Every writer has been there: you’re working on a story, maybe you’ve come to a bit of a plateau and you’re stuck. But what’s that in the distance? A new idea? It’s so shiny! You have to work on that one right away before it flies away never to be seen again. You start working on the new idea, forgetting about the old one, and inevitably hit a plateau again. But wait, what’s that in the distance again? Another new idea? ...Well, you get the picture.
Okay, so I know this is a 'books and writing' blog, but I do actually have other hobbies, believe it or not, and watching films is one of them. So I thought why not combine two of my loves and come up with a list of films that will resonate with the writers among us.
So it's that time of year again. November seems to come around quicker every year, and since it's only a week away we need to start talking NaNo.
So November is creeping ever nearer, and with it comes National Novel Writing Month. A month of tapping away at your computer, gulping through cup upon cup of coffee and losing sleep to make sure you get your word count.
But it's fun, I swear.
So I thought I'd do a bit of a 'how-to' guide for anyone who's thinking about trying NaNoWriMo for the first time, or for anyone who has done it but feels they need a bit of advice.
So we're halfway though January and I'm feeling quite proud of how 2016 is going so far. I've been catching up on my 'to-read' list (which I will admit became significantly longer after Amazon's 12 Days of Christmas Kindle deals) and I've been writing some book reviews for an online magazine based in Dublin (Pure M, check it out). So I decided to come up with some new years resolutions to make sure that this productive state isn't just a fluke for the cold months when I'm locked inside where it's warm with nothing else to do but read
Well, it was a long month but I did it. 50,225 words later and NaNoWriMo 2015 is over. I won't lie and say that it's a novel worth reading, or that it's readable at all. To be honest I haven't actually read over it all myself yet. I'm a little bit scared to as I am aware just how bad it is.
So It's just past the halfway point of NaNoWriMo and I've reached 27,095 words. I am so glad that I was a planner not a pantser this year, it has helped me so much to have the plan to look back on every time I've been stuck on something. The story has actually changed a lot in the past two weeks, I've realised things that don't really work from my original plan and changed some characters so that they fit better.
I know I've been a bit quiet for a couple of weeks and I do have a reason. I've been thinking about attempting NaNoWriMo again this year, so I've been doing some prep for that. I have tried to complete it the last two years and have failed pretty miserably. The first year I got to 20,000 words before giving up, last year I got to a measly 8,000 words. I think I had the same problem both years, just a basic lack of planning.
Write a short entry that ends with the line, “The silver dust of moonlight settled coldly on the night." The noise stopped. For the first time silence filled the air. A single breath could have been heard if someone was around to breath it. The ground was still, the vibrations that had covered it finally… Continue reading Day 30: The Last Day
You are at a cemetery reading gravestones. Write about one of the people you find.
Her headstone was minimal. Grey stone with black letters.
