NanoWriMo – Update

We are just over halfway through November and I’m still hacking away at my NanoWriMo novel. It has been a lot more difficult than I expected, for the simple fact that I’m not really invested in what I’m doing. As such, it has been slow and steady progress where I have not been able to get ahead.

I really have no idea what I’m creating at this stage. I’m 30k+ words into it and feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface of the story I want to tell. I’m also not 100% sure exactly what that story is at this stage. I’m pretty much just writing to a loose plan and hoping that it ends up somewhere interesting.

It is an interesting process and I am getting more into it as I go alone, but it is also quite terrifying. One thing is for sure, it will not be a 50k and done type of work. I’m thinking it may be 150k+ words before I’m done and dusted this time around which is a very different place to be.

For now, I’ve got another 1666 words to write tomorrow and I’m just hanging in there. Good luck to all those still hacking away, the end is drawing closer and we’ll all get there together.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) – Kick Off

Well that snuck up didn’t it? Here I was just a little while ago getting ready for it and here I am having done very little to prepare. In just under 3 hours I’m supposed to be writing 50k words. I don’t even have a title.

Still, I think I’ll manage. I’ve thrown my original plan out the window and I’m now going to expand on O2, a short story I wrote some time ago. I’ve got an outline in my head of where I want it to go, so there is nothing else to do but start writing and see what happens.

The challenge (besides the writing bit!) is that it is a serious and somewhat dark novel in tone. This time I can’t just get away with putting a chicken in a helicopter, which is a problem for such a tight deadline. I’m going to have to write emotion, torture and death. I don’t know if I have that ability but it’ll be fun to find out.

Good luck to everybody taking part. It is an adventure, it is a challenge. I’ll see you all on the other side.

National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo) 2013

It is almost November again and that means it is NanoWriMo time once more. Because I enjoyed it so much last year I’m planning on getting back into the saddle and seeing what I can churn out. In 2012 I worked on “When God Gets Bored” and finished the 50k words inside 10 days. It’ll be a bit different this time judging by my work since then and I may even struggle to get the quota in.

But I’ll try.

On that note, I’m planning to write “Just Walk Forward”. This will be thematically similar to “Being Hamish” in that it will involve the life and trials of a young adult. This time instead of searching for aliens and trying to understand love, he’ll be trying to piece things together through one of my own passions, fighting games.

What I want to do is explore this world a little through my characters and hopefully shed some light on what makes the fighting game community so special. It has probably been done before and better than I’ll be able to do. But that doesn’t matter, the plan is there, the paper is ready and I’m keen to get stuck into it. I think I’ll be able to spin a pretty decent story.

Are you going to take the plunge and commit to a novel? If you are on the fence, make sure you at least sign up and start writing some words on the first of the month. You’ll never quite know where it will take you.

Add TheToddHunter at http://nanowrimo.org/participants/thetoddhunter/novels on NanoWriMo and we can cheer each other on.

Being Hamish – Being Free Promotion

As part of the adventure of Kindle Direct Publishing, it is time to try out their promotions. In particular this means that Being Hamish will be free on Amazon until the 6th of October.

As an experiment, I’m going to try a bit of facebook advertising to try to pick up one or two readers. It is all a learning experience at this stage, but hopefully it goes well enough. I’ve decided not to push anything through to the news feed, because that is something I personally hate to see. If people don’t block the ads, they’ll be there and somebody might click along.

So if you have a few kb spare on your device of choice, please feel free to check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E0NVLI8 and help to spread the word.

Camp NaNoWriMo – And done.

It might be a day late, but Camp NaNoWriMo has all wrapped up for me. I finished up on day 27 as I crossed the 50k word mark shortly before midnight. Typically I was able to get out around 2-2.5k words per day when I was in the writing mood. I consider this relatively slow going given my past efforts, but it was solid enough to get the job done.

I have to say it is a big relief to be finished. It was a lot like running a long distance race (something I’ve been doing a bit of lately). You are pretty sure you can do it when you start based on previous training, but there are still plenty of moments during when you wonder why you would bother. As usual though, pushing on has been quite rewarding and I’m happy to be sitting over the finish line.

What do I have to show for it? Well it isn’t a completed novel, not by a long shot. Even whilst I wrote, I had the sinking feeling that what I was writing “wasn’t quite right”. I stayed disciplined enough to see it through, but I think there is a lot of revising to make it all viable. In particular I’m questioning if the character’s motives are consistent and well explained enough or if I need to add a lot of scenes just to flesh things out.

I’m by no means finished based on the original plan either. Despite initially allocating 50k words for the whole project, There are still three chapters to go! I’d expect to finish somewhere around the 65-70k mark. Then I’ll ask a friend to create a couple of images for the title pages and self publish away.

Unfortunately, getting that last section out is going to be extremely difficult I feel. Just like you don’t run another race after a 5k, I might need time to rest as I don’t feel a lot of motivation to keep dedicating all my spare nights to it… and we all know how leaving something for a rest turns out!

Hmm… maybe I should just push on after all…

Congratulations to everybody else who started, finished or even just thought about writing something this month. It might not be down on paper, or computer chips, but a lot of creative thoughts were sparked somewhere, and really that is all we can do.

Camp NaNoWriMo – Halfway letter back home

Dear mum,

I’m enjoying camp and …

Nah I won’t be doing that. It is still NaNoWriMo time and I’m still going. What time exactly? Well it is just hitting the half way mark in the challenge as I’ll wake to day 14. How am I tracking? Well I’ve just chalked up word number 26604. This progress could be defined as “just fine”.

More statistically:

What does this all mean? Well I’m hitting the hardest part of the novel I feel. I’ve introduced the characters, I’ve set up the major conflict that will be happening and now it is just a question of them all getting there. Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly the most exciting parts to write. I should be fine after 35k or so, but the next 10k or so will be a bit of a slog. Still I’ll make do.

Having come this far, there really is no turning back now. If anything I’ve been picking up a little steam over the past few days and hope to stay about 2 or 3 days ahead of the curve which should make me pretty safe to hit 50k. The rest of my “cabin”? Well that isn’t quite working out. Of the six of us, I’m the only one still updating that I can see and there hasn’t been any talk for the past week on the board. This is a bit of a shame as they all listed interesting works. Hopefully there will be a comeback from at least some of them before the end.

The actual novel is probably coming along a little better than I expected. As I’ve done before, I’ve come up with a few ways to “elevate” what I’m doing by completely changing up one of the characters. Perhaps at this point it would be good to exercise restraint and just stick to the plan. But changing course on the fly has worked out for me in the past so I’ll trust my instincts and just run with it. I’m sure it’ll work out one way or another.

A snippet:

“I tried” he said weakly. “I always try”.
“I know Hamish…” She looked at him in a way that was somehow a bit kinder. Maybe there was something else in her eyes too as he looked carefully into them. It may have been just pity, Hamish wasn’t really experienced enough to be able to tell. To confuse him further she took her hand out of her pocket and reached forward to touch his arm softly in that magical way that only a girl could do. “You need to keep standing up to them. If you don’t, they will always walk all over you and so will the next lot of jerks who come along.”
She took her hand away now and placed it back into her pocket. Hamish wasn’t sure what that moment had just been, but it was now over as suddenly as it had begun.

If anybody else is feeling the pinch, just keep going. One word at a time or a thousand words in an hour, you are getting close to the goal and I can’t wait to read it.

Camp NaNoWriMo Update – Still hacking away

As day 6 of Camp NaNoWriMo comes to a close I thought it would be time for a little bit of a breath and update.

Stats wise? Here is where I am:

I should be sitting around 12k words down by the end of the day. I’m reasonably happy with this, although I planned to be much further ahead. Perhaps if I can knock over another 3k tomorrow to reach 15 I’ll be sitting more comfortably. Why? Well from past experience the start is by far the easiest part of the month. It only gets harder and it gets harder fast. I do have the advantage of knowing I can get there, and not wiping myself out with 10k days is a plus, but I’m still under no illusion as to how much work there is left to do.

Just keep writing, just keep writing….

The actual novel? I’m very happy with the progress. The young adult style is such a departure from my normal style that I still find the novelty of the novel novel (seriously who planned those words out?). Telling a story is much easier than trying to critically disassemble the bible and construct imagery through chapter structure. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of this before!

All of this didn’t explain why she was in detention today. They only had one class together and that had been English earlier in the day. She certainly hadn’t got into trouble at that time that he could remember. Although to be fair he was a little bit distracted in his thought processes at the time given what had preceded it. She could have actually jumped up and danced naked across the front of the class and he might have missed that completely. Well, probably not completely, as a young guy he still had rather accurate radar for noticing certain shaped things and he was pretty sure it held top level priority clearance at all times.

Still, there are also many slow parts to slog through and this is proving to be a struggle. There is only so many ways you can describe a day at school without it getting tedious, so I’m finding I’m doing a lot of re-writing and re-planning. The plan itself is holding up pretty well from a big picture sense though, so I’m glad its there.

Ok, deep breath over, time to get back into it. Just have to check one or two websites first…

NaNoWriMo – Here we go and tips

Due to the wonder of international timezones, the NaNoWriMo challenge kicks off for me in around 30 minutes. As such I’m well and truly preparing for that wonderful “I’m already behind” feeling.

Why would I do such a thing? Well there is a simple reason. Many will put it down to the love of writing but I’m not such a person. To be honest? I doubt I will enjoy the next month or so at all. Writing is hard. It takes a long time, takes a lot of mental energy and can you leave you drained at the end of the day. If it was fun and easy? Such a concept as NaNoWriMo wouldn’t exist.

No, I do this because I want to create something. My previous novels? They may be complete garbage and only make complete sense to me. But they are there, on my shelf and on the internet and with my name (well not my real name…but you know what I mean). That matters to me. Maybe only one other person in the history of the world will ever read it. Maybe nobody ever will. But long after I’m gone, it’ll still be there. This is important to me.

So the goal? simply another 50k words representing a novel and a part of what makes up me. Last time I bodied that goal in 10 days which was a surprise. however I expect this time will be a lot more difficult because I’ve got a lot on in the next couple of weeks. To get through it? I’ll have to be pacing myself a bit more realistically I feel with a smaller chunk each day.

For those who are taking the challenge for the first time? Here are some tips:

• Don’t write too much. I made the “mistake” of writing over 10k in a day last time around. Whilst this was fine and I was more or less happy with what I wrote, it wiped me out for the next couple of days after. Think of it like a big drinking session. It is fun at the time, but you really pay for it later. So don’t go too hard too early.
• Don’t stress too much about what you are going to write. 50k (or whatever your goal is) is a long way to go. You’ll probably end up somewhere completely unexpected. This is ok, and is part of the magic.
• You may have a nice plan worked out or you may not. I’ve completed the challenge before using both methods. What I will suggest though is setting aside rest and relaxation days where you will not write. Schedule a long walk or picnic or spend time at the gym. Above all else get away from the keyboard and let your head process what you have been writing. Chances are? You’ll come up with some pretty decent ideas.
• Remember that no matter how bad your writing is, you are going to be 50k better off at the end. That is 50k words closer to something good, perhaps even something special. What is more, you are now a writer, because you got something done.
• But realise this is only the beginning. I’ll post up some self-publishing steps when I reach the end. Is a self-printed novel a great gift idea for those hard to buy for relatives and close friends? Damn right it is.
• Back ups? Yeah make back ups. I like to email myself a copy every day, otherwise something like Google Drive or Drop Box is your friend.

Above all else? Have fun. Good luck again to those having a crack. Everybody can do it, but it isn’t easy. We’ll all be in the trenches together.

Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo

Because I can’t always find the time to do things by myself, it is time to participate in another NaNoWriMo event. This time? Write a novel in April with some other virtual campers.

Is it hard to do? Very. Can you finish a novel in a month? Well last time I reached the mark in 10 days. So yes, it can be done, at least in theory (producing a good novel is another story) but it is well worth a go.

If you do join the fun? Add TheToddhunter and I’ll be happy to see you at camp.

When God Gets Bored

At the risk of shameless self promotion (well there is actually little risk) my recent bit of writing is now published for the world to see.

It can be downloaded in a variety of ebook formats from:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/255287

You can view a sample there of the first few chapters (which may be more than enough) or can currently set the price of what you think it is worth to grab the whole thing. The suggested amount at this stage is $0, but hey, you might get a laugh or two out of it. Any feedback would be welcome so it can be further improved.

Here is a sneak peek from later on in the book:

The rest of the chickens rage was blunted when Jesus leapt forwards and kicked the defenceless animal with his steel-toed boot. Jesus was satisfied by the sight of his target sailing off into the distance. This was driven from the sheer force of his expertly trained Japanese Ninja snap-kick.

Father and Son stood waiting for the flying object to complete its arc and return to Earth so they could deal with the chicken a little more brutally. However instead of this promptly occurring they found themselves waiting for quite a long time. After that time expired, they were still waiting, the chicken seemingly defying gravity as it refused to complete its fall to ground. For a further two hours they patiently stood on the featureless ground but still the inevitable had not occurred and still disappearing further into the distance was the improvised football

Jesus knew that the chicken could not be itself flying away. This was because he was pretty sure that he had killed the thing with his fury. At least, he mused, he had managed to smash most of the important bones and organs. The large puddle of blood left on the thick cap of his shoe seemed to confirm this line of reasoning.

And yet, he didn’t come down, and instead continued to drift away. Finally, inevitably, it was completely out of sight, lost in the great heat haze that stretched out before them.

“Well…” God finally said as the small speck disappeared from view. The mystery of how gravity was being ignored weighing heavily on them.

Then just as suddenly as the chicken had been mostly turned inside out they knew, as the answer to all their questions became all too clear to them. Gravity was not being defied at all but rather there was no effective gravity to speak of. Suddenly, they knew that they were no longer even on Earth. Possibly it was the sight of the earth itself, off away into the far off sky that gave it away. Actually, it was that, so there you go.

“So, do you have any idea where we actually are?” Jesus asked his Father.

He didn’t respond for quite some time as he considered their surroundings. When he did, it wasn’t particularly worth the excessive wait.

….

What did he say? Well you will need to read on. Believe it or not, that all makes sense somewhat in context. Really the important part of the whole process was to create something that I was happy with. I’m not sure at this stage that I achieved that, but I am very happy with myself for having a go.