NaNoWriMo – The Last Day

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Today is the last day of Nano (so should that be YAY or SOB ? lol) So if you haven’t hit the 50,000 words by now you have approximately 22 hours (in the UK from the time this post went live) to pull your finger out and write!

It’s been a funny old month for me. Full of highs and lows. My first year as an official ML has been great fun. Elizabeth asked me a couple of days ago if I’d do it again next year, of course I would! 🙂

I’ve met a few Wrimo’s I didn’t know before who have now become FaceBook friends and learnt that I can write 9,000 words in a day. I went on a writing retreat (which was fantastic) and discovered that Mills & Boon books are much harder to write than you think they’ll be. I also learnt that my netbook cannot be trusted and have decided that he will retire from service before next year 😉

So what’s next? What do we now do with all those words? You have to edit *shudders* 😉

The lovely Bridget Whelan who teaches Creative Writing, has written a series of 3 blog posts for me, all about editing. See me, I never really know where to start when it comes to editing, so I’m hoping Bridget can sort me out. You’ll find part 1 and part 2 here over the next couple of days and then part 3 will be posted to Bridget’s blog, but I’ll give you the link 😉

So all that remains is for me to say CONGRATULATIONS! it doesn’t matter if you only wrote 10 words or 75,000 (yes, I do know someone who wrote that much and she has a baby and toddler!). Everyone who takes part in Nano and wrote something is a winner as far as I’m concerned.

So now it’s time to Party!

Courtesy of Simon Howden freedigitalphotos.net

Do try to get to a TGIO Party if you can. We have ours tomorrow, I’m looking forward to it 🙂

Me? I finished up with just over 55,000 words which is more than 2011 but less than 2010…..and the less said about those 65,000 words the better 😉

The Reason I Finished NaNoWriMo Early (maasmith.com)
Some NaNoWriMo Surprises (orestn.wordpress.com)
NaNoWriMo Tip #26: Don’t Beat Yourself Up (writingishardwork.com)
The NaNoWriMo Bucket (orestn.wordpress.com)

Sharing The Love :o)

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Thank you so much, everyone, for your kind words yesterday.

The lovely LindaC over at Excuse Me While I Note That Down has nominated me for the Top Commentors Award. Thank you so much Linda! 🙂

As this is the second time I’ve received this award recently, my top commenters haven’t changed. Is that good or bad? 😉

So I won’t be able to nominate anyone specifically for this award, and will just say, if you haven’t had this award already, yourself, please feel free to pass it on to your own top commenters. It really makes the people who consistently comment feel appreciated.

Give a little love today guys, say thank you to your top commenters 🙂

Tell me who your top commenter is and give me a link in the comments so we can all go and pay them a visit. 🙂

Top Commentors Award (the-view-outside.com)

But Not Forgotten Needs Forgetting

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, what can I say about the critique *laughs hysterically*

If I just say that it looks like 65,000 words will be going in the bin within the next couple of days does that indicate what they thought? 😉 (a metaphorical bin of course!)

Seriously, I knew it was a mess, which was why I decided to use that piece. I just didn’t realise how much of a mess it was 😦

I knew I’d tied myself up in knots, I knew that was why I hadn’t been able to come up with an ending, but, what I was hoping was that I could tinker with it, make it better. What I didn’t expect was to find that the general consensus is/was to start from scratch!

A different angle, a different POV, don’t start with the suicide, in fact, don’t kill him off….WOAH! Concentrate on one aspect of the story and forget the rest! OMFG!!!!!!! I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT!

So now what? Complete restructuring that’s what! A completely new novel really, only using the same characters and only part of the original plot line *slumps*

I don’t know if I have the energy!

Don’t get me wrong, everyone was helpful and sympathetic, but I came away thinking perhaps I’m not cut out for this, and what the hell am I doing in this class? Be prepared for a major self pity trip post on IWSD next month, honestly 🙂

I went for a Spa day today. I was going to cancel because all I wanted to do was sit in my jim jams, drink hot chocolate and sulk lol. But, I made the effort, went, and had my nails painted. I went for a walk and contemplated stuff. It was a nice day 🙂

I’m signing out with Edwin Collins

I need to think……

Faber Session 9 – Dialogue

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, well coffee and cake was enjoyed at The British Museum last night. Lemon drizzle which was rather nice. So I sat for an hour, reading my book, nursing a latte and looking at this view 🙂

Tonight’s class was all about dialogue…some of my notes:

Limit speech tags to the minimum.

Pinter went on bus rides and recorded conversations.

It has to serve a purpose: move the plot along, raise a question or show something about the character.

What isn’t said is very important. Use silence and remember its often what’s not said that gives more away.

Give your characters verbal ticks to make them more realistic.

Remember to use body language. A character could be saying one thing verbally, but their body language saying the complete opposite.

We then had to do 3 exercises (writing dialogue) which were very interesting, and bloody hard! Lol

It’s funny because Stephen King said that dialogue is written best by writers who enjoy talking and listening to others. Do you agree? Do you enjoy writing dialogue? It seems to be something writers either love or hate!

Will post tomorrow about my critique when I’ve recovered and had chance to absorb it all lol. I’m off to a Spa Day today 🙂

On-The-Nose Dialogue (limebirdwriters.co.uk)
Is Your Book Dialogue Heavy? (breezybooksblog.wordpress.com)

The To Do List 26th November to 2nd December

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’m sorry I’m so behind with reading and commenting on Blogs. Will try to catch up today.

Today I will be attending my Faber class, as I do every Monday, but, today, they will be critiquing the first 4,500 words of ‘But Not Forgotten’ *gulp* I will tell you all about it in a separate post. Think of me, I am so bloody nervous! Lol

Let’s get back to the list. Last week, this is what happened…

1. Finish Nano by Friday (23rd) Done! I finished on the 22nd 😉

2. Upload words to Nano. Done! And I have a purple line and certificate to prove it!

3. Print off Sorrento Sunrise and start padding lol. Hmmmm, I only managed to print out 25 pages….because….my printer ran out of ink. I’ve got some on order and it should arrive by Tuesday at the latest. It’s a real pain as I can’t even print off the piece they’ll be critiquing in class tonight…Grrrrr 😦

4. Start new book….an eBook. I did start something, but only got a little way in 😦

5. Continue reading Richard Skinners book. I’m still reading it lol

6. Print off But Not Forgotten and READ IT! Couldn’t do it, because of the printer 😦

So this weeks list:

1. Print out rest of Sorrento Sunrise and start padding.

2. Read BN’s manuscript (a friends Nano story).

3. Sort out notes from critique of But Not Forgotten.

4. Read next Faber critique piece.

5. Continue with Richard Skinners book.

6. Start an ideas notebook for But Not Forgotten.

7. Print off and file Nano short stories.

So what plans do you have for the week?

Today’s The Day People

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Sorry for the lateness of today’s blog pst (and yesterday’s) but I’ve not been at home, back now though 😉

So today the Nanowrimo Verification system kicks in. Yep, that means that all of you who have reached the 50K mark can now upload your words and have them verified, and be officially classed a winner 🙂

I’ve just done mine, so I am officially a winner!

I feel a little bit guilty though, I didn’t do Nano this year the way it should be done. Some of you already know, but for those of you who don’t I ended up finishing my Mills & Boon experiment at 20,000 words. I briefly thought about giving up, but I wanted to complete the challenge. So the next 30,000 words were short stories.

But I tell you what….it ~~was~~ is probably the most enjoyable Nano I’ve participated in. To the point where I’m considering, next year, to do a short story a day for November. I guess it goes back to me being an ideas person. I love creating characters, creating crap to throw at them, and then, I kinda get bored. But I don’t consider myself a good short story writer. My endings suck lol. I can come up with the scenarios, the characters, but then I don’t know how to resolve the story, in a satisfying manner. I don’t resort to “and then he/she woke up” as a final line, but I’ve been tempted lol.

So congratulations to all the Nano winners, it’s been a blast! And those of you who haven’t finished yet,GO FOR IT you have 5 days!

So now that we have all these extra words that we didn’t have last month What’s the plan? What will you be doing with your Nano Words? Me, I’ll be fiddling with Sorrento Sunrise and trying to find 30,000 words to pad it out with lol 😉

Faber Session 8 – Guest Tutor Mick Jackson

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Arrived in a foggy rainy London 😦 That’ll teach me to wear suede boots! Lol

So I arrived at class with wet feet where we went straight into a discussion/talk by Mick Jackson which was all about Pace & Style.

A few of the things I took away from the session:

Style seems to be more important to reviewers and creative writing tutors.

style should develop naturally. Each writer has their own style.

Writing is like a game of tennis between the subconscious mind and the conscious mind.

Can you reproduce another writers style?

Pace is the speed of the narrative.

Adding back story can slow down the pace if not weaved into the story.

Attach little details to the stream of narrative. It shouldn’t stand out.

Reading your work aloud can pinpoint problems in pace, but it can also help you establish if you have a set style.

A fascinating session, and now, I’m sitting in a hotel room enjoying some chill out time 😉 So if I’m quiet, you know why. I’ll catch up with you all tomorrow 🙂

Do you think you have a style? I think I can see a style developing within my work but I will definitely be reading my work out loud from now on 😉

The Artist Manifesto

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Jeff Goins told me to share this, so I will 🙂

Soooooo…..

THE TIME IS NOW!

What creative thing will you do today?

Have You Voted?

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Every year, the brilliant website for writers Write To Done asks readers to nominate their favourite “writerly” blog. Winners get to display a nice shiny button on their blog to say they are in the top 10 blogs for writers and smile lots.

So have you voted?

I have 🙂

Oh go on, it takes 2 minutes just to post a link to your favourite blog in the comments. I’m sure you know loads of blogs you think deserve to win. Support all our marvellous writing bloggers 🙂

Will you be voting?

In other news….I’VE DONE IT! I’VE HIT THE 50K FOR NANO! GO ME!

Where The Ideas Are And How To Get Them

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

No actual post today people, but I’m really excited!!!! My article went live on the Faber Website last night *grins* 🙂

So if you’d like to have a read (please do!) check out my article which they’ve entitled Get Inspired. Stop Waiting Around which is all about where i find my ideas.

Photo courtesy of winnond at freedigitalphotos