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?

it rocks! I always liked this story, I think it will be The One

I hope so. I think 25k is long enough for a teenage book. I'm really not sure about the end bit. One of the wizards has been pretending to be a boy at school for years as he knows Jack will get the egg. He reveals himself at the end and there's a fight. The phoenix appears at the top of the stairs and follows the evil dude out of the house. He's running, falls over and the phoenix shoots fire at him, engulfing him in a fire ball. He's then running around and screaming. He falls silent and collapses to the floor. It's a tad graphic, I could mention the stench of burning flesh that's dripping from his skin like melting candle wax I suppose I'm not sure what teenage boys like to read.

I don't think they're easily grossed out lol
one of the pleasures of reading as a child is feeling quite scared
sorry ds is only 8 or we'd try it!

I might up the tempo a bit then There's some funny bits. Like Alfred (old man) sniggering like a naughty school boy who's overheard his friend fart in assembly. I've no idea where this came from

I wouldn't want an 8 year old to read it. It's a bit dark. How are you?

It sounds great belle! (c'mon boy, grow!)
I'm OK, bit quiet over Xmas, took a break from writing, setting off again now it's jan etc
I really like the phoenix stuff I know I keep saying that. It's Got It!

It needs a full edit. I keep getting the names mixed up and could do more about his relationship with his mum maybe. It sounds OK though so I'll leave it for a week and go back to it, it'll give me chance to write the sequal!

I posted a christmas story on my blog. I'm shocked, it's been read 500 times in 2 weeks which I think is pretty good!

Keep at it. You can do it.

Great! and good on the blog
don't forget if you want edits you have my details. Sounds like you have made a great start to 2011.
Yeah I'm plodding on. Is OK. Better than tv and choc I suppose lol.

It's 25k long, you do know that right? I think there's a few commas here and there that I'm not sure of, mainly where speech is involved. I might send it to you so you can read it though.

yeah, how long belle?? lol
I hear you, 25k
good one! up to you. I'm a pedant. Do your week off, and review and if you want further hassle then I'm your woman.
I think I made a resolution about more sensible bedtimes. Ah, well ... nn!

It's a monster, especially as my usual ones are less then 2k. I've created FRANKENSTEIN!!

I have a brand new plot bubbling away so I'll start this later. It feels like a good'un.

I've been sleeping in too much so I need a very late night to even things out a bit. Sleep well

Just adding myself to this thread. Have 75,000 words of what will be a 100,000 word novel which has now been in progress for about 2 years.

I've workshopped quite a lot of it in various online groups (mutual critique plus teacher input) and am about to start a "real life" group this week which I'm very excited about.

I've decided that this is my "do or die" year. I've realised that I don't really want to finish this book because then I'll have to submit it and find out if it's publishable or not. It's strange because I don't normally shy away from criticism or bad news. I'm one of those people who always says "I'd rather know the truth."

I think I might try to get a complete draft by Easter.

Also writing my second novel now. Hitting a bit of a slow patch. No time to post more now but marking place so can come back!

I'm not sure if I've found the right forum, but wondered if there's any playwrights in this group?

I sometimes write short stories, poetry and film scripts as well, but mostly plays.

I'm on maternity leave and one of my ambitions this year is to finish at least two of the 2nd/3rd draft scripts I've been ignoring for the last year, as I've spent too much time working on other things!

Hi Linda No luck yet. JB did ask me to resubmit in the new year though which is great. I sent a ms off to a publisher friend who I met on Twitter, she was really helpful but basically said it needed to be a picture book for the under 5s but was too long and the language was a little too complicated for this age group. The age group I did aim it at, 5-7s, don't read books about farm animals so it would be too hard for them to sell.
I think this one should be better though. It's quite funny in parts, there's parts where he's being bullied at school but he won't tell his mum because he wants to protect her etc.

There's a few poets on here Crystylline. You never know about playwrights. Stick around anyway

I had an idea for a book just before Xmas, so hopefully I'll have it finished this year rather than forgetting about it.

Quick -write it down. I am always thinking of great lines for my book (usually after a few vinos) and then forgetting them by the next day.

Have started carrying my writer's notebook again to stop this annoying habit.

hi all - ds in nursery on fri; will start editing then!

Ok- so I'm 5 days into the New Year and I now have fewer words than I started with as I deleted a load of embarrassingly poor dialogue.

How depressing.

That's time well spent bagged. Better to do it now and have a book that flows then do it later and have to do more work because it doesn't.

So, these are my 2011 projects:

1. Decide on the age group and edit accordingly
2. Write short story (good practice)
3. Start adult romantic book - idea burning hole in brain

Hi - still haven't put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) on my novel this year - but dd1 started school today and dd2 starts playgroup tomorrow so hopefully I will have a bit of time soon. I am finding it really hard to get back into - I know I just need to get on with it but just seem to spend my time worrying about how crap it is...

As for online groups/workshops etc I can't decide whether to try one of the Writer's Workshop online courses or attend a one day course or....I like the idea of finding people who can critique, I haven't shown my work to anyone yet, dh will probably be the first but other than that I am too embarrassed.

Belle - good luck with the Monster book, I really hope you get some positive feedback.

stranded- I have done the Gotham courses before and found them to be quite good (I did them entirely online). I have done two short story courses and two novel writing courses. The format is a weekly online lecture, and then 3 opportunities to submit writing to be critiqued by the other students and the teacher.

However, the usefulness does rather depend on your classmates. In one class I found that the critiquing was pretty poor. In others, it was really good. Also I found the classes to have quite a high drop out rate- around 30% had disappeared by the end.

The other downside is that it is American, so expect most of your classmates to be from the US. That's not a problem in itself, but if your book is culturally very British, as mine is, then you have several "lost in translation" moments, and you can find that some critiques can focus on " I didn't get what you meant by X"

I then went on to do a private online workshop with 4 others from my class and the teacher, and that was really good.

Now I'm doing a "real life" one. Our first meeting is Monday. I can't wait.

Hello all - I have been rubbish over Christmas and NY but I now have a couple of weeks off work so hopefully lots of naptimes to get some momentum up on my second draft. I printed draft one out and it wasn't as awful as it could have been (!) so was encouraged although huge amounts of work needed. I am off to do my last piece of research tomorrow and then, that's it, no more putting it off! I'm trying to give myself a deadline but haven't quite decided when yet.

stranded - when I wrote a few short stories I had a mentor that I used to send them off to for feedback (never met her in RL). It was useful to learn that I wasn't totally shit and funnily enough it was always the writing/character that I had a hunch was a bit ropey that she would home in on! I think for this longer piece I might just get second draft done and then give it to a few trusted friends - eek.

Good luck to everyone else.