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?

Back on track but not back in the groove as I'm still ill, but managed to write 1790 words this morning.

Hi Dandy, welcome back. Good luck with the conference. A time target sounds like a good idea - how much time can you/do you need to commit each day?

I'm writing whilst ill - this is my kick up the arse to you!

Okay, my word count today has ended up being 2841. Yippppeeee!

1009 words today. Grand total now 70K. Still another 30K to go but am happy. see you tomorrow (hope to complete chapter 13 tomorrow).

crikey bb that's amazing. Well done and hope you are feeling better.
My ms is in the post, phew; I've had a rejection from another agent just to normalise things. I plan to forget all about it for the time being, and get back on track with current project (lagging woefully) until I get some feedback that I can work on.

Still feel very crap - it's a cold that is lingering. DH and DD both have it too. The writing is keeping me sane, actually, otherwise I'd be going round the bend with boredom and pain.

Good luck with the "MS in the post"!

thanks!

Ok. My word count is now 34,086 and I've written about 3k today. It's all dribble though.

3k is fantastic output, dribble or not, belle - well done!

I've done about 1000 words today - just 500 words shy of my target to finish the chapter (chp 13) but my head is spinning and feels like cotton wool and I needed to stop. Get on with other things today. Start fresh tomorrow.

yeah that is a knock out word count. My optimal is about 1000 which I hit today but only because the story line has taken a bit of a swerve and I could put some stuff in which I had thought was going to be a sep short story. I do have a plot in mind but it's v loose atm, will tighen up once the various themes start to emerge, cos what I thought it was about, it ain't! still down on planned word count overall.
Bb take it easy and shake off that cold soon. Sounds miserable. whisky? sauna?

Hope you're better soon Bssh. Look after yourself and rest.

I've written a scene that I'm not 100% sure about. I like it, I'm just not sure if it's cheesy though. I've only written 1k today, have a bit of headache.

How's it going ninah?

Am amazed that you manage to write anything at all, with your head full of cotton wool, BsshBossh. Great work!

And belle, with your 3k.. Wow.

I've started over and written a chapter outline for the book, and also moved some stuff around so that it fits with my plan, and it feels as if I've written Lord of the Rings already, even though I haven't actually written anything more on the book The chapter outline is a couple of thousand words in itself, though, so I guess I should feel pleased anyway. It's hard to just sit here and come up with enough interesting stuff to carry a whole book - and this is to be a very short one! The woman from the publisher's who contacted me is sending me some examples of their romance novels, so I can read them and study how they dwell on things

Hope everything goes well with your ms, ninah

Chapter 13 now complete .

less of the 'only' belle it's bad for my ego
brain that outline sounds more like an actual chapter!
bb - loverly
I'm procrastinating now so better start work.

I don't have an ego!! I've written nothing today. It's been a bit crap so I've taken the day off.

I think you're entitled! well I have made the gargantuan struggle to achieve my target of 1,000 and that's plenty
new character, I think she might take over a bit, she certainly talks a lot

Well done ninah.

DH is late home so I've been able to edit Chp 13 too now. MIL is coming tomorrow for long weekend (=free babysitter so DH and I can go out and enjoy ourselves all weekend!) so no more writing until Monday when I will begin Chp 14.

Keep chugging away, ladies .

700 words today, which is over the 600 I had as target, so I'm satisfied. I've also read two of the romance novels I got in the mail. As they break every writing rule known to man, I now believe that is how we are supposed to do it

On another writing note, I had an argument with my professor earlier today over a semicolon, which felt pleasingly pedantic

Well done, ninah for your 1000 words, and BsshBossh for your complete chapter!

Hello . . . (deep breath) . . . I have been lurking for a while. I'm working on a novel and suffering all kinds of miserable self-doubt. I am currently in a pretty much complete re-write of the last third (?) of the book; my goal is 500 words a day and the previously written bits that end up getting saved don't count towards the total.

When I am having trouble getting down to it, I use the Pomodoro Technique. Anyone else?

Welcome mittenkitten007 and well done for being at the stage that you're re-writing the last third of your novel - you know it's achievement enough to have written a full draft of a novel, no matter how much it needs to be re-written? Because it is a real achievement.

Glad Pomodoro's working for you - I use 15 minutes blocks of time to motivate myself on housework or admin and then find myself going beyond 15 mins, but for my own novel I'm finding setting myself a word count is working well for me.

Keep writing! Write even if you're sufferingself-doubt. At work we have to keep working despite self doubt, don't we Or keep looking after the DC in spite of doubts about our abilities to parent well? That's what life's all about - keep pressing on and getting the job done despite or in spite of self doubt.

Thanks BsshBosh. I am published, but in terms of fiction, the only thing was a short story years and years ago in a tiny literary journal! And oh, the amount of rewriting I have yet to do on this project . . . this may sound insane but I feel so guilty that it's not done. I have no one to talk to about it in RL -- DH is not a reader and I don't want to say anything about the project to anyone else because in the past I have been met with either skepticism or (possibly worse) over-enthusiasm, as though the only possible outcomes to a writing career are abject failure and drinking grain alcohol while living in a cardboard box, or being pelted with huge cheques by Hollywood producers desperate to acquire screen rights.

You are working much more quickly than I am. I am thinking of bumping my daily quota up to 600 words -- it's still not much but I find if I go up too high (like 1000 words) the next day I am useless. . Think I need to work up to it, as though I were training for a marathon.

what's pomodoro? golden apple? does it involve bribing yourself with a dvd and a glass of rioja? if so yes

The pomodoro technique is a time management tactic in which you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for five minutes, repeat this cycle three more times, then break for 20 minutes, then do it all again. I found out about it from a Charlie Brooker column! The idea is that while you're "in a pomodoro" (there's a little jargon, inevitably) you cannot break from it to, say, look up some trivial fact on the web. It's very anti-multitasking . . . when I first got into it I tried to use it for housework, etc. but quickly came to the conclusion it's just not workable for anything other than nice tidy work blocks.

Pomodoro is Italian for tomato -- apparently the originator of the Pomodoro Technique had a tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used. I have downloaded a pomodoro widget for my computer that times me and says things like, "Ready, set, go" in a robot voice. So, er, not quite as much fun as the DVD / rioja combination . . . .