March Writing Update

At the beginning of the year, I set myself monthly writing goals for working on my novel The Secrets The Dead Keep, which should hopefully leave me with a finished manuscript by the end of the year.

My writing goal for March was to finish Draft Three edits. Leftover from previous goals, I also wanted to work on characterisation more, and start finding critique partners.

I started the month with eleven pages' worth of edits I wanted to make. I quickly realised, however, that many of them were unnecessary or two detailed for what is still an early draft, since I haven't finalised my plot yet. So, I made a new list, which I am very happy to say was only a page long. It included ten new scenes to write, plus six to revise due to plot changes, and five to edit if I got chance.

One page of edits makes it sound like March was an easy month. Unfortunately, nothing is ever as easy as you think it'll be.

February Writing Update

At the beginning of this year, I set myself monthly writing goals which, if I complete them all on time, will leave me with a manuscript that should be almost ready to start sending to agents, plus the first draft of its sequel.

My goal for February was to start my own edits, and start finding critique partners. I also wanted to work on characterisation more; this was part of my January goal which I didn't get very far with.

So, how did I do?

January Writing Update

As a New Years' Resolution of-sorts, I decided that 2017 would be the year I get really serious about my writing. So at the beginning of this month, I set myself monthly writing goals for all of 2017, which focus on editing my fantasy novel The Secrets The Dead Keep.

This month's writing goal was to read through my completed 2016 draft making notes on what I want to change, and to start working on better characterisation.

It sounds like a relatively easy goal, especially compared to some of the others I've set myself for this year! All I have to do is read a book and make notes on it! Oh, and to think about my characters a bit. So I was really hoping to get this one done quickly and get ahead of myself.

Thoughts On The End Of A Draft

Approximately ten minutes ago, I wrote the 102,993rd word of the current draft of my novel, and then I stopped writing. I had reached the end of the last planned scene. It was done. The second full rewrite of my novel is finished!

Writeometer: A Word-Count Tracking App

I find that NaNoWriMo gives me a certain motivation to write. Without it, I may write bits here and there, but there's a lot less dedication to my project. I'm never sure whether it's the idea of keeping up with the targets, or the idea that thousands of other people around the world are doing the exact same challenge, or both, that motivates me, but I've found that a smartphone app called Writeometer (I don't know about iOS, but it's free on Android!) has certainly helped motivate me to write more!

Writeometer does a similar thing to the NaNoWriMo website in that it tracks how much you write per day. You have more options when setting up your novel with Writeometer than on NaNoWriMo. For one thing, you're limited neither to one particular month, nor to 50,000 words. You can choose your total target word count, daily target word count, and when you want to finish your project by - or two of the three, and the app will calculate the third for you. There's also an option for continuing with an already started project, so you can input the number of words you've already written, and it'll use that as your starting point.

You can also choose when you would like Writeometer to remind you to write, and this is the main thing that has actually made me write these past few days. It's all well and good having an app to help you reach your writing goals, but you have to actually remember to use it! Without it, Writeometer would've been forgotten and I wouldn't have motivated myself to get past the scene I'd been struggling with.

Writeometer reminds you of your daily writing goal

To update your word count, you have to create a new entry in your writing log. You can choose whether to input how many words you've written since your last update, or to input your new total word count, and let the app work out how many words you've written. The "new log entry" page also lets you input how long you spent writing and add a note, which you could use to keep track of what you wrote when, how you felt about your writing, or something along those lines.

Then the app displays your data for you in nice graphs and charts, and in your project overview, so you can see all your stats and see how you're progressing.

And you can have multiple projects and inspirational writing quotes (provided by the app), too!

You might think this review/walkthrough is coming to a close (it's rather long as it is), but there are still more features that I haven't explored yet, including treats, the timer, and the toolbox. You may have noticed that the "new log entry" page had a "guavas" option, and this relates to the treats feature: when you feel you've written enough, you can assign yourself a guava, which you can redeem for real-life "treats" of your choice, which you can do right there and then. I don't use it, but can certainly see how helpful it could be for others.

The timer gives you 25 minutes to write, and is designed to get you to sit down, ignore all distractions, and get as much done as you can in the time limit. You can choose whether you'll be awarded with a guava at the end of the 25 minutes or not. And I thought all the above would be useful enough, but the toolbox offers even more extras with a word-of-the-day, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a "word salad" feature designed to inspire.

 Which leaves very little more (bar a word processor) that a writer would ever need!

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week 3 and Week 4 Summary

So, this July's Camp NaNoWriMo is over. Done. Finished. This year, I worked on the second draft of my novel, The Secrets The Dead Keep, with the goal of writing 50,000 words throughout the month. But how did I do? Did I manage to complete the challenge?

Yes! I did! :D

Though I managed to keep up and even get ahead during week 3, I was unfortunately unable to do the same in the final week, which was a little worrying. Life got in the way, which included two days of travelling right before the last day. I didn't think I'd be able to write anything while in the car on those two days, but it turns out I can, in fact, fit my laptop on my knee, so I managed to write 2,600 words in the end. Which meant that, on the very last day, I only had to catch up 5,000 words rather than over 7,000.

Five thousand words may sound like a lot (probably because it is), but I know from experience that it is a manageable amount to write in one day (though any more would not be), so even when I had no desire to write in the morning, I still wasn't worried. By late afternoon, at which point I'd already written over 2,000 words, I'd found my motivation, and the rest wasn't too difficult.

What a satisfying sight this is:

However, completing my 50,000 word goal does not mean that I have completed the second draft of my novel. After 2014's July Camp NaNo, I spent all of August finishing the first draft, which amounted to approximately 84,000 words in the end. I intend to do the same thing this year: keep writing until it's done.

I'm not entirely sure how far through the story I am, as a last-minute plot change has messed up my novel outline a bit, though a little rearranging should sort it out. I've been writing my novel in Microsoft Word, with the sections written during July's Camp NaNoWriMo all in one very long document, but I now intend to transfer it all the yWriter5. As yWriter5 separates all the chapters from each other and all scenes within those chapters from each other too, it makes organising and planning a lot easier, though I found during 2014's Camp NaNoWriMo that it can stifle creativity in favour of a rigid plan. That is why I opted this year to use it only in editing and not in the original writing. Hopefully once this draft is finished, no more original writing should be needed: so far I'm happy with how my plot's going, so only minor changes should be needed. Fingers crossed that minor changes don't require as much rewriting as major ones do!

One of the prizes for winners of Camp NaNoWriMo is a (previously free, now discounted) proof copy of your book. Back in 2014, the deadline for sending off your manuscript for printing was the end of August, and, as I mentioned earlier, I spent all of August 2014 finishing the manuscript, never mind editing it. Formatting it to send off for printing the night before the deadline was a bit of a nightmare! So I'm very relieved that this year, the deadline is at the end of December, which should give me time to not only finish the story but edit it too. Maybe I'll even be able to place my order before the last day of the offer this time!

Congratulations to everyone who reached their word count goals in this July's Camp NaNoWriMo, and better luck next time for those who didn't! It's been a great month for writing and I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have. :)

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week 2 Summary

It's pretty much halfway point in this year's Camp NaNoWriMo, so that should mean that I'm halfway through both my novel and my word count, right? Wrong. Despite trying to get ahead so that I have less writing to do at the end of the month, I've mostly been playing catch up this week. After a couple of days with less than 500 words, I only just got back on track yesterday. Here's how my word count graph is currently looking:

So, we've established that I'm not quite halfway through my word count yet... But what about my plot?

Unfortunately, that's even further from the halfway point. But that's to be expected. Back in 2012 when I first attempted this story, I got to 41,000 words before giving up - because I wasn't even halfway through the story (and I was busy). When I finally completed a draft in 2014, the total word count was about 85,000 words. So I'm neither surprised nor concerned that I'm only on the fifth of my planned twenty chapters at almost 23,000 words.

On the bright side, I am happy with this draft so far. Sure, I'm writing it thinking "I'll need to seriously edit this later", but I haven't had any doubts about this version of the plot, so this may be the last complete rewrite. That thought is a very nice one indeed.

Also, I made a Spotify playlist of songs that inspire me and help me build up the atmosphere specific to my story and setting. You can find it here.

Find me on Camp NaNoWriMo here, or find out more about NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo here and here.

Happy writing!

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week 1 Summary

It's July! For me, this only means one thing: Camp NaNoWriMo. Being in the middle of my summer holiday and with no exams or deadlines looming, July is the perfect time for me to write. This July's Camp NaNo marks the fourth year I've been working on my novel, The Secrets The Dead Keep, and I'm really excited to be working on the second draft this month, after finishing the first draft during July 2014's event. Here's how it's going so far.

But first, for anyone who hasn't heard of NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month, even though it's actually international... don't ask me, it wasn't my idea), it's a month-long online event which challenges participants to write 50,000 words within 30 days. The original NaNoWriMo is held in November, but a few years ago, the Office Of Letters And Light (the organisation responsible for the event) introduced Camp NaNoWriMo, which is held twice yearly - in April and July. For more information on NaNoWriMo, follow this link, and for more information on Camp NaNoWriMo, follow this link.

The first week of this July's Camp NaNo has been pretty good; so far, I've managed to stay pretty on-track. At this particular moment in time, I'm about 800 words ahead of my current target word count. I only missed the word count on one day, but I made up for my measly 500 words by writing 3,000 (!!!) the day after.

There are generally two strategies for completing: planning and 'pantsing' - i.e., whether or not you plot/outline your project beforehand, or whether you just start writing on the 1st of July and see what happens. Back in July 2014, when I finished my first draft, I planned. I planned out every single scene and... it felt like following Ikea instructions. The finished product was very functional (my mum loved it), but to me it lacked a certain something. It lacked that passion that was obvious in every line of the unfinished first attempt from way back in 2012's Camp NaNo.

This year I'm... neither planning nor 'pantsing'. That is to say, I made a plan more extensive than I did in 2014 (this one actually had an ending before the beginning of July; in 2014 I planned up to the middle of the story before I started writing, and then updated my plan when I actually thought of a suitable ending). But the difference is that this year I'm trying to look at my plan as little as possible. It gives me the confidence of knowing exactly where my story is going while simultaneously giving me the freedom and spontaneity of having absolutely no idea where it's going. It makes me feel creative even when I'm actually just ticking scenes off a checklist as I write them. It's bringing life back to my story and characters. At least, I hope it is!

The other thing that's making me more excited about this draft that the previous one is the plot changes. As I said, I only finished my 2014 scene-by-scene plan halfway through the month. This is because, despite having already been working on this novel for two years by this point, I had no idea how I was going to build up to my conclusion - or even what my conclusion was going to be. Eventually I found something that worked and slapped that in place. It was very obvious that it needed improvement. Plus, when you've been writing the same story for four years, you do need to keep it interesting for yourself. The changes I've made and the new aspects I've added mean I'm currently much happier with my plot. Let's just hope I'm still as happy with it once I've written it!

Find me (and my novel!) on Camp NaNoWriMo here.

Good luck to anyone else doing Camp NaNoWriMo this July! :)

Post "The Secrets The Dead Keep"!

I've been meaning to write this post for ages.

So! I finished the first draft of my novel! At eighty-five thousand, one hundred and thirty four words, it is the longest thing I have ever written. I finished on the 30th of August and by the 31st of August, had it edited and formatted sufficiently to send off for my free proof copy offered by NaNoWriMo and Lulu.com. Unfortunately, the "free" bit didn't cover shipping, and the cheapest option is also the longest to deliver, so it's doubtful it'll arrive before I go to university (cue sad face).

After finishing Camp NaNoWriMo, I abandoned FocusWriter and instead solely used yWriter5, which I HIGHLY recommend. It is very useful for keeping track of scenes and chapters, making it considerably easier to manage long documents such as novels, and it is pretty easy to export to Microsoft Word files all in one piece by messing around with the Export Project/Export Selected Chapters options in the drop-down menu under "Project" in the toolbar on the top left. I only used it at its most basic, not bothering with the Characters, Locations and Items settings or even using the Goals, so it has far more potential than I give it credit.

Unfortunately, I haven't written much since finishing Barnabus' Balloons (I can no longer remember the reason I gave it a code name as opposed to just using the actual title I've given it, so when I get my proof copy with the actual title on the front, I'll post a picture). I have been considering writing a ten-chapter story based on my favourite band Within Temptation's latest album Hydra, with a chapter based on each song on the album. I've also been thinking about the sequel to Barnabus' Balloons, but the ideas for it haven't taken hold of my heart just yet. The story idea that has taken hold of my heart, however, is a prequel, set a few hundred years before Barnabus' Balloons, but in the same fictional country, documenting the life of the first Queen as she struggles to right an unjust and warring world. Alternatively, there are other ideas I've been thinking about writing as well, that are too unformed for me to really be able to talk about them just yet.

So basically, I'm at a complete loss as to what to dedicate my time and effort to next.