Apologies for the radio silence, readers. I went on holiday, and somehow all my plans to get ahead of myself and schedule posts before I went didn’t work out.
I suspect they didn’t work out because I was sadly behind on deadlines. I’d intended a week completely free of writing to unwind entirely, but that didn’t go to plan, either and I ended up writing the last 4,000 words of the middle book of my fantasy series while I was there.
Don’t feel too sorry for me, however, because this was my view. It was so relaxing and so inspiring that the last 4k words flowed (fairly) effortlessly.
My view last week
If only this were always my office!
Now I’m back in the real world it’s time for the proper work to start: revisions! And in the meantime, my designer is hard at work and I hope to have a cover to share with you soon – watch this space.
Well, it was looking like I might not manage a Shattered Worlds book report this week. Life’s been manic and I haven’t had as much time for reading as I would have liked.
However, I’m delighted to report that I reached THE END of The Magic or the Rulership by Emily Martha Sorensen while I was waiting for my takeway last night.
I loved it. It’s set in a fantasy world and had some glorious touches – I adored the idea that being a mathematician was a surefire way to poverty, and the system for power in the world was absolutely fascinating.
The other thing I truly adored was the humour that infused the story. Tevan’s feelings about his intended, Ainlinn, were extremely wry and amusing, and their meeting with the Ruler was laugh-aloud.
And the reason I’ve been so busy this week? Well, I was racing to finish revisions on the final clockwork war book so I could clear my desk ready for Nano. I am joining that mad band of authors aiming to write 50k words during November. So far, I’m at 16k on day 5, so I’m pretty happy with progress so far. I’ll keep you posted!
Pinch, punch it’s November 1st so for once I don’t need to struggle to think of a topic to blog about: it’s NaNoWriMo time.
I’m a firm fan of NaNoWriMo, because it matches the way I work, splurging a dirty draft of something into the world as quickly as possible, which can then be revised and edited at leisure.
My writing style has evolved over the past couple of years away from panster towards becoming a confirmed plotter (plotting first saves me so much time and so many words). I finished plotting on my NaNo project a couple of days ago so I’m confident I’ll be able to keep up with the breakneck pace of NaNoWriMo and end the month victorious with a draft of something workable.
Plotter heaven: my entire novella encapsulated in 3 perfect columns.
And while I don’t usually find it a problem to make time for writing because aside from family, it’s invariably my top priority (the layer of dust throughout my house confirms this!), I like that for November I’m so obviously not the only one letting everything slide in order to get the words down. I’m in good company for 30 days where we all have a laser-like focus on writing, writing, and more writing.
This year I won’t “win” because I’m aiming to write a 40k-word novella, so I won’t reach the magic 50,000 words, but 40,000 words in a month is an achievement I’ll be proud of, especially since I’m launching a book at the end of the month, too (I wouldn’t like my life to get dull!).
2240 words for NaNoWriMo day one. Resulting in one very happy writer.
And now, I need to log on and note my first day: 2240 words in 90 minutes is pretty respectable. Now I just need to keep it up.
Anyone else writing like a demon this month? How are you doing?
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