NaNoWriMo and Second Breakfasts...

I didn't want to go to my day job today. Not because I don't enjoy it, but because I had Friday off and. It. Was. Amazing.

I mentioned last week that I booked some time off in November to do some writing specifically for NaNoWriMo, and Friday was one of those days.

I was so happy when I woke up on Friday morning to a clear sunrise - I don't know why, but if it's sunny outside, I feel like anything is possible. Sunshine definitely has a positive effect on my mood.

My first stop of the day was my local Starbucks - I'm aware this isn't exactly supporting small businesses but it had free parking and I knew it would (probably) have decent wifi. I ordered a hot drink and a chocolate swirl to 'keep me going' (I have a confession to make - this was actually my second breakfast of the day, but I felt like I had to order something so I wouldn't feel guilty about being there!)

The breakfast of champions writers! Don't ask what's happening with the cream

I stayed there all morning, before deciding to find somewhere new to have lunch and start my afternoon writing session - not that there was anything wrong with Starbucks, but personally I think it can be quite expensive and I wasn't prepared to pay through the nose just for a sandwich. So I went to the cafe I worked at for a couple of weeks earlier this summer, before I got my marketing job. It was lovely to see everyone again, and the upside of going somewhere I've worked before meant that I knew exactly where the radiators and plug sockets were.

Chicken burger and chips for lunch - fuel for the afternoon!

The only downside was that the wifi didn't appear to be working properly. It wasn't a huge issue, as I was only using it to listen to music and I had music on my phone - but I'm finding more and more that I can only get into a really good writing groove if I plug my headphones in and shut the world out. After a few hours though, it was becoming obvious to me that I wasn't get as much work done. Music plays a huge part in my writing and I felt that because I didn't have the right songs on, I was getting restless and not really concentrating. So I went home early, put the fire on, made cup of tea and finished my writing session at home.

Fell views on the way home - winter is definitely coming

In total, I wrote 10,000 words on Friday. That's a huge achievement considering I hadn't written anything for about a week. I was planning on writing 5,000 words each on Saturday and Sunday too, but on Saturday I had to help out on the family farm for most of the day and Sunday just seemed to pass in a blur. I wrote another 4,000 words altogether, which is still pretty good - I'm well below the official NaNoWriMo word count for this time of the month, but I'm happy. So long as I keep writing every day, I'll get there in the end.


I have another two days booked off right at the end of November and I'm already counting down the days - I had such a good time just being a writer and doing what I love to do, that I can't wait for next time! Next time though, I know to stay somewhere with decent wifi and not switch workspaces halfway through the day - it breaks my concentration too much!

Have you ever taken time off work specifically to write? Do you like to write in cafes or at home? Do you listen to music while you write?

It's time for NaNoWriMo!

In just over a week, aspiring (and established) authors from all around the world will unite and attempt to complete the daunting task of writing 50,000 words in one month. No, we haven't all been taking crazy pills (hmm...debatable), it's that time of year again - it's NaNoWriMo!

For those of you who may not know, NaNoWriMo is a "fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000 word novel by 11.59pm on November 30."

I've attempted to complete NaNoWriMo twice before; the first year, (in 2012) I only wrote about 100 words, the second year (2013) I wrote a grand total of 39,000 words - although I didn't realise you could add on words from different projects, so really, the finish total was more like 45,000.

I kinda forgot about NaNoWriMo for most of this year - with the wedding, moving house, starting a new job etc, I just didn't consider it. But now that things are kind of calming down (LOL), I thought, 'why not?' I've already thrown out the rulebook with my current WIP - why not try and move it on a bit by writing 50,000 more words? I have no plan for this WIP, just the background notes and random scene ideas I've already written, but as I'm attempting to write the first draft of this novel without a plan, I'm not too worried (yet).

So there you go - from November 1st, I will be participating in the craziness that is NaNoWriMo. The Engineer has been informed, I'm booking the days off work today (not the whole month, unfortunately, but a few days here and there), and I'm actually super excited to have an uninterrupted excuse to work on my novel. Let the writing begin!

Oh, and if you need a buddy to rant/cry/commiserate/bounce idea off of - my username is REPattinson1. See you there!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, have you got a plan, or are you a 'pantser'? If you're not participating, what are you planning on doing in November?

Three writing updates

Hey everyone, hope you all had a lovely weekend! It's Monday, it's cold, it's rainy and so I thought I'd just share a couple of updates with my writing that happened over the weekend:

• I'm still working on my social media content posts. I've managed to write about half of my notes up for work, but once I'm done, I'm going to have then decide how to present them on my blog. I think there's a better way than me just randomly writing down what happened during the day, but I need a bit of time to figure all that out. So although I was planning on having my first post out wither tomorrow or Wednesday, it might actually be closer to the end of the week (if not next week).

• Over the weekend I managed to write 1,600 words of my current WIP. It's not the sequel to Synthetica unfortunately - it's my 'throw-all-the-rules-out-of-the-window' WIP. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying writing this book. Having no rules when it comes to writing is actually incredibly liberating!

• I didn't get quite as much writing done as I would've liked over the weekend, as me and the Engineer ended up having a long hard look on Sunday at what we want out of life. He wants to start his own business and I want to make a career as an author (so essentially, we both want to work for ourselves). On Sunday we started to put our ideas into practice by, not only making a plan of what we want to achieve over the next few years, but by actually starting the process of implementing what was in our plan. It was incredibly exciting, and enthusiasm for our ideas is essentially what got me through work today. So although I didn't end up working on my WIP on Sunday, I did get to create and write content for the Engineer's business, which is still writing at the end of the day, and that's what I adore doing (and will still look good on a portfolio!).

So that's it for now - hopefully I'll be back later on in the week with the first of my social media content posts, but as I'm also trying to dedicate more time to my writing, don't be surprised if it ends up being next week instead.

Have a great week!

What did you get up to this weekend? How is your writing going? Have you ever sat down and written a plan to achieve your goals in life?

Cake and the A to Z Challenge 2016

How is it Monday again already? Does anyone else feel like someone sets the clocks to run extra fast on a weekend, then slows them right down again for Monday?

Anyway, this weekend the Engineer and I went into the city on Saturday - he bought a load of stuff for trip to Sweden for the WRC in February, and I treated myself to some decent make-up (hello MAC, where have you been all my life??). We went out for lunch, and then we headed home before going to see The Hateful Eight on Saturday night. It was so lovely to spend time with the Engineer that's more than a few hours at night - it felt like we were in uni again with all the time in the world!

On Sunday though, the Engineer once again abandoned me for his cars. I didn't mind though - I used the time to break through the 30,000 word mark on my current WIP. For some reason, this number gives me great satisfaction - it's like it's starting to become an actual novel instead of just a random collection of scenes (which if I'm honest, that's actually all it is right now) - it feels like the book is finally starting to have a shape. This is the first full length novel I'm trying to write without an outline. I have loads of ideas for scenes and chapters, and how they'll vaguely fit together, but I have no detailed synopsis. Which in a way is great, but equally, I do occasionally find myself wondering how all these loose ends are going to tie up.

So to celebrate, I made some buns. I'd post a photo, but I deliberately didn't decorate them very well because I was too eager to start eating. But yeah, that's basically my reward for any time I accomplish something to do with writing - I eat cake :).

In other news, the A to Z Challenge 2016 sign up list is now live! If you'd like to find out more about this awesome challenge, you can find out more on their website here. I took part last year, and I'm definitely signing up again this year. I've already got a possible theme, but I'll let it germinate for a bit, before deciding whether or not to commit to it.

So that's it for today! I'm going to leave you with this wonderful quote my boss sent me over the weekend. Even though it doesn't really have anything to do with writing, I love love love it!

What do you do to celebrate when you reach a goal in your writing? What did you get up to this weekend? Are you participating in the A to Z Challenge this year?

Bitten by the writing bug...

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen over the weekend I was struck by inspiration for a certain scene while I was taking a shower (what is it about showers and being hit with inspiration to write?? Is it because you can't physically get to a computer/pen and paper??). I wasn't planning on doing much writing over the weekend as I wasn't feeling my best, but I thought I might as well write it down and see what happened.

All I can say is wow.

I don't know what's been going on in my subconscious brain, but once I wrote that scene I just couldn't stop. All weekend I've been thinking about this particular character and his story. I've been mapping out his world, other major characters have popped into my head (almost) fully formed, and incredibly, I already know how I want the story to end. I spent most of my free time on Sunday doing research into the kind of world I want to set this story in and making up names for the different places. It was insane.

Last night I couldn't sleep - mainly because I was too warm (there's something I never thought I'd say in December), but also because this character literally wouldn't get out of my brain. So I started writing - again. My laptop wasn't to hand so I wrote out another scene on my phone, as well as making as many notes as I could, while my brain fired them off at me almost too fast for me to process. I finally had to stop - I thought I was being all quiet and covert, until the Engineer rolled over and wanted to know what I was doing as the light my my phone was keeping him awake. So I grudgingly had to call it a day. But all day at work today I've been looking at the clock, itching to come home so I can get writing again.

I don't have a proper outline for this novel. I don't even have any kind of plan. If you've been following my blog, you'll know how unusual this is for me, but I can't explain it - having no plan just feels...right. I don't know all the ins and outs of this story yet, but the excitement I get when I think about discovering more about this world is just amazing. All I'm planning to do is write whatever scenes pop into my head and just roll with it. In fact, I might even draw a map of this new world tonight, which again, is something I've never done before but I'm so excited to try out. Luckily, the Engineer is away on business until Thursday, so this week I'm literally just planning on writing as much of this story as I can, while this inspiration and enthusiasm lasts.

At this moment, I don't even know if I'm going to turn this into a full novel. I might get halfway through and realise it's not working, or that I've run out of steam. But strangely, this doesn't make me want to stop. If anything, I want to write more. Because even if this ends up being nothing, I'll still be a better writer than I was before I started writing it - after all, practice makes perfect! And there's something incredibly liberating about writing simply for yourself - it's like there are no limitations on what I can or can't write, because at this moment in time, I'm not planning on sharing it with anyone.

So that's my news - I've got my tea and my cake and I'm off to write until I can't prop my eyes open anymore (which may be sooner than I'd like, as I barely got any sleep last night). But despite how tired I am, I still can't wait to get going!

Hope you're all having a good Monday!

Have you been bitten by the writing bug recently? Have you ever thought of a story that you simply HAD to write right then and there? How's your writing going this week?

Small victories...

It's been a little while since I last posted - the Engineer and I went away last weekend to see some old uni friends, and then I've just felt pretty bogged down with work and one thing and another. But I'm back now, feeling refreshed and ready to go!

And I have some good news! I did read all your comments on my IWSG post, and firstly, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who stopped by and commented. You all inspired me to stop moaning/procrastinating and actually get on with what I'm here to do - write. So on Thursday night I finally started working on the sequel to Synthetica - I'd made a detailed synopsis some time ago, but I hadn't actually got around to writing a word of the actual manuscript. 

And oh my, was I in for a shock.

I think I've actually completely blanked out how difficult it is to write those first few pages of a manuscript. Seriously, it felt like I was pulling teeth. I just wanted to cry and scream and break something. You want to know how many words I managed to write? 281. I'm truly not exaggerating when I say how awful those 281 words were. They were appalling. If you read it, you wouldn't think I was capable of even speaking English, let alone writing it.

But you know what? It didn't stop me. On Saturday, I got up, had breakfast, wandered around for a bit and then sat and wrote most of the day. On Sunday, I repeated Saturday's routine (with an impromptu trip food shop thrown in).

This weekend I managed to clock up a total of 5127 words. When I look back over what I've written I think I can pretty much break it down into chunks like this: around 3000 of those words will ultimately be cut because they make zero sense, 1000 words will be chopped and changed into some kind of coherent order, 800 words can be kept outright (because they're basically essential words such as 'said', 'he', 'Anais' and 'and') and hiding amongst all the crap, there might be 200 words/phrases if I'm lucky that I'll keep because they're actually telling the story I want to be told.

Does it make me feel disheartened when I realise that most of my weekend's effort won't survive the final cut (however far away that may be)? Not at all. If anything, I'm happy that I actually have something to work with now - instead of staring at a blank page, I can remodel, cut and paste or rewrite my novel altogether, until what's on the page finally reflects the book that's in my head. After all, it's only through trial and error that we can really see what it is we truly want out of our writing.

So that's my news. Book 2 is coming on slowly but surely and right now, I'm super happy about that. Also, I've discovered that I've now lost a stone since the summer, so I went on a small shopping trip after work tonight and I was delighted to find that I can now just about shoehorn myself into a size smaller than I was :). A small thing, but nonetheless an achievement for me :).

Happy Monday, folks!

How's your writing going? Do you find first drafts strangely torturous to write too?

 

Sunday night inspirations...

This weekend has been a bit crazy - for once, I've actually been participating in real life, meaning that although I've barely had the time to write, I feel kinda happy and satisfied at the thought that I've hung out with other human beings (y'know, apart from the ones in my head...). I went to a christening, had a catch up with the Engineer and his sisters, went to the cinema and went out for a meal. Phew!

Oh, and seeing as how the Engineer works ALL THE TIME, he dragged me into his office yesterday afternoon so he could finish something off. He did try to persuade me that this was a good thing, as I could work on my novel uninterrupted for a few hours. "That's all well and good," I grumbled, "but what if I don't WANT to work on my novel? In case you haven't noticed, my muse has TOTALLY AND UTTERLY DESERTED ME!"

I still went (because I'm sucker when it comes to promises of a mocha and chocolate). And you know what? Even though I didn't touch a word on my manuscript, it was a surprisingly productive evening.

I finally pulled together all my scattered notes on the second and third books in my planned trilogy. I added in details to those notes. I made folders for each book on my laptop (this always gives me a geeky rush). I started to get flashes of inspiration for certain scenes in both my current WIP, and the second book which I hurriedly scribbled down. I thought of a vague plot for the third book (which I've been drawing a complete blank on, until now) And finally, finally, I felt myself getting excited about the world that I'd built once again.

And that's not all. I think I may have found a way to drag myself through my rewrites. I knew I wasn't getting anywhere by just opening up my manuscript, copying and pasting a chapter, editing it and then pasting it back in. It still felt like an overwhelming task, even with my beat sheet. So I thought, what was it that got me through my first draft? What did I do this time, that meant I actually finished the damn thing? And that's when it came to me - I needed a new detailed synopsis.

Now, I know this probably seems like a step backwards, but I don't think it will be. I'm not going to do one for my entire novel (at least, not yet). Instead, I'm just going to do it up until my 'inciting incident'. I've chosen to do this because it's the beginning of my novel that needs the most attention - it's the part that I'm essentially going to rip apart and put back together again. To me, this is far to big a task to do with just a few scrawls on my beat sheet. 

We'll see how it goes. I've only just written the first scene for my new detailed synopsis, but already I'm getting a good feeling and what's more, I want to keep writing. I'll let you know how it goes but hey, even if this just turns out to be another form of procrastination - at least it's bound to help my writing in one way or another.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Just a little post to say...

...Thank you :).

I was truly overwhelmed by the comments I received on my IWSG post this month. 

In all honesty, I haven't felt this insecure/downbeat about my writing/novel in a long long time, and the messages of support I received really opened my eyes again to what's good about the world of writing. It made me remember why I'm so determined to do this as a career and why I love writing, despite it's many pitfalls. It also made me realise that I belong to a fantastic community of lovely encouraging authors, and despite all the insecurities I feel about my own writing, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

So to all of you who commented or read my post on Wednesday, thank you :). I wasn't lying when I said all your comments inspired me to keep going. For example, today I completely finished my beat sheet:

All the scenes in my novel are now annotated and ready to rock 'n' roll for my rewrites.

Have I got a huge job ahead of me? Hell yeah.

You see that first page? There's a massive red bit that says CUT THIS!!! with lots of red arrows and scribbled notes. Essentially, I have to rewrite/chop/move around a good third of my novel. 

Do I mind? Strangely enough, today I feel as though this task isn't impossible. I feel as though I can do it, and I will do it - all it takes is a little determination.

And thanks to all of you, I've got my determination and willpower back. I may not reach my original deadline of completely finishing this novel, but I'm going to damn well try.

Whether you're writing, or taking a break and doing something completely different over the next few days, I hope you're all having a lovely weekend :).

Blank page, blank mind

So you may have noticed (or not, depending on how much my blog interests you) that I've been away for a little while.

I finished the very first draft of my novel in August and, as much as I wanted to dive straight back in again, I've been forcing myself to take a step back. It's been pretty much a month to the day that I finished that draft and during that time, I've barely done anything writerly at all - including blogging.

I just wanted to take a complete break from everything - my novel, my blog, authonomy - and at first it felt fantastic. Reading all day, baking, bingeing on TV shows online, playing the sims (not to mention going back to my day job) - ahh, that was the life for me. But over the past few weeks...I just haven't been feeling it. I've been picking up books, reading a page then dropping them again. I've been firing up the sims, only to stare blankly at the screen, wondering what the hell I'm doing. I've been feeling...restless.

As soon as I finished Synthetica, I wanted to begin work on the sequel while it was all fresh in my mind. However, in the end I forced myself not to, and I tried to work on a completely new idea instead. But as soon as I wrote down my initial thoughts, I panicked, managed to convince myself that I'm not a writer and that I shouldn't even attempt to try and write anything new (that would've made a great depressing IWSG post).

It was only this weekend that I finally snapped.

I am not good at doing nothing (reading doesn't count as nothing btw). I'm happiest when I'm busy. And so, on Sunday I began to write down an outline for my new novel, telling myself that I could do all this (i.e. planning/writing a novel from scratch) again. And to my surprise, it didn't go quite as badly as I thought it would. Scenes began to pop in my brain as I idly wrote about possible settings, new characters forced their way out of the woodwork, and by Sunday night...I couldn't wait to get started properly.

Ideally, I'd like to get the detailed synopsis done for this new WIP before I start the edits on Synthetica but as I was going to start working on Synthetica this week, somehow I don't think that's going to happen. So we'll see how it goes. But most of all, I'm simply going to remember to not stress out and just have fun with whatever it is I'm writing :).

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

IT'S DONE!!!

So that's it. The first draft of my novel is officially complete. Right now, I kinda feel like this:




I still can't believe it's true. In fact, at the moment, I'm still going through my manuscript tweaking bits here and there. I know I shouldn't, I know I should leave it for the edits but I've been working on this book so intensely for the last few weeks, I find it odd that I can finally...switch off.

I do apologise if I keep going on about this - but the fact is, apart from finishing my major project at uni, this is probably the biggest thing I've ever worked on and finished (well, apart from all the editing etc that now needs to happen...but let's not think about that yet...).

Tomorrow, I'm going to celebrate by dying my hair and baking a really really awesome cake. Hopefully it'll turn out like this one, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I'm going to have to physically stop myself from looking at my book for a while now - this book has inhabited my mind so long, it's going to be strange not thinking about it every day. Although, I do need to write a sequel...does it defeat the purpose of getting the book 'out of your mind' if I start working on other books in the series...? Hmm...

And when I get back from my break, I have gems like this to edit and clean up:

"She was trying to go as fast as she could, but the sheer amount of people meant she was forced to go slower."

I know, I know - my literary prowess astounds me too.

Anyway. It's getting late (for me). I'm tired. I have been writing solidly for the last twelve hours. I am genuinely losing the ability to type coherent words (I just looked over this post and realised I wrote 'I no' instead of 'I know').

So until next time, happy writing and have an awesome bank holiday weekend, folks!

July IWSG: Procrastination station

Welcome to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group!

IWSG was set up by the fantastic Alex J. Cavanaugh (you can view his blog here) and the group now was it's own awesome website here. Go and check them both out, now! Or y'know, once you've finished here ;)

I know, I know, I'm a day early, but if I thought that if I posted now, I'd have time to actually take a look around all the other brilliant writing blogs out there tomorrow, and offer some encouragement to all you other lovely writers!

I don't actually have anything specific to blog about this month, but I thought I'd share something interesting I've discovered about myself this month anyway.

So, for the past few weeks I've been working on my novel idea, and I'm pretty excited about this one. For once, I don't find it hard to write – I'm simply enjoying the process of writing it. But I have noticed one thing – if for whatever reason, I don't get to work on it for a day or two, I do find it much harder to get back into the swing of writing when I do open it back up again. I procrastinate like crazy...and yet, when I do finally get to work on it again, I don't want to stop!

I guess it's like any hobby you do – when I started learning guitar, I remember my guitar teacher telling me to keep my guitar out somewhere where I'd see it, so I'd pick it up, and practice more. At first, I didn't believe him but I soon learnt that, actually, it was true – if my guitar was out on display, I was much more likely to pick up and strum away than if I'd had to get it out of it's case every day.

And I think the same applies for my novel. So instead of just having it on my computer, and procrastinating whenever I think about loading it up, this month I'm going to be thinking of ways to keep it 'out in the open' – whether that's blogging more about my progress, never shutting down my computer, starting a notebook with all my notes about the novel in (this is actually my first novel that I haven't done this for), or just listening to music and thinking about ideas for the next scene – I'm determined to keep this novel visible, so I don't forget about it, even for a day.

How about you? How do you keep writing instead of procrastinating? And I'd love to hear if any of you are working on something that you're so enthusiastic about too :)!

Happy writing!