for the last few years, mainly because during November I’ve been concentrating on editing, but I have really missed it.

 

At the moment I’m in the middle of writing Book 2. For a long time I’ve been at the 50,000 word mark. I haven’t been able to move forward on this because I’ve had massive plot problems and I’ve had to go back and cut a lot of text. Spending time working out not only what needs to be cut but also what needs to been done to drive the plot and the characters forward has taken up a lot of my time.

 

Doing this, though, gave me a sense of purpose and finally I could see the way forward. I’m aiming for at least 80,000 words so that’s another 30,000 to go and  I decided that I wanted to achieve this by the end of March. 

 

And that’s when the breakthrough came. I was skimming through some old writing magazines when I came across a recommendation for ‘Pacemaker’. Part of the website is free. (You can pay for an upgrade for all the bells and whistles). But to chart your progress and add in a daily word count, you can utilise the free version of this.

 

I set up my project with the word count I wanted to achieve in the time I wanted to achieve it and, hey presto, I had my own personal NaNoWriMo in February.

 

On the first day, after a hard day at work, I didn’t really feel like writing, but the thought of needing to update my progress on the app pushed me on. And there you go, my inner geek was ignited. The need to watch that target being achieved, and often over achieved is really spurring me on. I love it when I go over and the amount of words I need to write daily, decreases. I've missed a few days here and there, but not many as I don't want to see the white spaces between the green progress bar.

 

And, if I carry on like this, I know I will have an 80,000 word completed draft by the end of the month.

 

What spurs you on?

Catching Up

 

I haven't posted for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. In fact, life has been a bit of roller coaster ride - as ever.

In February of this year, my eldest son left home to join the army. It wasn't something I was particularly comfortable with, considering the current unrest in the world, but you have to let them make their own way in the world don't you?

Ten weeks later he was back at home after having decided that army life was not for him. But at least he tried and got it out of his system, and to be fair to him, he soon sorted himself out with work and has now found himself a job close to home which he seems to be enjoying.

We've also had the highs and lows of A Levels this year, very stressful at times (understatement!) for both my youngest son and myself. He's now studying history at the University of Huddersfield. It's taking a while for him to settle in but I hope he'll find his feet soon. He's coming home for reading week in November so I'm looking forward to seeing him then.

So what with all the comings and goings, I've found it difficult to establish a writing routine. I'm notoriously bad at putting my writing before the family and household tasks, and this is something I'm determined to become better at. 

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I've been working on a romance novel which has previously been through the RNA New Writers' Scheme. I finally got it to a place I was happy with and submitted it to various agents, with no success. I'd always had the thought that my novel would be suited to Choc Lit - a dedicated publisher of romance, so I took the bull by the horns and sent it off in early September. The selection process takes several months, so to take my mind off the outcome, I've been working on redrafting a novel which I started to write during NaNoWriMo a few years ago. I set myself a target of writing 500 words a day on days I was working and 1,000 words a day when I wasn't doing the day job. It was a target I found I was able to sustain and I was enjoying the process until I ran out of plot. I literally don't know where I'm going with this book so I need to go back to the beginning and do some serious plotting and restructuring.

To take a break from this and hopefully gain some perspective in the interim, Ive been editing some short stories which have been languishing on my hard drive. I'm aiming to develop these into short story anthologies which I will self-publish. At the same time, I'm working on developing my own author website. 

As ever I'm trying to do a lot, and do it all at once, and I often get the dreaded feeling of overwhelm. But I'm determined to keep going. To help me along the way, I ask the question:

"How do you eat an elephant?'

The answer of which is:

"One bite at at time."

Not that I would want to eat an elephant, but you get my drift. 

How do you cope when there seems to be more to do than time to do it in?

Life Is Like A Butterfly

The past few years have been very up and down for me and what with bereavement and ill health, mostly it’s been more down than up. 

At the beginning of this year I really felt that the dawn of a new decade was going to be a fresh start. Well, COVID certainly put paid to that for me as well as the rest of the world.

 

It’s strange to think how the world has changed this year – who would have thought back in January that wearing face masks would become the norm?

 

In many ways life for me hasn’t stopped since COVID. I’ve worked all the way through it and at first working from home was a bit of a transition – especially with everyone in the house at the same time.

 

But you have to try and look on the bright side and the lack of a social life has certainly benefitted my writing and I’ve tried to carve out a little bit of time each day (even if its not much) to write.

 

I’m a bit of a butterfly in my writing, flitting from one project to another, so this year I decided to change my tactics and focus on one project at a time. 

 

You may recall that in February 2018 I suffered from an unexpected brain haemorrhage and ended up having surgery at The Walton Centre in Liverpool. I’m so grateful to the staff for saving my life, and I think that during this crisis the NHS staff have certainly been recognised for the fantastic job they do.

 

But it did take me a long time to recover and for a while I had to put my writing on hold. The whole experience was completely out of my comfort zone and I decided that I would write a memoir about it. I’ve always kept a journal so on days when I couldn’t manage anything more creative at least I had an outlet and it also helped to keep me sane.

 

So when NaNoWriMo came around last year I decided to go for it and by the end of the month I had completed a very rough first draft.

 

This year I’ve spent a lot of time editing it and managed to get to the point where I was ready to submit it to an agent. Unfortunately, when the first agent came back to me she told me that it wasn’t right for her. But on the plus side, she did say that it was well written so that gave me something to hope for.

 

I dusted myself off and have since sent my manuscript out to five more agents. How I selected them is another story and now while I’m waiting for them to get back tome, I’m carrying on polishing the rest, just in case I get asked to submit a full manuscript. I’m also thinking about my next project.

 

Wish me luck.

Work In Progress

As ever I started off the year with good intentions and I made some initial progress writing and submitting a couple of short stories. Then I turned my attention to my current novel in progress. I had rejoined the Romantic Novelist’s Association New Writer’s Scheme, and my aim was to edit a mostly complete first draft into something I was happy to submit for feedback. 

Unfortunately this took a lot longer than I had anticipated. There was a lot to rewrite and some holes in the plot which needed some serious rethinking and which involved large amounts of writing from scratch. The novel is set in my home town, Chester, but takes place during the first few years of World War II. It follows the story of two sisters as they reach adulthood, struggling against the backdrop of war and the difficult relationship they have with each other.

By the time I had completed it, it was early August. I was happy with what I had done but was equally as happy to send it off and start work on something fresh. As it was close to the RNA deadline I anticipated a long wait for the feedback but this wasn’t a problem as I felt I needed some space from it. To my surprise the feedback came back only a week later. Not sure if this was a good sign or a bad sign, I nervously opened the document. Unfortunately, I think it was a bad sign. I’ve submitted a few novels though the NWS and always found the feedback to be detailed as well as constructive. Sadly, I found the feedback this time to be rather harsh. I’m not saying it was wrong, although there were some points I didn’t agree with, but I can honestly say I was devastated by how flawed she thought the novel was, both regarding character and plot, bearing in mind how much time and effort I had already put into it. I metaphorically put both the novel and the feedback away in a drawer until such a time when I can view it with more objectivity. When I do look at it again I’m sure I will be able to gain more from the feedback but at the time it just floored me.  At the same time the short stories I had sent off earlier in the year were also rejected.

Maybe at this point a saner person would have decided to give up writing altogether but maybe I’m not sane. Instead I went back to my short stories, editing earlier ones and starting to write some new ones. I’ve also started to write a memoir on what it was like to have a brain haemorrhage and the effort it has taken to overcome it. I’m not sure the latter is something I will submit for publication or even self-publish but at the moment its something I feel the need to write. In order to get something down on paper I signed up for NaNoWriMo and so far it is working well for me. Eight days in and I’ve written 12,000 words.

As well as all this I dug out feedback from the NWS on a previous year. The feedback on this novel was much more positive and offered detailed suggestions on how to improve it. Its given me the inspiration to do some work on this too and so at the moment I’m feeling very positive.  Long may it continue.

All Change

I haven't blogged here recently because life has been more than a little hectic.  

First of all I handed my notice in at the horrible job. I've been wanting to leave for ages but didn't want to leave until I had another job to go to. In the end the atmosphere had become so toxic that I felt physically sick each day before I had to go in and near to tears most of the time that I was there.  Eventually I decided that life was just too short.

It saddens me that an organisation whose aim is to empower women made me feel so belittled and diminished.  From the moment I handed in my notice until the day I left the trustees didn't even have the courtesy to speak to me or even respond to work related emails. After nearly two years of dedicated hard work I found their attitude positively insulting.  I can only take heart that their behaviour reflects badly only on them.  I know I behaved with professionalism and dignity until the end.  I am just so pleased that I don't have to have anything to do with them any more.

Because I didn't have another job to go to (although I didn't tell them that), I spent my notice period applying for jobs and trying to make more freelance contacts.

I left work the day that half term started and was hoping to have a quiet week spending some quality time with my boys.  But it wasn't to be as two lots of last minute work came in which kept me tied to my keyboard for most of the week.

The following week I was offered a job, working three days a week.  Its with another charity - this time working with the elderly, but because of my recent experience I was a first hesitant to take another job in the voluntary sector.

As the expense of Christmas is around the corner though, I took the plunge.  I completed my first three days this week and thankfully they seem like a really friendly bunch and it has felt good to be in an environment where the staff are respected.

There is just so much to take in though that each day my head has been near to explosion point by the time I get home.

Its going to be a challenge fitting my increased freelance work, home and family around all this and over the last few weeks my writing has definitely taken a back seat.

I'm sure things will settle down soon but in the meantime I'm setting myself small writing takes each day so that at least I'll feel as though I'm achieving something, rather than having so little time and head space that larger projects seem too daunting.

There is one thing I'm grateful for though, and that is that I didn't sign up to NaNoWriMo this month.  I think that might just have sent me over the edge.

Misson Completed!

Yeah, its the end of November, and I have completed my challenge to post every day during this month.

 

I must admit that it has stopped me missing the challenge of NaNoWriMo, as although the wordcount is miniscule in comparison, I have still had to employ the discipline to post every day, which is something I have never managed to do before.

 

And it has felt a bit like my experience of NaNo in that I got off to a great start, had a bit of a low in the middle when I couldn't think of anything to post, and then had a bit of run towards the end. A bit like writing a novel me thinks.

 

There have been times, I must admit, when the posts have been pretty rubbish, so I do apologise for that. 

 

But thank you all for bearing with me, particularly Wendy and Teresa  who are my two most fervant followers and committed commenters.  Thank you ladies, your support is much appreciated.

 

Now, I'm going to go away and leave you all in peace for a while, but I will be back, and more often than I have in the past, now that I have proved I can do it.

 

But just before I go, I have another reason to celebreate the end of November, or should I say, Movember.  My husband has been growing a moustache this month in aid of men's health, particularly Prostate cancer.  And whilst I appreciate his intentions, I can't wait to see the back of the furry growth above his top lip!

November Madness

Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo, so good luck to all you scribes out there who are aiming to get 50,000 words under your belt this month.

Sadly, this year, I feel that I have too many unfinished pieces of work to start on a fresh one, so I’ve decided not to take part.    But November would feel slightly empty without some sort of a challenge. Right?

So I was delighted to read the article “Ten inspiring ideas to try instead of NaNoWriMo” on pages 12 & 13 of the November issue of Writing Magazine, and it set my little brain buzzing.

And, in light of my very poor number of blog posts in October, I’ve decided to issue myself the challenge of posting each day in November.   It seemed like a good ideal at the time, but I’m beginning to wonder if I'm not just a little bit insane.  Now it does feel like it’s the first day of November.

I’m sure some posts will be very short and some will probably be complete rubbish, so please bear with me.

One down, only 29 to go!

Happy November everyone.

Here's One I Prepared Earlier

By the way, I forgot to mention, I did complete NaNoWriMo.  In the end I was so fed up with my writing that at 45,000 words I sat down and refused to come off the computer until it was finished.  It was a bit of a slog, but an amazing sense of satisfaction.

Whether I'll ever by able to bash it into something that is a coherent piece of writing is another matter.  The trouble with writing to this deadline means that sometimes you write a lot of rubbish and waffle just to get your  word count for the day.  And I have to admit that my plot changed as I wrote, so the end story probably doesn't match up to the story I started at the beginning.

 

But anyway.  It's done. I have 50,000 words that I didn't have at the beginning of the month, and may be one day I'll be able to do something with it.

Now, I'm off to have a look at the novel I had critiqued by the RNA in the summer, it's been sleeping for too long in my desk drawer and it's time for it to get some exercise.

Bad, Bad Blogger

I've been meaning to post for a while now - honest guv! But of course the longer you leave it, the more there is to write, and the longer it will take, so I kept putting it off!

 

So, what have I been up to?  Well for a start we went away for half term - yeh!  Ten days in Lanzarote.  It was quite a small all-inclusive complex in Costa Teguise, which meant the boys could have a bit more independence, make new friends, and I could read - and yes, write!

 

I took my trusty Kindle with me, which has been collecting books and free downloads for a while now, and I managed to spend some time idyling in the minds of my favourite authors, while lying in the sun - in October - what more can you ask for? We certainly needed the break I can tell you.

But now it seems like it was a long time ago - even if it was only a few weeks ago - but I've been a busy bunny since I've been back.

 

Of course there has been the usual post holiday washing and ironing - yuck - although ironing does give me a chance to catch up on all the TV programmes I've recorded - the freeview box was nearly full (ouch).  We also had a 31 October deadline for applying for a high school for my eldest - it was a bit of tricky dilemma.

 

I've also done a few short story courses recently - one online and one in Leeds last weekend, more of that later, I've done some freelance work and I've signed up for NaNoWriMo.

 

Readers of this blog will know that I've completed NaNo twice, the challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I didn't do it last year and I really missed it, so I decided to go for it this year, even though I had so much on before and during this month.

Well, I started off really badly, in fact I didn't even start until 3rd November, and I've been playing catch up ever since. There have been days when I haven't been able to write at all and days when I've written a lot, but despite that I was still behind. Yesterday, though, I managed to catch up. The stats on the website are brilliant, and I have to admit to becoming a little obsessed with them. When you update your word count, it averages your daily word count, estimates how many words you will have to write each day to finish on time, what day you will finish if you continue writing at the current speed - I've gone from 6 December to 29 November yeh! And there's even a graph showing where you are and where you need to be! Oh I love it. My aim was to hit the line on the graph and yesterday I did it! I'm now at 28,700 words and one the homeward run, trouble is I'm running out of plot. 30,000 - 40,000 are always the hardest to write so I'll have to hope I come up with some inspiration, otherwise I'll be writing complete nonsense! Who's says I'm not anway.

So, in a nutshell, that's what I've been up to lately. And now that I'm catching up a bit, I'm hoping to be able to blog a bit more frequently - I also need to catch up on the blogs I haven't had chance to read yet as well!

I don't know if any of you remember, but before I went away I found a cat in the road. In the dark it looked as though the cat had had a injury behind it's ear and by the way it was behaving it was obviously not quite right. It turned out that the thing behind the ear was a massive tumour - poor thing. A note that I put up in the local post office, managed to locate the owner, but when they contacted the vet, they decided that the poor thing was too ill to go on and so she was put to sleep. I was saddened to think that the poor little thing is no more, but can only console myself that she is no longer in pain. And it was a much more dignified ending than being hit by a car.

On that note I'll go now, but I'm hoping to be back soon. Watch this space!

Linda

Where Did November Go?

It’s been a while since my last blog and the reason is National Novel Writing Month. I had meant to blog on my progress stage by stage but even though I completed the required 50,000 words last year, I did not anticipate how much time it would take me to complete the challenge.

And completed it I have, I'm glad to say. This year I was a little more organised and plotted out some of the story during October, got to know my characters and did some research.

This included reading some novels in my genre – chick lit (which was such a hardship – not!) and reading these two books which were invaluable. Together they really gave me a good angle on where I wanted to go with my novel and some pointers on how to get there.

A very big thank you to these authors for their invaluable advice.

I began the month on good form and the words literally flowed from my fingertips. Changing my approach from being a pantster to being a plotter really seemed to work. But then during week 2 I began to panic as I approached the precipice and realised that during October I had run out of time and consequently run out of plot. Then my task became a little more difficult.

I decided that I would find some time in advance of each writing session to do some more plotting so I would know exactly where I was going when I came fresh to my keboard.

Time is a pesky little creature I found, as elusive as riches so I had to return to my original mode of writing by making up the plot as I went along – a somewhat more scary business.

I found that I could not find much time to write at the weekends when family took over my life so I tried to write 2,000 words a day, scribbled into sections wherever I had a slot. Its not the best way to write but sometimes needs must.

By the end of week two I was struggling; searching forever for that elusive half way mark. Reaching that was like sweating blood but eventually I reached the crest of the hill and cheered from the top.

The ascent was much easier at first – I positively galloped over the 30,000 mark and thought that my troubles were all in the past. But then I really did run out of plot. A little nugget of advice came to me from long ago and I put in something dramatic. The rest of the plot slipped in after that with some new twists and turns which I don’t think would have come to me if I had been trying to plot in advance.

By 40,000 I was whizzing ahead and finished today, a day early with over 51,000 words.

I’ve still got some way to go until I reach the end but I’m determined to keep going. Another piece of advice – write every day – has proved itself to me again. Its so much easier to pick up the thread of the day before when there’s no long time gap in between and also because I knew the next day I would be sitting down to write, flashes would come to me when I was in the car or shivering on a football field as my boys played a match. That doesn’t happen if you leave it too long and that – I think – is where writer’s block comes from – fear of not knowing where you’re going next.

I also met some new people on line and because there as a new region in my area this year, a few writers who I’m aiming to meet up with in the flesh and who will hopefully become writing buddies. Seeing their wordcount going up day by day has spurred me on to up my count too, so perhaps I wouldn’t have done it without them. So thank you to you too.

Now I’m over half way through a very, very rough first draft but as you can’t edit a blank page I’m chuffed.

I can’t continue at the same pace though – especially not in the run up to Christmas but I’m going to set myself a challenge of writing 1,000 words every weekday and by the end of the year I hope to be so much further on and to be gaining momentum.

It’s a plan anyway. Then I will go back to Love Writing and See Jane Write, reread them and then start to revise. Also, for anyone who had just finished the first draft of a novel December’s Writing Magazine has a fantastic article by Sophie King on revision. Definitely one to rip out and look at next year when I’ve got that first draft on the page.

So that’s my plan for December – and perhaps no I’ll have more time to blog too. Thank you NaNoWriMo – I finally feel like I’ve got my MoJo back.

What method of writing works best for you?

It's Been a While!

It’s been a while, I know since my last blog and for that I am truly ashamed. My life is always really hectic during the summer with work and family but this year I just haven’t seemed to be able to catch up and now its nearly half term. Already! I’m sure there is a gremlin out there somewhere stealing time from me.

I have been writing though, albeit I can’t say that I’m entirely happy with what I have written and so I haven’t been able to find the motivation to blog about it. I’ve been flitting between projects too so haven’t really built up any momentum.

In reality I’ve been having one of those “Where is my life going?” moments, only the moment has lasted rather longer than I could have anticipated.

But this month I’ve given myself a bit of a talking to because let’s face it, the only person who is going to change my life is me.

The thing that has really spurred me on though is the fact that November is approaching and November means – National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short.

Last year I decided to enter NaNoWriMo on a whim. It’s a web based challenge to write 50,000 words in a month. I didn’t think I would be able to do it because finding time is often difficult but its amazing what a deadline does for you. Each day I watched the word count dial go up a notch until I was a winner – the buzz was just amazing.

The beauty of wrimo is that it gives you the freedom to write whatever comes into your head. It doesn’t have to be perfect prose as long as its down on the page and that gives you the freedom not to beat yourself up if the words aren’t coming out exactly how you want them. It also gives you the freedom to be a writer. I had a deadline that counted and until I had done the daily 1666 words needed to reach the target my family just had to wait. It didn’t seem to do them much harm either so it just goes to show.

I’ve continued with the novel I started at last year’s wrimo for the rest of the year, albeit at a slower pace, and so far have reached 120,000 words. Now I know that sounds a lot but it is a bit of a saga and I have a tendency to overwrite, so when I come to edit, that wordcount will be pruned down massively.

I have attempted this novel on a bit of a flying by the seat of my pants basis, so it does need a lot of work and now I think is the time to sit back and take stock.

I know I should continue with this novel and see it through to the end but the lure of wrimo and getting another 50,000 words down on paper is just too much for me to resist. I’ve had an idea for a chick lit novel floating around in my head for a while now and November seems to be the perfect time to catch it.

This year I’m approaching the project with a little more professionalism though. Instead of being a pantster I’m going to have a go at being a planner for once. During October I have been concentrating on doing my research, developing my outline, getting to know my characters and where they live and work and generally having some clue of where I’m going with this. I’m not there yet but I’m really enjoying getting my teeth stuck into something new.

So fingers crossed for November and I’ll let you know how I get on, if I haven’t worn my fingers out on the keyboard that is.

And then December is back to novel 1 which I will finish. I will, I will, I will!

Dodging The Doubt

Self doubt, I think, is one of the hardest things a wannabe writer has to live with. The questions which buzz around my brain a lot are, “Am I any good?” or “Will I ever be any good?”

I suppose the only way we can tell is by getting our work “out there”. Sometimes even that doesn’t help though, especially when the rejections keep flooding back in.

I am yet to find myself at a stage where I have a novel good enough to send out to potential agents. So far I have completed first drafts of two novels. The first will probably never see the light of day and languishes on a bookshelf in a folder. It is, I think, a poor first attempt but maybe one day I’ll dig it out again and see whether it has any glimmer of potential. The second, I was part way through a first edit when I lost my way and was then side-tracked by the thought of writing something completely new during November and the challenge of completing the 50,000 words with NaNoWriMo.

At the moment I am concentrating book 3. Since the end of November I have completed another 15,000 words and am hoping to reach 100,000 by the end of March, that’s if I pull my finger out anyway. Then I will break away from it, try to finish the first edit of book 2 and then return to edit book 3. Well that’s the plan.

Over the years (and I do mean years) I have been trying to test my talent, or lack of it, with short stories. And herein is where rejection lies. In fact so many of my stories have been rejected that whenever an A4 envelope comes bouncing back through my letter box I refuse to take it personally. I simply open it up, look at the standard rejection slip, sigh, re-read the story, edit, print and send it somewhere else. And then after four or five rejections I put it in a folder, alongside novel number one, and chalk it up to experience.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. I have been on several courses and have received some very positive feedback. I know (or at least I think I do) where my strengths and my weaknesses lie and am determined to work on both. And then last year, one story which I had dusted off and sent out for the third time, actually came highly commended in a Writer’s Forum competition and was published in the Weekly News. Proof positive that not making the grade first time round isn’t an indication of whether something is any good. So maybe I do have some talent after all.

I’ve tried a couple of writer’s circles in my area in an effort to get some outside feedback but neither have worked out for me and there I’ve drawn a blank. So I need to find some way of testing the water without publication and without paying out a fortune on critique services.

I was hoping to join the Romantic Novelists Association, New Writers Scheme, and have a novel critiqued that way. Sadly though, I missed the boat for this year and now the scheme is full. Maybe next year I’ll be a bit more on the ball/

In the meantime though I’ve taken the plunge and signed up for a correspondence course with the Writer’s Bureau on Novel and Short Story Writing. Watch this space to see how I get on.