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?

[Zoidberg]

storygirl - I read some of Dorothea Brande's book, can't remember title offhand, and Stephen King's On Writing, that got me going, I love Mr King.

[Litchick]

Last night I finished the page proofs of my latest book, and sent them back to my editor today.

Can't tell you how great it feels - such a weight lifted.

[artifarti]

Well done Litchick. Hope this means you can relax for Christmas.

I have been rubbish this week what with trying to finish everything off at work and sorting Christmas out but some research sources I ordered have arrived and I've been re-reading my favourite book ever (Love in the Time of Cholera) in the hope of inspiration! Hope to start draft two in the New Year.

(Also read SK's On Writing - a great book.)

[Litchick]

I certainly intend to.

The first draft of the next one has to be around Easter...but I'm not thinking about that, right now. LOL.

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

May I join? I have an eighteenth century clergyman who has been hassling me for three years and I think it's time I got him on paper so he can go and annoy someone else . What I want is to be looking at a big pile of pages - good pages of course - instead of all these random scraps and ideas. Even if it never gets published it needs to be a story.

I have found it very encouraging to read on these threads about how even talented and successful writers like Litchick struggle with lack of self-belief sometimes but manage to just keep writing nonetheless. Litchick, thank you for being so open on here.

I wrote a young adult novel on mat leave with ds1 but didn't get anywhere with it; I subsequently managed to find a really intelligent writer friend to read it for me and she gave me some fantastic pointers so it would be worth sending off again after a big rewrite, I think. I have come to the conclusion that friends who can really give good advice on drafts are like gold dust. I know heaps of super-brainy and well-read people but mostly they can only pick up on quite superficial points.

Am SAHM now with 1,4 and 5 yos so finding time is a slightly different ballgame but there are scraps of time.

[Novelist]

Oh, you are lucky, Litchick! Good timing! I thought I had things sorted then got another round of revisions. Poop.

Artifarti, am having some nice re-reading time too -- Bill Bryson. Have just finished his European book and the British one. So funny. Can't really warm to his new books, though.

An 18th century clergyman sounds pretty fascinating, sethstar! I just finished reading MajorPettigrew's Last Stand and it was really refreshing to read a male main character in the women's fiction genre. Especially an older man...

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

thanks for saying 18th c clergyman sounds fascinating Novelist - I worry that I am the only person that could possibly think so

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

Butterfly - yes please! After the major rewrite I will definitely take you/her up on that. It has nothing particularly inappropriate in

I read Meg Rosoff's 'Just In Case' recently, great stuff. Will read The Way We Live Now when it comes back to the library.

[junglemum83]

Hey im new on the site and this is my 1st post too! I have had an idea for a book or part of a trilogy for a while ago but life really takes over but this is the year im going to try and write most the bulk of it or give it a bash anyway!

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

welcome junglemum!

[artifarti]

Hello new people!

sethstar - I like the idea of an 18th c. clergyman too! I researched some of my family history and found that my g-g grandad was an accountant in central London in the 1840s but in his forties packed it all in to become a rural vicar. Always thought he sounded fascinating. But I have been hassled for three years by my character, a misogynistic Anglo-Italian man with a deathwish and a nasty secret - so I have to put him to bed! I know what you mean about having to get them onto paper so they leave you alone!

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

that's interesting about your ancestor.
LOL @ your misogynistic Anglo-Italian. Sounds like a nasty piece of work. My hero isn't a particularly nice guy either.

[schroedingersdodo]

Hi, can I join too? I'm a journalist but now I'm writing my first novel. For the very first time I'm writing consistently - 500 words a day, every day. It's much more than I have ever achieved and seems realistic for someone with a 7 month old at home, house work to do and no relatives around (in fact I'm quite proud of myself )

I finally convinced myself that it doesn't matter if in the end the novel is not good. It doesn't matter if it ends up being an embarassment of a novel, I can survive it (I repeated this to myself so many times that I'm starting to believe

It's great to see other mums here in the same struggle (and even greater to hear from the published writers).

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

well done Schroedingersdodo - I think 500 words a day when you have a 7 month old is very good.

I think at the first draft stage the most important thing is getting it down on paper and you can always improve it later but if you agonise too much you will have nothing to improve.

have just looked at your profile and seen you're a science journalist - does any of that feed into your fiction?

[merlotmum]

Can I join too. I am complete mess with writing. I have two first draughts in completely different genres. I have been at this since I was at school but never had anything finished enough to submit.

I have a brave hero who actually existed and did amazing things and a real life nemesis who was cruel and relentless in his pursuit of power but a smidgen sexy at the same time.

I would like to get this book written.Maybe next year will be the one. Glad to see others in a similar boat and that I am not the only mad woman around.

[schroedingersdodo]

Merlotmum,

don't worry, there are lots of mad women out there! :)

Seth,

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm trying to write regardless of quality, just to get it out. After years procrastinating and agonising about it, I found out it's easier then I thought.

And in fact yes, there is a bit of science there... It's a bit sci-fi-ish (but I don't like the label), set in a dystopic future and all that thing...

The world building is good, in my opinion. But I'm struggling with the plot, hahaha.

[artifarti]

Hello everyone - hope you all had a nice Christmas!

I am thinking of embarking on my second draft which is a bit terrifying! Was wondering how others go about this. I know I need some major changes in character and plot and obviously some of the actual prose is shite.

[blackcoffee]

arti I find it really helpful having someone else read and give me input, do you have anyone you can trust for honest critical advice?
Otherwise as long as I've left a draft alone long enough to become a bit detached from it I can usually spot problems on a read through myself
am starting part 2 of my nano novel in Jan, so will be posting word counts for the odd kick/carrot (ninah here btw)

[UnquietDad]

Sorry to come to this late, but I am a published writer too - as some people on here already know. I can give advice where needed, but need the encouragement and support and general arse-kicking too!!

I've done literary fiction, non-fiction, TV tie-ins and children's fiction - 10 books published, with 3 more contracted and coming out over the next 15 months.

As others have said, it doesn't get easier. Unpublished writers may gaze at us in awe and envy, but really it's no picnic!

The money is awful. Really bloody awful. I found a Facebook group recently, populated by twentysomethings who work in editorial/publicity jobs in publishing - all moaning their arses off about their poor pay (£12-20k in most cases). Most writers would kill for such an annual income! And it's exacerbated by the fact that people (and some of these publishing staff too) think that we have an easy life and a wealthy lifestyle.

I supplement mine with Creative Writing teaching (I'm joining the staff of a renowned MA course in 2011), and a good few school visits (which do pay well, as the Society of Authors has fixed a recommended price - doesn't stop some schools thinking it's too much though!)...

My last book was horrendously late - I mean many, many weeks late. And my editor is making her presence known with the new one, wanting to interfere a lot... And there is always that feeling that Terry Pratchett describes, that someone is going to tap you on the shoulder and tell you that you've been found out.

[artifarti]

blackcoffee - I have a couple of people in mind to read it eventually but it really is in no state in its current form. I am thinking that Draft#2 will pin down the plot etc. (and hopefully sort out things like the old woman that starts out as thin and frail and by the end of it is fat and exuberant! ) One of the characters had also decided by the end that he wanted a sub-plot of his own so that's to be sorted. Part of me wants to crack on but another part is terrified that it will be utter crapola. Hence I am doing lots of procrastination research at the moment.

Hello UnquietDad - gosh, that sounds like a busy 15 months coming up! It's funny about the money isn't it?! I guess we all secretly hope that we will be the Next Big Thing and end up lying on a chaise longue in a Lichtenstein castle, dictating to a secretary whilst eating chocolate. But really we know that the chances of anything happening are very slim (well, not for you obviously, you've cracked it!). Yet we're still compelled to get it all out on paper. Barmy.

[UnquietDad]

arti - well, in fact that busy bit is the next three months, because those books which are coming out between now and March 2012 - the first is written and at proof stage, the second at draft-editing stage (and my editor may ask for another) and the thirds being written for a Feb 2011 deadline...

Publishing world is always 12-15 months ahead of itself at least!

That's why I tell my students to try and avoid "bandwagons", as books being written on spec now may not be sold until 2012, and may not come out until 2013 or even 2014.

[schroedingersdodo]

hi all, it's nice to see people back in this thread (i'm so happy i found a creative writing area in mn that i've been coming back to check it in the last few days...). Unquietdad, i'm so jealous of you, even with crap money :-) what genre do you write? Are all your books children's?

[schroedingersdodo]

hi all, it's nice to see people back in this thread (i'm so happy i found a creative writing area in mn that i've been coming back to check it in the last few days...). Unquietdad, i'm so jealous of you, even with crap money :-) what genre do you write? Are all your books children's?