First post here for a while, I know! Sorry about that.
For anyone who wasn't aware, in November 2011 I did NaNoWriMo for the fifth time, and wrote a whopping 160k words in just 30 days. Now, NaNoWriMo has a sister event called Script Frenzy, where the aim is to write a script of at least 100 pages in just 30 days. It takes place each year in April.
I've done Script Frenzy just twice before, although my record there isn't as good as my Nano record. I failed my first attempt in 2008, but won on my second attempt in 2009. (I didn't participate in 2010 or 2011.)
After my epic NaNoWriMo 2011 the very lovely and awesome NanoLondon people have been trying to persuade me to do Script Frenzy this year, but I've been hesitant to throw my hat into the ring.
Script Frenzy is hard. Even though it involves writing fewer words in total when compared to NaNoWriMo, layout is important, which can be a pain to get right. And I find it a lot harder to choose the right words to write.
Also, the time of year isn't great. I've only just about recovered from NaNoWriMo! Plus, I'm doing 120 credits worth of Open University courses at the moment (which is the equivalent amount of credits that a full time student would do) and they take a lot of time and effort. On top of that, I also have to consider the fact that I'm working full time (although I have the week of Easter Monday off).
And so, with everything that I've got going on, doing Script Frenzy on top of that would not be a good idea.
It would be a case of just taking on far too much.
It absolutely, positively, would not be a sane thing to do...
...
...
...
Which is why I've decided that, this year, I WILL do Script Frenzy!
I mean, this academic year I've already done an awful lot, with the quantities that I've done already being an insane amount. Why start doing the sensible thing now?
I was at the ScrenzyLondon Kick Off party last night, and I was asked what my page target was going to be, considering how much I did for NaNoWriMo. Now, the official target for Script Frenzy is 100 pages, which works out at an average of 3 1/3 pages per day. That seems like a nice sane target...
So I'm going to go for 200 pages instead!
So, all this starts from tomorrow. You can follow my progress through my Twitter account (@karlsgreen), or my profile on the Script Frenzy site.
Let the insanity commence! (Or rather, go up to a higher level of insanity...)
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Sunday, 31 October 2010
NaNoWriMo 2010
OK, so, in my last post, when I said that I was going to post here again in a few days time, I actually meant 365 days time. Er, sorry about that...
And I've got to be really quick here, and so here's a quick summary of the last year. NaNoWriMo 2009 went great, and I ended up writing 101,548 words in 29 days! This was the second highest score in London - I was beaten by Joan of Quark who managed to write an incredible 120,000 words...
My OU course went OK. Didn't get quite as high a mark as I would have liked, but I did OK, and I now have a Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing to add to my name! I've decided to hold off on doing an MA, at least for the time being. For now, I'm still doing some OU courses, this time in computing (M150 and T175) - the role I currently perform at work is IT related.
Work itself has been, well, OK, and I decline to comment any further on that subject...
I'm now also on Twitter, and, if you wish you can follow me: @karlsgreen
And, now NaNoWriMo 2010 is upon us! After my success last year I'm aiming to beat my 2009 total as this year I'm aiming for a whopping 150,000 words! But this year is about much more than that. I've decided to get myself sponsored for charity, specifically, St Luke's Hospice in Harrow and Brent, who helped to look after my father shortly before he died last year. If you wish to sponsor me you can do so at:
http://www.justgiving.com/karlsgreen
Please do sponsor me as much as you can - even just a few pounds will be much appreciated by myself and St Luke's.
As for my novel itself, it's called "Thirty Days", and, funnily enough, it will be set during the thirty days of November! Each chapter will relate to one day, and I'll be publishing a chapter each day to my website! You'll find all of the details at:
http://www.karlsgreen.co.uk/thirtydays
My aim is to get each chapter up by approx. 6.30pm each day.
I've got the first two weeks booked off of work, and so during this time I'm going to have to get ahead of myself in terms of wordcount - ideally I need to do a minimum of 7,500 words per day for the first 14 days (even though each chapter will only be about 5,000 words). Let's see how I do with that...
The build up to this year's Nano has been great - I know that I and a lot of my friends are very excited at the prospect that that madness that is NaNoWriMo is about to start again! I also met a load of nice people at the two NaNoWriMo kick-off parties that we had in London, and we have a great community on the net, both on Facebook and Twitter. You can find the NaNoWriMo London group on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=6905365979
You can also follow us on Twitter by searching for #nanolondon, and by following @LondonNaNo
Well, it's just over 20 minutes to go now. I and a few other London Nanoers are going to be starting at midnight and seeing how much we can do before we all go to bed. Wish me luck everyone! (I have a feeling I'm going to need it. Why did I say I was going to do 150,000...?)
And I've got to be really quick here, and so here's a quick summary of the last year. NaNoWriMo 2009 went great, and I ended up writing 101,548 words in 29 days! This was the second highest score in London - I was beaten by Joan of Quark who managed to write an incredible 120,000 words...
My OU course went OK. Didn't get quite as high a mark as I would have liked, but I did OK, and I now have a Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing to add to my name! I've decided to hold off on doing an MA, at least for the time being. For now, I'm still doing some OU courses, this time in computing (M150 and T175) - the role I currently perform at work is IT related.
Work itself has been, well, OK, and I decline to comment any further on that subject...
I'm now also on Twitter, and, if you wish you can follow me: @karlsgreen
And, now NaNoWriMo 2010 is upon us! After my success last year I'm aiming to beat my 2009 total as this year I'm aiming for a whopping 150,000 words! But this year is about much more than that. I've decided to get myself sponsored for charity, specifically, St Luke's Hospice in Harrow and Brent, who helped to look after my father shortly before he died last year. If you wish to sponsor me you can do so at:
http://www.justgiving.com/karlsgreen
Please do sponsor me as much as you can - even just a few pounds will be much appreciated by myself and St Luke's.
As for my novel itself, it's called "Thirty Days", and, funnily enough, it will be set during the thirty days of November! Each chapter will relate to one day, and I'll be publishing a chapter each day to my website! You'll find all of the details at:
http://www.karlsgreen.co.uk/thirtydays
My aim is to get each chapter up by approx. 6.30pm each day.
I've got the first two weeks booked off of work, and so during this time I'm going to have to get ahead of myself in terms of wordcount - ideally I need to do a minimum of 7,500 words per day for the first 14 days (even though each chapter will only be about 5,000 words). Let's see how I do with that...
The build up to this year's Nano has been great - I know that I and a lot of my friends are very excited at the prospect that that madness that is NaNoWriMo is about to start again! I also met a load of nice people at the two NaNoWriMo kick-off parties that we had in London, and we have a great community on the net, both on Facebook and Twitter. You can find the NaNoWriMo London group on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=6905365979
You can also follow us on Twitter by searching for #nanolondon, and by following @LondonNaNo
Well, it's just over 20 minutes to go now. I and a few other London Nanoers are going to be starting at midnight and seeing how much we can do before we all go to bed. Wish me luck everyone! (I have a feeling I'm going to need it. Why did I say I was going to do 150,000...?)
Saturday, 31 October 2009
NaNoWriMo 2009
OK, I know I haven't posted here for a little while. I'll do a proper update in the next few days or so. This is just a quick post to say that I will once again be taking part in NaNoWriMo. This will be my third year, and I'm going for my hattrick! I'm aiming for 100,000 words this year, and my novel this year will be called "The Day I Lost My Mind" (which certainly seems appropriate considering my target!).
It all kicks off tomorrow, and one of my aims will be to try and have more words written each day than I had at the same point last year. Which means I'll have to write over 5k tomorrow...
Wish me luck! (I think I'm going to need it...)
It all kicks off tomorrow, and one of my aims will be to try and have more words written each day than I had at the same point last year. Which means I'll have to write over 5k tomorrow...
Wish me luck! (I think I'm going to need it...)
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Update on the World of Karl...
OK, so once again I've left it a while to update this blog of mine. Sorry about that, but I did have a good reason. My father had been suffering from lung cancer and sadly, on 10th May, he passed away. We had the funeral very quickly, and I read out a poem that I had written a few months earlier about my realtionship with my Dad. He got to read it before he died, and he liked it.
And so it's been a difficult time for me and my family, but things have slowly got back to some sort of normality.
Obviously I've had more important things than my writing to worry about over the past few months, but I have still been doing some. I was able to get the last three of my Open University course assignments completed and submitted on time. I got good marks for the first two of these, including a really high one for the second one (which was written hurridly as it was due in within a week of my father passing away - although at the time it was good to have something else to focus on). The third one was the End of Course Assessment (ECA) which carries a significant amount of marks for the course as a whole - my excellect marks for the previous two assignments means that as long as I get at least 70% for my ECA, I'll get a "Good Pass" for the course overall, which is the second highest grade, and the highest grade that I can now achieve. I'll be getting my mark for the ECA back sometime in early August...
In April I took part in Script Frenzy, and, unlike last year, this year I was able to win it. I did just one radio script, which at some point I intend to do some more work on and submit to BBC Radio Four...
And talking of submissions, one of the assignments for my Open University course was to write a story aimed at a specific magazine. I wrote one aimed at The People's Friend and, as I got such a good mark for it, when I've got a moment I'm going to do a quick rewrite of it, and then submit it to them...
And finally, as mentioned in my last post, I've started a new novel writing inititive via Facebook. The aim is to write just 250 words each day, every day, for up to a year in order to get the first draft of a novel written. It's been running for just over two weeks, and so far it's been going pretty well - I have a rough idea of how the plot is going to go in my novel. I've also got several friends on Facebook giving it a go as well. We've recently had a vote on what to name the group, and the winner was "TorNoYe" which is short for "Tortoise Novelling Year" - the idea being that if NaNoWriMo is the hare, than this is the tortoise, and we all know how that story ended...
Anyway, if you want to check us out on Facebook the direct link is:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=93069867815&ref=mf
And so that's everything writing wise that I've been up to recently. With everything that's been going on in my life over the past few months some of the deadlines mentioned in my previous post have had to be dropped, and I also have a new one to add to them. And so here's a rundown on all of my deadlines:
I was planning to write a novel by writing and publishing on the web one chapter per week, with the novel's title being "Recall". Originally that was due to start yesterday, but will now be postponed (again) until later in the year. This is partly due to the fact that something new has come along (more on that shortly) and partly due to the fact that Geocities, where my site has been hosted for over ten years, is going to be axed later this year by Yahoo. And so I'm going to have to find a new home on the web. I think I know where I'm going to go, and once I've decided on that and done the migration "Recall" should be good to go.
My "novellette" idea, where I would write and self-publish a 20,000 word story, is also on hiatus at the moment. The original deadline for this was 31st May, but this would have clearly been impossible for me to meet given what else was happening in May this year. I still intend to do it, but it probably won't be until autumn. I'm going to aim to get it done in time for Christmas...
I was planning to finish the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel in July, but this will now need to be moved until September. However, I still intend to do the rewrites in October, before doing the next NaNoWriMo in November.
As for the final two things mentioned in my previous post, the unnamed complicated idea that I was planning to start work on in September is going to have to be postponed until 2010, but my plans to take part in the Writers' Forum competitions haven't changed.
And so I believe that covers everything that I mentioned in my previous post. But I now have one more thing to add to the list. Last week I read about this competition:
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/tag/war-of-the-words/
The aim is to write a sci-fi or fantasy novel that is at least 80,000 words long, with publication being the prize. The deadline for this is 20th August. And I've decided to go for it! My ECA consisted of the first 2,500 words of a fantasy novel, and so I'm going to use this a starting point. From tomorrow I'm going to aim to write at least 2,000 words per day, which means that by the end of July I should have a first draft of just over 80,000 words written. I'll then spend a couple of weeks frantically rewriting it, and writing a sypnosis, ready for it to be submitted. As I'm having to write it very quickly I know that I probably won't win, but that deadline will spur me on, and, as long as I meet it, I'll still have a novel that I can continue to improve on and then send out to agents and publishers. (Although, if I were to win...)
And so that's all of the news from the world of Karl. As you can see, over the next few months Karl is going to be a very busy Karl...
And so it's been a difficult time for me and my family, but things have slowly got back to some sort of normality.
Obviously I've had more important things than my writing to worry about over the past few months, but I have still been doing some. I was able to get the last three of my Open University course assignments completed and submitted on time. I got good marks for the first two of these, including a really high one for the second one (which was written hurridly as it was due in within a week of my father passing away - although at the time it was good to have something else to focus on). The third one was the End of Course Assessment (ECA) which carries a significant amount of marks for the course as a whole - my excellect marks for the previous two assignments means that as long as I get at least 70% for my ECA, I'll get a "Good Pass" for the course overall, which is the second highest grade, and the highest grade that I can now achieve. I'll be getting my mark for the ECA back sometime in early August...
In April I took part in Script Frenzy, and, unlike last year, this year I was able to win it. I did just one radio script, which at some point I intend to do some more work on and submit to BBC Radio Four...
And talking of submissions, one of the assignments for my Open University course was to write a story aimed at a specific magazine. I wrote one aimed at The People's Friend and, as I got such a good mark for it, when I've got a moment I'm going to do a quick rewrite of it, and then submit it to them...
And finally, as mentioned in my last post, I've started a new novel writing inititive via Facebook. The aim is to write just 250 words each day, every day, for up to a year in order to get the first draft of a novel written. It's been running for just over two weeks, and so far it's been going pretty well - I have a rough idea of how the plot is going to go in my novel. I've also got several friends on Facebook giving it a go as well. We've recently had a vote on what to name the group, and the winner was "TorNoYe" which is short for "Tortoise Novelling Year" - the idea being that if NaNoWriMo is the hare, than this is the tortoise, and we all know how that story ended...
Anyway, if you want to check us out on Facebook the direct link is:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=93069867815&ref=mf
And so that's everything writing wise that I've been up to recently. With everything that's been going on in my life over the past few months some of the deadlines mentioned in my previous post have had to be dropped, and I also have a new one to add to them. And so here's a rundown on all of my deadlines:
I was planning to write a novel by writing and publishing on the web one chapter per week, with the novel's title being "Recall". Originally that was due to start yesterday, but will now be postponed (again) until later in the year. This is partly due to the fact that something new has come along (more on that shortly) and partly due to the fact that Geocities, where my site has been hosted for over ten years, is going to be axed later this year by Yahoo. And so I'm going to have to find a new home on the web. I think I know where I'm going to go, and once I've decided on that and done the migration "Recall" should be good to go.
My "novellette" idea, where I would write and self-publish a 20,000 word story, is also on hiatus at the moment. The original deadline for this was 31st May, but this would have clearly been impossible for me to meet given what else was happening in May this year. I still intend to do it, but it probably won't be until autumn. I'm going to aim to get it done in time for Christmas...
I was planning to finish the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel in July, but this will now need to be moved until September. However, I still intend to do the rewrites in October, before doing the next NaNoWriMo in November.
As for the final two things mentioned in my previous post, the unnamed complicated idea that I was planning to start work on in September is going to have to be postponed until 2010, but my plans to take part in the Writers' Forum competitions haven't changed.
And so I believe that covers everything that I mentioned in my previous post. But I now have one more thing to add to the list. Last week I read about this competition:
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/tag/war-of-the-words/
The aim is to write a sci-fi or fantasy novel that is at least 80,000 words long, with publication being the prize. The deadline for this is 20th August. And I've decided to go for it! My ECA consisted of the first 2,500 words of a fantasy novel, and so I'm going to use this a starting point. From tomorrow I'm going to aim to write at least 2,000 words per day, which means that by the end of July I should have a first draft of just over 80,000 words written. I'll then spend a couple of weeks frantically rewriting it, and writing a sypnosis, ready for it to be submitted. As I'm having to write it very quickly I know that I probably won't win, but that deadline will spur me on, and, as long as I meet it, I'll still have a novel that I can continue to improve on and then send out to agents and publishers. (Although, if I were to win...)
And so that's all of the news from the world of Karl. As you can see, over the next few months Karl is going to be a very busy Karl...
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Setting Deadlines
OK, so it's been three months since I last posted here. That's very bad of me, I know. But for much of the first three months of 2009 I have been feeling pretty shattered, and not up for writing much. However, it's now time for me to start cranking things up a few gears.
My OU course has been going OK. I've got two more assignments to go, and then the End of Course Assessment. I've already done a draft of the next assignment, which isn't due in for about four weeks. The fifth assignment is due in around the middle of May, and the End of Course Assessment is due in by 5th June. And I've already signed up for next years course...
Tomorrow Script Frenzy officially starts (although I may not start until Thursday because I want to watch the football tomorrow). I'm going to be doing some radio scripts, with a serious intention of submitting one of them to BBC Radio 4 later on in the year. I've got my idea for what I'm going to write about, and I'm pretty excited by it! I won't reveal what it is yet, but I'm happy to announce the title of the main script: "The Trial of Timothy Hepton"
One of the reasons why I don't seem to be producing an awful lot in the way of writing at the moment is a lack of deadlines. NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy can help with that, but what I'm also going to do is announce a few things here, with deadlines, to try and force myself to get them done. And so here goes...
In my last blog entry I mentioned a new writing project that I was planning to start in either late January or early February. Well, I haven't started it yet, but I will do so in the near future. Because of my course deadlines, and something else I'll be doing first, it won't be for a little while yet, but it will definitely start on 20th June. What it will be is that I'll be writing a new novel at a pace of one chapter a week. I'll be releasing it as a series of freely downloadable PDFs, and setting up a forum somewhere so that people can discuss it - people can tell me if they love it or hate it, and discuss what they think will be happening next. However, what they say won't affect the plot as I already know what that's going to be! This novel already has a title which I can announce today: "Recall"
But, before that, by the 30th May, I'm determined to get myself into print! Well, self-publishing something anyway. I'm planning to write a long-short story, or, as I prefer to call it, a "novellette" (which is longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella or a novel). I'm aiming for around 20,000 words. If all goes to plan by 30th May it'll be available to purchase online at around £2.99 for the paperback version, or around 99p as an e-book. I still need to look into all of the processes involved with this and so those prices aren't final. I don't have a title for this one yet, so watch this space...
My NaNoWriMo novel (which is called "They Are Coming...") is still not completed, but I really want to get it done. And so I'm going to aim to get the first draft completed by 31st July, and the rewrites done by 31st October ready to start submitting it to agents and publishers. And just in time to start the next NaNoWriMo novel...
Also, (yes, there's more!) I'm planning to start a new novel writing initiative that everyone can take part in! I intend to run it through Facebook (and so if your a writing friend of mine on there you'll be hearing more about it soon) and start it on 6th June. I'm not going to reveal the details about that yet, but I'm pretty excited about it!
And then (nope, not finished yet!) I have an idea for another novel to write. I'm not going to reveal what it's about, but I think that it's a really good idea. However, it's also a complex and difficult idea - it will not be possible to get a draft done in a month like with NaNoWriMo. It will require a lot of planning and research beforehand, and so I'll be taking my time with it. But, if I can pull it off, it should be pretty special. I'll be starting work on this in September, but I'm not imposing any deadlines on this one as yet.
And finally, I want to start entering some competitions. There are a whole myriad of competitions out there, but I've selected the regular monthly competition in Writers' Forum magazine to aim for. All types of short stories can be entered into it, and it has a flexible word limit of 1,000 to 3,000 words. I subscribe to the magazine, and so it will cost me £7 to enter each month. The first prize each month is £300, second prize is £150, and third prize is £100. I intend to enter once each month from September for at least a year, aiming to win at least one prize, which will more than make up the entry fees, as well as getting the winning story published in the magazine. But whether I'll be any good to win a prize is another matter - I guess we'll be finding out nearer the time!
So, all in all, things are going to start to get busy. But I'll keep you all up to date with what I'm up to in this blog. (And I promise it won't be another three months until my next entry!)
My OU course has been going OK. I've got two more assignments to go, and then the End of Course Assessment. I've already done a draft of the next assignment, which isn't due in for about four weeks. The fifth assignment is due in around the middle of May, and the End of Course Assessment is due in by 5th June. And I've already signed up for next years course...
Tomorrow Script Frenzy officially starts (although I may not start until Thursday because I want to watch the football tomorrow). I'm going to be doing some radio scripts, with a serious intention of submitting one of them to BBC Radio 4 later on in the year. I've got my idea for what I'm going to write about, and I'm pretty excited by it! I won't reveal what it is yet, but I'm happy to announce the title of the main script: "The Trial of Timothy Hepton"
One of the reasons why I don't seem to be producing an awful lot in the way of writing at the moment is a lack of deadlines. NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy can help with that, but what I'm also going to do is announce a few things here, with deadlines, to try and force myself to get them done. And so here goes...
In my last blog entry I mentioned a new writing project that I was planning to start in either late January or early February. Well, I haven't started it yet, but I will do so in the near future. Because of my course deadlines, and something else I'll be doing first, it won't be for a little while yet, but it will definitely start on 20th June. What it will be is that I'll be writing a new novel at a pace of one chapter a week. I'll be releasing it as a series of freely downloadable PDFs, and setting up a forum somewhere so that people can discuss it - people can tell me if they love it or hate it, and discuss what they think will be happening next. However, what they say won't affect the plot as I already know what that's going to be! This novel already has a title which I can announce today: "Recall"
But, before that, by the 30th May, I'm determined to get myself into print! Well, self-publishing something anyway. I'm planning to write a long-short story, or, as I prefer to call it, a "novellette" (which is longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella or a novel). I'm aiming for around 20,000 words. If all goes to plan by 30th May it'll be available to purchase online at around £2.99 for the paperback version, or around 99p as an e-book. I still need to look into all of the processes involved with this and so those prices aren't final. I don't have a title for this one yet, so watch this space...
My NaNoWriMo novel (which is called "They Are Coming...") is still not completed, but I really want to get it done. And so I'm going to aim to get the first draft completed by 31st July, and the rewrites done by 31st October ready to start submitting it to agents and publishers. And just in time to start the next NaNoWriMo novel...
Also, (yes, there's more!) I'm planning to start a new novel writing initiative that everyone can take part in! I intend to run it through Facebook (and so if your a writing friend of mine on there you'll be hearing more about it soon) and start it on 6th June. I'm not going to reveal the details about that yet, but I'm pretty excited about it!
And then (nope, not finished yet!) I have an idea for another novel to write. I'm not going to reveal what it's about, but I think that it's a really good idea. However, it's also a complex and difficult idea - it will not be possible to get a draft done in a month like with NaNoWriMo. It will require a lot of planning and research beforehand, and so I'll be taking my time with it. But, if I can pull it off, it should be pretty special. I'll be starting work on this in September, but I'm not imposing any deadlines on this one as yet.
And finally, I want to start entering some competitions. There are a whole myriad of competitions out there, but I've selected the regular monthly competition in Writers' Forum magazine to aim for. All types of short stories can be entered into it, and it has a flexible word limit of 1,000 to 3,000 words. I subscribe to the magazine, and so it will cost me £7 to enter each month. The first prize each month is £300, second prize is £150, and third prize is £100. I intend to enter once each month from September for at least a year, aiming to win at least one prize, which will more than make up the entry fees, as well as getting the winning story published in the magazine. But whether I'll be any good to win a prize is another matter - I guess we'll be finding out nearer the time!
So, all in all, things are going to start to get busy. But I'll keep you all up to date with what I'm up to in this blog. (And I promise it won't be another three months until my next entry!)
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
A New Year's Message for 2009
Well, 2008 is nearly over, and I'm now four months into my writer's olympiad. I felt that this would be a good time to post some of my thoughts on the year just gone, and start looking ahead to the year to come.
2008 was the year that I came up with my four year plan to try and improve my status as a writer. I started my Open University course in September and so far it's gone OK. I did my first assignment at the end of October, and, whilst my mark wasn't mind shattering, I still did well, and I should be able to improve as the course goes on. I have my second assignment due in by Monday, and hopefully I can do a good job with it. I've also made some really nice friends through one of the OU groups on Facebook, which helps makes the course even more enjoyable.
I wished we had something like Facebook back when I was doing my degree at Aberystwyth. Towards the end we had a website called VirginStudent, which was an early social networking site. There were a few people from my Uni on there, and that was fun. But things would have been amazing with Facebook. Just when you think technology and the internet have given you everything that you could possibly think of, along comes something else to amaze you. It's been great to find old school friends on there, and for keeping in touch with everyone. And it's also great for making new friends too.
November saw NaNoWriMo and, whilst I failed to reach my original target of 125,000 words, I did make it to an impressive 80,000 words, and I'll be going on to finish that novel soon. And, like last year, I met some really nice people along the way (and, again, Facebook played its part here!).
On the work front it's been an... interesting year, which is about all I can really say... Next year probably won't be too eventful, although I am due to switch departments around November (it's standard practice where I work to switch jobs every two years or so). Things should be fairly quiet, until 2010...
The biggest story of 2008 has been the credit crunch. I'm not so badly affected as I'm quite comfortable financially, but there are many others that have not been so lucky. Woolworths is probably the best example. I still find it hard to believe that it's about to disappear from our high streets. Over the years I've bought so much stuff from there - everything from kitchen utensils, to stationery, to DVD's and computer games. My local branch is due to close forever on Friday, but, because of the fact that I'm working this week, I may not be able to get in there again before the doors close for good. And you've got to feel for the 27,000 people across the country who are losing their jobs because of it - this is a terrible time of year to be made redundant, and especially in this economic climate.
(And there have also been some pretty big political stories in 2008 but, because of work, I prefer to avoid discussing them in my blog.)
Looking ahead to 2009, whilst I'll hopefully be able to keep my bank account in credit, I'll be wanting to step up a gear with my writing. As well as finishing off my NaNoWriMo novel and the OU course I'm currently on, I'm planning to take part in Script Frenzy in April - the aim of this is to write 100 pages of scripts in a month. Last year I failed due to illness, but this year I'm out for revenge! I already have a rough idea of what I'm going to write about. And, on top of all this, I'm planning a new writing project that's due to start in either late January or (more likely) early February. It should be pretty good if I can pull it off, and it'll require a lot of hard work, but I think you'll like it...
Overall, whilst everything in 2008 may not have gone as I would have liked it to, and despite the credit crunch and looming recession, I'm fairly optimistic for 2009. The bills will be paid and I'll still be able to do all of the things that I'd like to do. Even with the financial situation as it is I'll still have a roof over my head and food to eat, and there are many others in the world who are far worse off. And my writing will hopefully go from strength to strength.
But, more important than all of that are my friends - friends from school, friends from college, friends from Uni, friends from work, friends from Harrow, friends from NaNoWriMo, friends from Facebook, and all my other friends. Apart from my family, you are the most important things to me, and it's great knowing you all. Whether your 2008 was good or bad, whether you're looking to the year ahead with enthusiasm or trepidation, I hope that all of your 2009's are fantastic. We can all make it a great year.
Let's all make this year one to remember, and for all the right reasons. Let's all work hard to make our dreams come true.
And let's do it together...
2008 was the year that I came up with my four year plan to try and improve my status as a writer. I started my Open University course in September and so far it's gone OK. I did my first assignment at the end of October, and, whilst my mark wasn't mind shattering, I still did well, and I should be able to improve as the course goes on. I have my second assignment due in by Monday, and hopefully I can do a good job with it. I've also made some really nice friends through one of the OU groups on Facebook, which helps makes the course even more enjoyable.
I wished we had something like Facebook back when I was doing my degree at Aberystwyth. Towards the end we had a website called VirginStudent, which was an early social networking site. There were a few people from my Uni on there, and that was fun. But things would have been amazing with Facebook. Just when you think technology and the internet have given you everything that you could possibly think of, along comes something else to amaze you. It's been great to find old school friends on there, and for keeping in touch with everyone. And it's also great for making new friends too.
November saw NaNoWriMo and, whilst I failed to reach my original target of 125,000 words, I did make it to an impressive 80,000 words, and I'll be going on to finish that novel soon. And, like last year, I met some really nice people along the way (and, again, Facebook played its part here!).
On the work front it's been an... interesting year, which is about all I can really say... Next year probably won't be too eventful, although I am due to switch departments around November (it's standard practice where I work to switch jobs every two years or so). Things should be fairly quiet, until 2010...
The biggest story of 2008 has been the credit crunch. I'm not so badly affected as I'm quite comfortable financially, but there are many others that have not been so lucky. Woolworths is probably the best example. I still find it hard to believe that it's about to disappear from our high streets. Over the years I've bought so much stuff from there - everything from kitchen utensils, to stationery, to DVD's and computer games. My local branch is due to close forever on Friday, but, because of the fact that I'm working this week, I may not be able to get in there again before the doors close for good. And you've got to feel for the 27,000 people across the country who are losing their jobs because of it - this is a terrible time of year to be made redundant, and especially in this economic climate.
(And there have also been some pretty big political stories in 2008 but, because of work, I prefer to avoid discussing them in my blog.)
Looking ahead to 2009, whilst I'll hopefully be able to keep my bank account in credit, I'll be wanting to step up a gear with my writing. As well as finishing off my NaNoWriMo novel and the OU course I'm currently on, I'm planning to take part in Script Frenzy in April - the aim of this is to write 100 pages of scripts in a month. Last year I failed due to illness, but this year I'm out for revenge! I already have a rough idea of what I'm going to write about. And, on top of all this, I'm planning a new writing project that's due to start in either late January or (more likely) early February. It should be pretty good if I can pull it off, and it'll require a lot of hard work, but I think you'll like it...
Overall, whilst everything in 2008 may not have gone as I would have liked it to, and despite the credit crunch and looming recession, I'm fairly optimistic for 2009. The bills will be paid and I'll still be able to do all of the things that I'd like to do. Even with the financial situation as it is I'll still have a roof over my head and food to eat, and there are many others in the world who are far worse off. And my writing will hopefully go from strength to strength.
But, more important than all of that are my friends - friends from school, friends from college, friends from Uni, friends from work, friends from Harrow, friends from NaNoWriMo, friends from Facebook, and all my other friends. Apart from my family, you are the most important things to me, and it's great knowing you all. Whether your 2008 was good or bad, whether you're looking to the year ahead with enthusiasm or trepidation, I hope that all of your 2009's are fantastic. We can all make it a great year.
Let's all make this year one to remember, and for all the right reasons. Let's all work hard to make our dreams come true.
And let's do it together...
Sunday, 7 December 2008
NaNoWriMo 2008: The Post Mortem
It's now been a week since NaNoWriMo 2008 came to a close where I reached the dizzy heights of 80,000 words! But how did it all turn out, and what went wrong with my original bid for 125,000 words?
In order to get 125k I had to write 5k on each of the days that I wasn't working. Day One went OK, with my not only getting 5,038 words on the board, but also having time to attend the London kick-off party. However, Day One would turn out to be the only day that I would be on target for 125k.
Things started to go downhill from Day Two as I once again found things to distract myself: Games (both those already on my computer, and found via the internet), YouTube (especially clips of "Whose Line Is It Anyway"), and TV. There were some good days though, with a couple more 5k days before I went back to work, but 125k for the month was rapidly becoming a distant dream.
And so I set myself a more realistic target of 80k - at the time that I set it I only needed 2.5k a day to reach it, and so it felt much more achieveable
As for the story itself I did have a rough plan for the plot when I started out. That plan was thrown out on Day Two as the characters took over and the story started writing itself! But I don't see that as a bad thing - it's a great feeling to be in that creative zone. However, it also meant that I had no idea how long it would be before I would reach "The End".
Two characters in particular have taken over the show. My novel is about people starting University, and in the original plan I had four characters living in the same flat in a Halls of Residence. I felt that four was a bit small for a flat (I had about eight in mine in real life), and so I settled on having six which felt more realistic - which meant that I had to create two characters very quickly. But rather than just have a couple of quiet characters that didn't really do much I gave them both their own sub-plots, which have slowly taken over a large chunk of the novel. The second-to-last chapter that I've written so far was focussed on a key day in the lives of these two characters, with the main character only making a very small appearance. The chapter culminates in a very big moment for one of these characters, which I enjoyed writing. But the chapter was huge, about three times the size of the others in the novel so far, but it's one of my favourites. Unfortunately, I am going to have to change the names of these two characters when I come to finish the book - when I created them I needed a couple of characters quickly, and let's just say that their names became a in-joke that's gone very badly wrong!
And, talking of in-jokes, there is one in there. Anyone who's familiar with both me and my writing should be able to spot it quite easily once they eventually get to read it...
I think the story's been going quite well and I pretty much know what's going to be happening to all of my main characters and what all the plot points that I have to get through are. But it is huge - I'm at 80k and haven't finished yet, this will easily go beyond 100k, I have six viewpoint characters each with their own story arc, and I have a huge supporting cast who I've lost count of. The last chapter I wrote felt like a good place to take a break as all of the characters are at key points in their story arcs, and I can't wait to get on and write what happens next...
Because of the time I put into NaNoWriMo I've fallen behind on my OU course, and so this month I'll be concentrating on that. But I'll probably go back to my novel sometime around January. Once I've got the first draft done I've then got the huge task of doing the rewrites, which is going to take a very long time...
And so, overall, whilst I did fall short of my 125k target, I'm still classing NaNoWriMo as a success. I managed to get my revised target of 80k done, beating my previous total for NaNoWriMo by 29k. And, importantly, I like what it is I have written, and I feel that it has huge potential. I just have to sit down and finish it!
But I'm already looking ahead to NaNoWriMo 2009. I'd really like to get 100k done in a month...
In order to get 125k I had to write 5k on each of the days that I wasn't working. Day One went OK, with my not only getting 5,038 words on the board, but also having time to attend the London kick-off party. However, Day One would turn out to be the only day that I would be on target for 125k.
Things started to go downhill from Day Two as I once again found things to distract myself: Games (both those already on my computer, and found via the internet), YouTube (especially clips of "Whose Line Is It Anyway"), and TV. There were some good days though, with a couple more 5k days before I went back to work, but 125k for the month was rapidly becoming a distant dream.
And so I set myself a more realistic target of 80k - at the time that I set it I only needed 2.5k a day to reach it, and so it felt much more achieveable
As for the story itself I did have a rough plan for the plot when I started out. That plan was thrown out on Day Two as the characters took over and the story started writing itself! But I don't see that as a bad thing - it's a great feeling to be in that creative zone. However, it also meant that I had no idea how long it would be before I would reach "The End".
Two characters in particular have taken over the show. My novel is about people starting University, and in the original plan I had four characters living in the same flat in a Halls of Residence. I felt that four was a bit small for a flat (I had about eight in mine in real life), and so I settled on having six which felt more realistic - which meant that I had to create two characters very quickly. But rather than just have a couple of quiet characters that didn't really do much I gave them both their own sub-plots, which have slowly taken over a large chunk of the novel. The second-to-last chapter that I've written so far was focussed on a key day in the lives of these two characters, with the main character only making a very small appearance. The chapter culminates in a very big moment for one of these characters, which I enjoyed writing. But the chapter was huge, about three times the size of the others in the novel so far, but it's one of my favourites. Unfortunately, I am going to have to change the names of these two characters when I come to finish the book - when I created them I needed a couple of characters quickly, and let's just say that their names became a in-joke that's gone very badly wrong!
And, talking of in-jokes, there is one in there. Anyone who's familiar with both me and my writing should be able to spot it quite easily once they eventually get to read it...
I think the story's been going quite well and I pretty much know what's going to be happening to all of my main characters and what all the plot points that I have to get through are. But it is huge - I'm at 80k and haven't finished yet, this will easily go beyond 100k, I have six viewpoint characters each with their own story arc, and I have a huge supporting cast who I've lost count of. The last chapter I wrote felt like a good place to take a break as all of the characters are at key points in their story arcs, and I can't wait to get on and write what happens next...
Because of the time I put into NaNoWriMo I've fallen behind on my OU course, and so this month I'll be concentrating on that. But I'll probably go back to my novel sometime around January. Once I've got the first draft done I've then got the huge task of doing the rewrites, which is going to take a very long time...
And so, overall, whilst I did fall short of my 125k target, I'm still classing NaNoWriMo as a success. I managed to get my revised target of 80k done, beating my previous total for NaNoWriMo by 29k. And, importantly, I like what it is I have written, and I feel that it has huge potential. I just have to sit down and finish it!
But I'm already looking ahead to NaNoWriMo 2009. I'd really like to get 100k done in a month...
Sunday, 30 November 2008
The End (at least for now)
Yesterday I had my best ever NaNoWriMo writing day. I started off quite well, getting about 2,500 words done before taking a break. However, it wasn't all going to be plain sailing. I was meant to be going to my parents for dinner, but shortly before I left I got a call saying that they had to call an ambulance for my dad (he hasn't been well recently - I won't dwell on the details here). And so I went along to the hospital with them whilst he got checked out (and he was still joking around like he normally does). Once it became clear that they were going to keep him in overnight I came back home, much later than I would have done if he hadn't had to go to hospital. (He's been let out today, so hopefully all should be well there).
I then continued to write my novel, going on late into the night. I was still writing the same chapter that I had been writing over the past few days, as it had now turned into a behemoth of a chapter! But I really enjoyed writing it, and it's one of my favourite parts of the novel so far. I was able to finish the chapter late last night, having written a total of 5,633 words yesterday, which gave me a total of 78,177 words. And that just left another 1,823 words to write to hit my 80k target. (Incidentally, the length of that chapter came to a whopping 9,606 words! I may be able to cut it down a little when I come to rewrite it, but even then it's going to be huge!)
And so today I quickly wrote the final words that I needed to hit my target. A lot of them do ramble on a bit whilst I drag the word score up, but this is NaNoWriMo and so that doesn't matter. I wrote a further 2,027 words today, giving me a final score of 80,204 words, comfortably achieving my target. Yay me!
That said, whenever I cut and paste my novel into the validator on the NaNoWriMo website, it counts the words differently to how my word processor does, and it adds about another 200 onto my total, and so my official, validated score is 80,416 words. However, whichever one is correct, I can say that I wrote 80,000 words of a novel in just one month!
My novel is far from finished though and I still have a lot of plot points to get through, but I'm going to take a break from it for a little while. However, I will go back and finish it, as I really want to get to the end of this novel eventually.
And so let's take a final look at the graph:
I then continued to write my novel, going on late into the night. I was still writing the same chapter that I had been writing over the past few days, as it had now turned into a behemoth of a chapter! But I really enjoyed writing it, and it's one of my favourite parts of the novel so far. I was able to finish the chapter late last night, having written a total of 5,633 words yesterday, which gave me a total of 78,177 words. And that just left another 1,823 words to write to hit my 80k target. (Incidentally, the length of that chapter came to a whopping 9,606 words! I may be able to cut it down a little when I come to rewrite it, but even then it's going to be huge!)
And so today I quickly wrote the final words that I needed to hit my target. A lot of them do ramble on a bit whilst I drag the word score up, but this is NaNoWriMo and so that doesn't matter. I wrote a further 2,027 words today, giving me a final score of 80,204 words, comfortably achieving my target. Yay me!
That said, whenever I cut and paste my novel into the validator on the NaNoWriMo website, it counts the words differently to how my word processor does, and it adds about another 200 onto my total, and so my official, validated score is 80,416 words. However, whichever one is correct, I can say that I wrote 80,000 words of a novel in just one month!
My novel is far from finished though and I still have a lot of plot points to get through, but I'm going to take a break from it for a little while. However, I will go back and finish it, as I really want to get to the end of this novel eventually.
And so let's take a final look at the graph:
I'll be doing a post-mortem on my NaNoWriMo 2008 next week, and so look out for that. But for now I'm going to take a well earned rest!
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Another delayed update...
Yes, I know I've been a bit crap about updating the blog during NaNoWriMo this year, but that's because I've been too busy working on my novel. But here's how things have been going since my last post.
Days nineteen and twenty didn't go so well as I just did 527 and 995 words respectively. Things improved on day twenty-one with a further 2,540 words, bringing me up to 54,132 words in total.
Things dipped on day twenty-two with just 1,393 words, but then on days twenty-three to twenty-six I had my best sustained period of days, with 3,539, 3,496, 2,973, and 3,037 words written on each of those days, taking me up to 68,570 words. Part of that was that I was able to get a lot of writing done during my lunchbreaks at work - with no access to Facebook or games I had little to distract me, allowing me to get a lot written, sometimes as much as 1,500 words in 45 mins. I then followed those up with good writing sessions at home. Things were looking good for reaching 80,000 words by Sunday, as I only had to write an average of 2,858 words a day for four days, which is less than I had been writing on the preceding four days.
But writing at this pace does have its costs, and tiredness was starting to set in. Day twenty-seven saw 1,485 words, and day twenty-eight (yesterday) saw 2,489 words, meaning I'm currently on 72,544 words with just two days to go. I'm planning to break these down into three 2,500 word writing sessions. I'm hoping to get two of those done today, leaving just one for tomorrow. But the bare minimum is to get at least one done today.
I'm also in the middle of writing what is turning out to be one of the longest chapters in the novel - it's at about 4k now and there's still more to go! But it is a key point in the novel and will probably be one of my favourite chapters in it. The only thing is, it's about one of the subplots concerning one of the secondary characters, and the main character doesn't even appear in it. But he's got plenty more coming up for him later...
So, let's take a look at the graph:
I'm sure you can see that it's pretty self-explanatory and don't need me to tell you what all of the lines mean!
Right, I'm off to get cracking on the first of those writing sessions. I can see that 80k is still within reach, I just have to stretch a little for it...
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Day Eighteen: Victory!
No time for a detailed post today, so I won't be able to talk about the graph as promised. Yesterday I tried to reach 50k, but failed because I was so tired (I'm always really tired on my first day back at work after leave). But I've made up for that today as a little earlier this evening I reached 50,070 words, making me a NaNoWriMo winner for the second time! Yay me!
I think it's safe for me to say that there is now no chance of my reaching 125k by the end of the month, but I'm still going to go for 80k. Although that may not be enough to finish my novel, and so I might still be writing it into December...
I think it's safe for me to say that there is now no chance of my reaching 125k by the end of the month, but I'm still going to go for 80k. Although that may not be enough to finish my novel, and so I might still be writing it into December...
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