Tag: novel

Day 11: NaNoWriMo writing tip

Writing is a solitary occupation, isn’t it? One of the great joys of NaNo month is the camaraderie of the online community of mad, write-a-novel-in-a-month, crazy writers. And, while making virtual friends is always fun, meeting people in real life is even better.

NaNo writing tip number five

Get out there and meet some other NaNo nuts.
Yes, check your local forum and see if there is a group meeting near you.
Nothing local? Consider crossing borders and going into another county. It won’t kill you.

My 2013 NaNo novel is called Chasing Credit. I’m aiming for 60,000 words by the end of November.

Day 7: NaNoWriMo writing tip

Here is a tip for those of us who started out with a vague idea of where our story was heading but, 7 days later, we seem to have strayed off on a tangent.

NaNo writing tip number three

Get back on track.

  1. Find a notebook with a blank page.
  2. At top of page, write a brief sentence describing where you are now in your story.
  3. At the bottom of the page, write a brief sentence describing where you want to be at the end of this chapter or section or, if you want to plan that far ahead, by the end of the novel.
  4. Jot down a few of the important milestones you need to pass along the way – maybe some you have already planned and maybe some that have only just occurred to you.
  5. Next time you sit down and take up the story, make sure you are heading towards that first milestone.

5-year writing goal: first draft nearly done!

Five Year Writing Goal

do you have goalsI’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.

First step: write the first draft.

This is my monthly recap on how I’m doing. Continue reading “5-year writing goal: first draft nearly done!”

Learning from mistakes: writing my new novel

My old novel had been a monster that had threatened to eat me alive. The new novel was going to be different. I was going to tame the beast before it got the better of me.

spacer - Ruth Livingstone - writer

Giving up is hard

Notebook with red crossA couple of months ago I gave up on a novel I had been trying to write for a few years. I analysed what had gone wrong and listed some of the problems in a blog post: Why I Abandoned My Novel .

Giving up was a difficult decision to make and I spent some time convincing myself I was doing the right thing. In writing – as in anything in life – making mistakes is OK. This is how we learn. To stay cheerful, I found a great collection of quotes on learning from mistakes and many of these quotes come from some very good writers. Continue reading “Learning from mistakes: writing my new novel”