Month: November 2009

The caption says it all, really. Yesterday at about 3pm I finally hit the 50,000 word mark on Pirates Of The Moon, a moment that I marked by doing a little happy dance (certain members of the Readership will know exactly what form that dance takes. The rest of you will just have to imagine it) and then going out to buy cat food.

2009 is my fourth Nanowrimo and the one I have completed in the quickest time. I put this down to a couple of factors. Firstly, I had the idea early enough that I could properly plot it out. Although things were left loose enough so that the story still had room to take surprising twists and turns (one of the real joys of Nano is when the story or a character does something that you genuinely didn’t expect) the main story beats were set up so that I would never be stuck.

Secondly, the Nano community itself, more specifically the Oxfordshire forum to which I contribute, has been on fire this year, and encouraging each other to greater and higher excesses of word count. Several of the Oxfordshire nanos are at well over 150,000 words and still going strong. In that atmosphere you cannot help but thrive.

So. From here I have work to do. There’s Pirates to finish (I may have reached 50 grand, but Nano continues, no slacking) and then December, where I will carry the momentum into finishing one of my earlier, unfinished stories. Not sure which one yet. I know, how about a poll?

With two first drafts under my belt, I can then start polishing Pirates, and from there set up a rolling sequence whereby I can be working on either first draft or editing of SOMETHING. All of which requires writing to be done every day. Which was, after all, kind of the point to starting Nano in the first place.

And what will I be doing with all this writing?

Well, that’s an announcement for 2010. Let’s just say I’m looking at how TLC is using her e-reader with a great deal of interest…

…of the month, that is. Not the wordcount, which I’m pleased to report is… well, see for yourself. At the time of writing I am at the low thirty thousand mark.

Not the story either, which is looking to finish at the same kind of word count as Satan’s Schoolgirls. In other words, about 60,000 words, which is short but perfectly formed for a novel. Think the early novels of Elmore Leonard, or a lot of the classic pulp noirs. Or indeed the early novels of Robert Heinlein, which are the primary influence on “Pirates Of The Moon.” In the same way that I believe that 90 minutes is the perfect length for a film, I think 60 grand is the ideal word count for a quick cheap, fun book. The kind of story that Nanowrimo has always engendered in me.

So then, so far, so good. As usual, the story is moving and deepening in directions that I hadn’t considered when I was starting. The characters are taking over, doing and saying things that were never part of the plan. The villains have motives that I hadn’t considered. The heroes, especially my main character, the 14 year old space pilot Aurora Anderson, are more heroic and more human than I could have hoped.

 

I hope you’re having fun reading the first draft of the story. Because I’m having an absolute bloody BLAST writing it.

It’s November, and all over the world otherwise sane and normal souls are bent over laptops, hammering away at stories that up until now have lurked unwritten and unloved in corners and recesses of their hard-drives and notebooks.
It’s November, which for a community numbering over 100,000 people means one thing. It’s National Novel Writing Month. It’s time to write 50, 000 words in 30 days. It’s time to get that first draft done.
2009 is the fourth year I’ve done this. I’m the most prepared I’ve ever been. I have a story that is fully plotted and characters that are pretty well formed.
Traditionally this time of year is when my post rate to X&HT becomes even more erratic than usual. This year that will change. This year I’m posting everything I write for Nano on the site.
Please note a new tab on the header: PIRATES OF THE MOON: NANOWRIMO 2009. That is where each day’s word count will go as it’s finished. Call it a kind of online backup.
What you will see day on day is the raw output of the storytelling bits of my head. It might well be terrible. in fact it probably will be. It’s unfiltered, and will be full of cringeworthy dialogue, appaling metaphors, and barely understandable plot twists.
But, hey, I’m suffering this month. You may as well suffer with me.
Word count widgets will be going up on the site over the next day or so, along with someappropriate links to stuff that amuses me on the five minute’s web-browsing that I’ll manage to squeeze in each day.