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.......