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!

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. :)

Electric Reads Young Writers' Anthology 2015

Back in August, I came across a post on Facebook advertising a short story competition run by a company called Electric Reads. They were looking for British writers under the age of 25 to write a 3,000-word or less piece in any genre to be published in an anthology to showcase new talent. So I wrote a short fantasy story, which isn't something I often do (world-building gets a little difficult when you only have a limited amount of words to tell the story in). I was pretty pleased with the result, however, so I sent it to a friend for editing purposes. They basically told me they'd eat their hat if my piece wasn't chosen.

So I made the changes they suggested (and a few of my own) and submitted it. I was hopeful, but I wasn't really expected much.

Then, in early November, I got this email.

On the 11th of December, after several weeks of edits and preparations, the anthology was released worldwide! My story is one of only 25 to be selected and I am incredibly proud of this achievement. I haven't yet read the other stories (my copy only arrived yesterday!) but judging by the dedicated hard work the team at Electric Reads has put into this anthology, I know they'll have chosen some absolutely fantastic stories.

The Electric Reads Young Writers' Anthology 2015 is available from Amazon in eBook, hardback and paperback here, from Barnes & Noble in eBook here, and from Waterstones in hardback here. As young, uestablished writers, this is a huge opportunity for us to get our names out there so it would be amazing if you could support us by reading our stories and - even better - posting a review on any of the aforementioned sellers' sites, or on our Goodreads page. :)