Not the end...

The Write a Novel in a Month students finished the course this week and I'm proud to announce that as a group of approx. 12 students (regular ones) they managed a whopping 500,000 words between them, half a million - that's a huge amount of wordage. Over 40,000 on average each. I feel so proud of them all. Even the ones who felt they didn't write much, still did more than they would have done if they'd not come on the course. And that's the whole point really - to get you all writing, finding your voice and expressing yourselves.
There was a great deal of celebration and as I left 'The Bull' three more bottles of fizz were heading towards the table.
For me, this isn't an ending at all. I've got pages of what really amounts to notes for my next book and I'm trying to clear the decks so I can get down to seeing what is there. The first thing to do will be to print it all out, get a new red pen and a pile of post-it notes. As my (don't know what to call him...boyfriend is too young, he likes 'Hellraiser'???? - go figure, other half is wrong, I am a whole person in my own right. Man in my life is too long winded, bloke? OK - I'll try that, The bloke), as the bloke says, this is the best stage in writing, when you can still believe you are creating something good and worthwhile before the rejections and criticisms come pouring him. (The bloke is a bit of a pessimist).
My friend Jacqui Lofthouse is in the process of editing her novel at the moment, and I envy her that, she's at the end, doing all the tidying up, the smoothing out, the final polish before sending it off to her agent. Now that's the stage I look forward to, when you know you can't do anymore and this thing you've slaved over, dreamt about, obsessed and fretted with, is finally done to the absolute best of your ability.
So, if I have any message to students reading this, you are not at the end, but the beginning of something fabulous, exciting and totally transforming, enjoy. And see you all again soon.
sara
x

Technology - friend or foe

Have just taken delivery of new iMac. Lovely, I hear you saying - lucky you!
Well, yes and no. While, I'm delighted at the big shiny screen which is easier to see and at a better angle for my neck and back when writing for long periods, there is all the stuff that goes with new technology to go through.
I'm very happy with my old laptop, have been for a while now, I like writing in bed, propped up with pillows and an old paperback tucked under the bottom of the keyboard to get the right angle. All my work is on the laptop and here is where the problems began.
I was told that it would be easy to transfer all my stuff from one machine to the other - this is a lie - it isn't. I was told that if you buy an iMac from an Apple store someone will take you through the process. Mine wasn't, so I can't. I didn't get it off the back of a lorry, but it did come direct from a warehouse somewhere (as part of the ex's updating of technical equipment), so I have no where to go for help and am stuck with something large, unwieldy and although lovely, useless.
And I wondered - is this how the novelists will feel after they finish their novel in a month?
I hope not.
The first thing to do, is to put your book away for at least a month - give it time to mulch down and give yourself some distance from it.
After a month or so, take it out, get a large mug of tea/pot of coffee, some paper, a red pen and a pad of post-it notes. Now go through your 50,000 words and make notes, draw diagrams, mark particular passages and start making a plan - how are you going to make this rough draft into something you can work with?
Shameless plug follows - I run 'Develop Your Novel' course as a follow up, for anyone interested and in the Richmond area.
But there are lots of writing groups and classes available all over the country to join where you can work on and develop your rough draft into a finished product.
Remember - all first drafts are shit - this is a given.

Unable to put the new Mac in a drawer for a month, I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet, make a mug of tea and ring the technical support.....wish me luck!

Be Brave, Be Successful

Fantastic news this week. One of my students from last year on the 'Write a Novel in a Month' course has published his book.
See it here on www.murderersapprentice.com
I had a lovely email from him saying that he had been trying to write the book for over two years before he started the course and once he had finished the course he completed the book within three months.
So. Hope for you/us all.

I love it when I hear that students have done well and this news at a really good time as I was feeling a bit low earlier this week - too much marking and not enough time for my own work. I was beginning to wonder what I was doing.

I also had a big falling out with an old friend this week. I can't put details on here, it wouldn't be fair to the parties concerned, but it made me think about the nature of loyalty and living life fearfully. There is an old proverb that says - to live your life fearfully is to live half a life. As writers we are brave every day we face the page - we have to be.

As we go into the final week of the course I am asking all the students to be brave and keep going - you are so close to the end, it is in sight and you will feel such a sense of achievement when you reach the end. And you never know - in a year from now I may be getting more emails about publication dates.

Too much life, not enough sleep.

My class are fantastic - they work so hard and are writing pages and pages. I am so impressed with them.
They are making me look bad!!!
No, seriously, they are doing brilliantly keeping up the word count as I slip behind another day. My excuse is too much marking, too much of other people's work to read and not enough time to think, day dream and wonder where my heroine will go next. It is proving unfortunate, to say the least, that I put her in a wheelchair within the first few pages - not permanently, but long enough to make her immobility extremely annoying for the plot. I feel like saying 'get up and walk woman' like some latter day saint, but this would be cheating, so she is progressing to crutches and I will let her wheels sink into the sand on the beach and leave her with the tide coming in for the time being.

Meanwhile, other things in life - went to Manchester to see the man in my life perform comedy, it was very funny. Well, he was funny - obviously, it is after all, one of his jobs, being funny. The situation was funny too - a drunk dinner crowd (tables, so some people had their backs to the stage area), a steadily getting drunk and belligerent compere and a wimp of a promoter. Suffice it to say, I was glad he went on first, that the fight was avoided and that I had a bottle of wine inside me. Oh and we had the worst meal ever ever eaten anywhere - yey! But you know what? None of that mattered and at the risk of sounding soppy, it was good to get out of London and just be with each other - that and the pillow chocolates.

Lovely drive back over the Yorkshire moors. A stop off in Wandsworth to see the legendary Gary and his surprise grand-daughter and then home and sleep - oh god, I miss sleep. A glorious 8 hours, which, for me is close to a miracle as I'm a chronic insomniac most nights, waking up after 4 hours and wandering around looking for boring things to do to send me back to sleep.
Roll on Easter and the lie ins I'm promising myself.

Synopsis, Shelves and New Shoes.

Still writing. Tried to work out a synopsis for this book and realised that even while it was waaaaaaay too early for that, it was a 'very useful exercise'. I did it partly because I was teaching synopsis writing this week and thought that I should put my money where my mouth is (also a lesson on cliches - they are so hard to shift once you get going..arrgh!) Partly because I like to have an idea of where I'm going and I see the first synopsis as a kind of roughly drawn map - you know the one jotted down on a paper napkin rather than the google directions complete with 'turn left, continue down Acacia Avenue for 53m' type. It is also very useful for seeing if what you have is a story or just an interesting idea.
What you do is write a synopsis of what you have in your head, then look at it very hard, does it follow the shape of a story, does anything happen? Does the character change? Do they have highs and lows and a massive big rug pulling bit near the end? If not, tidge it around (a technical term) until it does. What you end up with might not be what you were hoping for, you have to lose that heart attack scene and the dream sequence but what you get is a much better story.
At least that's what I'm telling myself as I rearrange bits of paper,index cards and post-its.
A break from the writing involved painting my shelves. The decorator let me down at the last minute today - literally the last minute. He sent me a text five minutes before he was due here to tell me he'd just realised the fee I'd offered was too small and, I quote, 'he didn't work for peanuts.' I was shocked. We'd agreed the price a week ago, how did it suddenly get to be peanuts? I had no idea people were able to turn down work - obviously the recession hasn't hit decorators yet! Well, I looked at the shelves and you know what, he was right - a monkey could do it. So I may have splodges all over me and an ache in my arm, but the shelves are white and I'm up a new pair of shoes (possibly two!)
As an added bonus, that rhythmical slightly boring job was great down time for my writing brain and I think I've got my next scene.

Evolution

Now I know this year has some sort of link with Darwin because the man is everywhere I look - and having just looked it up, I find that it is 150 years since the publication of 'Origin of Species'.Yey for Darwin. I have been thinking recently that it was going to take me at least 150 years to finish writing my 'novel in a month'...arghh!!! NOT a good example to be setting.
I know things are going badly when I start buying and reading all the 'How to Write' books that I've missed. The latest is 'Wannabe a Writer' by Jane Wenham-Jones. http://www.janewenham-jones.com/ The book is brilliant - witty, intelligent and great for stopping me writing. Thanks.

All procrastination aside, my book has slowly started evolving (see how I tied things back into the title? Oh dear). Although it isn't turning out quite the way I had thought, in fact, it is turning into something very different, a little bit dark and a lot more interesting. This is fine - any of you Novel in a Monthers reading this - because, it is now clear to me that THIS is in fact the book I want to write, that I need to write, the book that is itching the back of my subconscious like a mozzie bite in June. So I am just letting it happen and the words are there, all jumbled and one hell of a mess at the moment, but I'm making notes, and creating plans and filling in index cards and bits of notebooks and finding stuff I had put in the 'might need it someday' folder (then refiling them, because, in fact, I don't need them right now.) But most of all I'm excited...and that's what evolution is all about - moving forward into the unexpected and welcoming it.
I like to think Darwin would agree.

Displacement activities can be the key to success.

Finally, some clear space to write. Today is going to be a full day of writing. Ha ha ha ha. This is a huge mistake, never ever clear a day in the diary to write - it is fatal, I realise this with a sinking heart and start making lists of alternative things that absolutely have to be done first. All this becomes academic as I manage to spill tea all over my lovely new white duvet cover, a wash needs to go on and then I need to find clean linen.
That done, the phone goes and it is a new private student - she sounds lovely and we have a really constructive first session. I love getting to know a new client sharing with them the excitement of a new book.
But today is MY writing day - I jot down a few paragraphs before the next interruption.
The post. Bills, yuk, vouchers for John Lewis - yey!
Obviously, I need to go shopping.

I love Peter Jones, it is an oasis of calm and kitchen equipment. Kitchen equipment reminds me I've promised to make Red Velvet Cupcakes for the kids birthdays. Even though my daughters are both grown up (17 and 22 on Saturday and yes, born on the same day) they still want homemade cakes, and even though I've arranged for Hummingbird cupcakes http://www.hummingbirdbakery.com/flash.html for them to share with friends, I know they'll be hoping for mum's lopsided offerings too. When I get home I find a recipe on the internet and manage to cover myself and the kitchen in red food colouring - it gets everywhere.
While they are cooking I unpack my Peter Jones goodies - cutlery, mugs and a saute pan, then roast pinenuts for the rissotto this evening.
Writing? Yikes! I rush to the computer and somehow I manage to get another few paragraphs down. Cakes out, search for icing ingredients and more sugary goo on my face and fingers. Back to the computer write for an hour or so and when I check my wordcount realise that somehow I've managed to write nearly 3,500 words.
Blimus - maybe a day of writing is a good idea after all!

Getting to know you

So here I am, day 4 of the Novel in a Month, I should be at around the 6,000 word mark and I'm down by about 3,000 words. I feel crap, have a cold and the washing machine engineer is clanging and sighing next door in the kitchen.
The novel, is taking shape though, and I have made pages and pages of notes. I love this stage, the 'getting to know you', bit, where you daily uncover a new aspect of the character you are writing. It is a little bit like falling in love, where even the most annoying habits of your new man, seem fascinating and wonderful. There will, of course, be bad times ahead, some of those habits, the inconsistencies will rise up and bite me on the novel writing arse, but for the time being I'm still in the honeymoon period.

Sunday night I met up with a friend's group of 'Arty Women' - writers, publishers, women from the art world and Life Coaches. I love the way women network and interact with each other. Watching us all over dinner, was like watching an intricate social dance. At no time was anyone left out of conversation, we moved seamlessly from one group or dialogue into another, passing on information, exchanging ideas, contacts, points of interest. Do men do this in the same way? I don't think so.
I was sad I had to leave early, but am really glad I made the effort to go out and meet with these interesting, high achieving but down to earth women. Thank you Jacqui for including me.