Writing Challenges – Page 24

NaNoWriMo – better late than never

NaNoWriMo this year? Easy-peasy. Bring it on! Hmmm. When things seem like they are going to be almost too easy, you can bet they probably are not going to be as easy as all that.

I was really organised in the build up to NaNoWriMo this year.

I had the story all planned in my head with the characters fully formed and the plot outline in place. I knew who was going to do what and when. I had to stop myself starting the damn book in September, so enthusiastic and ready to go was I.

So, NaNoWriMo this year? Easy-peasy. Bring it on!

Hmmm. When things seem like they are going to be too easy, you can bet they probably are not going to be as easy as all that.

Had a huge piece of work to prepare for and didn’t get going on the 1st November. No problem. Last year, I started a few days late and soon caught up. Then a work colleague went off sick. Then another one. Then I got sick too – fever, sore throat, aching limbs, diarrhoea, hacking cough with retching (you really did want all of this detail didn’t you?).

Finally started on the 6th November. Shame on me. Now playing catch up like mad. And having terrible problems with my internal editor. Will tell you about her another time …. but for the moment, please excuse me – I have another 2,000 words to bang out before tea time.

#Amwriting

Recently joined the #amwriting Web site. This seems like a friendly group of writers, many with published books, who all congregate around the Twitter hashtag #amwriting.

Probably the last thing I need is yet another blog! But it is good to be part of the writing community.

I have also recently discovered the Friday Flash site. This looks like another good idea and something to add to my list of writing challenges.

NaNoWriMo – Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants is a NaNoWriMo book, by Sarah Gruen.

It came in the top 10 (at number 7, to be exact) of the #FridayReads group in Twitter, for the 1st week in Jan 2011.

I am going to order it from my local library. Tomorrow.

Or, maybe, buy it from Amazon.

Microfiction #65 The mistake

Another Monday, another microfiction prompt from Stony River. Tell a story in 140 characters.

Here is mine.

After she kissed the frog, she realised her fairy godmother had mixed up the spells. The ugly monster was so pleased, she couldn’t tell him.

Advice for writers – find your story and render a novel.

If, like me, you wrote a novel without any planning – maybe during NaNoWriMo month – and are now wondering whether your new masterpiece is publishable, this article explains why it certainly isn’t.

A Mindset Shift That Can Get You Published is a great article I stumbled upon.

Larry Brooks says:

.. your draft doesn’t stand a chance until the story is solidly, front to back, fully conceived. If you haven’t landed on a theme, a pace, on context and sub-text, if you haven’t discovered what your character arc is, if you don’t know how things are going to end…

And his advice, in a nutshell, is this –

Consider writing as two sequential processes:
1. The search for the story.
2. The rendering of the story.

What excellent advice this is. So, I must treat my NaNoWriMo writing as the search for my story (which it was). Now all I have to do (all!) is render it into a proper novel by rewriting it.

For the rewriting, I will turn to Holly Lisle for help. She shares an excellent article,‘How to Revise a Novel’ on her website.

First of all, I have to finish the damn thing.