Finishing the novel

[butterfly133]

Okay lovely MNers
I have a novel that's about 1/3 complete - it's been hanging around for years. I have now made a plan to finish it! I have 3 sessions per week where I can really get stuck in - one of them being now....it will be different each week due to rota and family but there are def 3 session per week of 3 hours. Then there's any extra time. (I'm beginning to think I need to use my commute to do something as well, though that seems a bit overwhelming).

the structure is all there so I do know where it's heading, I just need to put bum on chair and do it. I hope some other "finishers" might want to join this thread and update?

My hope is to have it finished by end of September. Yikes! I really must sit down for the 3 sessions per week because I have previously done it in chunks and then I've had to reacquaint myself and ended up wondering "why" I made certain storyline decisions, only to go through the process again and make the same one!

so fingers crossed for more continuity and focus.

now I must tear myself away from browsing MN.....

that's interesting - do you have your real name in brackets at public events then? Apols if that's a really dumb question.

No, I just use my pen name for all things related to my writing life. My real name is never divulged. And actually I like it that way!

I think it's a good idea, too, Word - did you start using your pen name immediately, with your first book, or later on? I like the idea of keeping private and public seperate.

Just sent my MS off for a proof print - ready for my first beta readers, ie my family - dh won't hold back, he's good like that, but I'm scared of it all being rather crap. Proud to have finished, though.

Hope everyone is getting along OK this week. Having finished that MS, I'm on book 2 of the series and also working on my NF book which has been suffering somewhat lately.

The pen name was decided upon whilst book 1 was being edited by HC. So that's the one I've always used.

I feel like it's still me, but a very different part of me.

And when I've had a few nutters get in touch, I haven't felt vulnerable on a personal level or that in any way those people could track down DC etc.

TWF, I think that's a great idea but I must confess I didn't think it would be allowed to do events and things under a pen name. I wonder if the authors I follow on Twitter are using their real names?

That reassures me because I am also worried about things like that.

Quite why I worry about that when I've also done no writing today, I don't know.....

Right, I've done some today, huzzah! It's funny, it does look interesting when you get into it but yesterday I was all "don't WANNA...." - you know? And mostly posted here and played in the sunshine (though I'll grant you sunny weather was a bigger pull, if it was raining I might have settled ha ha).

I'm also going to pick a short story comp to enter. I just think it would be good for me to do something like that. Writing a short story seems a good exercise in quality work as well.

What about this competition butterfly?
It's not a short story but it looks interesting.

www.fishpublishing.com/young-adult-novel-contest.php

There's an entry fee, mind you. They're a bit off putting.

Thanks Linda but mine isn't YA.

I don't want to put the novel under that pressure, I mean entering a prize for that. But I do think it will be a learning experience to try a short story, different writing style etc.

Also I have to say, this is turning to a personal achievement thing for me. I've become one of those people who just turns up to a bill paying job. I would never jeopardise that but I feel the need to achieve something outside of it. a complete short story of competition standard would feel like an achievement and maybe make the novel feel less of a mountain to climb.

Nice to see an active thread on here. I've been here before under various different names. I finished a novel late last year, but have been submitting it to agents to no avail since, apart from a couple of thoughtful, serious rejections - despite being longlisted for an award. But am about to embark on another one, and do another re-edit on the first, having been away from it for a while. I won't lie, it's been disheartening that the most common response has been silence. I still think it's good, but there is perhaps a time after which that can feel like self-delusion...

I've massively failed on my novel goals this week but have been working on a non fiction piece that's been on the boil for a coupe of months. Feel like I'm closing in on that now so that's good. Gotten a few notes down for the novel in between wrangling kids/ dinner and now I need to get mega strict and pin down the plot and write the remaining scenes.
Mslexia have a novel competition, deadline 5th September I think.

Greenstone, I heard about that comp too.

Fringed, to be longlisted is wonderful! Do you mean you had one published and the second hasn't had any luck?

www.writersandartists.co.uk run writing competitions regularly. The current one is for a crime/thriller opener, but they have a short story competition annually. The Swanwick Writers' Summer School hold an annual short story competition to win a free place.

No, Butterfly, the competition was for unpublished novels. There are quite a few out there. I was hoping that being shortlisted would be a help in getting an agent, but I didn't make the shortlisting cut - though being longlisted was good, obviously.

Thanks Linds.

Fringed, I didn't know there were prizes out there for unpublished novels.

Probably just as well if I actually concentrate on writing for now though

There are quite a few, Butterfly - off the top of my head, MsLexia, the Peggy Chapman/Bridport, the Bath Novel award, the Caledonia, the Lucy Cavendish, and lots of others, I'm sure. Some accept self-published work, some not - and some have YA/children's writing or other categories. Winners/shortlisted entries often find representation. (Literary agents tend to judge the shortlist.)

Most ask for three chapters/x thousand words and a synopsis, but if you are longlisted, you have only a few weeks to submit the rest of the MS. Some people appear to find them helpful as a motivator.

Fringed, I was supertired yesterday - now you've mentioned them I realise you are right and I do know about them but have been so keen on simply getting published I had forgotten about them.

I am going to do a bit now - just back from work - and about 2 hours tomorrow.

Thanks for your info Fringed about the prizes for unfinished novels - had no idea such things existed!

irony - discovering mumsnet has really not been the best thing for getting on with writing!

Hi all, another as yet unpublished novelist here - have one which is currently doing the rounds of agents, and am researching the second. I was actually longlisted for one of the awards mentioned above this year, but didn't make it to the shortlist. But even being longlisted out of hundreds of entries was encouraging, though I was gutted not to make the cut.

Pasta, these awards for unpublished novels only ask you to submit a small amount of your novel - three chapters/fifty pages/x thousand words, plus a synopsis - but if you're longlisted, you're not given long to submit the whole novel for shortlisting, maybe a fortnight or three weeks. So if you are submitting something you haven't finished, do assume you'll be longlisted and power ahead to finish it so you don't have to try to write 50000 words in a fortnight!

PS, I think that having to write an appealing-sounding short synopsis of your novel is incredibly helpful, though hard. It makes you crystallise exactly what your story is, what is really at stake etc.

HaleMary - I'm always interested in the advice of people who have managed to actually finish a novel.

the exercise of writing a synopsis and even having an agent approve it still hasn't motivated me! Though I am supposed to do some this afternoon.

Just finished my third book! Well, it's the fourth but I don't refer to the first

I'm looking out for readers who will spot holes, if anyone's interested?

Imperial - do you love it or do you have to motivate yourself a lot?

If I know the plot I absolutely love it and I'm quite happy to add bits to the plot that I hadn't thought of. If I haven't planned it, I find it a nightmare.

What I do is a page per chapter where it doesn't matter what the writing's like, I just say exactly what will happen. No dialogue unless I think of something funny.

I don't like to start the book until I have all that down and know exactly what the story's about, even though I know there will be changes.

I met Sophie Hannah at a workshop once and she said she did the same and sent it to her sister (I think) to read it through.

This time there were times when I really struggled. I go to the library where I can't get internet access so I've literally nothing else to do but write. It's the first time I've done that and it was really useful. I've trained the librarian to glare at me and say "Get on with it!" if I seem like I'm slacking.

At my worst I was like a child in an exam who has to write 1000 words and is counting them constantly - but my view is that if you've got those 1000 words you can edit them; you can't edit a blank sheet of paper!