Write a book this year

[GlumyGloomer]

I started back around February I think, and hoping to finish the first draft before the end of the year.
Anyone else fancy a chat/support thread?

Hi @MarisPiper92, welcome aboard. Well done for plot hole fixing. Whenever I get stuck it generally means I haven't put enough background work in somewhere.
MrsRussel Did I read that right and you've scrapped 25k words? If so then ouch!

House moving and sick kids both very understandable reasons for not writing much. Not getting very far here either, mostly still because of decision paralysis.

Glumy not scrapped, just...moved into the slush document, likely to be recycled.

Don't know about anybody else but I find that like many a liar I start to put too much detail into my story when I'm struggling to take it anywhere, and then I get bogged down in trivia. (Was it raining then, or later? Did General Monck have all his own teeth?)

I think I must have read the first 30 pages about a thousand times and I change probably a word every single time....

Hope everyone is having as good a day as possible....

@MrsRussell, I also put too much details into my story. I like to set the scene but sometimes get so carried away with details. Then I find it’s taken me away from the actual story, if that makes sense. But sometimes I feel the little things do matter.

Can I ask, have others undertaken writing courses in the past or at present? I’m currently looking into a creative writing course with the OU. I know there are so many courses out there but I’m also aware that many people write for the pure love of writing and produce great books.

MrsRussel oh I see, that makes more sense. I very rarely find I've written too much detail, my problem is always the other way around.
Coffee I started an OU writing course last October, but gave up pretty quickly. The issues I had were 1, the feedback system was clunky, there was no obvious way to find your own posts or those you'd commented on in the pages and pages generated. 2, The one I was signed up on starts at the very very basics, which I already feel competent on. 3, kids.
What I need is a grammar, world building and research course, those being my main wobbly areas. And kids who go to bed.

So interesting reading through this and hearing about different approaches. Know I'm a bit late but would love to join in. Didn't start my novel this year, however, feel I really, really must get it finished this year. Hoping this will keep me on track as I have regular bouts of procrastination.

Coffeeandbooks13 I did the OU A215 Creative Writing course a couple of years ago and I got a lot out of it. The main focus is on short story writing, poetry and life writing. I thought the course materials were excellent (apart from the poetry section, which, even the tutor admitted wasn't very good - she recommended we read Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled instead, ha ha.)
I would agree with Glumygloomer that the peer group feedback aspect was a waste of time - mainly because of poor layout on the forum and complicated rules about what you could post (everyone in my tutor group gave up and hardly anyone posted), so if this was one of your main reasons for doing the course I'd maybe think about something else - or even a writer's group or something instead. There's the feedback from your tutor as well of course on your assignments, which I found helpful.
I felt the whole thing helped move my writing forward - even just having to write a story beginning to end - forcing myself to finish - was a big leap for me as I'm a terrible 'unfinisher'.
I considered doing the follow on course, however, apparently it continues with short story writing and poetry, and adds in screen writing, but not novel writing. I certainly think the A215 course is still very useful for novelists, or would be novelists in my case. But I decided if I did another course I'd prefer it to focus more on novel writing. In the end I just decided to work away at my novel instead.

@GlumyGloomer*,*@happygolurkey thank you both for your feedback on the OU. It is a lot to think about but I would like to do a course to help with my writing. I’ve seen a few others advertised which I’m going to look into. I also subscribe to a writing magazine which I find really useful.

How are things coming along for everyone?
Have a good writing day!

I’m still distracted from my novel by a short story that I’m working on. I think its because I need to type up the draft and I can’t touch type!

Had a horrible moment yesterday when OneDrive crashed and refused to open. I'd hit my 1,000 word count, which is rare, and thought it would be just my luck for the computer to swallow it up. Fortunately, after enough pleading, I got it back.

Interesting re detail. I too find I have far too little, but I'm hoping I can resolve this when I've got the initial shell of the story on the page. I find that if I start with too much detail and interesting character development, I will completely lose the thread of the plot and get stuck. So at the moment I'm going for a plot-first approach.

I did the free FutureLearn OU course which was good from a beginners perspective.

I'm going to be starting the OU Creative Writing masters in September. I work for them do get to do it for free. I'm not sure I'd want to pay for it.

With regard to detail. I don't tend to put huge amounts of detail early on (description of setting etc) as I feel I need to keep focused on where the story is going (as in what's happening) and get right from beginning to end with it as quick as I can. Unless something really jumps out/i have a sudden flash of inspiration about something, and then I'll put it in. But I mainly layer in the detail over the course of many re-writes.
It's probably a long way of doing it, I wish I could do it as I go more.
Was trying to work out if this was feasible for me to get this done this year. reckon I'd have to get 3 chapters a week finished to hit that target, which doesn't seem realistic. But i do have annual leave to take still so can maybe do extra and catch up in those weeks.

I have a very particular style of writing which does lend itself to an excess of detail. The first time I saw one of my books "in the wild" edited for a commercial market I was very much "wtaf did you do to my boy???!!!" - so I've tried to sit on the detail a bit since then, or I do wander off into details of just how brocade-y 1660s waistcoats are, or how my intrepid heroine kept her beds bugless.

Today, on the other hand, I have discovered Henry Johnson, who was THE prime commercial shipbuilder of the 1660s and far enough up the bum of the government of the time that they could have had two bites of the same pie. Bestie mate of Samuel Pepys, who appeared to be slipping him backhanders hand over fist.
I don't believe he's any relation to the present incumbent but I tell you what, in the new book there's not half going to be a strong resemblance

I don't believe he's any relation to the present incumbent but I tell you what, in the new book there's not half going to be a strong resemblance

🤣

This is really great to know about your writing activities. All the best.. Happy Sunday friends!!!

Good to know I'm not the only one putting in the detail on subsequent drafts. I'm writing at an absolute snail's pace at the moment and I don't know why. I found a way out of my species conundrum (basically going with dragon to human but leaving things vague enough that I can flip it in a twist if I ever write any more), but having stopped to think all that through I'm struggling to get my flow back.
happygolurky I have no idea if I can finish this year or not. Technically it's roughly half way through the year and I'm half way through the book, so it should be feasible, but obviously not if I get stuck too many times.
MrsRussel you'll have to have one of those "any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental" disclaimers

It's sounding like your on track though GlumyGloomer. Well done on finding your way out of conundrum - just keep going!

I’m late to join but would love to - planning to write tomorrow and will update the details of my word count. I really fell off the wagon recently so need to get back into the habit of telling myself I’m going to write then not procrastinating.

Will check back in tomorrow and I hope some of this accountabilitity will help me! I just stare at the screen thinking how it’s not publishable but what’s the point. Then I read lots of authors who did the same thing so maybe there is a point.

I loved loved loved TheMental’s speedwriting thread. I found it SO inspirational and amazing and I know she has a different name now but wow to the level of commitment and application. The writing muscle has been truly honed!

47k now, and a throw away idea has fitted nicely into the set up for the (still quite distant) finale. I do like it when my subconscious does some of the work for me.
Welcome Novelless, nice name, but hopefully we'll see it change

Ok!

So - start count was 17,178 and ended on 18,234.

It was sticky going to be honest - I’d told myself to do 1000 words and checked my word count so often in desperation it just slowed me down.

However! Glad I did it and will aim for another session tomorrow or the day after. I’d like to be at 20,000 by the end of the week. Even if it doesn’t flow. I keep reminding myself I can just re-write and edit it which to be fair was what quite a lot of the pre-writing time involved today.

Good going Noveless, sometimes you do have to just push through to get something done.

I had to split my document as my phone was starting to struggle with it, so that's my word count out the window. Pt 2 is currently at 5k words. Nearly to the end of Friday. It's quite ridiculous how long it takes me to write an in story day. Saturday will be interesting as it introduces a bunch of estranged family members.
Meanwhile I've created a basic scribephile profile. I actually feel too nervous to critique anyone else's work, let alone post my own. For various reasons I don't have anyone who's happy to read my work any more, so hopefully I'll be able to get the hang of it all.

@GlumyGloomer
I'm on Scribe and if you like I can PM you my name, happy for you to crit/crit back.

Best thing to do is find an active group that is likely to be interested in your current WIP. I'm in the children's books and have made some nice on-line friends there, and we tend to keep going back to each other's works.

It's rather scary both doing the first crits (although I've never had any negative feedback from them) and receiving them. I always read the closing comments before I read the rest of it, because that gives me an idea as to how they've seen it. If it's not looking good then I wait for a good time to read it-possibly after another that looks better.
But I've only had one crit that I'd say was nasty out of over 100. It was a middle chapter and they spent most of the crit saying "you haven't described/explained this" which was described/explained in the previous 13 chapters. So I looked at the person's other crits and found that was basically what they wrote all the time, so it stang less!

For my first crits I chose something out of the spotlight, because I didn't feel confident about taking up a space. That does mean you get less karma though.

@MargaretThursday that would be great thanks, all tips on getting started gratefully received
How do I tell if a group is active? Is there any etiquette to joining a group or do you just click the button and get on with it?

@GlumyGloomer
Unless it's a private group, just click "join" and you're in. Often there's a newbie thread where you can introduce yourself, that can be a clue as to how active it is, although not always!

Active groups are a little bit hit and miss. I'm in some that are very active (a few posts a day and sending out bulletins), some that have flurries of activities, and some that have periods of being very active but then die down again.
I'd recommend "The Third Drawer Down" as one that's quite active. They do regular short challenge competitions (so write 200 words on a subject and the previous winner chooses the next winner) and people are generally encouraging.

What tends to happen for critiques is people often crit in return, so find someone who you think you'd like to crit you and choose one of their pieces. It isn't necessarily very quick response time. I'm still owing one from about a month ago, but I will get there!

I'll PM you my scribe name. It isn't my real name, although most people seem to use their real name, I didn't realise that when I joined. I have occasionally seen someone on FB on one of the writing pages there on Scribe.

I'm on Scribophile too, I'd be happy to PM you my name on there - we could start a crit circle if anyone if interested.

@Bakingdiva yes please