Tag: #NaNoWriMo2015

The joys of my own writing. For now, anyway.

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Hello,

For the past month or so I’ve been working on two things:

    NANoWriMo 2015

    Course work.

 

Both have now been completed. Well, the course has been completed for now. One assignment down and one exam to go (In April). I have enjoyed working on the assignment and I’ve learned a lot along the way but working in front of a computer all day and then coming home to…working in front of a computer is tiring and makes me hate my laptop.

This also made me absent from my blog. A thing that has eaten away at me during all the coursework that left me with a bad back and not wanting to be in front of my laptop. Oh, my laptop, I never thought I would hate the sight of you but the last few days I have. Sorry laptop (you’d think I’d have a name for him by now)

Anyway, all the time away has let me think about what I want to do with my 2016 writing wise. The first thing I thought about was finishing my NaNoWriMo story. But then I remembered that even after 50,000 words, I only around 1/3 through that story. And I need to make a lot of notes to make the story work and bring all the elements together. I worked mostly from memory with some notes but seeing how big the story will be, I might give a timeline or storyboard a try. What do you think?

What method works well when planning a large, and possibly epic, style story?

This story has been growing for years so I want it to work. But then I read the following quote:

Ray-Bradbury-quote

And I got to thinking. I want to enter more competitions in 2016 and to increase my following across my Blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds. These are my two initial goals for 2016. I’m aiming to push myself towards this by writing a short story each week. For as many weeks as I am able. Or can be bothered too if I’m honest. I do have ideas enough to write short stories with so I’m hoping that the first few will spark all the others. I’ll probably end up writing stories about people I see out and about. I’ll have to make sure to not look too creepy if I end up people watching for story ideas.

It’s good to get back into the blog writing groove. I look forward to 2016 and more of the same.

Thank you for your time.

Bye!

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NaNoWriMo has begun! (again)

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Hello,

My preparation for NaNoWriMo 2015 had been gathering steam in the week before November 1st. Last time out I mentioned that I will be putting a story down on ‘paper’ that I have had knocking about my noggin for at least five-ten years. I’ve got a lot of set pieces and twists and turns already planned, but I haven’t yet done all I need to do to get ready for the challenge ahead. I’ve made some more detailed notes and come up with some chapter ideas so I’m on my way.

As I think back, I think I started to make notes regarding this story about a decade ago. The story is about a completely insane dictator, who can act better than most, who has been planning to conquer all the other realms, which includes Earth, for some time. For a long time. He now feels that he is ready to do this. Though, he’ll have to contend with the five enforcers and their army whose job it is to keep the piece and one of these enforcers may be his key to victory or spell his ultimate doom. That’s brief explanation from mostly the villain’s point of view. Our hero is taken from Earth and dumped in one of the realms to begin his training to become an enforcer.

Altogether this is my crack at telling an epic story across many worlds involving who knows how many people and creatures.

Whilst making some last minute preparations I somehow lost track of what dates and days are on my calendar. When I thought I had plenty of time I have in fact found that I had no time and 01.11.15 was upon me.

NaNoWriMo has begun!

This will be my third attempt in four years having been successful in my previous two attempts. I have started quite well I think and gone past the 10,000-word mark. But today and tomorrow and Monday I think will come unstuck.

I’m out for my friend’s birthday all day today, then nursing a hangover tomorrow, and then out to the Manchester Arena to watch WWE Raw. Unless I write whilst hungover, which sounds AWFUL, then I may have to take a day, hide away in my writing cave, and catch up to the word count I should be up to in order to complete the task. I’ve done it previously, why not this time around?

For all of you doing the 50,000 word, write a novel extravaganza NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org) all the best I hope you all complete it.

I’m going back to my cave for a few more minutes before I have to head out. Happy writing everyone!

Catching up and looking forward (NaNoWriMo is coming!)

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Hello,

It’s been a while. And the reason is that I’ve been catching up on reading and mentally trying to prepare for NaNoWriMo.

As I have mentioned before, I’m a monthly subscriber to the seminal magazine ‘Writing Magazine’. If you haven’t heard of this publication it is full of useful articles, tips, hints, and everything in between for writers of all levels. I enjoy reading this magazine but lately I have found myself falling behind. Way behind. I discovered, about three months ago, that I had a pile of magazines to read. Now, whenever I read one of these I always pick up something I can use for my writing or something that I could use in future. With this in mind, along with many scratch marks on my forehead wondering how I’ve let myself get into such a position, I have read and read and read. I’m almost up to date now and have picked up even more useful writing tips. But as I have been reading I have felt a gremlin on my shoulder. A nasty, annoyed and slightly vengeful one that has creepy crawled around me for a while.

But you see, this gremlin wasn’t always a gremlin.

This gremlin, known as ‘Chip’, was once a wonderful sprite to me that stood tall and was helpful and wise. For two years, I used this NaNoWriMo sprite to complete the challenge for two years running (2012 and 2013). But last year I took it for granted. And I did a month of editing instead. Though the editing was very helpful the sprite, now hunched and dripping with anger fuelled slime, was not happy at being unused. For the last year, it has been running around trying to get my attention. And now it has.

The sprite is getting back to its previous wonderful form as I start to prep for NaNoWriMo 2015 and I’ve settled on a story I want to write. It’s a story that I’ve been dwelling on for years. Almost a decade. And I’ve never put it down on paper. Why? I’ve no idea. I have all the details I need and notes required. So now is the time. I’ve done my stretches, signed back up on the official site (www.nanowrimo.org) and everything is falling into place.

NaNoWriMo 2015…Here. I. Come!