For anyone else who wants to start/progress/finish writing a book in 2011

[artifarti]

As the title says really!

Me: After several years of dithering with short stories, I committed myself to Nanowrimo last month and managed to bash out a 50,000 first draft of an idea I've had for ages. There is some excrutiating crap in there but also the bare bones of a plot and some interesting characters. So I'd really like to spend 2011 trying to develop it into something better.

But I need some company so that we can mutually kick each other's arses when the temptation to watch Holby City is proving too great. Anyone else?

I find it helpful to sit in the library and have a read of other books can also be helpful to take a break and go back to it comewhine.

A golf would have been too expensive. My sister's first car was a fiat, was a crappy little thing though but it did the job.

comewhinewithme - when I'm struggling and think that a particular piece I'm writing is twee or not "good enough" or even out and out rubbish then I try and continue writing anyway just to get it all out on the screen. It's when I come to re-edit/revise the chapter that better ideas/writing happens.

Some people edit as they go along (eg, in my case I do an edit of a chapter each time I finish it, like today), others bang out a complete first draft and then do an edit.

At least you now have something to work with - better than nothing at all.

Thanks for the advice, just managed to do over a thousand words so am pleased with myself.

Well done comewhinewithme! I've nearly finished revising Chapter 7 - just a little bit left to do which I'll try and do over the weekend in snatches of time (the weather is glorious so it's going to be a busy weekend!). Right now I am shattered!

Can I just say that I'm finding it incredibly motivating logging my "work done" here with you. It's got me back on track so thank you .

yeah, nothing like the virtual lash!
having said that I had the night off last night. Going to do a journey bit tonight, thanks for the car ideas, he's a bloke but agree Golf pricey, so I may put him in a naff old fiesta
he is not cool

CWWM - I've resolved myself to just write, write, write so I can at least get the story out; and then I will edit it all in one go when I type it up. At the moment it's in pencil in a notebook. It'll take me ages, I know, but I'm worried that I'll never actually finish the story if I take ages editting it all as I go along.

Did only 400 words today in the library while my oldest two were at Badgers. Taking DD2 to her dance lesson tomorrow, so will take my notebook and get a good hour of writing done then.

FlamingoBingo, you remind me of how Anne Tyler used to write when her children were young, writing in snatches of time - 250 words here, 500 words there whilst waiting for her daughter to finish ballet or her son to finish scouts. She still managed to complete and publish excellent novels. She has a detailed essay on how she wrote in this excellent book on how women writers write. It's out of stock but it's highly recommended and inspirational - Tyler's essay in particular is a must for any writing mother.

Anne Tyler's essay is called "Still Just Writing", incidentally. Google it to get summaries.

Thank you, Bsshh. Still remains to be seen if I'm writing anything good, though . could be absolute drivel! The two people I have reading it for me are eager to find out what happens next, so that's a good sign.

Ok, so DD decided not to go to ballet but my lovely parents looked after the children while I went to my room for an hour or so and managed to write another 1600 words! Woohoo!

And I've got another pov, now, too, which I'm pleased with.

Is there a good writers' forum where you can discuss your storyline? I keep wanting to talk about it to people, and am thinking about it all the time - would love to have people to talk to about it, and with whom I can discuss their storylines too!

Flamingo, the only ones I know of are Absolute Write and Writer's Digest but there must be many more. Why don't you post a separate thread in this section requesting URLs for other writers' critique forums. Well done on the 1600 words!!!

Hello again everyone - hello new people! Gosh, there's been lots of chat going on, can't hope to catch up properly but glad to see people getting really into writing. Life has been severely getting in the way for the last couple of months and I really miss the buzz of writing. Hopefully now things are better and I really want to get going again. Your enthusiasm is revving me up (so to speak! )

Well, about my radio play there is good news and bad. The bad news is that the BBC returned it with a 'No' but the good news is that it came with a proper crit and an invitation to submit another one at my leisure (I even get a special compliment slip which ensures it gets a proper read!) Apparently only a very small proportion of scripts receive this invitation! But now I am cacking it at the thought of having to produce something - if I mess it up this time, I'll have to get married and move house to have another try.

I have some characters and an idea and now I just need to stop procrastinating and make a start. So I am committing to have written something, anything by next weekend (not very specific or ambitious, I realise, but everything has to start somewhere!)

Well done arti! How long do you think it will take you to write?

I've done another 1400 words today, which brings me to the 10,000 words mark! Woohoo! Only another xxxxxx to go. The way things are going now, it's not going to be long enough for a novel, though...although I'm trying not to think about a final word count at the moment. I just want to get the story down, and I know that when I start typing it up, I'll end up with the scenes I've written so far being much more fleshed out, and will probably add in a load of extra scenes as well.

Just trying to work out how best to research something at the moment.

arti that's fabulous, get something down, the next submission could well be IT!
Doing a rewrite of chapters 4-7 tonight and then the mayhem of revising Part Two begins. Going to lock myself away over the Easter hols and get on with it.

Oh well done Arti!! Don't see it as a rejection, it's a 'not this one but we like your work.'

Keep going everyone. You can do it!!

I'm waiting for them to get back from bologna and to move house. This is going to be a loooong 2 weeks. I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

Thanks, guys. I am quite chuffed considering it was a rejection! It took me about four months to write last time - and DP was working away so I had more Me-time. But I had never written one before so there was a lot of learning on the job. Anyway, need to crack on...

All this revision and word counts - must be Spring in the air to get everyone's creative juices flowing!

belle - exciting! I am still pondering my picture book idea too but I am starting to run out of hours in the day!

Mine didn't take me very long An hour in the library reading, 20 mins to write it, an hour reading how to write it properly and 20 minutes for the rewrite. I've come to the conclusion that they will want me to change it regardless of how I've written it so I just sent it how it was, sod the revisions until they tell me exactly how they want it. I'm not 100% sure if this is the best plan though.

artifarti - the fact that you'd never written a radio play before the one you submitted and the fact that they want to read more - amazingly good news! Well done, and get cracking .

Okay, so the weekend is nearly over. I managed to complete a full edit this weekend of the Chapter 7 I'd finished lat week. Now it's a new week and a new chapter.

So, in the spirit of public accountability, I hope to complete Chapter 8 by the end of this week and work to 1000 words a day.

Hold me accountable, folks and kick my arse if I don't write every day!

Pleeeassseeee.

ninah - working on a Sunday night, and four chapter edits at that - well, I'm impressed!

Go Bssh!

I sat up and wrote anohter 1000+ words late last night - I am considering making DH take a few days off work and going and writing full time for a week to get this story out! It's in my head the whole time, and keeping me awake! I hope it's as good in other people's opinions as it is in mine!

And this morning I managed to write 1,300 words while the chidlren were playing, which was great, because I thought I couldn't write with them around, but obviously, with practice, I can! That'll make it go a bit faster.

I'm aiming to get Part 1 done and then will decide whether to start typing it up and editting it in the process then, or whether to crack on with Part 2 straight away. I don't know what exactly is going to happen in Part 2 yet, but I think I've got the bones of the whole of part 1 now.

FlamingoBingo, perhaps you can crack on with Part 2 as any developments in that section may force you to go back and amend Part 1 anyway. Especially as you haven't outlined the entire story yet. I edit as I go along but only because I spend weeks outlining each part of the book from beginning to end.

Yes, I think you're right, Bssh. And I think that there's a very high risk of me editting part one, and then not feeling motivated to start on Part 2. Will press on!

Daily check in time: I wrote 2068 words today (double my daily 1000 word goal) -an entire scene in fact. Yes!

really impressed with everyone, you're right arti it must be spring!
am working on descriptions of town and one of the characters tonight, quite looking forward to it procrastinating part two.

Woohoo, Bssh!

I did 1,600, to my surprise, even though I was IC all 4 girls all day long! They did spend an inordinate amount of time playing outside, though :)

Will hopefully get another 1000 or so done this evening - I'm writing very quickly at the moment just because I am at a point where I think I know what's coming next for a while. And I can't not be writing it, now it's in my head! I can't get over how much I am enjoying this experience, and even if nothing comes of it at all, I will always appreciate these weeks of creativity and immersion in a story of my own making :)