NaNoWriMo - OMG!

Okay, so I've been umming and ahhing about doing NaNoWriMo this year, because work is very busy and I have a lot of pieces to finish, rather than start another one. I was also dithering about whether to just use NaNo to up the word count on one or more of my existing novels - which felt a little bit like cheating. So, with all my dithering, November has rather snuck up on me and at 1 hour to midnight last night, I was still deciding if I would dive in to a new piece in the full spirit of NaNo.

The answer is, that I have decided to keep with the sprirt of NaNo and start a new novel, one I think can be completed in 50K words, since it is going to be the sequel to The Burning Web, which is only just over 40K. My reasoning behind this is that my muse is still wandering in a ghostly direction and, if I'm going to have a chance of getting anywhere this November, I have to follow my muse.

So, here goes nothing, I have a vague idea of the plot, also thrown together before midnight last night, and I'm pantsing this one - also not something usual for me - let's see where it takes me!

~

The Burning Web (5 stars).

Is it symptoms left from his brain haemorrhage, or a guilty conscience that is making Tristan McCall see things no-one else can?

Forced out of the police by scandal and illness, Tris is trying to rebuild his life through the renovation of the home he hopes to share with Xander, his husband. A sprawling Gothic pile, Berwick House is in need of attention, but Tris soon realises the attention is not all one way. Faced with a presence in the house only he can sense, Tris must decide if his damaged brain is playing tricks on him, or if Berwick House really holds a dark and dangerous message from beyond the grave.

NaNoWriMo - I've passed the 50K Goal Posts :D

Yay, I crawled over the finish line, I have called a halt at 50,102 words!

I haven't finished the story yet, I have another 40K at least to go, but I need to stop NaNo and concentrate on a bunch of short ghost stories that I have to finish for Christmas. I'll be back writing dragons in January :).

NaNoWriMo Day 12 and the end of the easy ride for me :)

So, it's day 12 and I'm happy with my total so far, 35K, but from here on in, it's gonna get tougher for me for one simple reason, I'm coming to the end of the plot for the novella that this novel is based on. Despite it being a complete rewrite, having that foundation underneath has meant I haven't had any of my normal struggles with direction, well mostly: there have been a couple where I've ripped up the whole scene are started again, because I wasn't happy with the tone, but I knew where the plot had to go, because I don't want to disappoint those who have read the novella by doing something completely different. The point is to build on that story, not rip it apart.

It has been interesting reworking the novella, because I had to slip some extra ideas into the scenes that made up the original, which sometimes have meant a slight emphasis shift in the whole scene. And in yet others, despite me trying to use the original as a guide only and not relying on the old text, have come out surprisingly similar, to the point where I've found whole turns of phrases that have appeared in both scenes when I've compared them. That tells me my writing style hasn't changed that much in the two years since I wrote it. I hope it is getting tighter with the practice I'm putting in with FB3X Drabble Cascades, but my basic sense of expression is still very much me. :)

Another thing that has become apparent during the reworking is that writing a novel has a very different feel to a novella. I thought I'd do a little comparison between the length of the novella and the new novel so far, and, considering they cover the same plot, there is a 15K difference in length. I can only put this down to the bits that I could leave out of the novella for pace and the fact it was a short format. To get the character feel right for the novel, the scenes have extended and the pace is not quite so fast. I don't think I've put in anything that is unnecessary (although the rereading of the first draft once it is complete may lead to chunks being erased, I can be a vicious editor ;P), the whole thing just needed a bit more depth. I've given the empaths, Yakov and Malachi more of a back story, because that's important for later in the plot, and dropped in a few snippets about my main character, Drekken, as well, again, seeding the rest of the story, but it's not just the additions that have lengthened the piece.

So, onwards into new territory. I have notes and plot plans for the rest of the book, but no more crutches of being able to go and reread the old text to kick my imagination into gear. I'm off exploring :).

I hope other NaNoers are having as much fun as I am. Keep it up folks!

Well it's NaNoWriMo Day 5 already - I think I'm slipping into the groove!

Today is a project management day, so I'll have to wait to be able to write, but I did manage nearly 1600 words yesterday (which was another PM day) I was only 100 short, so I hope I'll be able to do the same this evening.

The novel I've chosen to write is a rewrite and then an extension of a novella that has proved to be my most popular download (admittedly, it's free), so the first few days were fairly easy, because I had a very firm idea in my head from the original story that just had to be worked on. Sunday and yesterday, I began work on extra scenes that weren't in the original, pieces of character development that I could get away with leaving out in a shorter work, but that need to go in the prepare the way for the novel. And boy did Sunday show me I wasn't in the full writing groove yet.

I got stuck at just 700 words on Sunday, one short scene that I wasn't even happy with then. However, I woke up yesterday with a better idea of what I wanted to achieve in the intermediate scenes and that really helped, because I knew what the hook was, where I was going and, even working a full day, I managed to almost make my quota. So, I am slowly slipping into the groove of the story again, beginning to understand my characters and know where I want to take them.

I'm happier now, because I know I'm not just relying on the old prose to prop me up, I'm developing the story in a new way, and, although some of it is close to the original, it's being combined with new angles and ideas that will take the story beyond the novella.

So, now to work (and not writing, I'm afraid), but I have a new character and another additional scene to work on in my  head during any pauses in my day. I'm even considering shifting the timeline a day to slow the pace, but I'm not sure, it might not be necessary - only today's ruminations will tell!

Have fun with your stuff today fellow NaNoers!

NaNoWriMo Day 2

Don't worry, I'm not going to blog every single day of NaNo, but day 2 deserves a mention, because, well, it's the day after the mad, wonderful, frustrating and hopefully for most people, productive first day.

Well, that's how it works for me anyway - I bashed out 4K words yesterday, a fair first draft for a battle scene that starts off the book. It's not perfect, I know that, there are bits where I'll have to polish, but that's for December, I'd say it's 80% there and as well as introducing a little drama, I think it gives first introduction to my major character, Drekken, the show, don't tell variety. I do have a lot of back story for Drekken, but there's an important pivot of knowledge later on in the story, so most of it is staying in my head for now, what the reader is supposed to get from the first scene is a look at the working of his mind, the warrior, the leader and the man.

4K may sound like a lot to some folks and a tiny amount to others, but I was happy with it, it meant I could stop in a sensible place for my brain to work on the next scene. It also means I have some word count in the bag for the days when I don't make it to 1600, and there will definitely be those!

Today, I woke up thinking about the plot of the book, well, to be fair, it was mixed in with thoughts about Thor: The Dark World, but I can't help it if Loki slips into my subconscious as well - made for quite an interesting dream actually ;P. BUT I can't tackle it first thing this morning, because I have RL to get on with - it's Saturday, so I have to take my mum shopping (she doesn't drive and she wants to start Christmas Shopping), so that means I will have to wait until after lunch to start my stint for today. It's not all bad, though, I do have some stuff to work out before I start writing the next scene and I get some of my best ideas from behind the steering wheel!

Enjoy day 2, NaNoers! See you on the other side.

Ready, Steady, NaNo!

Ready,

Steady,

NaNo!

I've got my outline, my wordcount spreadsheet and my brain in gear, so here I go! :)

Good luck to all the other NaNoWriMoers - dig in, and here's to 50,000 words in 30 days!

NaNoWriMo 2013 - Yup, I'm Doing It Again

50,000 words in one month, that's the aim of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), for those of you who don't know. And I'm doing it again this year. :)

Last year, I used NaNo to get going on the second in my series of YA/NA Vampire Novels, Heritage is Deadly, and I found it a really useful way of producing the majority of my first draft. With so many others pushing through to get out 50K words, there's a real impetus to keep at it as we all share our word counts and our stresses and our joy at little spurts of creativity :).  I am still working on this novel, since some of the 50K needed rewrites (but then NaNo isn't about polishing, it's about productivity) and I had another 40K to write to finish it, but NaNo gave me a really good start.

I don't want to revisit this novel this year, because there's not another 50K in it, so while HID 2 goes on the back burner for a month, I'm setting my sights on another novel that I've been waiting to write for a while now. I have a novella available free for download called, Bonds of Fire. It was written as a charity commission in 2011 and it's a techno-fantasy story revolving around a society where humans and dragons bond and live together. It is my most popular download and many of the reviews are asking for more and, since I already had some ideas, I decided to develop the plot of this novella into a full length novel, encompassing the story from Bonds of Fire, but also adding in some more arcs and expanding the characters and storyline.

To prepare for NaNo, I am therefore planning out the story in detail. I have notes about how I want to extend and develop the characters, but now I want to create a scene by scene breakdown. A full length novel requires a different structure to a short story, so I also want to change some of the emphases in the original piece, taking an expanded approach, but not changing the story too much, since the feedback from the reviews is that people like the story. This will be the first act in my novel. I already have a pretty clear idea of how the rest of the novel pans out, but this is where I need to work more on the planning side.

The biggest piece I need to work on is a battle scene, which opens the story, and, since I work in a linear way, this will be the first thing I'll be writing on Nov 1st. I ducked this scene when writing the short story, opening straight into the aftermath of the battle, which I could get away with in the short format, because it was not pertinent to the plot except in reference, but I need to set up the novel in more depth, so it has now become an important scene.

I like writing action sequences, but combat is tricky and I need to work out the major moves to make sure it all goes together properly. I won't plan it blow by blow, because I do like to leave some spontaneity in my writing, but I need to block out main points and, since this is techno-fantasy, I have to be clear on the weapons and such in use. Dragon-warship combat was not something I developed in detail in the original story, so now I have to flesh it out, since it is also pertinent later on in the book.

Planning is going to be more important to me than last year,  because last year I had the luxury of being a full time writer, but this year I'm working as a Project Manager 50% of my time and that means I don't have as many hours to mess around. When I'm writing, I have to be writing. So, I better stop waffling here and go do some proper scene breakdowns. ;P

I wish good luck, perseverance and stamina to anyone else doing NaNoWriMo 2013!

P.S. I'll be posting on my blog occasionally about my NaNo progress, but I give fair warning that by mid November, it may not be coherent! o.O

P.P.S Oh, and before NaNo starts, I have 10 ghost stories and a Hallowe'en horror to write.

Death In The Family 2 UPDATE

I haven't written more than a couple of thousand words since NaNo ended thanks to having other stuff to do, like making presents for friends for Christmas and mundane tasks like taking the cat to the vet for his yearly checkup. However, crafting has left my mind free to wander from time to time and I think I have worked out the spark that was missing from Death In The Family 2, or at least part of it. :D

It means rewriting my notes for the end scenes, but since I haven't got there yet, it's no big deal! The old climax had pace, but not enough build up, this twist on the same situation will build the tension nicely so that the payoff at the end feels all the bigger. It will also allow me to show Tom's developing vampire, which is what underlies the whole second book - discovery and experimentation.

I've also had some ideas for additional pointers throughout the story that will make the subtext stronger, which I'm off to note down before they drift efemerally away. Then it's back to present making - only 3 more to go now. :)

NaNo Last Day Summary

Hmm, wow, what a month! I have really enjoyed NaNoWriMo Novermber, well, the bits of it I was writing in anyway (illness and other things got in the way a bit, but never mind). :)

I have come to a few conclusions:

1. Having a writing goal in word count form is really, really useful. I shall be aiming for 3K wds a day on writing days from now on, since that seems to be my comfortable limit. My sis has written a spreadsheet that allows you to set a time frame and a word count aim for that time frame that shows you your progress like NaNo only not just for November, it's great for keeping track of the count, and motivational when you see the count dropping below the line! ;P 
2. Sometimes I can jump sections of my work. I normally write linearly, I find I just end up tweaking later scenes if I have to go back and write a scene I missed, however, during NaNo, word counts and writer's block worked together to mean there were some bits I just had to skip, and actually, as long as they weren't really, really tied in with following scenes and I had notes on the important points in that scene then I could actually skip bits. It meant I could go back to the missed parts when I was more in the mood, or confident about what I had to write in that section.
3. I love and I hate writing for a living: sometimes, when everything is flowing, it is brilliant and then other times, when I have to fight for every word, it is frustrating as hell, but discipline to keep going is very important. It's a living, a job and if I am to make it work, I have to keep my output up.

Thanks to all the NaNoers who have been offering support and my family and friends who have been listening to the word count ups and downs. In my own opinion, I won and I lost NaNo: technically, I won, I strolled over the 50K mark a couple of weeks ago, but thanks to illness last week and distractions this week, I did not complete the first draft of my sequel to Death In The Family, which was my reason for doing NaNo. Still, for my first NaNoWriMo, I'm happy and proud of myself and it's been lots of fun watching everyone else reach their goals as well. 

So, what's next? Well, more of the same, since I haven't finished the first draft. The last 5th of the book to complete, I'd say. I had some good ideas to mix things up a bit in the last few days, so my head is going back down. Oh yes, and I still don't have a title for my novel (LOL), I shall have to think a bit more on that.

Well done to all the NaNoers who reached their goal and to those who didn't, well done for striving for something, it's the effort that matters, not the 50K wd limit!

Day 28: I won't call yesterday a washout, but...

The reason yesterday wasn't a washout is because I went with my family up to London to hear my sis, Tasha, read one of her short stories at Den Of Eek, a night of spooky tales organised by Den of Geek. She was fabulous and I'm very proud of her! :D

However, it did mean no writing was done yesterday :(. And since Day 26 was a slow start, given I take time to ramp up after the week of illness, I need to buckle down today. I like what I wrote on Monday, but it was only about 1500 wds, only half my daily aim, so now it's onward and I'm diving into some juicy confrontation scenes (climax scene is still a few away). There's a lot of conversation in the next few scenes, something that could get boring if one is not careful. The way I try to avoid this is emotion, if the character is involved in the scene, reacting to what is said, hopefully the reader will be too. Tom actually has to be rude and confrontational in these scenes, something I find difficult, because I'm not naturally like that and my British politeness gene tries to kick in :P - I just have to try harder to get into the head of the character at times like these and resist my own personal impulses.

NaNo is nearly over - keep on slogging away peeps! :)

Day 26 - A Week Of No Writing - eep!

Thanks to neck problems, which turned out to be a weird virus, not a strained muscle as I originally thought, I could not spend much time at the computer from last Tuesday. BUT today, I'm back with not quite a vengeance, but at the very least enthusiasm.

I did get to submit my novel thus far to NaNo today, since I'm over the 50K wd mark :D

Still, I haven't finished the first draft, which I want to complete by end of the month, so this week is going to be busy!

I was actually getting withdrawal symptoms this last week, but pain was a great demotivator every time I tried. Still, the rest has at least meant I sorted out a few hitches I had with the remainder of the plot. I still have to decide how the final confrontation starts, I have several ideas mulling over in my brain and about a day to sort out which one I'm going to go with before I get to the point I have to write it. I just have some little logistical issues I have to overcome as well, though. Some people might ignore them and hope their readership do too, but I can't do that, I have to have every i dotted and every t crossed. I am thinking a Taser might solve my problem. ;)

Right, back to work. Good luck NaNoers.

Day 20 - Gotta get Touchy Feely Today

Yesterday was a slow start as I got back into the flow, only 1800 wds yesterday and most of that was adding to the last scene I wrote before my hiatus. Turns out, there was a whole set of character interaction missing, now it feels like a much more complete scene!

Today, though, I have to get touchy feely - the next scene is a character development scene, an important one and I want to get it right. I enjoy character dev scenes, although I find I have to be careful with them, because they can slow down the plot if I indulge in them too often. This one, however, is integral to the plot, so I get to spin it out a little. The story has been working up to this for a while and now I have to concentrate, because, although I like writing these kinds of scenes and they're actually the ones that I find I don't have to tweak very much after the fact, they take effort to get right as I go along.

After that, I get to wing it for a bit, though, because there are several scenes that I didn't plan, but are necessary which I have to drop in. Don't know where I'll get to, but I should at least start these scenes today.

Well, onwards! Enjoy today, NaNoers!

3 Days of No Writing - Hiatus Thoughts!

Well, after an absolute blast of writing last week, this weekend I had loads on, mainly fun stuff, so I'm not complaining, but it meant I got about 50 words total written (bit of a come down from 50K :P). I'm not bothered about my word count, because I think I should still be able to complete the first draft of my novel before the end of the month, but it does impact my flow when I stop midstream. I'll have to do a bit of rereading this morning to get the mojo back (I hope) and then launch into the next scene.

One thing that has been nagging me, and it does tend to nag more in hiatuses, is that there's something missing from the plot. I don't know what it is yet, and I'm not going to push it, it will either hit me before I reach the end, or during draft 2, but I am sure there is some piece of impetus missing, something to give the story that extra zing. I'm not talking a gimmick, or anything like that, I'm talking an undercurrent that I'm not pushing enough. It may only be a few lines here and there, a tweak of a sentence to subvert the atmosphere, but I won't know until it hits me, because I'm sure it's going to be one of those Zen and The Art of Writing moments. Until it does hit me, though, it's bloody annoying sitting there in the back of my head, poking me, but not actually forming properly.

Ah well, I'll just have to get on with the main plot, where there is plenty left to do.  Have fun today NaNoers (I think that's the point of writing most of the time) - see ya on the other side!

Oops got a bit carried away yesterday...

I got a bit carried away yesterday, I came downstairs with several ideas in my head and I was so desperate to get them into Scrivener, that I thought, I'll just leave the blog post till lunch time. Well, I was so distracted that I forgot to do it entirely and it wasn't because I edged over the 50K mark yesterday, although I did do a little dance of celebration when I did. No, it was because I was in the middle of hallucinations that were proving both very difficult to write and very interesting - a good challenge.

I started them two days ago, and had bits, but I came to the conclusion in the wee hours that they were too ordered, and there was not enough contrast between them, after all, I wanted to explore more than one aspect of my protagonist's warped little psyche :). That's why I leapt in, I had a whole bundle of ideas and they were changing what I'd written the day before almost completely.

I don't think the hallucinations are complete, I think I'll be visiting them again, but not now, they have the structure I want now and a good deal of the content, I'll go back and attack them with fresh eyes in draft 2. Now I have to march on. I have some good character scenes to write now thanks to the fall out from the hallucinations. Some discoveries to be made and some discussions to be had. Quite a lot of character conflict, plus I have an antagonist to deal with. Not all today, though, because I'm just about to go out to do the weekend food shop, I have an appointment for a hair cut this afternoon and I don't think taking my laptop to a fancy restaurant this evening would look very good! :P

So, onwards - see ya on the other side NaNoers! :D

Day 14: I talk to the trees....

As my father still loves to sing to young children to make then laugh: I talk to the trees, that's why they put me away!

My writing today has to be deliriously good, literally, since I have to write a rather significant hallucination. Now, before everyone groans and thinks I'm about to trick my reader with a dream sequence, how clichéd, I'll say now, I'm not. No trickery involved, well not for the reader anyway. I use dream sequences (not trick ones I hasten to add) several times in Death In The Family, they're the way Tom remembers his childhood, drawing it out of his subconscious. However, the hallucination is not a dream sequence, it's much more of an acid trip and does not serve the same purpose as the dreams; it's not looking backward, it's looking at the now and beyond. It is reality mixed with what is in the mind and so it has to have a different feel to the dreams. It's also a journey with way points I already have planned and I have to develop that progression convincingly. Not sure how it's going to pan out, there may be some scratches and restarts today, but I'm looking forward to writing it.

So, into day 14! Good luck fellow NaNoers - see ya on the other side!

Day 13 - Unlucky for some, but not for me, I hope

Yesterday was a bit of an unexpected slog. I did manage 3K and a little bit, but that little bit, 400wds, I think may end up in the bin during draft 2. I even had to jump part of a scene because it just wasn't flowing, which is as close as I get to truly writing out of order. However, the scenes that followed went okay.

Today, I'm ready and raring to go. One of the scenes I wrote yesterday is missing a chunk, I didn't know it at the time, not like the one I jumped, but there is a whole conversation that Tom needs to have with Sean. I also have in my little head the transition from that scene to the next, which was eluding me yesterday and was why I stopped.

So, yay for me! :P Now I just have to deliver today's potential!

Keep going NaNoers, Tues 13th will be a good day!

Day 12 - 3K a day is good for me!

No NaNo yesterday, since I was at a Remembrance Service yesterday morning and then with friends most of the rest of the day, so I have to make up 1.5K today and tomorrow, or 1K each over three days.

I get to bring Tom's past and his present together today, since I'm introducing someone from London to the folks of Coombedown. It's funny, though, even a day without writing and I'm needing to go back over more scenes to get back into the feel of it. I think that maybe the NaNo pace is good for my creative juices, I shall have to try and keep it up after NaNo. I don't think 3K a day is too much to ask for a professional writer in full flow. Of course, I will have planning and editing days as well, which are set aside for November in favour of word count, but I think I shall set my bar at 3K from now on.

So, day 12, onwards!

New Character Today, a Positive Trickster

Oof, some pretty emotional scenes yesterday! I've been handling a loose end, the death of a character in the previous book and I actually had myself crying at one point - we'll see in the reread in a month's time whether what was in my head made it onto the page. It's difficult in these types of scenes to keep the words from going very purple. I am prone to purple anyway, so I have to be careful and sometimes in my attempts not to be purple, the emotion gets thinned down too much. Not going back yet tho'.

So, today, day 10, well, I'm ready and raring to go, which is good, because I have to do quite a lot of typing today, since I don't think I'll get much done tomorrow (going out to lunch). A new subplot arrives today, something to toss things around a bit and put what has happened into the context of the wider world, a normal person's viewpoint as it were. I've been looking forward to introducing this character, he's been in my head since the beginning of book 1; he's a trickster in that mischief follows him around, but he's not intentionally bad, unlike my antagonist, and he's going to be good for Tom, he needs loosening up!

So, once more into the (NaNo) breach, dear friends - see ya on the other side! :D

Iterations - keeping them whole!

Apart from scaring myself witless again with a combination of GDrive, Scrivener and two computers yesterday ( NOTE TO SELF: must make sure GDrive is on and has updated Scrivener files before opening NaNo project on upstairs computer, then I won't scare myself and think half my story is gone again - I've done it twice now), the writing bit went extraordinarily well. This may sound odd, since I'm 28K in, but I feel like I'm sinking into the characters properly now - I foresee significant rewrites/tweaks for draft 2 to the first section.

I'm getting back into the sense of Tom, my protagonist, and the pace feels right now. I think the early sections need a few more hooks, or angles, some jiggling and chopping to make the scenes more interesting. It may not turn out that way, that's just my instinct not having reread it, but I'll know when I jump into draft 2. For now, plot and structure are down and I'm not going back on myself until I have the first draft fully in my head.

I work iteratively, but I know from experience that I have to deal with whole iterations of a plot, otherwise I disappear into a blackhole of smaller and smaller tweaks on little sections which may end up being tossed anyway once the whole draft is finished. It is very difficult to resist tweaking, especially when I reread the previous day's section in the morning to kick me back into writing gear, but I must resist!

Well, onwards into Day 9. Keep going fellow NaNoers, talk to ya on the other side! :D

Staying in the flow

Well, my main antagonist for the plot is now firmly established and sewing discord wherever he goes, but I have to start weaving my subplots together properly in the next few scenes. I have a couple yet to introduce that are important, one for resolving tensions from book 1, and one for introducing some new ones to push the book along. They should flow seamlessly into each other, but I am trying to avoid the sense of everything coming to Tom, my protagonist, one after the other, like they're being parachuted in from the sky, which is a risk, because of the isolated nature of his situation at the beginning of the story.

So, now I have to widen Tom's horizons. He's been focused down on routine and the everyday and now I have to let him spread his wings a little and take the reader outside of his everyday. My antagonist is a rather good catalyst for this, since he's already upsetting routines and threatening the status quo. He's going to push Tom out of his comfort zone, not too far, I'm not heading for a plot climax only 25K wds in, but the ripples of change need to get a bit bigger.

Upwards and onwards, or should that be outwards? :) See ya on the other side, NaNoers! x