NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month - Sounded like a great idea so I thought I’d give it a go.  So I did and it was both harder and easier than I expected.

For those who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is a challenge with a goal to write a 50,000 word novel but you can’t start until November 1^st and you must finish by November 30^th.  It’s all about raising money to help young writers and encourage creativity around the world.

But it does mean writing an average of 1667 words a day, which doesn’t sound much until you have to do it for 30 days on the trot. 

The thing was, I had a fairly clear idea of what the story I wanted to write was, so I did spend a little time in October plot lining.  Not sure if this is in the rules of challenge, but it’s what I did.  So I buckled down and did everything I could to write every day, and it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. 

There were several points when I really didn’t think I was going to make it.

There was a week when I struggled because I had to get another manuscript edited - loving that job.  There were days in the day job where I was just so pushed I could barely think - enjoying that job, but not expecting an extension on the contract so can’t get too worked up about it.   There were two notable days when I really struggled, one day, the 12^th, I only managed 179 words (was during the convergence of editing and hefty workload). 

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that my most productive days were weekends, 12,674 on Sunday 3^rd,  the second most productive was Saturday 30^th with 7552, because I was so desperate that I just had to carry on, after all the efforts, I was determined, there was no way that I wasn’t going to do it.

The interruptions during the month included, two nights of writers clubs, a night out watching Ed Byrne (brilliant night by the way), and a weekend away - well it was my birthday on the 29^th.  Other interruptions include a day when my eyes hurt so much from staring at computer screens all day at work that I couldn’t do it in the evening, when I had to write in an actual pad with an actual pen, ink and all.   I wrote 20 pages and got my daughter to type them up while I was busy creating more - love my daughter, she hates what I write but she’ll help out anyway.    And, in the spirit of total honesty, there was the night that, for absolutely no reason I can given, other than it was there, that I drank two whole bottles of wine (hubby did have a ‘few’ with me that night too).  Next day wasn’t good, aside from having protesting belly all day (headache taken care of by tablets), I just couldn’t face the computer again, but forced myself to, did manage 936 words, but felt sorry for myself all the same, and since that was actually my birthday - don’t ask because I can’t explain why I’d drunk so much the night BEFORE my birthday.

I lay down that night, when it got to the point I couldn’t do anything else, and was absolutely convinced that I’d never finish the book.  So I got up at seven the following morning and wrote and wrote and wrote. 

Still I did it.  I completed a novel in 30 days, I wrote 71,391 words.  And I feel good.  I am also aware that I really need to do some thorough read through and edits.  I logged all of this through the NaNoWriMo site and took part as much as I could.

But here’s the thing.  I wasn’t sure that I could do it, could I really write a whole novel in a single month?  Well here’s the answer - Yes!

Woo Hoo!!

Counting the Words - Again

On the subject of counting words, the last one was about the words I edited in a limited time.  Which got to thinking about the amount I can write in a limited time.  There is a reason for this, the fast approaching NaNoWriMo.

National Novel Writing Month.  Only heard about it last year, and it was half way through November when I did.  Thought it was a great idea and decided I’d do it this year.

I want to do it.

I plan to do it.

I can do it.

Right!

Right?

Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days?  Well I know I have written 10,000 in two days, and to write the 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo means doing an average of 1,600 a day.  So it should be a synch, right?

Wrong.

Like most writers I haven’t given up the day job, so that’s 45 hours a week I can’t write.  Actually, we have a major deadline in work for December 2^nd so it might well end up being more than fifty hours a week to ensure that everything gets done to deadline.  To be fair the 45 hours does include travel time.  Then there’s the fact that I’ve got two editing jobs booked on for November, so that could be anything from 80 hours to 200, depending on how bad/good the writers are, and since they are both new clients, I have no idea.  I also have a Scriptslam to attend in support of a friend, two writers group meetings, an engagement party to go to and a weekend away as a birthday treat (mine)/university visit (planning way ahead daughter)/ Christmas shopping (everyone else) trip.  Added to all that, I’ve promised myself I’ll update my Facebook page weekly and write a monthly blog.

Can I do it?

I’m more realistic than Bob the Builder, so I’m not going to say the obvious.

Am I going to try to do it?

Yes!

Anyone else remembering Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back?

Counting the Words

A little over a week ago, I was asked to complete an editing assignment of full edit on a 160,000 manuscript.  This would be the single biggest project I have taken on to date and I knew the story was based in Africa, a continent I don’t know much about, so depending on the facts stated in the book, it might take a fair bit of research.  So, scary prospect.

Made scarier by the fact that it was wanted in a two week turn around.  So not only the biggest project I’ve been assigned, also the fasted turn around.  Since the author is paying for a two week turn around, that means I have a maximum of 13 days to do the work and get it back to editing company so they can approve what I’ve written before sending it out to the author, and the writing of a critique document will always take a full ‘day’.  So have to calculate as 12 days to edit 160,000, or 13,000 words a day  – Eek!

That said, here’s what happened.  

Wednesday - Manuscript received, I got through maybe 8,000 words, 
Thursday - I went to my writers circle Prose Group, so nothing achieved.  
Friday - crappy day in the office, struggled to get 12,000 words done.  
Saturday - my husband was on Day shift (12 hours) and my daughter is a teenager so doesn’t surface until the afternoon and then she’s perfectly capable of looking after herself, so she did.  That meant that I could shut myself away in the study and just get on with the edit – 60,000 words , woo hoo!  
Sunday - was a repeat of Saturday, but managed to get through over 70,000 words.  All of which left only 6,000 words for 
Monday - did the last 6,000 words  
Tuesday - other stuff on the go
Wednesday - notice only one week after receiving the full manuscript - I did the majority of the critique document,
Thursday - polished the critique document and sent to the boss

Phew!

All done and dusted in time to go away from a long weekend to see our son in university on the other side of the country.  Nice to be able to go knowing that I won’t feel torn between family and work.

Editing Outs the Blogging

Haven’t blogged for a while, which is rather remiss of me, but there is a reason, frankly I’ve been too busy working.

As well as working the usual 9 - 5, or in my case 07:30 to 15:30, I’ve been very fortunate in securing a second job.  The job is as a freelance editor, mainly working for Jefferson Franklin Editing, but also a couple of independent pieces.  Admittedly I took a second job to pay my son’s rent through university, but for what is possibly the first time ever, I have a job that I love so much is doesn’t feel like work.  Even when I am slogging through the worst prose ever, I’d still rather be doing that than working in a office - even though I’m still working in a office and on a laptop, but I’m sure you know what I mean. 

I will admit that I suddenly feel a lot less aggrieved by the pile of rejection slips I have in my own filing cabinet.  If editors have seen my work in the appalling light that that I’ve viewed some of my authors work, then I’m not surprised I have a pile of rejections.  I have to say though, that some of the work I’ve gone through has been utterly brilliant.  As well as full edits, JFE also offer free sample edits, and I’ve done a few of those too, three of the ones I edited were so fresh and original that I really hope the full manuscripts come in.

Most of what I’ve edited have been children’s or crime fiction, one even a children’s crime novel - that was fun.  As I specialise in writing crime, this has been a somewhat eye opening experience.  Given the wide variety of crime possibilities out there, maybe my sticking to the police procedural and private eye formula is a risk at the formulaic?  Maybe, but I love it, besides all my best characters have arisen from stories where they weren’t even meant to be the main focus.  Still, more on that next time, and I promise to write sooner.

Working Out The Pain

I may not have blogged for a while, but I’ve been writing frantically.   In the last three weeks I’ve produced about six short stories ranging from 1200 to 3000 words, I’ve entered two competition and received a valuable critique from a professional writer/editor who was more than fair in what he said and pointed out that the competition was for crime which usually means whodunit, whereas my story was more of a thriller.  So complete rethink required.  I’ve selected a locked room mystery instead.  Still needs some polishing, but I have until the 14^th for that.

Also I’ve been out and about a bit.  Last weekend, my husband and I had four days up in the Yorkshire Dales, 41 caches and a lot of walking.  On the last full day we were there, we did a 4.5 mile walk around Janet’s Fosse and Malham Cove.  Truly spectacular landscape.  Well worth the visit.  Breath-taking.

No really, certainly took my breath away, but then I probably need to get a lot fitter (probably – ha! – who am I kidding, I definitely need to get a lot fitter).

Anyway, I walked up to Janet’s Fosse, put a 2p in the Fairy Tree, walked up the slope, along to the top of Malham Cove (where Harry and Hermione camped in the last Harry Potter film), the down the hundreds of stone steps to the foot of the Cove.  I’ve had a bad knee for a decade now.  The doctors keep telling me that there’s nothing wrong with it, but for nothing wrong, it can be damn painful, to the point that I use a walking stick to support my weight (yes I admit it – I need to lose weight).  So most of the weekend I’ve been hobbling and leaning on the stick.  The evening before this one, I wasn’t even sure I was going to walk it anyway because of the pain.  But I did.  I took each step one at a time, keeping my bad knee straight on each step down and both feet touched each step.  By the time I was at the bottom of the Cove, I had had enough, I was in pain.  There was however, the distance to cover from the bottom of the Cove to the car park – a least a kilometre.  Thankfully it was all relatively flat and on goo paths.  So I walked it.

This is where it gets weird.

About halfway back to the car, I realised that I wasn’t leaning on the walking stick any more.  Then I realised I wasn’t in pain anymore either.

Later, though my muscles were tight, I had after all just been on an unusually long walk, I wasn’t in pain.  Any pain.  At all.  What’s more, it’s now Friday, and I haven’t had a single twinge all week.  I can walk up stairs without hauling myself up on the banister, I can sit in a chair without leaning on the arms, I can lower myself into the car without falling those last few inches.  It’s great!

I’m so happy and slightly worried.  As good as it is to be pain free again, I’d really like to know why, because if I can walk the pain away, there’s a distinct possibility that one day, I’ll walk it back and that I don’t want.

Anyway this blog is supposed to be about writing, and I did manage to write a short story while I was away, another crime fiction piece, so good weekend all round.

Keeping to the Point

Last time I blogged it was about knowing what the point of what you are writing is. Well since then I have had to restrict my own activities to strictly those where I know the point comes with a deadline.

Because the  day job has been so utterly nutterly busy I've had limited down time and weekend commitments I couldn't drop. So when it comes to writing I've been focusing on the got to get done things.  Unfortunately this has coincided with a period of "couldn't figure out the plot if it jumped up and bit me".

So the weekend just gone I kept my promise to my daughter and took her to see the new Star Trek movie - completely brilliant movie by the way and well worth seeing in 3D. So ended up spending all Sunday at my desk.  There's a competition ends tomorrow that I want to enter and I thought I'd try something new. 1500 - 1700 crime fiction.  

For a start I couldn't concentrate.  Ended up making an analysis of my Amazon sales instead, useful but could have waited. Anyway, I made four different starts to short stories and done of them worked. Then, flash of inspiration figured out the story I wanted to write and did so.

Once I got to this point, which was about six in the afternoon things went much easier.  Still had to work at it, but by eight I had a complete story. 1835 words in need of editing, but I had done what I set out to do.  

So I gave it to my hubby for editing.  When he had done I asked what he thought and got an unenthusiastic "It's okay".

OK, isn't good enough for a competition so that's out the window.  However, he did suggest that I put forward another one I wrote a while back.  All I've got to do now, is check whether or not I've actually submitted it anywhere before.

So that's the point I'm at. That's going to be the point tonight.

What's The Point?

                Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be as depressing as the title suggests, I promise.

                This week I’ve been doing a lot of writing.  Mostly in work, not because I’ve been skiving, far from it.  We’ve had three reports to go to different senior management groups and they all had to be done by Friday.

                The difficulty with the reports was not so much the content, as knowing what the point was.  That sounds a bit odd, the point was, they were going to senior management and so had to be done, but when I was uncertain of why they were going to managers, it was extremely difficult to know how to pitch the paper.  I had to do the drafts, so I did, but it wasn’t easy, then I passed them over to the man to present them and they all got totally re-written.

                I’ve had similar feeling with some of the fiction I’ve been writing too.  I’ve got story ideas, but I’m not sure where they are going, I’m not sure what the point to what I’m writing is.  It makes it very difficult.  I remember undertaking a writing course where it suggest that every story has a plot and a theme.  Plots I don’t have a problem with, themes are much more difficult.  Took me a couple of years to realised that the theme of “Foreshadows” was identity even though it had been in there from the start.  Now I’ve come up with a follow up idea for “Foreshadows”, I know what I want to do with the plot, I’m pretty sure I know what I want to do with the characters, but I have no idea what the theme is.  Still I am only at the conceptual stages with this follow up, not even figured out a working title yet, so there is plenty to time.

                Also on Saturday last, we were supposed to be going to a CITO event, that is Cache In, Trash Out event.  A CITO is where a group of geocachers get together at an agreed location to pick up ‘trash’, kind of self explanatory really.  On Friday, I got on the website to check the details, but found that the event had actually been cancelled due to unexpected and unavoidable work pressures on the organiser.  So what would have been the point in travelling all the way to Cardiff for an event that wasn’t going to happen?

                The theme to this blog has been keeping to the point, the point of this blog was that in writing, fiction or non-fiction, you need to know where you are going, because if you don’t have a destination in mind, you may never get there.