NaNo Update – (Nearly) end of week 2!

I know it’s not quite the end of week 2 yet, but I figured a pre-emptive one was called for because I’m very proud – I reached 50,000 words today. This means I’m well on target for hitting 100k by the end of the month if I keep it up, which would be great. Then December starts and it’s editing time!

I’m quite impressed with myself, especially considering I had an assessment last week and I’m fairly confident with how I did. I thought this’d be the year I struggled with NaNo, but I think the combination of plenty of time to myself to write without distractions, and the bonus of having a story I absolutely love writing and keep coming up with new ideas for really has helped. I am loving everything about my novel so far; I’m well aware it’s only the bare bones and I have a lot of work to do, chopping and cutting and adding a lot of stuff in to flesh it out and make it more realistic, but I really am feeling confident about it. This could become the novel I work on for a good six months, if not more, but it’ll be worth all the time and effort because of just how great I feel. I love my characters, the majority are three-dimensional from what I can tell and I’m working on fleshing out those who need it, and I know what happens – I just need to write it and piece it all together now.

So, hopefully by next week I’ll be at 75k, if not higher, and ready for the final push towards 100k. I know it’s a case of quality rather than quantity, and at the moment my raw, naked novel has plenty of the former but little of the latter, but I know that with a bit of spit and polish in December, I could have a really great novel on my hands!

 

Happy novelling,

Maddy x

Let The NaNoveling Commence!

Yes, this year, for the third year running, I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo. For those who don’t know, it stands for National Novel Writing Month – every November, hundreds of thousands of (crazy) people all over the world try to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Some set their targets even higher, others don’t mind how high they get – they just like the support the NaNo forums and community offers.

This year I’m taking a break from the norm and writing fanfiction, based on Christopher Maine’s “Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet” series. I’ve never tried to write a fanfiction novel before, usually just settling for one-shots or a small number of chapters making up a short story, but this year I’m going the whole hog and trying to write 50,000 words worth of fanfiction.

Want to get involved in NaNo too? Go to www.nanowrimo.org and sign up! Also, if you’re looking for a writing buddy, here’s me – http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/maddiemcmoomin

Writing Update

As promised, here is the writing update. I didn’t think I’d have much time to get writing done on holiday – and I was right! – but I managed to seize some time here and there, particularly in the evenings when we were winding down, to get some work done on my new zombie novel. It’s going really well and I’m enjoying it a lot – it’s quite fun to write and I’m looking forwards to the gory descriptions of the zombies once they make their proper entrance into the story! I hope this one won’t fail miserably – the last one reached the end of the second book and stalled before I could start the third, which is further than I’ve ever got before but maybe I was aiming a bit high by trying to do a trilogy straight off the bat; this is a stand-alone story which may spawn a few spin-offs but not a series.

That was just a quick update!

OI.

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’d love it if all you lovely lovely peoples could check out Christopher Maine. You may not have heard about him (I don’t think I’ve EVER mentioned him on my blog before, and especially not billions and billions of times  😛 ) but he’s a great up and coming author and he’s always been supportive of me, so time to return some of that support by asking you all to buy his book –

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Flight-Renegade-Tales-ebook/dp/B007B3CZF2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336834861&sr=8-1

Follow his blog –

http://www.christophermaine.wordpress.com

And follow him on Twitter!

@CMaine_Official

Something very exciting is coming within the next month, but you’ll have to follow his Twitter and blog to find out what and when!

(By the way, sorry for being so rude in the title, but I had to get your attention somehow! 😉 )

I think I’m getting my spark back!

Yes – it appears that, finally, I AM GETTING BETTER! The tell-tale signs are that I was well enough to get angry over something that really annoyed me today, well enough to conclude that the subject of my anger is too pathetic to warrant me wasting energy getting angry over them, and I sang a little bit! I’m not back to my usual half an hour singing sessions, but I’ve been singing along to adverts and doing my thing of randomly singing sentences instead of saying them (sometimes even I have to conclude that words get boring and need a little bit of jazzing up), so baby steps but good baby steps. I went to college and actually got some work done (although I’m not impressed with the pain relief side of these new painkillers, they’re certainly not knocking me out and turning me into a giggling sleeping crying mess like the old ones) and I feel quite bright today 🙂

So, that’s all good. It also means that I can hopefully soon make a start on training for the Sponsored Walk in June (PSSSSST, sponsor us please!). I wouldn’t have thought a 10km walk would need training for as it’s not too much, but having been ill, it’d probably be best for me to get a bit of exercize in first, and I could do with getting fit anyway. As soon as we have a lovely day, I want to get out for a walk – it feels like ages since I just went for a walk (probably because it has been ages!). The ballot applications opened for London Marathon 2013 opened today, but I think that might be just a tad ambitious for me at the moment. I’m going to keep 2014 in my sights – not sure who I’d do it to raise money for, because there’s so many charities that I feel an affinity for, but I suppose I have time to think of that if I’m aiming for 2014 at the earliest 😉

So yeah. It’s still all quiet on the writing front, but that’ll come too in time. However, I had a dream last night, and that is a dangerous thing. My current novels started off as a dream, which somehow morphed into a trilogy of books which I am now struggling to complete (although that isn’t because it was sparked by a dream, that’s because I have a pathetic immune system and am easily felled by a measly kidney infection. Please note the sarcasm; there was nothing measly about it!). BUT, I am going to write this dream down – it’s given me an idea which I like a lot, and although nothing is very clear about it at the moment – as in, I have a tiny ounce of a general theme with no plot and certainly no characters, title or anything resembling a novel – but, once this novel is over, should I decide to punish myself again by setting off on a literary adventure, I think I might have my basic plot idea.

Although I usually hate it, sometimes having such vivid dreams can be a very good thing!

One of those days.

WARNING – This blog may contain extreme pessimism and the tell-tale signs of a fed-up writer.

I really am just having one of those days today. There’s so much I know I could be doing, and yet I have no motivation to do any of it. I could be revising, but that would mean moving, and I’ve only just found a position I can sit in without it hurting. I could be singing, but I tried, managed three songs and had to stop because it hurt and I didn’t want to do it anymore. I could be writing, but my hands and my mind seem determined not to work together today so anything I write comes out rubbish and it’s really getting me down. The tiniest thing is irritating me, my back is still killing me and I have to get through college tomorrow, so I’m not in the best of moods at the moment – trying to avoid most human contact at the moment by shutting myself away in my bedroom.

So, the theme for today’s blog is how do you make yourself write when you really don’t want to? Usually I’d come up with a whole list of things you can do – listening to music, reading other books, reading through your old writing or just sitting there and literally forcing yourself to write because you can go back and edit it completely later on if you want, but today I’m going to say that when you’re having one of those days, just don’t write. Just face the facts that no matter how much you want to, it’s not going to happen, and anything you do write will either turn out as terrible as it could possibly be, or you’ll kill all your characters and create new ones just so that you can kill them too (both can be quite funny, but not when you’re in this kind of mood).

So step away from the computer before you commit an unforgivable literary crime. Your story will thank you but your mood will still probably remain as foul as ever. Oh well.

Writing Religion!

Yes, it’s another post about one of the themes that is touched upon in quite a lot of pieces of writing. I deal somewhat with religion in my stories, although I’m always quite anxious about causing offence – and I don’t want my views to be forced onto the reader, or for all of the characters to share my religious views, which I think can come across a bit preachy if you do that and have them mentioning it so frequently.

I’m an atheist. I’m accepting of other people’s religions and faiths, but I, personally, don’t believe in God or anything. I’d like to think I’m a spiritualist, but really, I don’t want to label myself as anything because my views change so frequently depending on my mood. Sometimes, I am a spiritualist (a non-Christian one, I must add), but other times, I consider myself to be very much irreligious. I don’t think about it all that much because religion really isn’t a big part of my life. I don’t pray, I don’t worship – it just isn’t something that is ever on my mind, other than when I’m writing.

Due to the nature of my story – it deals with an afterlife that isn’t heaven – most of my characters end up with “uncertain” religious beliefs – regardless of what they believed in life, they aren’t sure anymore. One of my characters, although this isn’t mentioned, would have been a Pagan-type religion during his life because of the time he was alive. Another was an atheist born to an incredibly strict Catholic family, which was one of the major contributing factors to her death. The main female character is the one with whom I refer to religion the most, because she does end up questioning her beliefs – she was a firm Christian, but ends up questioning everything due to what happens to her. As for the rest of them, I haven’t really given it much thought – I suppose there will have been some who were religious due to their place/time of birth, others who would or wouldn’t have been religious through choice and so on.

I think it’s quite important, as I said, to make sure you don’t push your beliefs onto others, which is why I was very careful when dealing with the main female character questioning her beliefs. As an atheist, I didn’t want to just say “and suddenly she didn’t believe in God anymore” (mainly because that isn’t how I write, but also because it would seem too jumpy and sudden), and I definitely don’t portray any religion or lack of religion as more truthful than the others from a narrator’s point of view – some of the characters are firm in their beliefs and others are wavering. Instead, I made it seem as though her faith was being worn down, but she still retains some of it, and will do for the remainder of the series, because I think that’s important – I don’t want this impression being given that when bad things happen to people, they immediately decide that there isn’t a God and never believe again. I think most people question their beliefs at some point or another, and then it’s up to that person whether that questioning simply reaffirms their faith, or leads them to change their beliefs.

I think one problem I have in the story is demonizing Catholicism – I strongly disagree with some of their views, and I tried not to let that come across in the story, but the fact of the matter is that with one of the characters, her parents’ strict ways were mainly influenced by their devout Catholicism, and that is what lead to her death. I don’t want to convey the idea that Catholicism is responsible for murdering one of the characters, because it isn’t – she killed herself, and her parents were incredibly strict and took their religion too far, and it was only one of the contributing factors towards the way they behaved towards her – so I think, during editing, I may tone down the mentions towards the Catholic faith in that chapter, so that it is still there – because it is incredibly important still – but perhaps not as extreme as it was.

Religion in writing can be an absolute minefield – you have to tiptoe around so many things to avoid setting off a minefield of offence to people, some of whom take any opportunity they can find to get offended, particularly when it comes to religion. I just hope that, should my stories get published, people will realize that I as a narrator never take a particular stance towards any religion, as I aim to be tolerant of all of them (extremists are another matter altogether, but that’s something for another day). What I do is I show the views of the characters on their religion, be they good or bad, because that is a fact of life – some people have negative views of religion, others have idyllic views of it, and I want my stories and my writing, despite being fiction, to represent real people as much as possible.

I’m Finished!

So, Book Two is finally completed! There have been quite a few pauses in this one where I’ve been ill or busy or had writer’s block or just couldn’t be bothered with it and would very probably have written an ending in which I murdered all the characters in an incredibly silly way (it began raining canteloupe melons from the sky and they all died of concussion or something like that) thus leaving it completely closed to the ending of the trilogy and to any possible sequels. As it is, I’m really pleased with the ending, it’s rather kick-ass if I do say so myself and although it might have to be quite heavily edited, there are a couple of lines in it which I am NOT going to change, no matter what.

The swearing in this book probably gives it a higher rating than the first, to be honest. I mean, the swearing is justified in context and it is only a couple of characters who do swear, so I’ve stuck to their characters in that they are the only ones who do swear, and they do when there is call for it and it doesn’t just seem like I’m chucking in profanity for the giggles of it. However, I know some people believe that swearing in literature is never justified, which is their opinion and they are entitled to it, as am I.

So, here’s the run-down on the facts and figures about book 2 –

• Word count – 78, 444
• Page count (A5) – 192
• Chapters – 18
• Amount of editing time it’s gonna require – Forever by the looks of things 😉

So, what’s next I hear you cry? (or not but humour me). Well, I really would like to get some editing of book one done before I move on, but I said that before I started book two and look where I ended up! But yeah, I’d like to make a start on editing ideally. And enjoying the Easter holidays safe in the knowledge that there is only one more book left to go and the trilogy is then basically written, and there’s only the editing left to go!

 

Choosing A Title

Now this is where I really struggle. I find it fairly easy to write a story, because the words flow quickly and I don’t let my inner editor rear its ugly head until I’ve got a basic story I’m really happy with (which is why I’m writing the three books before allowing my editor to remove/add bits to it, mainly adding in the case of book 1!). I don’t bother with naming chapters (I used to, inspired by Harry Potter, until it got too hard to think of what to call them and all my name ideas sounded really stupid) and, as I said before, naming characters came relatively easy this time. However, naming the books themselves? Oooh dear!

I have a basic title for the series itself, but I don’t like it – it really is just a working title, and if my books were to ever be published (wishful thinking really), it would definitely change because it’s so cliche’d and has probably been done before, so I don’t want to copy anyone. It’s literally only used to identify which folder on my computer I’ve saved the files in, that’s how little I like it. I don’t even refer to the series by it – I just call it “my books” or “my writing”, on the rare occasions when I actually talk face-to-face to people about my writing (it doesn’t happen often, other than with my boyfriend because I feel comfortable discussing writing with him).

I don’t know what the series title will end up being – I want it to be something linked to the actual stories, but not sounding stupid and giving away the whole plot. As for the books themselves, I only have one definitive title, and that’s for the book I’m writing at the moment, but I’m not going to give away the title yet 😉 the first one is just referred to as “the first book”, and whilst I have a tentative idea for the third one, it’s still just referred to as the third book, or not spoken about at all 😉 I’m quite pleased with the title of the second one, because it came very easily and is definitely linked to the plot of the book, but for the other ones, I’m not sure what to do with it. As for the sequel to the trilogy, I’m thinking of making it just the name of the main character in it, or a similar one-word title which again, I’m not going to divulge!

I already know the basic plots of the stories, but I think the titles will come a lot easier when I have the finished products of them all – fully written and edited and I’ll know what a good title for them could be. I used to be fairly good at coming up with titles for stories – I was very proud of one trilogy I had planned, and I know the first one was called Black and White, the second was Colourblind and the third was something equally cool but equally cheesy, and yet at the time (I think I was only fourteen when I came up with them!) I thought they were amazing!

I guess that’s another thing that shows how someone’s writing matures as they (and their characters, even!) grow as a writer – look at J.K Rowling. It started off with titles such as “Philosopher’s Stone”, “Chamber of Secrets” – awesome titles, but they don’t particularly strike fear into the reader’s heart, or come across as particularly serious. Then we move on, and we get “Half-Blood Prince” in Book 6, which suggests something quite mysterious and the mystery of not knowing who the half-blood prince was, and as for the Deathly Hallows – we knew there’d be death involved, and the title was dark and mysterious and at the same time, absolutely related to what happens in the story itself.

I could go on and on about JK Rowling for ages because it is her books that made me such an avid reader, and it is being an avid reader that made me so determined to be a good writer, but I’ll leave that for another post on another day.

A New Record!

Yesterday I got the most views of my blog in a single day so far, so thankyou to anyone who viewed my blog and I really hope you’re enjoying it! Remember, you can always leave a comment and tell me what you’d like to see more of, any topics you’d like me to cover etc. I’ll be writing more posts about the things I find useful whilst writing (choosing titles and such) soon, but today I have something really awesome to share.

I SAW MYSELF ON TV LAST NIGHT!

….yep. Not getting ridiculously excited or anything (I am ridiculously excited!), but I saw myself on BBC One last night! They’ve started showing the trailer for “Titanic with Len Goodman”, which airs this Friday at 8:30 on BBC1 (not sure if this is the episode I’m in, there’s two more after this), and I’m in the trailer! It shows me sitting on the beach, saying “he showed incredible bravery”, and I’m so excited 😀 let me know if you see the advert by commenting on my blog, and I’d love it if you’d all watch it (it’s airing on PBS channels in America in a couple of weeks I think, and on RTE in Ireland at some point)!