I was doing so well....

It's a week later and I am ashamed to say I have not moved any further on with the novel. Consequently I am about 20,000 words behind!! What happened? Life!! It all started off so well!!

Neil Gaiman has sent us participants a small pep talk in which he says the feeling of wanting to give up is quite common. That's how novels get written, he says. You write. That's the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I need to go off now and find a word or two...

How much factual information should you put in?

Today I have reached the grand total of 18,377 words. I need another 10,000 by Saturday night to be on track for 50,000 by the end of November!!

Stopped today to think about places and where my characters are going - literally. My question to you (and I have sent it to a number of writing friends) is:
I have been told not to give names to characters who aren’t important as people think they are important if given a name. What about places? In my novel I have a woman who leaves the home she shares with her husband and goes back to her place of birth. This is the village that is important and so I have named it (it does exist!). However, do I need to give the place she has come from a name? I see it as a big city but I have not described it other than her living in a new house on a housing estate. How much detail is needed? Ta

I would never write about someone who is not at the end of his rope. Stanley Elkin

Piece in last Saturdays Times (3rd November 2007) by David Baddiel I suspect…one of the reasons that Dumbledore’s sexuality is not in the books is that it may not have been present to Rowling when she was first writing him. Because most writers do not write with everything all sorted out beforehand. For most authors, writing is an organic process, where they improvise around some basic ideas that eventually coalesce (unite) into a story, like a shape emerging from the fog. Characters, once interacting with others within this process, grow and develop in unexpected ways, and sometimes it’s only at the end of it all – the point where Rowling is now, of course – that the author realizes exactly who they are.

This is something I am beginning to realise. Once you start, the characters themselves take over. An article by Noah T.Lukeman at: http://www.writersstore.com/article.php?articles_id=148 states; Many writers mistake the outer life of a character for the inner life and assume that by offering a physical description and a few surface details they have created a character. A writer’s job is to move beyond your characters physical traits and deep into the depths of who they are. You have the depths of your characters psyche before you and it is your job to plumb them. Authentic characters will have such a rich life of their known that you’ll often find them thwarting your plans; once they are real, living people, they act like real, living people: whimsically and unpredictably. This might mean throwing out much of your original plotting.

I can see my characters and I am living their lives. I just hope to don't have to commit murder for them...

Double Figures!!

Total Word Count stands at: 11,404
That's about 3000 words today; which isn't bad with the interruptions.
I decided to monitor what I did with my time today and this is what happened:
8.30am Out of bed, breakfast, general jobs, check email, blog
9.45am Writing
9.55am (honest!) Mum rings - have I got 5 mins?
10.55am (an hour later!) Writing
11.35am Cat wants feeding, read and recycled weekend papers, dealt with post
12.25pm Lunch, emails, text messages
1.10pm Writing
2.45pm Other half home, catch up
3.25pm Afternoon nap
5.00pm Tea, Computer, emails, blog
Total Writing Time = 2hours and 20minutes.
Off to the gym now to celebrate the double figures!!

Monday Morning....

I need to write quite a bit today and tomorrow in order to catch up.....Trying to get motivated...

Sue Grafton has sent us all an email via NaNoWriMo and she has this to say: For reasons absolutely unknown to Science, many writers begin their novels with a burst of enthusiasm. There's a measurable outpouring of time and energy........This hype, this glorious feeling of Omnipotence sometimes continues unabated until Chapter Two. A little note of doubt may creep into your consciousness. This, I assure you, is not about the merit of the work you've done so far. It's an artifact of your own insecurities. You're probably beginning to wonder what your mother will think of those steamy sexual passages. Perhaps you're suddenly uncertain your immediate family will appreciate your rendition of their annual drunken Christmas antics that result in all those accusations, renunciations, and slamming of doors. You might suspect that your mate might take a dim view of what's visible through the little window you've opened onto your soul.

This is my advice. Disregard the nagging voice piping up from the back of your brain. You aren't stupid. You won't fail. You won't humiliate yourself (that much) in front of all your family and friends. The important point is to keep up your momentum regardless of the fact that you might stumble now and then. Most people you know have never written a novel at all, let alone pounded one out in a jam-packed thirty days. Look at it this way; you're not compelled to show your manuscript to anyone, right? In fact, I'd advise you do the opposite. Keep it under lock and key. Guard it with your life. This is your opportunity to express yourself, safe from the opinions of the dolts around you, who don't know bad literature from good.

Literary quality is in the eye of the beholder and who's to say your novel won't be right up there among the greats? All you have to do is work. All you have to do is push. Focus on the job at hand. Ignore the urge to second-guess yourself. This is not the time for introspection; it's a time for charging on. Believe in yourself. Be determined to keep the promises you made when you first began. Your commitment to do this will see you through, even over rough ground.

So. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and write. You said you would do this so nod your head and say, "I will do this. I will do this. I will do this." And then do this.

So, I am off now to DO IT!!

Interview with a P.I.

What did I learn?

• If someone disappears, think about how much (if any) planning went into it? What precautions were made to prevent detection?
• Investigate those around the missing person – who did they go off with? Did they take as many precautions?
• People will always have a history somewhere – what were they doing 5 years ago?
• Investigations are simply about collecting information; drip, drip, drip, and then fitting the pieces together.
• All investigations go through high and low stages. You think you have found someone and then nothing! Most investigations will reach a dead end at some stage. Stories don’t go in a straight line….
• Often it is the long shots that produce a result!
• The most information comes from simply talking to people. The use of the Internet comes a close second. A P.I. has to be able to gain peoples confidence and trust. People like to gossip. What do people say when they let their guard down?
• Information can easily be elicited from people who don’t realize they are being questioned. How much information do you give away to strangers?
• Perhaps easier to find someone in a rural area rather than a city because of this.
• Knock on doors, knock on neighbours doors, ask about old school friends. Think about reasons to keep in touch. Whom did they confide in?
• Sites such as Friends Reunited, Facebook can provide interesting details.
• The Data Protection Act prevents access to personal records i.e. bank, health, police etc.
• Not everyone is on the Electoral Roll.
• Buy a shredder; preferably a cross cut one!!

What a Day!!

No, I haven't broken the double figures mark yet, but I have completed my first 'interview' for writing research. I recently sent an email to my writing buddies asking for any help re: missing persons i.e. how to find them. For reasons of National Security I shall not be naming names, but I was lucky enough to meet up with a real-life Private Investigator yesterday. As the person who set up this little meeting was also an ex-police officer with a wide range of experience, the couple of hours I spent with them yesterday was invaluable. Only drawback now is that my head is spinning with so many ideas as to where to take my story....and then there was a power cut last night just as I sat down at my laptop!!

Why, when you sit down to what you hope will be a nice 3000 words, does the phone not stop ringing?

Tuesdays Target was 9996 words.
Actual amount written in 3 hours (with 4 interuptions) was 7366 words.
But I also did some preparation for Wednesday mornings interview…

Bonfire Party 2007

Sunday morning I was up early and off to the shops to get some extra stuff for our little party Sunday evening. Came back and was all alone, the shopping had been done, the house was ready for the party, and so I sat down and started to plan out a plot structure and the order of events in the novel. And then it happened. I simply dived in and just went for it!!

All the preparation and planning, that I had been panicking about not doing, actually went out of the window, and I simply began to write. Ideas came to me as I typed (still with a sore finger) and I just went with them.

All this time I think I had been waiting for someone to push me in.
Perhaps I was scared of starting the challenge; of starting something so large, scared of writing something terrible, scared of what others might think. But I have told so many people; in the flesh, via my blog and FaceBook, it will be embarassing if I don’t complete the challenge.
But I have started now and I don’t intend to stop until have reached the magic 50,000.

OK, so I did not complete the necessary 6664 word count for Sunday evening, but it is a start. I actually wrote 2088words between 12 noon and 3.30pm (3 and a half hours = 2000 words). This consisted of 2 full pages. I only stopped when my guests began to arrive…

Bring it on!!

PS The party was Fab!! We didn't invite as many as last year, but I am a firm believer in Quality Not Quantity.....(and that will probably be my major stumbling block with the NaNoWrite Challenge!)

The Real Sin....

Finally, for tonight, something for me to focus on in the morning (when my finger feels more like typing) There is nothing wrong with failure. The real sin is not trying…

Vivid Verbs

Think about the effect you want to have on your reader. You create a mood by what you focus on i.e. dead flower heads in the killer’s garden. Strong vivid verbs are a must i.e. crack, straddle, slice, discard, shoots etc.

Show characters experiencing the external world and use specific examples. Instead of ‘it was very windy’, the information will be more vivid if you have the wind blow a leaf into a characters face. Not ‘He was fat’ but The mans shirt stretched across his belly. She could see the folds of his stomach. This is implicit. There is a picture here, an image.

Avoid passive verbs and tenses; was, got, make, went, were, is, are, am etc. He watched is more forceful than ‘he was watching’. He frowned is better than ‘he looked annoyed’. The dog barked is direct. Take out any ‘there was’ and ‘there are’. Adverbs (ly) can be made redundant if the verb chosen is accurate and powerful ‘she stopped suddenly’. Without the adverb the sentence is more abrupt she stopped. Don’t start sentences with as, then, just then, because. These tell rather than show!

Say Corgi not dog, Crocus not flower. Don’t allow this, that, these and those to stand alone. Check for quantifiers – words like often, very, some, many – replace these with something more accurate. Also replace ‘as if’ and ‘seemed’.

Show don’t tell - Hints and Tips

Remember the golden rule of Show Don't Tell. The best way to demonstrate this is to show you: Instead of ‘she was a tomboy’, how about; she was the only girl who always had a sticking plaster on her knees.

Or how about when describing emotions; That night, lying in her damp sheets, she listened to her heart. Across the room his face stared out of the photograph that seemed already to be yellowing. She stared into the dark, imaging she could see dust gathering on the frame. He was gone.

Use strong, accessible, specific images to invite your readers into the characters world. Experience what the character experiences: He watched the last red strand of sky fade to dark. “That’s that,” his mother said. Then his heart broke.

Phrases like ‘Henry was overcome with grief’ cannot by themselves tell the tale. You need the characters bodies; arms, eyelids, knees, to fully convey to the readers that the character is a human being who is suffering or savouring or fleeing or fuming. Good fiction is about human interaction, and human interaction takes place in the realm of emotion. Let your characters hearts break, let their laughter ripple, let their shame consume them.

Bonfire Night

Hope everyone is having a fantastic night! I am at home looking after a scaredy cat who does not like the loud noises. The other half is playing a gig (www.7dw.co.uk/) in Birmingham with an audience of celebrities (members of James Blunt's band).

The challenge tonight was to get on top of the Novel Writing Challenge but what has happened? Not a lot!! Firstly, I am trying to type and no word of a lie it is very painful, as I have snagged my nail and the side of my finger is red raw. Having a plaster on only seems to make matters worse but not having it onI keep catching it on stuff! The plan was to have written 6664 words by tomorrow but I can’t see it happening…. I know, 'whatever happened to No Excuse?'

The Angst of Hero Naming

The tale of a hero beyond compare,
With flashing eyes and perfect hair.
Flawless words flowed from my head --
Until I reached that first damned said.
Now the true strife begins at last
As floundering in a sea of names, I'm cast.
Rosebud and Cloud are far too cute,
And he's no Bob, beyond dispute
Corwin? Hilton? Lane or Bard?
Naming a kid couldn't be half this hard!
A couple dozen names go by,
(My hero gives me the evil eye)
I search the shelves for baby name books
(Kept hidden to avoid occasional odd looks)
With frantic haste I start paging through,
No, no --Androcles will never do!
No Mac or Mark or Michael here
Such names are too plain, I fear.
Nicholas has a nice sound it's true --
But I've used it in a book or two.
So to stranger, archaic lists I turn
No he's absolutely not a Vern!
Trying to keep plot lines in my head -
Would what's-her-name take a Loki to bed?
Hours of writing time frittered away
That can't be the dawn of a new day!
I sit and curse that first damned said --
Oh the hell with it! I'll call him Fred.

From: NaNo for the New and the Insane: A guide to surviving NaNoWriMo by Lazette Gifford
http://www.lazette.net/Free%20Stuff/NaNoBook.pdf

November 2nd

It has started then.
Yesterday....
Nothing uploaded from me to the website yet.
Watch this space.......