Novel: The Reluctant Scribe – Page 5

5 Year Writing Goal: end of year 2013

So now I have a very, well edited first 300 words and a reasonably well-edited 10,000 words. Only 78,000 more to go!

Five Year Writing Goal

I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published. This is both my monthly and my end-of-the-year recap on how I’m doing.

First step: write the first draft. Tick!
Second step: edit the first draft – in progress.
Continue reading “5 Year Writing Goal: end of year 2013”

Historical Fiction – pitfalls

Do you know the feeling when you suddenly realise you have made a horrible mistake? And does this sometimes hit you in the middle of the night? Well, that happened to me during the early hours of this morning.

I am working through the second draft of my novel, The Reluctant Scribe, set in 7th century China and the Tang Dynasty. There is a scene where I write “eight of us stood in our line on the marble step”, and another line goes “I followed the Dean who led me across the marble“, and another -“I shuffled from foot to foot, sliding my toes across the marble tiles”. I am sure there are other mentions of marble if I continue looking…

But here is the problem:

The Tang used mud brick and wood in their buildings.
They did not use stone or marble.
Arrrrhhhh.

And here is the solution:

I am going to have to run a word search for every reference to ‘marble’ in my novel, and find a more appropriate replacement.
Thank goodness for technology.

That is, I am sure, only one mistake among many.

NaNoWriMo 2013 – The End

It’s finished!

My NaNo novel, Chasing Credit, is done.

Actually, hang on – NO – it’s not finished!

Although I’ve officially ‘won’ NaNoWriMo this year again, Chasing Credit is far from complete. I did pretty well, achieving 52,574 words in less than 30 days and hitting the 50,000 mark on the 25th November. But, my personal aim was to achieve 60,000 words and to have written the end of the story, leaving gaps in the middle to fill in later. So, I haven’t hit 60,000 words and I haven’t reached the end, yet.

With two half-finished NaNo novels on my hard drive, I’m determined not to have a third. This is one I must complete.

But, first things first, I am going to return to my other novel, The Reluctant Scribe. The first draft of this is finished. In fact, I finished it on the last day of October in a desperate flurry of writing in order to clear the way for the beginning of NaNo. I am nervous about the redrafting/rewriting stage, having never got this far with a novel before. Recently I’ve bought Alan Watt’s book, The 90-day Rewrite, and I hope he guides me through the process. Will start working on the re-edit on 2nd December but for the next few days I am having a welcome break.