Where does the time go? Two weeks have flown by and tomorrow is the halfway mark for NaNoWriMo: 25K words! If you are struggling, I recommend you visit the NANO site and watch a pep talk. I particularly liked Neil Gaiman's which dates back to 2007, gave me inspiration then and still does the job now. Plus, you could attend one of my free MIDWAY webinars tomorrow, Sunday 15 November. There are three-time...
I know you are all up to your ears in NaNoWriMo (as am I) and I don't want to interrupt your flow ...
We had guests this weekend so we've been doing the touristy bit: taking in local sights despite the dreadful weather, and generally chilling out. No time to write! Our friends left late this afternoon and I was faced with a word count of 8801 - how I left my Safari Supper novel on Day 5 - marginally ahead of schedule then, but woefully behind for Day 8. So I had an AWESOME time -...
Day 1 and the waiting is over. I kicked off at midnight and wrote my first 882 words in a word war with some of my buddies, the Devon Wrimos, in the NanoDevon chat room - and then needed some sleep. What's a word war? Scroll down! What's a buddy? Scroll down even further! Now that NANO has officially started, a new feature has appeared to the right of my Inbox icon at...
Today's the day! At midnight, NaNoWriMo starts ...
The current rage - I'm told - is adult colouring books. I'm sure they provide hours of inspiring, magical enjoyment. I don't have time for such distractions ...
You know how excited kids get, and how they ask you how many sleeps until some event? Their birthday, Christmas, the start of the school holidays ...
During the recent series of Red Pen Launch webinars, I was blessed with the support of romantic novelist and veteran RedPenner, Patsy Collins. With NaNoWriMo less than a week from now, I've invited Patsy to tell us her plans for November. So, Patsy, NaNoWriMo 2015. Will you be taking part? I've not completed NaNo during the last couple of years, and previously I've 'cheated' at NaNo and used it to write 50,000 words of...
The secret of winning NANO - going through that 50K barrier before time runs out on day 30 - boils down to setting goals and meeting targets. On the NANO site, each time you enter your word-count-to-date, a bar chart tells you how you're progressing. If you're on schedule, writing your 1666 words per day, it's good to see today's column above the target line. If you're slipping behind, it can...
NaNoWriMo fast approaches and it's crucial, before I start writing for real at midnight on 31 October, that I make some decision on tense and voice. First question: which tense to use? Past or present? Past tense would be the easy option. It's the natural way of telling a story - something that happened in the past, recounted now. Using the present tense can create a sense of immediacy. It can...
