Monday 22 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Day Twenty Two (Sorry, been too busy writing to blog)

Important pre-writing activities undertaken (non-procrastinatory):
- Oh, you know, life.

Procrastination undertaken:
- Other types of life.

Writing music used:
- Various including They Might be Giants and Little Feat.

Important Writing Creative Decisions taken:
- Bringing in new character focii, despite the novel starting to head towards its end.

Important Realisation:
- That just pushing through and not caring how little you actually want to write can still be productive. Okay, so those days might need more rewriting than others, but at least the story is moving. And some of the words might just be okay.

Daily goal: 1,667.
Today's actual amount (according to Nano): 1,748.

Today's cumulative word goal: 36,667.
Today's actual total (according to NaNo): 42,552.

Chocolate treat to be eaten:
- Guinness. No, not chocolate, but tasty and treaty nonetheless.

Saturday 13 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Day Thirteen

Important pre-writing activities undertaken (non-procrastinatory):
- Visiting my mum.

Procrastination undertaken:
- Watching tv, doing the washing-up, eating. You know, life.

Writing music used:
The Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show on 6 Music.

Important Writing Creative Decisions taken:
- Allowing one of the character's story-lines to lie dormant for a few chapters while I followed the other one.
- To go back and delete a flash-forward I had written as it just wasn't going to work, and I was trying to skew the story in its direction, rather than letting it flow.

Important Realisation:
- That the concept of an 'Ivory Tower' for writing - a particular space, using a particular chair, and an uninterruptable block of time - which I had thought was necessary, isn't. In the last week I have taken my netbook (a new computer, not my usual 'writing' one) to a number of locations, and written equally easily in each of them. I have also written in tiny blocks, sometimes as small as 10 or 15 words between interruptions, and have still found that the story flowed.
- That a structure for writing is a wonderful thing. I have been more productive in the last 13 days than in the last 2 years.
- That my remaining wordcount for NaNoWriMo success - 21,667 - is the same as the amount I should have written by today. That feels significant but probably isn't.

Daily goal: 1,667.
Today's actual amount (according to Nano): 2,554.

Today's cumulative word goal: 21,667.
Today's actual total (according to NaNo): 28,333.

Chocolate treat to be eaten:
- Oreos.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Day Nine (apologies for the break in transmission...)

Important pre-writing activities undertaken (non-procrastinary):
- Eating tea and thinking about that the heck I was going to write tonight.

Procrastination undertaken:
- None. Ate tea and then sat right down.

Writing music used:
None.

Important Writing Creative Decisions taken:
- Decided, once the opening section was over, to expand the focussed third-person narration to include new characters. Some of these may not survive.
- To just relax and have fun.
- Whenever I get bored I am allowed to blow something else up (in the book, that is...)

Important Realisation:
- That somewhere along the line, around the same time as I started teaching and studying for my PhD, that I became somewhat ashamed of writing sci-fi, action, fantasy etc. For some reason I have always allowed myself a little crime or magic realism, but this is the first really 'imaginative' fiction I have written in a while. It's incredibly character-based, but it still has aliens and zombies in it. It's nice to be back.

Daily goal: 1,667.
Today's actual amount: 1,676.

Today's cumulative word goal: 15,003.
Today's actual total: 20,254.

Chocolate treat to be eaten:
- Maltesers.

Thursday 4 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Day Four

Important pre-writing activities undertaken (non-procrastinary):
- Just getting out of bed was an effort.

Procrastination undertaken:
- Loads. Facebook, reading, watching tv, marking essays. All kinds of non-writing things.

Writing music used:
- The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden.

Important Writing Creative Decisions taken:
- To bring other characters into the book, and start to create tension between my two leads so I can resolve it later.

Important Realisation:
- I have now written over 10,000 words and yet not even 30 mins have passed. This book might be longer than I anticipate.
- That the beginning is over, and it's time to get stuck in.

Daily goal: 1,667.
Today's actual amount: 2,513.

Today's cumulative word goal: 6,668.
Today's actual total: 10,096.

Chocolate treat to be eaten:
- Ice Cream Mars Bar.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Day Three

Important pre-writing activities undertaken (non-procrastinary):
- Student assignment marking, so that writing feels like a reward.

Procrastination undertaken:
- Looking out of the window and taking the 'Which rock musician do you most resemble?' quiz on Facebook.

Writing music used:
- None.

Important Writing Creative Decisions taken:
- Allowing myself to write chapters of different lengths. My last novel had uniform chapters of about 2000 words. In this one, because of shifting perspective, I have decided it's okay to allow short chapters of only 400 words, or longer ones of 3000 or more, if necessary.
- I'm still not happy with the male character name (thanks, Kath, for helping me clarify this thought) but I don't know what else to use. Global search and replace will sort this later.

Important Realisation:
- Writing a third person narrative with multiple characters is much different to my last novel - first person autobiographical style - not least because I get to include dialogue. I realise how much I missed that and how much I like writing dialogue.

Daily goal: 1,667.
Today's actual amount: 3,456.

Today's cumulative word goal: 5,001.
Today's actual total: 7,582

Chocolate treat to be eaten:
- Another Tesco's Cookie.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Day Two

Important pre-writing activities undertaken (non-procrastinary):
- Getting out of bed.
- Not emptying the bin.

Procrastination undertaken:
- Answering student emails and playing around on Facebook.

Writing music used:
- Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

Important Writing Creative Decisions taken:
- Realised that the name I had chosen for my main male character, an irresponsible love-rat and photocopier salesman was the name of the main bad guy in the Christopher Brookmyre book I've just finished reading, so changed it from 'Simon' to 'Tony'.
- Decided to start describing the book as The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells not Tom Cruise) meets Much Ado About Nothing.
- Chose some very useful 80s rock hits as symbolic references.

Today's cumulative word goal: 3,334.
Today's actual total: 4,131.

Chocolate treat to be eaten:
- Tesco's Cookie.

Monday 1 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Day One

Here are the statistics:

Day One

Important pre-writing activities undertaken (non-procrastinary):
- Clipped fingernails to aid typing.
- Bought tasty chocolately reward to be allowed when word count reached.

Procrastination undertaken:
- None. (But it is only day one.)

Writing music used:
- Glass Houses - Billy Joel
- Graceland - Paul Simon

Important Writing Creative Decisions taken:
- To name rather than number chapters. Although there will be a large amount of mayhem and 'fantasy' death (whatever that is) in the book, I also want it to be light and, at times, amusing. So I have decided to use song lyrics as chapter titles. Chapter one is taken from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and is entitled 'Thunderbolt and Lightning'.
- To not name my main female character 'Carol' but instead 'Nicola'. I want to make her feisty (what else?) and thought that a later argument over someone calling her 'Nicky' could be useful. Carol has no useful abbreviations. I also decided to call her daughter 'Alyssa' as 'Sasha' just wasn't doing it for me.

Today's cumulative word goal: 1,667.
Today's actual total: 1,917.

Time spent writing: 1 hr 7 mins.

Chocolate treat to be eaten:
- Minstrels.