For anyone else who wants to start/progress/finish writing a book in 2012

[BsshBossh]

Sign in here, whether you are published or not :) Perhaps we can keep each other motivated.

I am a first time writer, never been published, have completed two drafts of my novel and am now working on the third - revising/editing.

How about you?

Oh dear - really struggling at the moment. I'm still trying to up the excitement level in the opening chapters, and DH (my beta reader) has suggested a change of plot, which will definitely up the excitement. But for some reason, I'm now struggling to write this alternative plot. Basically, rather than finding the dead body of a woman who's died in an accident, the characters realise that she's been murdered. At which point, if they had any sense, they'd run away and call the police. But instead, they hang around in a location which might have a murderer with a gun hiding out in a spare room, and basically interview possible suspects. Seems most unlikely.

How's everyone else going?

Oh, can I join in? I've got a budding fantasy novel in the works - not the really cheesy kind, or at least I hope not! I'm at a point now where I have the next part planned and really need to just get it written, but am scared to in case it's less perfect on paper than in my head. Which is inevitable, so I know I need to just trust in the editing process, but gah. Paralysis is setting in.

mo hayder's plots aren't all that likely grendel? she makes them plausible but they're not all that likely iyswim
million 'sp' just means I dunno how to spell authonomy
Hi lady s, good luck, all sounds positive
welcome legume. Just get writing, you're not carving it in stone, it can change later! (thank goodness for m'soft)

Just keep writing it, legum. I've rewritten the last half of mine 8 times because I didn't like the ending. Finally... Keep writing until you're happy with it.

Hi ninah. How are you?

Hello :) can I join?

I have 5 non novelly things published the day job and have a one off novel and a series I'm faffing about with. I'm stuck on the one off as the main component is a love? story possibly but I've no experience of it. I suppose it could just be deep friendship....mmm, will have to think on it.

Good luck to everyone else will go and read the whole thread

Welcome, Coffee and Leguminous (do I see a theme?). All are welcome, but you have to keep us updated as to what you're working on and how it's going.

Ninah - Thanks! I suppose you're right, but I'm reallly struggling to write it as I just keep thinking 'what kind of idiot would do this'?

Just checking in.

Current WIP going sloooooooowwwwwwwly. On a deadline (as per) so am going to have to do some serious lineage damn soon.

grendel I write crime fiction and my rule of thumb is always not would it happen, but could it happen....

am a big mo hayder fan btw

grendel I kind of have to think myself into the situation and believe it myself. Could you work on another section of the book while this bit percolates?
Lady S I wrote an intro over Easter and can't wait til summer to carry on with it the day job is pressing atm. Keep me posted, I love hearing positive news on the thread (even though I'm not actually writing anything apart from plans and job apps)

Not positive I'm afraid. The agent ditched my picture book because she didn't love it enough. It's probably a blessing as she didn't like my novel either (she doesn't like things written in 3rd person! ) I do have a fab new plot though.

I need some help checking for errant commas in my manuscript. This is copy editing isn't it? Where can I go?

Keep going, ninah!

Thanks for all the support! I think I might go and work on a different part of the novel - I'm really banging my head against the desk at the moment.

Sorry to hear about the agent, LadySybil. I had my fingers crossed for you. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

A very large agency has said they will look at my novel again if I submit via the usual channels, I was expecting them to tell me to sod off. I sent it to them last year and it was crap. I've been working on it.

Good luck grendel!
ladys it's good news and bad then! I do admire your persistence and I truly hope it will pay off for you. You just need that one chance. Hope this is it!
commas - do your own check? you're grammatically competent and I'd save the final copy edit for your publishers as it's an expensive enough process. At this stage I'm sure you are going to be able to get it clean enough to submit. If you are still in the same boat come July I'll do it for you I do prefer hard copy though

don't judge my grammar by posts btw, I'm a bit ee cummings on here (lazy) but I am a genuine pedant irl I promise

I have the persistence of a rottweiler! I know this agent, she wants perfection. She turned one of the earlier versions down before because it didn't 'sparkle' enough for her and it had errors. I only have to send three chapters off, she won't be reading them unless they get through her readers. {sobs} My lovely friend has gone through the three chapters, there's no a lot of errors so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Not sure about how much more 'sparkle' it has though.

Thank you for the offer, I may have a new project soon. How's the course going?

I am just beginning to get to grips with it which is timely as I have scary assessments coming up - this year has gone so fast.
Meantime I am job hunting for September. The house is a tip, and the grass needs cutting - am looking forward to the summer hols to catch up with it all (and write!)
'sparkle' - that's nice and specific good luck and keep us posted!

I'm not sure how much it 'sparkles' now but I think that my writing is better. I've put in an additional character and half of it is new so I'm hoping it sparkles enough for her now.

I have my fingers crossed for you, ninah. Don't worry about the housework, it can wait. As can the grass.

Hi all,

I posted early on in the thread but here's where I'm at now:

A small indie publisher has shown interest in my work and is backing my current WIP (short story collection) for a 2013 publication. I'm only at 22,000ish words with LOTS of work to be done so am feeling overwhelmed.
Oh, and I have a 16 week old baby.
Oh, and I am going back to work part-time in a fortnight.

HELP!

You have a lot on your plate,Fane.Good luck with your publisher.
Good luck everyone.
Im plodding, just plodding,but it is moving forward and in the right direction.
Weirdly,I write better when I am in a bad mood, not a good one.In a good one, I want to go outside,socialise etc.My book is sort of a self help book, so I need to be in a less than positive mood iyswim.

Hello all, I'd like to join if I may.

I'm having a lot of fun writing a horrendous first draft of a YA fantasy novel. In my head it's a work of genius. On paper, not so much :o

funny thread this.People pop in and out.
Welcome to Gincognito, I feel like the most lowly member of this group,but welcome anyway!
Good luck with your prospective book,no advice to offer I am afraid.
At least you are having fun with it.

My book needs to go from the stage of notebooks and many pieces of paper,to the computer.My DH has set up word for me, but I have no knowledge of it,and can only use a computer for basics.
I have to take the plunge,but dont know where to begin,and cant seem to use all buttons well enough to make the words go where I want them to.
Also it would be helpful to me to sort of have a side list running down the right hand side of sort of scribbled rough notes iyswim,and he and I dont know how to do this, or if it is possible?

Wow, look at the new bits of Mumsnet I keep finding! I see this thread has been stagnant for a while, but is okay if I join? I hope you all will be back at some point... I'm particularly interested in how those of you with your first LOs (Kayano, FaneFeyre, anyone else?) are doing. My first is 3mo now, and I've been back to writing for about a month. I had a break in the last weeks of pregnancy when my SPD was so bad I coudn't sit up or even bear to have a laptop on my lap, then DD was born by EMCS and had a tongue-tie that wasn't diagnosed until 8 weeks -- but I'm finally turning human again and really keen to be writing. Although I'm back to work in two weeks (eek, eek).

I'm currently doing a final polishing edit of Book 1 of a fantasy duology, which I hope to get out to beta readers soon. I'm more than halfway through - going scene by scene I've done 127 scenes with 67 left to go. The plan is to have this (or, even more optimistically, this and Book 2 -- currently in first draft only) ready to be pitched to agents at World Fantasy in 2013.

And here are my questions

1. is this your first novel?
   No, second, although the first one I've made a real effort to polish. My first novel was a nanowrimo scifi and will probably never see the light of day again...

2. what is your preferred genre?
   speculative fiction, shading more to fantasy than scifi, but I do both

3. what genre is your current project
   high fantasy

4. can you give us a brief plot synopsis (25 words or less?)
   eep, not yet! I'm still struggling with my "elevator pitch". Each time I try it comes out sounding silly or clichéd -- although I don't think the novel is!

5)when and where do you write
I used to write in the evenings in my room on my "writing loft". That is now DD's room... now I write whenever I can, with DD nursing or napping.

6. any useful tips or advice? Something I read by Elizabeth Moon (one of my favorite writers) has been helping me keep going lately: she said that if you have to have a break from writing for some personal/health reason, don't beat yourself up over it. Give yourself permission to recognise you're not up to it at the moment, but may be sometime, and come back to writing when you're ready without guilt.

Hi ardenbird and welcome. I'm beavering away at the last bits of the 4th draft of my novel, hence not having time to pop in here. Now the school holidays have started so I'm strugging to find sustained time to write. But my DD (4) is enrolled in a few clubs over the next few weeks so I should be able to fill the free time with writing. I was hoping to have finished this draft by last month, but hey ho. I need to make sure I don't fill my limited child-free hours with errands and chores!

Hello Gosh, I haven't been on these threads for ages. I actually started the equivalent of this thread back in 2011, having wrote lots in 2010 (nothing actually publishable!) then a bad start to the year totally stopped me from writing and then I got pregnant and for some reason pregnancy seems to use every ounce of my creativity! So I didn't write a word in 2011 . Now I have DS2 I have started writing again and finally finished writing two picture books that I started way back when. I recognise a few people on this thread - ninah, grendelsmum and ladysybil (who I think has namechanged?!). ladysybil - you were writing picture/children's books, weren't you? How did it go? How's everyone else doing?

hey, arti! congratulations, you have been busy! ds2 wow - and picture books!
I've had a bit of a hiatus too, did my teacher training last year and am now about 12,000 into a new crime thriller. I applied for a masters but haven't heard yet, in a way I hope it's a no as I now have a job for September - a real teaching job! it's maternity cover and I have everything crossed for an eventual job share as that way I could find time to do everything.
are you submitting?
waves at bshh, sybil and everyone else!