Tag Archives: WIP

NaNoWriMo 2017 – Part II

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It’s a week since NaNoWriMo 2017 ended and I DID IT!
Despite my doubts, when I started out on that journey.
Despite some days without a single word written.
Despite falling behind midway through the month.

I was proud when I changed my Facebook profile pic to the “NaNoWinner” diamond. I still am, even though I put up a regular picture again. The best take-away from November 2017 would be this: I am able to write 50.000 words in 30 days. That bodes well for future projects and gives me a huge boost.

Next year, I might consider the original NaNO idea – start something new from the scratch. This has to be just as exciting!

While I made a lot of progress with my current WIP, I am not done with the novel. Instead, I realised I’ll have to muck out a lot of paragraphs in the first quarter; some of which I really really like … (probably that’s why I wrote those in the first place even though it’s technically not story relevant.)

But that wont happen until I go into revision and edits. And before that, I got to finish the first draft. So, given that I had one week to catch up on (some of) the chores I neglected during November, I’m going to dive back in next Monday and see if I can make it to the finish line by the end of the year. It’s still more than twenty days .. should be worth another 35k words?

 

NaNoWriMo 2017

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I’ve heard about NaNoWriMo last year for the first time and was instantly intrigued. National Novel Writing Month. Nice. I’m not the only dreamer out there, I knew it! Sadly, last year’s November was already full. Two trips to the UK, the birthday of my oldest, several other appointments…simply put, I did not stand a chance.

But this years November hasn’t got quite such a tight schedule. Can it do it? Can I write 50k words in a month when I’ve hardly put down 30k during the last 9 month? Granted, there was the summer break when I stopped working on my WIP altogether and finished a short story and a poem instead, but 50k?

What to they say? “If you don’t try, you’ll never know what you can accomplish.” So, I guess there’s only one way to find out, right?

So I went ahead and signed up with the NaNoWriMo website. Come and find me and let’s be buddies – my alias is Rammerk!

The original idea of NaNoWriMo is to work on a completely new project. I pondered this for the last four days but have now decided to drop it. My heart is with my current WIP and Eden, my main character, is a constant companion in my head. If at all, I’m going to add those words to her story.

Will it be 50k? I don’t know. But I will try!

 

January 2016, in hindsight

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I won’t deny it. I think 2016 is starting out great.

I ticked a couple of tasks right off my 2016 bullet list early in January. If of interest you might go and read the posts from earlier the year.

Two more things happened in January that makes me really happy. First. One of my characters manages to surprise me big time. And second, even more important, I made progress with my writing habits. Hugely so.

It turns out 4:30 am is just the right time to get up an write. Well ok – it’s 4:51 by now but one needs to get the eyes open and some coffee into the belly, no?) However. I am sitting. very early in the morning and I write. Without kids interrupting, without husband searching some misplaced item and calling for help. If someone had told 2 months ago I would get up this early I would have laughed. Very loudly. Seriously – late riser and all that I used to be…

But, I had to do something about a meagre output I had at the end of 2015. I had to find some hour I could reserve for nothing but writing and plotting and honing my characters. Turns out, the only time I can possible manage writing in a reasonable reoccurring and stable way are the early hours of the day. The family is still asleep so I can spend time with my “imaginary friends” as my husband has started to call this whole endeavour. (haha, he is not wrong I guess)

I have started the experiment “become an early riser” in the 2nd week of January. And I am not just a little proud to report: it worked. It still works! Other than going to bed at 22pm instead of midnight it was the easiest thing. I cut myself some slack at the weekends – 5am is still good enough on these days. I kept it up for the rest of the month. By now it is not even an ordeal anymore. Guess there is a grain of truth in all this “form a habit in 21 days”- programs.

So.. yay me! I will go ahead and tick off another point on this bullet list.

And yes .. there was this wonderful moment a few days ago I wanted to share. The moment one of my characters kind of … surprised me. I was writing along happily at a scene where she had to draw a lot from a case. A very important draw. We are talking life to change draw. And what does she do? She takes two. That little b*tch took two lots instead of just one. Cheater! Ha! I loved it. Still, do. Worked it into the plot smoothly. I am still smiling when I think about it.

I attribute this headway, one might even call it a success, to one of the advice books I have been reading lately. J.S. Bell introduced me to the method of Voice Journaling to flesh out important characters. Works like a charm.

So … in hindsight. January 2016 has been a blast. If the year goes on like this it will bound to bring more surprises. Let’s see where February takes me. Spoiling us with 29 days this year! Now more coffee… and back to the blank page.

New submission to CC

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There is no part of a story that is as fascinating as the hook. At least for me it is.

The first piece I submitted to the Critique Circle (CC) was the attempt on a prologue. I was already reasonably sure that it would not make it in the final draft – it was however the most revised and self edited piece I had at the time. And the purpose of the first submission was to test the language skills.

So I decided yesterday evening to submit one (of the 2 possible) new beginnings for my WIP the the CC crowd. See, there is a special queue with CC called The Hook. The task for the reader (and critique at the same time) is to read along as far as it is interesting. You don’t have to write lengthy explanations or point out spelling errors – you simply give feedback for the hook. If my hook works, most will read to the end. If I screwed up and the writing is bad/boring/confusing/whatever for the reader I will know where they dropped out and stopped reading. And maybe why. Should be awesome feedback.

I will have to wait for some time for the results. This particularly queue comes up only once a month – next is up the first week of Feb.

First test with Critique Circle

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Few days ago I wrote about me picking and joining an online critique group – among the many available I chose Critique Circle.

Right after joining up and getting through the confirmation email process I started their “Welcome to CC” routine which left me with enough credits to submit my first piece of writing. It was up for its one week critique timeframe starting 6th of January. After submitting it all I had to do was wait and browse the forum. And of course – critique other writer’s work.

What can I say? This is fun and help at the same time. I like reading those bits and pieces of other writers. We are all just trying to hone our skills, advance our word-smithing and learn to put onto paper what we think someone else might enjoy reading. After a few days of critiquing several stories in different categories I have noticed that I do learn a lot – from the mistakes of others. Usually, when you buy a book there has been done some polishing going on with the original manuscript. Whatever writer, agent, editor, and publisher possible could do they did to make it as good as it gets. You don’t really get to see writings fresh from the author, let alone examples of the first rough draft.

So sometimes it is (at least for me) a little intimidating because as reader I don’t get to see all the work that went into the manuscript to make it smooth like it is when finally printed. But now I could (can!) see exactly that. And be part of it.

Whenever I notice something off in my fellow writer buddies texts, I learn. May it be a switch in POV, seemingly endless overuse of adverbs, weird dialogue tags, warped sentence structure … If I can spot it in their work, I might stand a chance to spot it in my own one day. I have since realised that spotting these things in the writings of others is a lot easier than spotting it in my own. But I figure writing is a craft like any other. The more you learn, the better you get.

During the week following Jan 6th I got seven critiques for my first submission. These helped me to come to a decision regarding my WIP. Apparently my English skills are good enough to justify me proceeding in English language. This was one of my major concerns.

Happy.