Here be monsters

There's a downside to everything. The silver lining has a cloud in tow. A grey, damp blanket of misery to smother the sunshine.

Nanowrimo is no exception. Feelings run hot and high in the writing community, for and against.

I started my first attempt, and "won" in 2012. As I charged blindly into a place I'd never thought I would go this blog post landed on the internet. NaNoWriMo; The Good, The Bad, and The Really, Really Ugly

An entertaining and thoughtful piece on both sides of the coin. It's worth talking the time over.

I don't want to put anyone off, just a better idea of what lies ahead. Knowledge is power. Better to be realistic than see illusions dashed and dreams broken.

Would it have made a difference to me, if i'd seen it? I don't know, really.

The desire to know if "can I do this?, could be rearranged into "I can do this!" Probably would have spurred me on.

Martyn

Gets late early!

Gets late early!

l heard what she said and knew what was meant by it. Getting late early was the evenings drawing down towards night as summer drifted from the solstice to the equinox and beyond. A slide that quickened once the August Bank holiday had been ticked off. 

The battle begins.  Goblins versus Elves.

Hallowe'en ranged against Christmas.

We're into October and the lines are drawn.

Come what may, when the smoke clears and the rattle of firecrackers has faded into the stil dark november nights, the guy in the red coat will be the last man standing.

Ghosties and ghoulies, long legitty beasties. Gunpowder, treason and plot!

Plot, time to start plotting again, the clock is ticking. Damn thing never stops, just once if it could give me a minute. Stop, and a chance to get organised.

Any chance I could deploy the fall back in daylight saving time too my advantage?

Probably not

It can't be done, no stopping,  it marches on.

What can be done?

Batteries charged, pencils sharpened, notebooks refreshed and brain in gear.

  The empty page looms out of the night, on the first and haunts you for the next thirty.

The game is already in play. Do it, or not? Plough into the fray or cheer on from the boundary?

I'll let you know.

Stay safe, and fare well.

Martyn

Fare Well?

 

Did you fare well? Put it another way, how was it for you?

I hit the target with a day in hand, and a strange sense of "Yeah, I can do that!"

I knew I could do it, and this year there was more in my favour.

I've been Yo-yo working since July, half furloughed, working sort of alternate days and weekends. It goes with the job.

This year with a lot more time on my hands, i.e. time available for writing, I still booted the computer up in the evening, after dinner, to cram the word count in before midnight.

My perspective shifted, the intensity of previous NaNoWriMo challenges dissipated, I got cocky and nearly blew it.

Halfway through the month, about the 12th, I ground to a halt for three days. The word count hit zero.

Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galazy, et al,)  talked about the sound of dealines as they whooshed by. This one come at me with a headlong rush.

It started well, Day 1, November 1st, I bagged 3,760 words.

Apart from the 12th to the 14 th Nobvember when the word count flatlined at zero, the lowest word count (with actual words to count) was the 21st with 364 words.

I tagged 50,000 on the 29th with a run of 4517. Logged it at 10:11 pm GMT on the 29th November.

I have done a handful of Camp NaNoWriMo over the years. This was my fifth NaNoWriMo, and my fifth win.

The winner's cetificate was duly printed out and filled in, and waved around the house. It is worth cheering, 50,000 words, in 30 days, no excuses.

A block of words to match the Great Gatsby for length, perhaps not in quality. 

As good or bad as any first draft has a right to be, it exists. It is positive, and it gave my self confidence a boost.

I can do it, became, I did it, again - without the Oops!

There was an Oops moment, three days of them.

A good start of 3760 words on day 1, the 1st, and 800 hammered out in the first hour after midnight. I put the computer away until the morning, and ploughed on later in the day.

10,000 words were accounted for by the 6th, and then on  the 12th it flatlined, zero, until the 14th. Kicked off again and toppled 25,000 on the 17th. Slightly behind the target count - the website said I would finish in December - I had 30,000 on the 19th.

11 days and 20k words to write. Time to get my head in gear, I pulled it together and went for the home straight, to finish with a day in hand.

According toi the stats at NaNoWriMo. Iam a night own, usually writing betwen 10:00 and 11:00 pm (really more 8:00 to midnight, but whose checking,) with an average daily word count of 1724.

On reflection, what has my Covid 19 NaNoWriMo helped me to discover?

I can do it, sit down and let the words pour out, don't fight the flow. Don't bully my characters, let them be real and tell the story. They are the players, strutting the stage, or the screen?

That's what happened on the 12th, I had to renegotiate the conditions. The characters were leading and I was reluctant to follow.

I came back to the story and followed where they led. I have the story so far, and will have to wait for the rest.

Allowing the characters to lead brought the answers to the surface. Elements in the other stories have become clearer, the pieces fit the jigsaw.

I'll be back there soon, I can feel the activity bubbling under the surface, waiting for the next chapter to spill on to the page.

For now, well done, whatever your final word count. Taking the plunge takes nerve.

If you hit the target and bagged the goodies.

Congratulations.

Martyn

Scary. starry night

Nanowrimo v Hallowe’en

That’s the real battle, not the ghouls and the reindeer squaring up across the aisles in the supermarket from October onwards, we know how that one ends. The ghosties and ghoulies are vanquished by the 1st of November.

 

That’s when the scary bit starts. Most of the world is waiting for a knock on the door, counting the hours until the stroke of midnight and the annual ghoul fest is over for another year.

Polished off

Blow your trumpet, You've earned it. I've earned it!

Polished off the 50 grand last night, I crossed the line sometime after 1.00 am local time. Had a brew and crashed.

Now comes more polishing, working through the text to make sense out of it.

That's the idea, getting back into the swing of tackling a sizeable piece of writing and taking it onwards. Hopefully with a bit of blogging on the way. 

All you guys who stepped up to the challenge, either for the first or the umpteenth time, well done for picking up the baton, if you've crossed the line already. Cheers and huzzahs all around. 

Still heading for the finish? Keep going you know  you can do it.

Good luck

Martyn

That time of year again!

The clocks have stepped back from Summer time and the temperature's dropping. The air tingles with anticipation. There is tension where worlds will shift around one another and doors will open between them.

Once more as the clock approaches midnight a void lies ahead.

Paper or screen, the choice is open.

The witching hour strikes and the first blow falls in the swish of a pen or tap of a key. There is no turning back, only going forwards.

Vibrant creations, worlds and characters will fill the space and charge headlong, day and night,  until the stroke of midnight signals the 1st of December. A breathless hush will settle as word counts are verified and winners receive their reward.

NaNoWriMo is here.

Whoever you are, wherever you write. May your words flow and your ideas sparkle, dazzling in their wit and imagination.

First timer, or veteran of many campaigns,  go well on your journey.

Welcome to November.

Martyn

Going the distance

1st December 2016, I posted a congratulatory note for the valiant band who had emerged from the thirty day maelstrom of NaNoWriMo. Successful or not, maybe the truth is that it doesn't matter.

You, whoever you are, were there.

Starting over

November 1st, another year and another challenge for hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, of writers?

NaNoWriMo swung into gear at 00:01 this morning wherever you are in the world. If you are heading out for the first time into uncharted waters with your first attempt at the fifty-thousand word - thirty-day challenge good luck and enjoy yourself, and the same good wishes go to all the veterans of past NaNoWriMo years.

I'm giving it a miss this November, focusing on completing works in progress.

The finished novels are available through the major eBook retailers, check out the links from cheekyseagull.co.uk  Click the drop down  menu, each title has its own page; or visit the series page at Smashwords for The Grange.

Grab yourself a piece of the action, a good thriller for the dark winter nights is just what you need.

Job Spec...

What do you call a fledgling work in progress, where the title is provisional and the story-line is embryonic? Where everything about is insubstantial and ephemeral? An idea!

Daylight saving has run out of time, spent for another year, the ghosties and ghoulies are hanging around the shops, vying for space with the advance guard of Santa's legions and writers, aspiring writers, dreamers,  scribblers and the literary foolhardy are braced for a mad dash through November; burning their way past Guy Fawkes on this side of the pond and stuffing as much in as they can before Thanksgiving on the other side.

Almost that time of year!

It's coming around again, the nights are starting to draw in, the hours of daylight shrinking as the calendar clicks onward, counting down to the fateful moment, that quiet tension in the still of the night when thousands of excited faces wait in hushed expectation, watching, waiting for that shift of the hands or the flicker on the digital screen and the zeros line up.  A moment, one second long breaks the tension and the rush starts. Fingers held poised over keyboards, hesitating to mark the first keystroke, searching a mind suddenly choked with the rush of freedom. One word, the first of fifty thousand and the midnight strokes sweep across the globe drawing a wave of creativity in their wake. The race is on, minimum rules, a definite target and a deadline - 30, 50k, 0!

Up for a challenge, throw the rule book out of the window, prop the dodgy leg on the table with it, then throw yourself at the challenge. Tell a story, write they way you talk, witty, confident, engaging! let it rattle on to the page and when the midnight hands reach the end of day 30, pause, look at what's already there - and go for it!

You're first draft should be as good as the brilliant story you told the other night socialising with friends. You can do that off the top of your head, put it down on the page.

Believe in yourself, and others will follow suit, they will see and appreciate what you have to offer, and offer it to them. Don't let it be "One day..." any longer, seize the moment and start the journey, spend thirty days with your imagination off the leash and see where it takes you.

Leap into a new world on the page and build it as you go, meet the people who populate its landscape and bring them to life.

Get to know them, they may be around for a long time; they may have more stories to tell in the future...

It's easy to remember; Thirty days, Fifty thousand words, and you're responsible for your own excuses.

Interview with an author

Smashwords author interview, an idea from the people at Smashwords to bring the author and the reader together.

The first question came before I started the interview; how to answer?  Do I think about it for hours and come up with something deep and meaningful, or as a live interview, taking each question in turn and answering off the cuff. I stayed with the pre-set questions and answered off the cuff and published. There is an option to write your own questions, to unpublish, edit the answers and republish; effectively giving the chance of re-interviewing the author on  a regular basis. 

A couple of the questions made me think, asking me to reach back into the recesses of my memory for the first story I wrote and the first book that had a major impact; I tweaked the answers, I honestly don't remember the first story I wrote,and so many stories have made an impact it is difficult to choose the one which made the greatest.

Put something in front of me and I will read it, even the cereal packet at breakfast has been seconded as reading material. As a youngster I read very little fiction, apart from the weekly comics and Commando war stories (Kurt Langhers' name comes from a character in the Commando War Stories), Instead I devoured reference books and factual accounts. This may be why I prefer to write stories based in reality rather than science fiction, fantasy, or any other genre.

I was challenged to read a Mills and Boon romance after making disparaging comments and forced to admit I hadn't actually read one (Cautionary note; research first then open mouth). I was pleasantly surprised, a well crafted story in an enjoyable style. Judging by the number of romance novels sold and distributed through ebook channels the readers are not a community any writer would wish to hack off.

I digress, flying off at a tangent again. The upshot of the questions was a look at where The Grange came from, along with the inhabitants and visitors. The original idea was focused on an officially sanctioned security team based in the country house scenario, the shift to a freelance operation came slowly and by degrees.

The idea was kicked around and played with for the best part of twenty years before Iceline was written and back then Steel wasn't Steel and Josie was someone else too. Bill Jardine appeared with the house, and I really must find out how he came to be there. It feels like that sometimes, that the writing process is based on an interview with the characters, and every so often a new one appears, like a guest arriving for the week-end.

The Thirty Nine Steps, Casino Royale. Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, The Eagle Has Landed are all part of a long list of books which have influenced me, and the authors; Ian Fleming, John Buchan, Alistair Maclean, and Jack Higgins. There are others, remembered for fragments rather than the whole story.

John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps is always a favourite, a simple plot of one man against the conspiracy with only his wits and stamina, unsure of who he can trust. I like the idea that he's a relatively ordinary man, given the period he may have had some military experience. Richard Hannay, a mining engineer had recently arrived from South Africa and grown tired of London, he is on the point of going back when his adventures begin. 

Jack Higgins is different, "The Eagle Has Landed" was his breakout. He was advised to allow his characters to tell the story, not force them to fit the plot.  "The Eagle Has Landed" was a massive success.

That idea: of letting the characters tell the story struck a chord with me. The first Grange Novel was the culmination of a long journey and arrived at a distinct way point (Twenty Five years service in post), and through a lot of forced planning and preparation, false starts and frustration. The more detailed the planning and preparation the greater the frustration. I was itching to get on with telling the story!

In NaNOWriMo terms I write by the seat of my pants, start at the beginning, usually with an end in sight and let the characters show me the way. Bare notes and jottings are the sum of my preparation, years of fighting the frustration ended in the local bookstore chatting about an interview with Philip Pullman. Who apparently admitted that he rarely planned his novels, and the one occasion he did the planning found he couldn't write the story because he had already done so. 

Pieces fell into place with a battered laptop and printer and the determination, or desperation that it was now or never happen kick started a four month dash through a hundred thousand words and the first draft was finished by the second week in December 2002.

I struggled for years, frustrated by the detailed planning everyone said was involved and  fighting the urge to throw it all away and sit down and write. I finally sat down, told the story and bounded through Iceline, and then I discovered NanoWriMo.

I'll talk about that another day...

Why do I do it?

One day I'm going to... Then November comes around and the challenge hits you between the eyes. OK, so one day... today is that day. The First of November starts National Novel Writing Month; a day of hope and trepidation for anyone who has ever thought of writing a novel. A whole month of creatively splurging words across whatever typeface you are working at; paper, screen, Ipad, Android and  all wrapped in a tidy package. Thirty days to reach the target.

Why? What is it that encourages myself and thousands of others to sign up and squirrel another workload into already busy schedules at the time of year when the decorations are starting to appear for Christmas; as carols and Christmas songs begin to drift through the speakers in the shopping malls and supermarkets like an aerosol drug designed to loosen the bonds on wallets and purses.

It's the challenge, the taunt of come on then, come and have a go if you think...you have it in you. The pressure  of the words and the daily tally, 50,000 in 30 days is the sort of pressure that crushes doubt in a mad frenzy of scribbling, typing or both. Can you hold the mental,  creative and imaginative threads together long enough. Can you mix the stamina and bloody minded determination to see it through, cross the 50,000 word line within the 30 days and watch the validation screen flag up a winner; or still be in there when the clock ticks 11.59.59 on the 30th and see the figures change to 00.00 Dec 1, battling onwards.

Does anyone really lose with NaNoWriMo, or is it the real win-win scenario.  The challenge pits you against your strongest and meanest opponent, who knows all your temptations, weakness, and strengths and exactly how to undermine you; and you have your greatest ally with the same information, and the twist? They are the same; you!

That's the winner; you arrive at the end of the month having learnt something about yourself, and you have tasted what it must be like to write professionally, a daily workload, a climbing word count drawing towards a fateful The End where the story pauses, most of the loose ends tied up, but with an opening perhaps to lead the story arc into a sequel and beyond.

I was asked what NaNoWriMo means to me, and I chewed over the answer for a couple of weeks. It was a release, a confirmation of a way of doing things. There are two main personalities in National Novel Writing Month, plotters and pantsters, the question is where are you when the clock strikes midnight and the writing begins. Are you surrounded by plots and plans or unfettered by detailed preparation and plunge in, writing by the seat of your pants, winging it through the days towards the December deadline.

I go for writing by the seat of my pants,  I tried the planning and plotting but it felt like I was puling in two directions; bashing myself over the head with plot it, plan it and then write it only to find that when the characters found their own voice I was completely stuffed, they had read the notes and were determined to do anything except what the plot-line demanded. 

I wanted to go straight in and tell the story, see it unfold before my own eyes so the words dancing across the page were new and fresh to me. 

NaNoWriMo's uncluttered approach felt right, here was a bunch of people fired by enthusiasm and, apparently, caffeine with the nerve to go for it. Careering along a storyline waiting to see what the characters would do next is invigorating and scary! 

Make your characters believable and believe what they are telling you, it's their story, they live in the world of your imagination, but you are not in control of them,. Respect and they will respect you, and hopefully give you a story worth telling learn to trust what they are saying. Storytelling is a natural part of being human, so why make it unnecessarily difficult. If the Novel is intimidating, look at yourself as a  storyteller and be part of that great and ancient tradition, there have been storytellers, sat around  wood fires in ancient camps and propping up the woodwork in hostels and public houses for centuries, millennia, or multiples of both.,.

Writing is part of day to day life, too long without scribbling and I start to feel edgy and uncomfortable, and I go back to the typeface. The deadline of NaNoWriMo gives me a much needed boost, naturally it kicks the word count into orbit, but the confidence that I can meet the pressure and have the commitment to see it through without sweating about the details; just getting the story down in any shape ready be knocked about and rebuilt where necessary is welcome.

Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo and author of "No Plot, No Problem" cites the deadline as the writer's most powerful tool, the Damocles' sword hanging over the keyboard. It works for me, focusing the mind and boosting concentration, and NaNoWriMo? 

Ancient cave paintings were the visual aids to storytelling and the themes are eternal, and for me National Novel Writing Month is a reminder that however solitary writing can be,, I am not alone, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people with something to say through the medium of the story. Whether plotting the minutest detail, winging it with half a wing missing and an engine shot away, literally on a wing and a prayer. Whatever your first line, Once Upon A time, in the beginning, it was a dark and stormy night, the scream shattered the night and his blood ran like ice through his veins. Be the storyteller and leave the day to day, step into the eternal and explore; travel in time and space, past, present and future - not necessarily in that order - or look at your own backyard through another pair of eyes.

NaNoWriMo is over for this year, but I'll be there next October waiting for the clock to strike the hour and shift the calendar from October the 31st to the 1st of November. I won't be alone, and if you chose to make the journey for yourself for the first time or for a return visit; travel well my friend. 

Imagination to the power of...

Do you think NaNoWriMo is craziness squared, 50,000 words in 30 days, OK, shift the perspective and walk another path. Imagine this; you are the guide at a historic building somewhere. A place where history and the personal stories of people ooze from the walls.
The mission, should you accept it, is to tell those stories and unfold that history in a lively entertaining way, to draw the visitors in and hold their imagination with your words. There is no rehearsal, you go live with one chance, this will be your first and only draft. It is a different group of people every time you open the door.
Your talk will last at least an hour, perhaps an hour and a half, at between ninety and a hundred and ten words a minute.
No notes, just the prompts from the things around you. You are passionate about it and once you start the words flow freely. Work an average, 100 words a minute for 75 minutes, 7500 words. That's a little less than one seventh of NaNoWriMo in an hour and fifteen minutes.
The challenge is fifty thousand words in thirty days.
Now tell me that my first draft should be anything less than my best.
Write your first draft as though it was your last.

Caught on the horns

Definitely didn't expect this. A month ago I was struggling to pull together an idea for NaNoWriMo, then The Duck Test began to formulate and for want of any other choices I decided to go with it,  until yesterday morning when a story I had been thinking about over a year ago suddenly clicked and The Obedience of Fools took over from the Duck Test. I'm not giving up on the Duck Test, but at the moment Obedience of Fools has the edge.

The title is a quote attributed to the British WW2 fighter ace, Douglas Bader, commander of the Duxford wing in the Battle Of Britain. A double amputee who challenged authority to get back in the air when war broke out in 1939 and said that  "rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men."

Come 0001 on the 1st of November, I may just toss a coin in the air and see how it lands. Heads for foolishness and tails for ducks should settle the question.

A ridiculous way to start a novel or in the spirit of NaNoWriMo? Instead of No Plot, No Problem, two to choose from, disobeying the rules of novelliing - they're really guidelines - and flying by the seat my pants, Nano style.

Follow the story as it unfolds through the month at Smashwords NaNoWriMo page, keep up with stats at NaNoWriMo

Stick around and be part of the action.

Remember, Remember

Remember, Remember, the first of November;
complete loss of reason and plot
No characters or story,  a vain lust for glory,
its Nano time, give it a shot!

All in one basket!

Not eggs, books!

Smashwords created the series page a couple of weeks ago, announcing its arrival via the smashwords blog. A convenient spot where books belonging together can be found together, brilliantly simple.

Iceline and Control Escape are now tucked together as the first two novels of The Grange series. What You Ask For will join them in due course, along with subsequent books in the series.
For the next month, from now until Hallowe'en. The night before Nanowrimo 2013 kicks off on November 1st, Iceline is free with the code XX74J and Control Escape has code QS72V to make it free.

That time of year again!

It has to be true, halfway through September and the Halloween goblins are locked in a bitter struggle for shelf space with the Christmas fairy and the oddly leering Santa who looks like a resprayed Leprechaun left over from a drunken St Pat`s Day where the black stuff flowed like the Liffey through Dublin.

The headlong crash through the Autumn months towards the Christmas season has begun, the slippery slope is oiled and the ball is rolling. Right now, who cares, Grange Four (Work in Progress, tagged not titled) has made a faltering start and will probably be dumped  on the 1st of November when Nanowrimo comes a-calling once more and with it the tense countdown to the witching hour. At midnight on Halloween when the clock strikes and the keyboards start to clatter with the rattling dance of fingers whatever skeletal dance macabre is going on outside will be pushed aside as imaginations the world over leap into their own frenzied state. Woe betide any supernatural beastie that tries to interrupt that moment; it will be death by flash-drive at fifty paces.

Nanowrimo again, 50,000 words in thirty days and at the moment I have either too many ideas or my head is empty. That's what it is all about, if you think about the core of Nanowrimo it makes no sense, everything is wrong, completely and utterly wrong, and that is exactly what makes it right. So absolutely beautifully wonderfully right.

Am I going to do it again, yes, YES, YES!

 So you have a shortage of ideas, spend an hour or two in the pub and listen to the conversations around you. Don't read a book, read two books, maybe three and stare at the ceiling for hours, do whatever it takes to get the imagination working again.

Challenge yourself, if you`re still waiting for that "One day I'm going to write a novel" then make a date. Wine it. dine it, romance it and lavish your time and attention on it.  It will be beautiful and by the end of the month you will ant to spend more time with and see the work done. 50,000 words maybe more, thousands more, a story told and a story to tell of how you rose to the challenge and wrote your novel.

When the dust settles into December and the frost leaves its fingerprints on the windows, the rings on the coffee mug can be counted to track your progress through Nanowrimo you can tell the story of how you went there, did it and got the winner's tee shirt. The one that says it all; 50,000 Words 30 Days and 0 Excuses.

Last year's effort; What You Ask For, is available as a free download. Still undergoing the proof reading and editing. The cover art needs a good look at too, but help yourself, follow the link and if you have any feedback use the contact box on this site or via website at www.cheekyseagull.co.uk.

So I've just shot my mouth off about Nanowrimo 2013, opened it wide and inserted one or both feet? The bottom line is the same.


50,000 words, 30 Days, 0 Excuses.

Still giving it away!

Free eBooks | Freebie Friday | Indies Unlimited | Indies Unlimited

Freebie Friday and the Smashwords summer/winter promotion, have a look at great new writing through Indies Unlimited and free ebooks by the bucketload at  smashwords.com and the Grange novels, Iceline Control Escape are available free with the discount code SW100 and What You Ask For, the Nanowrimo 2012 winner,  remains free to download here.  Help yourself, have a good read and chill out this summer with some great new writing.

Starting Over, again…

Half way through July and the Grange Novels are signed up for the Smashwords Summer/Winter promotion, an annual feast of discounted and free ebooks available through smashwords.com and the happy campers at Camp Nanowrimo are wrestling with their word counts in the jungles of their imagination. For myself, the next Grange novel is starting to ferment somewhere in the edge of my mind although at the moment there is little more than a scribbled collection of random words, some of which were scrawled across the page in the with eyes and brain barely open.
The point of this, just to let you know, there are more stories on the way and if you haven’t met Bill Jardine, Josie Burke, Steel, Langhers and the rest of the team from the Grange catch up with them at smashwords.com in Iceline, Control Escape, and What You Ask For.
What You Ask For is recently completed as a draft and is currently undergoing editing and proofreading and is free to download, Iceline and Control Escape are free until the end of July with the code SW100 at Smashwords, formatted for most ereaders.
Bag some good reading and be part of the action,

Update - What You Ask For

Just posted the latest version of the Nanowrimo 2012 winner, 

What You Ask For, still free and still available at Smashwords.com. The story continues, and Jessica makes her move. follow this as it progresses and pick up the first two Grange novels at 50% discount through Smashwords Iceline (code SG33N) and Control Escape (code VK65T).