Today is the first day of NaNo… but first I need to say sorry to my bloggy friends ((you mean me and your mum, as no-one else really cares what you’re doing)) I was struggling to find the time to blog due to work and other things getting in the way, hence I didn’t get chance to update my blog last month. I applaud people that seem to be able to find the time to fit in writing/self-publishing/blogging /a busy social life whilst holding down a full-time job. ((wait a minute while I fix my violin string – it’s costing me a fortune to replace these. Any chance you can give over whinging…)) I won’t moan about it too much ((Hurrah!! You’ve about stopped writing due to being ‘too busy’ so I have nothing to entertain me in cyber world. I just hang about reading the same old dross you’ve written before. I want to know what happened to the dragons!))
Well I have a bit of an update about writing projects and life in general ((Oh God it’s going to be an epic War and Peace blog… wait for it. Settle yourself down, you just might leave this mornings blog with a numb ass!)) So, as happens in the working life of temping, I was expecting to stay in a job full-time until xmas, but my contract ended due to there not being enough hours available to make it worth my while staying. I do have a new job starting in January – fingers crossed, which is massively exciting. ((come on tell all!)) Sorry Brackets sort of top secret for now! So, I’ve done some calculations and plan to try and stay off work and focus on my writing for November, and possibly sneak in a few weeks temping in December ((please can you get to the point! I’m not your accountant you know!! I’m here for the writing stuff, not how many glasses of prosecco you’ve calculated you can afford on your spreadsheets!))
Okay Brackets calm yourself; I’m getting to it…
The exciting news is that I received my author proofs of my Christmas Novella this week! Now I need to do a few tweaks to the cover and have a final read through before making it available to the world. At one point I didn’t think I would get this finished in time. I wrote the story in January and thought I’d finished it in good time to get it published, but then life happened and I’m sure someone stole some of my time. This leads me onto NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month for those that haven’t heard of it. The idea is to write 50,000 words in a month. I’ve decided I’m going to split my word count to get some of my projects finished rather than just work on one novel.
These are my goals for NaNo…
18,000 Young adult fantasy novel – ((YESSSSSSS! The dragons are back!))
2,000 Collaborative supernatural short story with my writing group
20,000 Christmas Story for November 2020
10,000 Sci-fi – this is a new project which keeps sneaking its way to the front of my mind, so going to give this a go and see what happens.
At the end of November, the stories will be finished apart from the editing of course. Doing NaNo will be a great start for my writing goals into the new year and get me back into the habit of writing everyday – which I have really missed.
I’ve never done NaNo before, but from the bits and bobs I’ve read it’s important to be prepared. I’ve planned out exactly what I want to work on as I will need to read my ‘in progress’ works before I add to them, so that will take a bit of time away from the writing and hitting the word count… luckily, once I know where I’m going with a story the words come pretty easy. ((show off)) The rough word count is 1,666 per day – I average about 1k an hour when I’m in the flow. I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting stuck back into writing. ((you’ve actually already told us… sorry folks she’s getting to that age where she forgets everything. It’s called Peri-Merry – something to do with her Prosecco levels being out of kilter))
I haven’t completely abandoned making ‘stuff’ up, but it has been a real struggle to get the words down on the screen. Even when not writing, the ideas are still coming and I’ve attended a couple of creative writing sessions, and some author events which all help build the skills needed to hopefully write a bloody good story. At my writing group we had a workshop run by Alex Davis talking about the different routes a writer can take; self-publishing, small press or mainstream large publisher and within that we talked about the responsibility of a writer having a social media presence, doing talks etc which all takes up time and when you work full-time, and have a busy life something has to give.
Right that’s it from me. I need to crack on with my first day of NaNo – good luck if you’re starting today. Say hello on here or twitter if you fancy joining me and want to have some sprint writing sessions. The December blog will be about my first experience of NaNo, and hopefully a successful Christmas Novella book launch mid-November! Keep your eyes peeled on twitter for the link to my new book. ((I would say I’m excited, but it’s not the dragon story. Although Grandma is a bit of a hoot in your Christmas Story – she and I would get on well. Anyway, never mind all that – just make sure you finish the dragon story… will they make it? Will the other characters find the dragons… will they save the dragons? I’m so excited. Never mind your psychological thrillers, can you get this one published ASAP, and also get the next one in the series written???))
Brackets you sound like my mum…
P.S – don’t say I don’t look after you Brackets, the picture I’ve added is of your new virtual home – soon to be decorated with lots of stationery and notebooks.
((OMG I love it!! I take back everything I ever said about you… You can write a good story. You don’t talk rubbish most of the time and people really do like reading your stuff. Can I have a mini Christmas tree???…))
C.L. Peache 