NaNoWriMo - Summary

Title: The Fractured Few
Genre: Scottish Speculative Fiction with a bit of adventure and history thrown in.
Pages: 174
Words: 50,111
Paragraphs: 1,184
Chapters: 8
Days to write: 26

Next stage: to hide it away for a month and try not to think about it. I love rewriting, but not immediately after the first draft of something. For the redraft I'll address the issues I know exist - such as uneven pacing, crazy inner logic, stories randomly introduced, flaky character backstories, and the fact that I kept forgetting one character name and calling her simply 'NAME.'

I also realised - well into the book, about 30,000 words in - that I was writing this more like a screenplay than a book. Brevity appeared to be the order of the day, and not in a good way. It played havoc with the pace, which felt rushed and like I was over-eager to tell the story (which, of course, I was). Every description was brief and to the point, I wasn't telling the reader the inner thoughts of the characters, I wasn't describing the smells, sounds, seasons. I shook it off and started writing the sort of thing I would read, but it's going to take a lot of rewriting.

Good thing about that, of course, is that with all the fleshing out the novel will definitely pass 200 pages, but hopefully a fair number more.

Can't wait! I love rewriting.

Congratulations to everyone else who completed NaNoWriMo!

Winner!

Finished NaNoWriMo 2008 this afternoon.


Thank goodness.

I will blog about this properly tomorrow, when my fingers no longer hurt. Now, however, I'm off for a bath followed by a night of celebrating, haggis, wine and cake. x

4 days, 9,000 words...

Ooh. Only 4 days left of NaNoWriMo 2008.

I'm sitting on about 41,000 words just now, so have a little over 2,000 a day to complete. Should be on track to 'win' it with time to spare.

The question is: will it actually be finished? To be honest, I'm not too sure.

I certainly don't feel like I'm on the final stretch of the book. The story feels half told, not at an end, and I keep opening doors in the plot rather than closing them.

In other news, congratulations to all you Red Planet finalists this year! Good show indeed.

Angry Fish and the Vampire

Angry Fish and the Vampire, originally uploaded by Laura A.

Another in the series. Maybe I will start another blog for these weird drawings of mine...

Christmas Shorts

Virgin are running a competition for people out their to recreate their own versions of famous Christmas films, to be between 60 and 90 seconds in length.

"We’re looking for mini versions of classic Christmas films or those films that are so associated with Christmas that it just wouldn’t be the same without them."

Deadline for uploading films to the Virgin Youtube group is the 1st December, 2008.

Might be quite nice! I have so many favourite Christmassy films though, as I've mentioned here in the distant past, how am I going to pick a favourite?

Mark Gatiss in Edinburgh

Last night I went along to Waterstones in Edinburgh's West End to hear Mark Gatiss talk.

He was lovely: very charming, funny, and nice to the audience. He made eye contact, he moved the podium that had been put between him and the audience, and he was pleasant in the signing queue. He also looked very dapper and had great socks on.

He was primarily there due to the launch of his new Lucifer Box novel Black Butterfly, but the interview he gave wasn't just about that. He talked about loads actually, with a few "off the record" bits.

I arrived way too early, which fortunately meant I got a good seat, right in his line of sight. I kept thinking he was looking at me while he was talking though, and eventually felt compelled to ask a question. Those who know me know that this is a Big Deal, as I am horribly nervous about speaking in public.

I asked him what he preferred: writing for the stage, page or screen, and whether he liked working on his own, as part of a team, or with a script editor. He said he likes screenwriting most of all, as in his experience the turnaround is quicker. His (brilliant sounding) Crooked House programme was only 18 months in gestation, with just 4 months for the production to completion. He also said that he found writing quite a lonely experience, and was happy to work with others.

Other facts included:

• If he were the Doctor, his idea companion would be Cillian Murphy, but that they might not get out the tardis much and it would be a bit too domestic...
• His advice for new writers is to keep going, persevere
  
• He makes sure he writes ever day, and carries a notepad wherever he goes
• He loves Sherlock Homes, and John Le Carre's 'the spy who came in from the cold'
  

I went to see him on the strength of his television credits - I've just ordered the Vesuvius Club from the library.

Photo on the BBC website

My swan photo on the bbc, originally uploaded by Laura A.

Hooray!

A photo I recently took in Inverleith Park is on the BBC site now.

www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/outdoors/galleries/gallery059/09/#...

I'm far happier about this than I probably should be.

Angry Fish

Angry Fish, originally uploaded by Laura A.

Don't think I'll ever be an artist, eh?

Write or Die

Dr Wicked has created something which may force you to write.

It's called Write or Die, and it's quite a nice wee program, actually.

You tell it how many words you want to type, and in what time frame. It counts them down as you go, and if you pause for too long it gets angry with you. Hate to imagine what it does if you don't make it! You can copy and paste your text after you're finished. The only downside is the loss of spellchecker or formatting, but then that's easily remedied if you paste it into a document.

I've used it for a pesky 500 word chunk, and I'm just going to go try 1,000 in it. Maybe set myself a half hour goal. Will reach the 30k mark today for NaNoWriMo, by hook or by crook!

NaNoWriMo - Halfway Home

I have FINALLY passed the 25,000 word mark for NaNoWriMo.

I'm on about 26k just now, and starting to feel like it's back on track. I had a couple of days last week where I didn't achieve the daily word goal, and it quickly felt like the whole thing was slipping. However, if I can have a few more days like this then I'll be fine again.

Keeping me going at the moment: Hot Chocolate Oranges made with soy milk, from Costa.



Delicious.

Under the Influence

Many moons ago now (1996?) I went to see Terry Pratchett at the Edinburgh Book Festival. He talked for an hour about this and that, then held a long, hot book signing for his fans. As this was in the days before the festival was quite as sleek as it is now, the organisers had him sitting in the sun in the middle of Charlotte Square. I felt so sorry for him, and feel worse now that I realise giving him an ex-library book to sign was a bad idea.

I digress: at his talk, Pratchett spoke of his amazement at something a fan and new writer said to him. They had met at a party or somesuch, and she was expressing her opinions on reading. To read any fiction whilst writing, she said, was a terrible idea. You might pick up someone else's voice or ideas, and put them in your own work. She had been taught this by someone else, and Pratchett was dismayed by it. He passed on his feelings to us: he thought it was dreadful advice. To stop reading just because you're writing is madess, and reading lots can make you a better writer, not a worse one. *

This advice was echoed in one of last week's NaNoWriMo pep talks by author Phillip Pullman, who said:

'The last thing I'd say to anyone who wants to write a novel is not actually a piece of advice, but a question. It's this: are you a reader? Every novelist I know—every novelist I've ever heard of—is, or was, a passionate reader. I don't doubt that someone with determination and energy, but who didn't read for pleasure, who only read for information, could actually write a whole novel if they set their mind to it and followed a few rules and guidelines; but would it be worth reading?'

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm a reader. I read all the time, and can't actually remember a time when I didn't. When my brother was born I was two years old, and I still remember the books I was given as a sort of 'we still love you' present from my aunt. I started reading my dad's books when I was about 7 or 8, mixing in his science fiction and fantasy volumes with the likes of Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and the Chalet School books. I'm not going to pretend that I particularly understood some of them: - LOTR was a blur, and I thought the Colour of Magic was 'naughty' - but I loved the words. I loved staying up late and reading by the street light outside my bedroom (when I was supposed to be asleep). I loved getting a bit older and being able to discuss books with my friends, relishing the stories and the characters who were so important to us.

I do wonder, occasionally, if I write like an author I'm reading. Was the party lady right? This week I've read Stephen King's The Dark Tower: Gunslinger, The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women (please, please read this, it's the best selection of short stories I've ever read), and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Doll's House. While I love the idea that I'm writing a bit like Ursula Le Guinn, Margaret Atwood or Neil Gaiman, I know it's false thinking. I believe that I've found my own voice as a writer and that it won't change through reading more - whether it's a good or bad voice and one which can shout about the crowd remains to be seen.

I do think, though, that I'm easily moved by books. It's not that I want to replicate the ideas themselves - I have no desire to go write a SF western or the like - but I do find the scope of some books, the characters created, the language used, and the care with which the words have been put on the page to be inspiring. Will I write like that one day? Will I inspire someone, make them cry, make them laugh - just with my words? I really hope so.

Whether I do or don't I will continue to read, though, and will hope that this makes me a better writer.

*12 year old memory, paraphrased. It was the essence of what he was saying, I'm sure.

Memoir on a Postcard

If the word count involved in NaNoWriMo is getting you down, you should take a look at the Guardian Memoir on a Postcard competition.

Six Word memoirs - no more.

Here's mine.


I think they're only added to the gallery randomly, but if it gets there I'll post a direct link...

Love at first sight

The protagonist in my NaNoWriMo effort appears to have just become smitten with a rather dashing young man she met on a stagecoach.

I wasn't expecting it to happen at all. There she was, minding her own business and walking down a quiet street when WHOOSH, a coach came hurtling towards her. She did the only thing natural, and jumped from its path and into wet leaves at the roadside.

Well, the coach stopped and out the man came. It was his eyes that drew her in: it seems she liked the depths she could sense in those hazel beauties.

I don't even know his name yet. He's giving her a lift to St Giles, I hope he turns out to be a good guy. She's had a lot of trauma in the book so far.

Fingers crossed.

Scottish BAFTA awards, 2008

The 2008 Bafta Scotland Awards ceremony was held on Sunday 9th November.

I didn't see any press coverage on this (was there any?) but the winners and nomination list is on the Bafta Scotland website in full.

I managed to see a few of the films nominated at this years EIFF, but not really enough of them to make any decisions on the list.



Brian Cox won Acting Performance in Film for his role in the Escapist. I had the chance to see this up at the Ballerina Ballroom (photo shows him introducing the film) - he was there and apparently loved the spirit of the festival so much that we were all invited to sign up for a free screening of the film. I really enjoyed it - not the kind of film I'd normally watch, but it was great. Part of that may have been the atmosphere of the whole festival, but I'd recommend it.

Summer won the Feature Film category - this was a film I saw at this year's EIFF. There were some great performances in the film, but I haven't seen the two it was competing against in this category (Stone of Destiny and Outpost) so I have no idea if it was 'better' than either of them.

GTA4 won, rather predictably, the multimedia category.

The New Talent awards were held back in March - some of the same films popped up there as in this ceremony.

On another note,, I never did blog about the Ballerina Ballroom. Anyone interested in that?

Swanning around

Not much to blog about today as I've been freelancing the last day and a half, so I thought I'd put up some photos I took in the park this afternoon at lunch.

I am plodding on with NaNoWriMo, thankfully, and have nothing but writing to do the next couple of days, so I should get back up to speed soon.

I just wrote the word "veritable" in my novel though, which I find rather exciting, if not a little odd. Hmm.

Stalled

My efforts for NaNoWriMo sank to the bottom of the ocean of things to do at the weekend, and I managed something like 300 words. Pathetic!

I had a bit of an asthma thing on Saturday, leaving me shaking and useless yesterday. It forced me to have a nice quiet sunday: lying on the couch, watching a film, having a long bath and reading The Gunslinger. A nice relaxing day then, but not helpful for the old word count.

I'm doing a bit of freelance work today so will have to write this evening. I am determined to do at least 2,000 words, and I know what I'm going to write about, so hopefully it will work. I hope you've all had far more inspiring and constructive weekends than I.

Also, here's a nice interview about Roald Dahl at the Guardian. Makes me want to give people random treats more often.

She gasped, he gasped, I gasped, we gasped

I am using the word "gasped" FAR TOO MUCH in my book for NaNoWriMo. I can't even begin to imagine how many times I've used it so far. I realise I could find this out by doing a simple "find" but I think I'd be dismayed by the number returned.

Every character gasps at something. Maybe it's all just too astonishing.

I am trying my best not to edit too much as I go along, so instead of fixing this I'm just leaving as is until the rewrite. Nobody has gasped in a few pages, at least.

I am also driving myself crazy by writing 'I nthe' instead of 'in the.' This is an old problem of mine, stemming back to a bad few months as a typist, where I would audio type 95 words a minute. I used to make myself furious, and I'm doing it again - repeatedly typing the wrong thing. I'm similarly getting really bad at capitalising words: I try to do it, just don't hit shift properly. Time and time again.

Anyone else have annoying things they can't help but write?

NaNoWriMo: Day Six

I'm sitting on 11,611 words at the moment, after 6 days of writing. I've been averaging around 2,000 happy words a day, but drawn a bit of a blank today.

This may have something to do with the fact that yesterday I brutally murdered two of my main characters. They didn't do anything to deserve it, and the person who killed them was sarcastic in her bloodshed, so it was a bit wearing, really.

Only managed 800 words today so far. It felt like I was dragging myself away from the murder scene too slowly, so I put on my coat and headed out to the botanics.

Pretty, yes?



Was good fun until the squirrels and pigeons ganged up on me and chased me out.

A History of Scotland

Sunday 9th November sees the launch of a programme which is being much hyped north of the border.

A History of Scotland is being shown on BBC One Scotland at 9pm, the first episode of a five part series. Another five episodes are to be shown next year. Looks like the rest of the UK are not going to be treated to this (why, BBC, why?! If there was a History of England, Ireland or Wales series I should certainly hope to see it up here!), not sure if it will be on the iPlayer or on national TV at a later date though.

It looks like being a 360 concept, with tv, radio and interactive elements, as well as events to mark the occasion.

I'm a history hobbyest and really looking forward to this, looks at first glance like a great concept. I particularly look forward to Andrew's comments after the show...

UPDATE: Looks like the rest of the UK will get to see this in January. Recommended.

NaNoWriMo - To the Dark Gods of Writing

To the Dark Gods of Writing,

I offer to you the cool air from my cold flat, that you might be a nice balanced temperature in the bowels of the earth and not too hot.

I offer to you the noise of the traffic from outside my window, that you might feel you have company and not be alone with each other.

I offer to you the cough which has plagued me for the last few weeks, that you might clear your throat and expell the dusty air I'm sure you breath.

I offer to you our dirty dishes, that you might taste the remnants of a good meal and have plates to eat from in the future.

I offer to you my procrastination techniques, which are many in number and varied in difficulty.

Finally, I offer to you my backache, that you might know pain and be reminded of humanity.

These things I offer in return for warm hands, a quick mind and speedy fingers which might aid me this month.

Cheers, Laura
(An entry of mine onto the Forums of NaNoWriMo)

Word count so far this week:
Monday: 2,062 words
Tuesday: 3,003 words

Have really enjoyed writing this the last couple of days. I feel a could do a lot more today, and maybe will this afternoon if I get the rest of my tasks done! Have to do a redraft of a script and want to work a bit more on my feature. I'm pleased I've managed to build up a bit of a buffer for the book, as it were, although I'm happy writing more than 50,000 words if the book needs it. I just thought it would be nice to have a day in lieu, in case of emergency.

Hope you're all getting on well! Catherine has posted an extract of her novel for everyone to read. Looking forward to the author search working on the site so I can start adding people as buddies. If you want to add me, I've made the NaNoWriMo link on my sidebar an active link to my profile page, so you can just add me from that.

FieldReport

Saw this on the Guardian Books blog, and thought it might be of interest.

FieldReport.com is, in a nutshell, a true-life story writing website. You write something that happened to you (must be true), and it's reviewed by the rest of the site community. The twist is that there are some massive prizes on offer: from the $4,000 silver prize to the grand prize of $250,000.

To submit a story you first have to review 5 others, and this is where the site feels rather addictive. I've reviewed half a dozen since signing up, and the quality so far has been good. You get to rate and add comments to the stories, and if you get a few helpful comments before the story is officially "scored" then there's the option of amending it.

The stories themselves are assigned categories, ranging from breaking news to oddball events. Each month a story will win a category, and these entries are put forward for the grand prize. Stories are to be between 200 and 2,000 words long.

Next submission deadline is November 15 for the December 1 qualifying contests. This is the last opportunity to go for the Grand prize this year too. If you have a short, true-life story, then this could be the competition for you.

NaNoWriMo - Day Two

Up to 3,517 words today. Hooray! That's 1,816 today.

Also made up a little cover for the book, which I'm quite pleased with. It's just for fun, of course, but it's a photo I took a while back and it suits the tone I'm hoping to have in the book.

I've realised today that I don't have a particularly clear theme for the book. I need to try and give it some thought soon. I've probably injected one into the text and just not thought about it.

Hope everyone else is having a good first weekend of NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo - Day One

Well, I have successfully completed Day One of NaNoWriMo 2008.

1,701 words for the day. Feels quite nice, and I'm happy with what I've written so far. Must admit to a lot of editing as I went, which I know a lot of people think is a bad idea, but it's more my way to fix or add to sequences as I think of them and then review the altered result. If I thought of a change and then didn't make it, it would niggle away for ages.

I've installed a little widget in the sidebar of the blog which should keep track of my word count as I go. I've also changed my profile pic for the month: since one of the NaNoWriMo symbols is a "viking" helmet I have styled myself as a bit of a valkyrie. Why not, eh?

So far I know that Catherine, Lara, Elinor and Stet are doing this. Anyone else?