Freedom From The Mundane - A Writer's Blog

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Success at NaNoWriMo




Made a nice and early start with writing commencing at 05:45 this morning. The desire to drift and take the characters off on a tangent is strong, so I'm having to be strong and keep in mind the direction and strands of thread that must now be intertwined. It's fucking thrilling stuff to be doing. Imagine getting this much satisfaction from picking out words and then writing them down in a certain order. If only the day job was half as good.

For those wishing to keep on writing their novels, I noticed that NaNoFiMo has been set up. National Novel Finishing Month aims to keep writers going who made it but want more, or who never quite managed the 50k in November. I've had my fair share of all things starting with NaNo this year, and will rely on my own motivation and craft to complete the book from here on in.

The Bad Sex in Fiction Award 2006winner was announced yesterday. Iain Hollingshead has won with the "most crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel", in his first novel, Twenty Something.

After I've finished Slick, I think I may be in with a chance for next year's competition!

Over lunch I worked on the novel, and found myself ridiculously following my word count after each paragraph. Just as Lennox discovered "someones" body in Claremont Road, Leith, I checked the count and it sat proudly at 70,001 words. Awesome! I kept on writing to the end of that chapter and finished for the day.

I'm delighted to have gotten this far in only a month. 50k was hard, particularly because I tried NaNo once before and failed, but with some good preparation and commitment to write the set quota each day, I ended up writing 70k words in only 30 days.

When I got home I uploaded the manuscript and collected my winners icon (see left) and certificate.

NaNo words today: 3089

NaNoWriMo Progress




November's GDR

Fiction
* NANOWRIMO - Slick - 50,000 completed on the 20th, 70,000 on the 30th - done

Poetry
* Publish Poolside Poetry - still to finalise book cover and font - postponed.

Non-Fiction
* Begin work on Scotland's Treasure for January column - Spotlight on Aberfoyle. Locality,
history, what it offers, getting to etc. Might include the Blockheads gig review too. - Started planning
* Carry out interview with Scottish poet - still to arrange

Marketing and Promotion
* Prepare and submit press release for Poolside Poetry - postponed.
* Complete cross-promotion with Fife B&B for Fringe Fantastic - not done
* Follow up meeting with owner of Elvis Shakespeare bookshop - not done
* Keep website up to date - done

Reading and Research
* Finish reading The Flood and Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin - Complete. Long reading but enjoyed the ride.
* Start reading The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster - Postponed. Wanted to read Harvey instead.
* Start reading Flesh and Blood by John Harvey novel - WIP

Other Projects
* Stay on top of editorial work for TSDR - done

Things That Turned Up
* 1 poem written (I Kissed You)

Submissions Made
* None

Successes
* Wrote 70,000 words of Slick during the 30 days of Novermber

Failures
* Amanda and Joe rejected by One Story 18/11

Statistics
Fiction - 70,000
Non-Fiction - 13700
Poetry - 70

Outstanding Submissions
Fiction
Pulp 1
3am Magazine 1
Barcelona Review 1
The Portable Muse 2
Crimespree Magazine 1
Wildchild 1
ThugLit 1
Ephemera 1

Poetry
Nothing

Non-Fiction
Interactive Dad 2


Summary
As far as fiction goes this month has been spectacular. I have written 70k in one month, over 80% of a novel, and enjoyed the ride. It was hard work, took a lot out of me but there have been too many benefits to mention. Slick has a lot of potential and I'm happy with the way it panned out.

As far as everything else goes, apart from a few preparatory notes and website updates, I didn't do much of anything else. I didn't think I would. I wiped the slate clear for the month so I could put my all into it and it paid off.

I now have to focus on completing the novel and then putting it away for a wee while. I'll work on other things next month, enjoy my Christmas holidays and be ready and refreshed to face new challenges next year.
Colin 8:24 pm

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